This is the second open day which HART has attended and when I arrived at the site at 8.35am to start setting up the weather was nice but a bit windy.
I walked to the top of the hill and found that the promise of HART being supplied with a tent and chairs was true but the tent was not put up as we were promised.
I slowly took up my supply of large rockets and the infamous Radio controlled "H.A.R.T. Gunship" and soon after Alan and Jake turned up and we set about trying to put the tent up, without the help of instructions.
We struggled for about 10 minutes before Chris and Sam arrived on the hill and with their help the tent was soon up. Chris had also brought along a shelter which we decided to put up as well and use as our main stand.
11.00am soon came and we only had a few minutes to try and work out some sort of display. As small groups of people were coming up the hill. The weather had turned on us and the wind was blowing quite strongly, even so Chris decided to launch his Shadow rocket to the delights of the small crowd. After a few minutes to set the rocket up, Chris crouched down and called out the countdown and also used his hand to also signal the countdown.
After a slight delay the rocket left the pad and climbed skywards with cheers and some gasps from the crowd. The rocket weathercocked a bit but still reached a good height before the ejection charge fired and the rocket slowly drifted over the tents and landed on the hill.
Jake then launched his "Thunder Hawk" on a B6-4 engine, The rocket shot in to the sky and almost disappeared before deploying it's streamer and returning safely to the side of the hill.
By the time Jake had recovered the rocket, Chris had rearmed the Shadow for a second launch. The crowd again watched as the rocket climbed into the sky but when the ejection charge fired (even though it was boosted) the parachute failed to deploy and with a few gasps from the crowd and most of the HART members, the rocket plunged nose first into the side of the hill.
Jake again launched his Thunder Hawk, but this time on a C engine and the rocket leapt from the pad and vanished into the low cloud before soon reappearing and again landed on the side of the hill without damage.
A few other rockets started to be armed but the rain started so we all took shelter and the crowds left in search of somewhere warm and dry.
The afternoon was also very windy and after watching some of the Water Planes fly around and one or two crash we decided to pack up as the wind was just getting stronger and there was black clouds coming overhead.
Overall it was a good day and we had a quite a lot of people take interest in the club and the rockets. But it was just the weather which won on the day.