4th of July Fun

[Flaminpyro]

Yes fires can happen and that is why we all must be on high alert and careful how and where we discharge our pyro but that dose not mean we can not have fun and celebrate our independence day if we are careful.

It is ashamed that our administrators think we can not handle our selves and feel the need to legislate away our freedoms, I believe things need to be handled in a different way, why should we all suffer for what a few stupid people do.

Here is one example why fireworks are banned, it has been said just too many people are hurt every year with fireworks so they end up getting banned in community's all across our nation, while it's true there are about 1000 case reported every year in emergency rooms of fireworks injuries it's also true I there are approx 15,000 bicycle injuries reported every year so when are we going to ban bicycles :thinking:

Have Fun and be Safe...

While the hype isn't completely without merit, fires started by fireworks can happen, there have been several years of my life during which the July 4th season was extremely dry just like now without any significant hype or display cancellations. The extreme hype and fear-mongering this year makes me think that there are a bunch of city/county adminstrators that are just itching to add their municipality's fireworks fund to their vacation budget instead.

 

[Wolfman29]

While you're off lighting shells and creating a great show for everyone, I will be watching a different show: specifically, the Higgs Boson announcement from data gathered by the LHC, live in Australia! (Don't ask me why it's being announced in Australia when the LHC is in Switzerland ).

 

[ElektroFreak]

Through modern technology advances I can do both!

I was just reading about that earlier.. this story has a nice list of links at the end: Has the Higgs boson been found? Signs point to ... almost - Cosmic Log

 

[lpstealth]

looks like a good show, looking forward to seeing a video.

I shot my first show last night. I've only been meaning to get my display fireworks license for 8 years and finally did it.

Here it is filmed with a shotty phone and missing the first 4 minutes.

First Display - YouTube

We had a massive thunder storm roll through which soaked everything, well some water got into the modules so we lost a few shells, candles and a cake.

my favorites by far were the nautical shells!

 

[CDHDC]

Too cool, guys! I hope everyone had a GREAT 4th! Jeff, I'd love to help set up next year, if you do it again!

 

[n2stuff]

Hey Jeff where's the pictures and videos? Here in california we cant get anything that leaves the ground

 

[00Giorge]

Waiting for pics, that had to of looked pretty good on T Lake.

 

[electron]

Hey Jeff,

Looking real good there, I noticed with no surprise these days, they are Made in China; I bet the import on those must be a b!tch, or not?

Ever have a problem with homeland security importing a couple hundred pounds of basically explosives? Boy importing Lasers I guess are nothing compared to importing those babies.

 

[Flaminpyro]

Howdy All

Well my show went off just fine, everyone I talked to after said it was great and many said they had never seen a finale like that one before.

My finale was made up with 90ea 16 shot dragon egg cakes and 2 ea 100 shot silver torbilion finale cakes
(it's the 3 groups of orange cakes)

I was very busy wiring up the show so did not get a chance to set up a video camera but I have been told there is a video, I'm waiting to receive it now.

Here is a few pictures of my set up on the barge before we got to wiring it all in to the firing system.





this is 1/3 of the finale cakes.






We only had 134 2inch shells but they were good ones






Oops looks like I broke one of the mortars, this can happen when you don't have enough mortars and you double stack shells.


By the time I took these pictures I was already behind the 8 ball, There was only two of us there to do all the wiring work, 4 people
for what ever reason never showed up to help, we did have help setting out the cakes but they had to leave early so it was left for
me and one other guy to wire all these up and I was the only one with the experience to do so.

At about dusk two electricians stepped up and announced they were electricians so I put them to work, we ended up putting the
show on at about 11:00 pm, had they not shown up it would have been 12.00 midnight.

When we had finished wiring and I checked continuity on the way out to the center of the lake it was 100% that doesn't happen
very often and I was shocked and very happy to say the least.

We had 45 cues and only lost 3 of them during the show when we had a couple mortars blow up and take out the wires for the 3 cues.

I am very happy with what basically two of us was able to pull off, in the past there has been up to 12 people working on this show and while this was
a lot of work and sweat and about 5 days of other pyro work, hearing all of them people shouting when the last shell went up made it all worth it for me !

There really is nothing better than to put a smile on some ones face

 

[ped]

Amazing.

So do people contract you t set these shows up?

That motar misfire must call for an underwear change as its happening?

 

[n2stuff]

Holy crap that's alot of work. But the show had to be awesome. Hopefully someone got some good videos. That morter tube looks damn scary with all the holes

 

[Flaminpyro]

I have been a pyro nut all my life or since 10 years old when I first found out what a REAL M-80 can do :eg: My older cousins got to play with them and I got a bag full of firecrackers and I was in heaven for sure !

I have been setting up and firing shows professionally since 1990 and have done smaller shows than this and very much larger shows, I have placed pyro at over 550 feet in the air on the Space Needle in Seattle to Home coming shows for high schools and every thing in between.

Can you you say the Rolling Stones how about Pink Floyd and Reba, Brooks and Dunn, Rammstein (Rammstein - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) and my favorite Chris La Doux ( Chris LeDoux - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) He was a real man and a good friend and I enjoyed working for him more than any one else in the business.

So to answer your question, Yes I do usually get payed to do shows but this is my home town so I do not accept any pay for my services to this community, I give my time and knowledge gladly

I was not to concerned my self but my helper Cody who was on the barge with me for the first time in his life, well lets just say he got in line and I was first in line :crackup:

Amazing.

So do people contract you t set these shows up?




That motar misfire must call for an underwear change as its happening?

It was a lot of work I spent the better part of a week myself taping together cakes and matching them with quick match and the same with the 134 shells we had.

Then there was all day in the sun on a white concrete barge and the stress of not having enough people there to do the job on time.

Yep sometime things don't always go as planned, some times shells like to blow up in there mortars, we had 3 detonations one in a HDPE mortar and two in fiber glass mortars.

Unfortunately the fiberglass ones were carried off and are at the dump now and I did not get a picture of them, they were spectacular splintered tubes I am glad I was not hit by one.

Here is the base and some of the mortars that survived, when one tube blew up it knocked over the two tubes next to it so when those two fired they went directly on the deck and blew
up there, that happened 4 time as I had 2 shells in each mortar tube = 4 shells on the deck = exciting



this shattered tube base is where the fiberglass tube blew up and knocked over the adjacent 2 tubs so when they fired there shells went right on the deck and then exploded, it was fast stepping for us for sure.


I just got an other phone call from a local saying how much they liked the show and that is why I do it

It's that and things like this note I found in my kitchen when I got home at 2 in the morning that make me want to go through all the stress and sweat >

Holy crap that's alot of work. But the show had to be awesome. Hopefully someone got some good videos. That morter tube looks damn scary with all the holes

 

[DTR]

Did you get a video of your show?:can:

 

[Flaminpyro]

We do plan on doing it next year and every year after as long as the community get's the funds up I'll be doing it

I have been told there are already funds in the kitty for next year, guess they must have liked the show, there already donating

You would be most welcome to help out next year, do you know what "series" and a "parallel" circuits are ? and how to make balanced combinations of them ?

if not I can show in a few min.

other than that you have to be 18 and a safe person no other qualification is required.

Too cool, guys! I hope everyone had a GREAT 4th! Jeff, I'd love to help set up next year, if you do it again!

I personally did not have time to set up a camera as much as I wanted to do that.

A friend did however get video on a camera phone and I am still waiting for her to upload it to youtube.

Did you get a video of your show?:can: