WLNY Autumn Festival 2008

The 4th year running.

We broke tradition this year by not making our yearly WLNY sign on the tiles with candles and the traditional Anthony farting a line of fire was skipped too, because we didn't have enough candles.

The gathering was delayed for a week because one of our officers *ahem*Anthony*ahem* had to book in right before the day of autumn festival.


Artistic shot of Lazy



People who were there..



Officer *ahem*Anthony*ahem*



Roger "Chicken Little" and his girlfriend



Dude with the fire is CCS, while the lazy dude on the slide is obviously Lazy



Newest member of the year, Adam



And veteran rocket maker, Sky.

And the following is my firt ever gif. Don't laugh, lah.



Remember when I said I'd teach you guys how to make rockets from sparklers? Well, let me provide a visual walkthrough.



This is the kind of sparklers we use year after year. Remember to get the standard kind, not the ones with the whizzing sound.

In every box, there are 5 sticks of sparklers in a plastic bag. Take all of them out, point one in the opposite direction from the rest and hold it there.



Tear off a piece from the box. Take only the front, tear off the sides and the folds. Also tear off roughly 1/3 from this piece.



It should measure roughly like this:



The white arrow indicates the ends of the 4 sticks facing inwards, with just the teeniest bit of their ends peeking out from the paper. The one facing the opposite direction should stick out substantially more, but not too much because we need the blast to be as close to the ground as possible.

Notice the opposite-facing stick's wire poking way over the edge of the paper. This is okay, the length on that side of paper should stick out about two thumbs' length from the butts of the 4 sticks facing inwards.

Fold the paper in half,



... and roll it up. Try to keep it as tight as possible on the top, while the bottom of the thing (where my finger is) should be allowed only the teeniest of spaces.



In this picture, the tips of my fingers are touching the ends of the inward facing sticks. That is where you should bend the excess paper and wire. Be careful not to keep the bending point too tight because the paper will tear.

After bending the top, use the plastic bag in which the sparkler sticks came in and tie up the bent part, keeping it as tight as possible.

Where the arrow is pointing, obey and spread 'em. Make sure all wires are in different directions, you want this thing to stand, don't you?



If you're a newbie or haven't practised in a year or so, and you're a biker, use black tape. If anyone near you has a bike nearby, get black tape from them.

You standard biker usually comes with black tape for DIY fixing purposes.




Biker = Black Tape

So here's the deal. After spreading 'em and setting the rocket on the floor (trust me, you're not going to want to hold this), keep the butt as close to the ground as possible because that'll create more power for lift-off.



And voila~ Your very own rocket.

Here are a couple of examples of what the rockets can do.



Okay, so this is just an example of what happened when we tried it using the whizzing kind of sparklers at the SL chalet, using Sky's first try, called The FAIL. But the following two clips are perfect examples of what the rockets are capable of.






If you don't already know, you're supposed to light the butt.

Oh, and if you guys are still reading next year, you might be lucky enough to find us playing with the explosive can 'o' spit.

If you're lucky.