Amleth

The Skyshow is on tomorrow night! Woo!

A pity there aren't any other active pyros on this board in Perth, as it'd be a good opportunity to meet up, but I imagine a few of you eastern-statesers are going to be getting together?

It's always fun, anyway, even if you have to shoulder your way through the several hundred thousand people that infest the foreshore to see it, and some years are a bit lacking in variety. It's the only big show we get down under, but it is, at least, a genuinely international-scale show. Apparently Perth and Sydney are the only sites large enough to shoot 24" shells for the finale, so that's a bit of a bonus if you live here or there...

For people around the rest of Australia, how are the shows in your city? Anyone know what the budget for it this year is?

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Edit: Torrent for Perth Skyshow telecast is here. You'll need to sregister to view it, though.

There's always dirt cheap bamboo skewers for small rockets (I even found some jumbo ones that work well for 3/8" rockets), but it's hard to find sticks for 1/2" and above that are equally as negligibly expensive. None of the garden stakes I can find in my local area are long enough to balance my 1/2" rockets even without a header (and they don't work out all that cheaply, anyway). I've heard suggestions to use rods from bamboo blinds, but ideally I'd like something straight (could definitely be an option, though). Hardware store dowels and mouldings are right out for cost ($1AU per metre and up depending on size)...

Before I crack and try and find somewhere to saw up a load of planking into square rods for me, does anyone have any magic ideas for affordable stabilising nirvana? All suggestions and ideas appreciated. I'm sure someone out there has a simple, elegant, and (most importantly) dirt cheap solution to the problem...


So, what do you use to balance your larger rockets?