Having been home...

Having been home now for a week or two I have been reflecting on the experience at Punkin Chunkin. First, it was a fun event. I know that I wasn't very enthusiastic during the event and those feelings still stand, but having done it it was fun. Second, it hardly seems worth it. With our greatest launch of 874 ft. it hardly seems worth all of the effort to walk away in 13th place. We might be back if we can get some longer distances. I have already sent out an E-mail to our fab guys to start the dialogue for creating some new parts which should, 1. make the machine more able to handle greater weight and 2. make the arm about half the weight.

Just an aside, I just found that our slow motion mini trebuchet video on Youtube is linked to on the Wikipedia page for trebuchets. That's pretty cool.

Personal best

Our third and final shot came in at 846.60 feet. That's our best with the machine and would have won LOPL. The trajectory was still a little low but getting much better, finally.

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2000 feet

Yankee Siege hit the 2000 foot mark yesterday, a new record. Word is that the owners have said that due to the cost of coming here each year, they were retiring from P.C. once they hit 2000. That's it for them, but it does mean that next year will be wide open for a new treb champ, first time in 6 years.

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Whoops!

We broke our pouch while testing. We'll come up with something.


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Second launch

For our second launch we shortened the sling by about three feet. Just that change got us to 774 which is our best shot ever but not good enough. The trajectory was high and the sling length was still too high. We are adding 220 lbs and taking an additional 2 feet off of the sling. We are hoping that those changes will get us above the 800 mark.

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First launch

Our first launch was a measly 700 ft with 1500 lbs. It looked like a low trajectory, though. I'm voting for dialing the finger back to try and gain a higher trajectory.

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Really!

Things were so slow today due to a new spotter crew that they stopped the launchings two machines before us. That means that we shoot second tomorrow morning at 7:30 in the morning.


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Not too much fun

So far, this thing is moving at a snails pace. They are losing every shot from the air cannons and so it takes about 20 minutes between shots. We started at about 9:40 and we are about half way through. The other teams can't fire right now and it's very windy (read cold). This is neither enjoyable nor interesting so far. Maybe tomorrow when it's about ten degrees warmer and about 10 miles less wind it'll be fun.


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Launch day

Launch day is here. Setup didn't go as planned so we weren't ready to go with a test launch. That means our first shot in Delaware will be measured. It's definitley not ideal bit that's why there are 3 days.


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First day build

Our first build day went well. We have plenty of time tomorrow to finish, if the rain holds out. So far, everyone has been very nice and welcoming.


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12 hours, not bad.

Google said it would take 11.5 hours to get here and it took us ten minutes over 12 hours. That's not bad at all considering what we were towing. The truck did much better than I thought, I think I was over estimating the weight of the machine.
I have been receiving lots of E-mail updates from the Chunkin crew and they are complaining about the amount of rain they received. Basically, the field is muddy and they are trying to fix it. Most teams will seated this morning and the rest will be seated throughout the day. We should be at the field soon, just finishing breakfast. Once we get there we will wait for our pit assignment, then start setting up.

On our way

We are on our way to Punkin Chunkin. Just outside Youngstown Ohio. We will probably get to the hotel around 10 or so tonight. It doesn't really matter what time, though, since the launch field is apparently do flooded they aren't letting anyone start setting up until Wednesday. That has to throw off some of the larger teams.