Here is a map of the parking locations, etc. They have a line of eight trebuchets in the main trebuchet area. We are the seventh one (i.e., 2nd from the far end, on the east side).
The official site says “doors open at 11:00”, so it’s not obvious how those of us who show up without a trebuchet in the back of our truck will be allowed in.
Signage around the space says carpool starts at 11:30 … might want to leave earlier than that since the show starts at noon.
Also, we’re going to see if we can shoehorn in the prototype unit as well. Betamax if it absolutely has to be named.
I have two tickets to slingfest up for grabs for free if any one wants them. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend. PM me on talk and I can get them to you.
Sling well and sling alot team DMS!
I would hate to leave early and miss some people that were thinking 11:30… Does that apply to anyone specifically reading this?
The tickets are gone. Have fun!
DMS REPRESENTS!
Sadly this was the last we heard from them.
I guess they ripped a hole in space/time never to return.
It was an awesome day. Pegasus took first place in the distance category, large trebuchet (which technically means large projectiles) with an amazing throw of 705 feet!
(If you click on the images, you should see the “stop-motion” animation).
Here’s the funky fling. The frozen dolphin (inflatable toy) was not inclined to swim in the correct direction. (The intended direction of throw is to the left side of the photo.
The final distance throw disintegrated major components of the treb. But all in all, it performed amazingly well - especially given how few test flights it had. It was a very proud showing for DMS. Great job by everyone who participated.
Here are 2 of the better videos I got.
And the final attempt with all the weight.
https://youtu.be/Ml0N7nycgIA.
All and all it was a great time. Big thanks to all the people that made this a successful and especially @Brandon_Green.
Hope you don’t mind sharing your video.
Don’t mind at all. 234
How far did the thrown arm go?
Going off memory, & someone may correct me if I’m wrong, 95-96ft if I remember correctly.
THIS is what will be remembered for years. Not the winning distance, but the winning failure. Excellent work gang!
There was substantial deflection of the arm before it broke.
EDIT: There is a slo-mo video of it from an interesting aerial perspective, linked from the SlingFest facebook site.
Come by the front lobby and see our trophy and certificate for winning the longest throw competition in our weight class (heavy.)
At first, we thought that there were not separate weight classes for longest throw, only for accuracy. The trebuchet two spots down from us was like an irritating nippy dog. It looked like an arm and a sling attached to a kidney bean shaped board and with weights hung on that. The Texas Twister spun quickly and quietly, flinging a small projectile about the size of a small grapefruit so far and fast that we all had a difficult time seeing it. I saw it once and that was only because I just happened to be walking by directly behind it when he was firing and nobody noticed me and told him to hold.
We started out with four discs of weight, about 450 pounds and were pretty reliably tossing a small watermelon over 500 feet to a very satisfying splat in our test fire and accuracy rounds. But Texas Twister was putting in 700+ feet flights. We figured that we will have to go up to at least six weights to have any chance of beating him. We have never fired with that much weight before. We reasoned that if we broke on the first of three attempts with six, then eight, and finally ten weights, we are out of the running. We would make the first shot with four - we had been doing that all day.
The opening round was again nominal and we were on the board. After adding two more weights, we were ready for round two. Three, two, one, fire…pulled the trigger and nothing happened. Uh oh, we had a misfire. So there we were, with a cocked trebuchet, 675 pounds of counterweight nine feet up in the air, the trigger released and we were on the edge somewhere between firing and not. A better analogy is probably a grenade with the pin pulled out, only we had no safe way to put it back in. The only thing we could do was to nudge the beast with a 2x4 to try to knock the trigger release mechanism free. Which we eventually did and was rewarded with a nice 700+ feet lob. But Texas Twister was still a few feet more.
Before the final round, we beefed up the trigger release with more springs to pull the trigger away from the axle which now has much more resistance due to the greater weight. After a short debate about going with eight or ten weights, we chose to go all in and fire with maximum weight. The heavier winch Brandon bought did its work with a bit of complaining and we were locked and loaded again. Three, two, one, fire…the melon went almost straight up. Texas Twister will have the longest throw of the day. Then we looked down in time to see the wooden part of the arm along with the sling come back to Earth about 75 feet in front of the firing line. Three laminated sheets of plywood made up that part of the arm and we managed to break it.
Major letdown. We had broken our machine and we would go home empty handed. Our accuracy shots were anything but; each one was farther to the left than the previous one. Our funky fling was hilarious - the frozen dolphin pool toy flipped backward, spitting out several large chunks of ice onto the grass. But there was no way we could beat our neighbor, the Southern Cross which flung an arm broken off of another trebuchet earlier in the day.
Because we were so intent on besting the Texas Twister, the SlingFest officials naturally assumed that we were in the same light weight class. It wasn’t until later that they realized our melons were more then five pounds and awarded us the heavy class.
All in all, it was a fun day. There were many familiar faces from The Space to crew or cheer us on. Our machine was popular; many stopped to ask questions about it during the intermission. But the sentimental favorite had to be the Southern Cross with its large wooden wheels, It is what comes to mind then you hear the word “trebuchet.” I have yet to hear the final numbers, but many more people came out than expected; TheLab made a decent amount of money on the gate. While no balloon festival yet, SlingFest will only get bigger next year.
There’s a decent drone shot here, of the funky fling…
A bit later, there’s the “Southern Cross”, I believe, firing.
And then the smaller one to its left does its thing as well.
Allen running to throw the dolphin, love it.
Anyone have the video from the hard hat throw?
