The Big Range ~ a new high altitude experimental launch site in Scotland.

[Astroscot]

Dear friends and fellow rocketeers.

A new site that will enable the launching of experimental rockets to a ceiling of 80,000 Feet has been located in Scotland.

The site has been given the name "the Big Range", inspired by the track In A Big Country on the 1983 debute album The Crossing of Scottish rock band Big Country

To open up and fully use this new site, in Sutherlandshire in the North Highlands of Scotland, a launch campaign is being organised to be held at the Big Range over one of the two first weeks in May 2012. Which of these two weeks it will be will be confirmed in the near future.

Full details so far of the site, its facilities, and arrangements and details of rocket flying there are at the Big Range web site at ~

https://www.scottishrockets.com

There is also an article explaining the background to and hopes for the Big Range project on the North Highlands Scotland web site at ~

https://northhighlandsscotland.com/2011/08/we-have-lift-off-for-record-rocket-bid/

The Big Range effort and the May 2012 launch campaign there are being supported by the United Kingdom Rocketry Association (UKRA, which is the enabling and advisory body for model, high power, and amateur rocketry in the UK), AspireSpace (a leading UK experimental rocketry group), and the Scottish Aeronautics & Rocketry Association (SARA - Scotland's rocket club). Links to the web sites of these three organisations are available on the Home page of the Big Range web site.

UK rocketeers are already on board to particpate in the May 2012 Big Range launch campaign. We are keen to encourage experimental rocketeers from the United States, Europe, and elsewhere to also travel to Scotland and participate in this launch campaign, which has the potential to considerably advance rocketry in Scotland and the UK, and to add to the capacity worlwide for amateur experimental rocketry. Sites such as the Big Range are a scarce resource, and hardly exist at all outside of the USA.

Why not consider having a "rocket holiday" in Scotland in May 2012? The launch campaign provides the opportunity to meet and fly with international experimental rocketeers at an excellent site, thereby helping to develop this activity worldwide, and also the opportunity to visit and see some of Scotland, if you have not previously done so. Golspie, the "base town" for the May 2012 Big Range launch campaign, gives ready access to the very beautiful North Highlands of Scotland. There is a wealth of information about where to go and what to see in the North Highlands at the link to the article on the North Highlands Scotland web site given above.

We have to confirm arrangements and bookings at the two Lodges (which accommodate nine and fourteen people respectively - see the Accommodation page at the Big Range web site link given above) with the management of the Estate upon whose land the Big Range lies, by November, certainly by the end of November 2011, and then be in a position to pay a 50% Deposit on the Lodge accommodation by Christmas. At present there are fourteen (14) Lodge places left. So, if after reading this Post and the details at the Big Range and the North Highlands Scoltand web site links above, you are interested in particpating in the May 2012 launch campaign please get in touch as per the Contact page at the Big Range web site. If you have any questions, need further information, or have suggestions to offer, please get in touch.

Thank you for any interest in and support that you can bring to the May 2012 Big Range launch campaign in Scotland. If this event is a success we hope to make it an annual event. The May 2012 launch campaign provides an opportunity to be part of the beginning of something that has the potential to be a really significant development for amateur experimental rocketry not just in Scotland and the the UK but also worldwide. Let us use the Big Range to advance and further develop amateur experimental rocketry in international co-operation and friendship.

Yours sincerely,

John Bonsor,
for the Big Range May 2012 Launch Campaign OrganisingTeam.
UKRA Council Member, and SARA Secretary & Co-ordinator.

 

[WillMarchant]

Cool! Sounds like a lot of fun!

 

[o1d_dude]

As a member of Clan Cunningham, I couldn't help but notice you are posting from Ayrshire.

Well done on the Big Range effort.

 

[Astroscot]

Cool! Sounds like a lot of fun!

Dear Mr. Marchant.

Thanks for your positive comment. Thinking of coming over to join in the fun then? We need all the rocket boffins that we can get.

Your sincerely,

John Bonsor.

 

[Astroscot]

As a member of Clan Cunningham, I couldn't help but notice you are posting from Ayrshire.

Well done on the Big Range effort.

Dear Old Dude.

Not only that but I live in the northern part of Ayrshire (near Glengarnock, between the towns of Beith and Killbirnie in the Garnock Valley) that was the Thanedom of Cunnignhame, the home territory of your Clan back in the 11th Century AD.

My own clan connection is with Clan Henderson, which has roots and branches in Glen Coe, Fife, the Boders (where my parentage and grandparentage hails from, with also a New Zealand connection), Caithness, and the Shetland Isles.

We, that is the Scottish Aeronautics & Rocketry Association (SARA) in the 21st Century AD, have our home flying site on Fairlie Moor in the old Thanedom of Cunninghame, between the Clyde Coast village of Fairlie and the inland town of Dalry (Ayrshire), and which we call the Fairlie Moor Rocket Site (FMRS)- see attached photograph. The FMRS lies at an elevation of 820 Feet above mean sea level (amsl), and our permitted altitude ceiling for rocket flying at the FMRS is 16,000 Feet amsl, with a 2 nautical mile operating/range radius. The FMRS is also the Flying Site of the annual International Rocket Week (IRW).

Thank you for your postive comment on the Big Range effort further north into the Scottish Highlands.

Yours sincerely,

John Bonsor.

 

[Sac]

Wow Thats pretty close to my families castle. I am MacLeod of Assynt and Ardvreck of Sutherland. Descendant of Neil MacLeod of Assynt. In fact we are scheduled to return to Dunvegan in 2012 for the meeting of the septs of the Clan MacLeod (Raasay, Assynt and Harris) Lewis is supposedly wiped out.