IRW 2011

Once again, it was already time for the annual rocketry pilgrimage to Scotland for the International Rocket Week. This time the basecamp had moved again to a Scout Camp just outside Paisley. Of all the places we've been, I think this was probably the best. A hut with 4 walls and heating, camping at acceptable rates, although the drive to Fairlie Moor was a bit longer.

As a bonus, this year we had a couple of the guys from the Register visit so that we could thrash out some ideas for the LOHAN project. They kindly wrote an article about the IRW too :)

The first day was no flying, just a few aquajet water rockets on the Scout Camp. Day 2 saw us arrive at Fairlie Moor *in* the clouds, but eventually the clouds went and left us in sunshine. Flew the Qubit on a D12, since I'd prepped it for the day before, but the dog trainers at the scoutcamp weren't so happy with the pyro flights. Then it was to Nardini's in Largs for Pizza :)

Day 3 saw us launch from near the picnic site, since there was still a beehive near the usual HPR site. Lobbed a VB Extreme rather quickly on an E30, and the Art Applewhite Saucer on a D12.

Day 4 saw us back at the usual HPR pad location, since the beehive had been moved.

Day 5 I lobbed both the Qubit and Saucer on D12's. The main spectacle of the day was Jonathan Rhodes' L3 cert which kicked its motor out mid-flight, and Sean o'Niell's M hybrid, which also suffered a major failure mid-flight. Oh and the Turkish guy's L2 flight which lost all 4 of its fins during boost.

Day 6 was no flying, since the wind was too high. A few people did fly some kites though.

More Pics Here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/IRW2011

MTB Scotland 2011

This year we combined a mountain-biking trip with International Rocket Week again, like last year. Except this time we did a whole week rather than just 3 days. First stop was Aviemore for some riding mostly on natural trails, and then next stop was 4 trail centres from the 7 Stanes.

Day 1 - Aviemore / Burma Road
Burma Road is one of the classic walking / cycling trips on General Wade's Military Roads. From Aviemore it's a single steep climb of about 500m vertical, followed by a quick descent, then basically following a river to Carrbridge, before returning to Aviemore.
It took us about 2hr30 to reach the summit, but we did stop off to find a geocache on the way up, and weren't exactly rushing it on the first day.

The river valley is rather quiet, and very scenic. I think we saw a total of 2 people all day - 1 on foot, 1 on a bike going the other way. Sluggan Bridge is not to be missed.

Burma Road at EveryTrail

Day 2 - Laggan Wolftrax
The Laggan Wolftrax is a Forestry Commission trail centre not too far from Aviemore, with a couple of Red Loops (bot were fun), a Black (didn't do that), and some swoopy/jumpy trail down to the carpark (did bits of that a few times). Phil crashed on the last jump, and somehow ripped the brake lever clean off the bars (but was not damaged), and bent a wheel.

Laggan Wolftrax at EveryTrail

Day 3 - Loch Morlich (walking)
Since Phil's bike needed repairs and the bruises from the day before were a bit sore, we decided to take 1 day out and walk around Loch Morlich. Checked out Bothy Bikes shop, and also the famous Inshriach Nursery Cake Shop. This is highly recommended. The cake is superb, and there's a view of numerous bird feeders, and more species of birds, squirrels, etc. than most people could name.

Day 4 - Innerleithen
Drove south to Innerleithen (the first of the 7 Stanes trail centres on out list), and met Howard there. There's really only 1 red trail (plus lots of normal non-marked paths), which basically goes up-up-up, then down-down-down. Saw lots of death-cap toadstools on the way up. Phil broke mech hanger almost at the summit of Minch Moor, which took a bit of bodging in to a single-speed.

Innerleithen at EveryTrail

Day 5 - Glentress
Second trail centre. We did the Red loop with the intention of doing Blue or something after lunch, but we had so much cake and a late lunch that we decided to skip the afternoon riding.

Glentress at EveryTrail

Day 6 - Ae
Is there any other town or village in the UK with a shorter name? We drove to the final hostel and met Jez (Howard's friend) to do the Ae Red loop. Weather was amazing, and too hot and sunny to sit outside for lunch (plus there were huge 2inch long wasps, which turned out to be non-stinging wood wasps).

Ae at EveryTrail

Day 7 - Kirroughtree
Last day and the 4th Red loop.  After lunch we had a bit of time to do some of the Blue loop, although a large section was closed due to forestry work.

Kirroughtree at EveryTrail

More Photos:
https://picasaweb.google.com/104347553800437592244/MTBScotland2011