Ugh.
I'd been wanting to go to the "Punkin Chunkin" held in Delaware event for years now, especially after seeing snippets of the event on TV.
https://www.punkinchunkin.com/main.htm
Lamest event ever. The spectators are cordoned off from the "equipment." The (IMO) coolest units are the air cannons (running up to 2,000 psi) that shoot the pumpkins over a mile....the spectator line was at least a 1/4 mile away from the cannons. The spectator line was setup at a 90 degree angle to the machinery, so you couldn't see the pumpkins when fired (at best you'd see a "smoke trail" which was condensing water vapor as the high pressure air followed the pumpkin out of the cannon).
To make it worse (IMO), the organizers cross-marketed the event and made it into a carnival - so to make things that much more entertaining, the spectators couldn't hear the event "Emcee" over the racket made by the many electrical generators, rides, local cover bands and food vendors.
The piece de resistance was the fact that the pumkin-launching-machines are given a time slot in which to launch 1 pumpkin (like 15 minutes or so, depended on machine category), so the "action" is anything but. More like utter boredom. No rain of pumpkins from seige machines, no pile of pumkin guts in a field, no pumpkin destruction. Argh.
All in all, a long drive (about 2 hours each way) followed by a lame event.
On the upside, the field was very cool and I'm going to ask my rocketry club if they've been in touch with the landowner(s). It would make a most excellent HPR field, and for any MDRA members on this forum, it's perhaps another 20 minutes drive from the Coverdale, DE, launch site.
I'd been wanting to go to the "Punkin Chunkin" held in Delaware event for years now, especially after seeing snippets of the event on TV.
https://www.punkinchunkin.com/main.htm
Lamest event ever. The spectators are cordoned off from the "equipment." The (IMO) coolest units are the air cannons (running up to 2,000 psi) that shoot the pumpkins over a mile....the spectator line was at least a 1/4 mile away from the cannons. The spectator line was setup at a 90 degree angle to the machinery, so you couldn't see the pumpkins when fired (at best you'd see a "smoke trail" which was condensing water vapor as the high pressure air followed the pumpkin out of the cannon).
To make it worse (IMO), the organizers cross-marketed the event and made it into a carnival - so to make things that much more entertaining, the spectators couldn't hear the event "Emcee" over the racket made by the many electrical generators, rides, local cover bands and food vendors.
The piece de resistance was the fact that the pumkin-launching-machines are given a time slot in which to launch 1 pumpkin (like 15 minutes or so, depended on machine category), so the "action" is anything but. More like utter boredom. No rain of pumpkins from seige machines, no pile of pumkin guts in a field, no pumpkin destruction. Argh.
All in all, a long drive (about 2 hours each way) followed by a lame event.
On the upside, the field was very cool and I'm going to ask my rocketry club if they've been in touch with the landowner(s). It would make a most excellent HPR field, and for any MDRA members on this forum, it's perhaps another 20 minutes drive from the Coverdale, DE, launch site.
