Blog
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
NASAW, launches, news
While we will be firing NASAW from time to time during the summer and fall, most of those times are not scheduled and happen as the team has availability to do so. But September 27, 2014 is a scheduled event. Wickham Farms is one of our sponsors (they grow pumpkins for us every year), and last year we actually brought out NASAW to fire near their farm for an afternoon. We will do so again this year, hopefully without breaking our release pin this time! Wickham Farms is located at 1821 Fairport Nine Mile Point Rd, Penfield, New York 14526, a short distance SouthEast of Rochester, NY. We will likely be firing from roughly 10AM until 3PM or so on Saturday, September 27, with a rain date of the following day of Sunday the 28th. This is the same weekend that Wickham Farms holds a pumpkin festival, and is a family-friendly event, so come on down, say hi, and watch us launch some pumpkins into orbit!
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| Jul 26, 2014
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
launches, NASAW, WCPC
More to come, but for now a quick update. Yankee Siege won this year with their colossal 2800-foot shot, American Chucker came in second, and First in Fright came in 3rd, edging out Launch-Ness Monster. Pumpkin Hammer finally got off a clean shot and came in 5th at just over 2000 feet, finally joining that club! We had what looked to be a superb shot, with perfect trajectory and a lot of speed behind it, we all thought we had taken second and perhaps threatened a half-mile shot, but the distance shockingly came in at 1935'. We don't really believe that number, and neither do our fellow competitors, but we can only take what they tell us it is...
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| Nov 03, 2013
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
NASAW, WCPC, launches
Today was an incredible day for the trebuchet division. The winds were calm, and the weather was incredible all day with a mixture of clouds and ample sunshine coupled with mild mid-60s temperatures ruling the day, probably the best weather day we have ever had in our years at the chunk. Many machines shot personal bests, and another team, Launch-Ness Monster, joined the 2000-foot club! American Chucker also had a tremendous shot, and are currently in second with a shot of over 2200 feet. But perhaps the talk of the day was Yankee Siege's massive 2800+' shot that obliterated the standing World Record (and the European Record of 2504' from 2012, which was in reality the World Record coming in to this weekend).
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| Nov 02, 2013
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
NASAW, WCPC, launches
We will post a more thorough posting on Day 1 later, but for now we want to point our viewers to our Facebook Page where we are posting short update blurbs as we get time to. There is a lot to do at the chunk, and that forum will be easier to get immediate updates.
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| Nov 01, 2013
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
launches, news, NASAW
On September 28, 2013, we demonstrated NASAW for the public at Wickham Farms. Many people stopped by during the day to watch us fire the machine, and to explore the machine and ask questions. While we had several pied shots, we also had one superb shot that the crowd loved (well, they loved the pie too, haha!) Unfortunately we had to stop early due to a part failure that we could not easily field-repair (and the spare was missing in action). For that we are sorry, but safety first! We hope to do more of these events in the future.
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| Oct 10, 2013
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
WCPC, news, launches
Those who checked in here daily hoping to get updates from the 27th World Championships of Punkin Chunkin were likely disappointed to see nothing posted here during the week. Unfortunately the internet at the hotel we used essentially did not work. If you followed our Facebook page though, you saw a few posts that we made via phone regarding progress. It was a strange year for the chunk, with Friday's event being cancelled due to needing to do more work on the field due to Hurricane Sandy. Couple that with high winds and no testing time, and shots were all over the place for mechanical divisions. Ultimately NASAW prevailed over the giant Yankee Siege II and the rest of the field, once again firing 2 shots over the 2000' mark. In fact, we were the only ones to clear 2000 feet in the division. More details will be posted soon along with pictures and videos, but for now, WE ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!! The winning shot was merely 2123' though, far from what was anticipated to be the winning shot this year. Stay tuned for more!
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| Nov 07, 2012
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
news, launches, WCPC
Day 3 of the 26th World Championships of Punkin Chunkin was a wild one. The winds were non-existent all day long, leading to some super shots. The trebuchets led off again, with Yankee Siege II firing it's second official misfire of the chunk, leaving them with the 2326' from Day 2. Merlin also repeated their Day 1 shot, although not with as much hang time. Suffice to say that their 1985' from Day 2 was their best, and a personal best by a long shot. Great Gourd Experiment finally joined the 1000 foot club. Congratulations to Terry and the gang!
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| Nov 07, 2011
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
launches, WCPC
This year has been a bad year for pumpkins. Today we destroyed one on our competition shot. The pumpkin was turned into a fine mist of bits similar to only how torsion machines and air cannons do to them. We are pulling massive g-forces with this new machine and the weak pumpkins this year are having trouble keeping together. We did take two test shots this evening and the first one bombed out there very nicely, albeit at a high trajectory. The second one was a weak-looking pumpkin and we blew that one to smithereens as well. The "good news" is that we are simply blowing up weak pumpkins. We have some 300 fps video of our shots clearly showing the pumpkin leaving the sling intact and then blowing up shortly thereafter, suggesting the pumpkins are failing due to a rebounding effect of the rind. More investigation is in order this off-season. We are looking for the best possible pumpkin for tomorrow's round 3 shot.
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| Nov 05, 2011
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
launches, WCPC
You heard it here! Team Urban Siege's new mystery trebuchet shot a nearly 9-pound pumpkin a whopping 2017 feet today! With a trebuchet field littered with misfires and pies, that placed us in second place after day 1. American Chucker edged us out with a 2032' shot, 2 feet shy of Yankee Siege's "World Record" mark of 2034'. Congratulations to those guys indeed. Our shot was somewhat high in trajectory, but nevertheless we became only the 3rd trebuchet IN THE WORLD to clear 2000 feet in competition. We have more in the tank, and we are gunning for a bigger mark tomorrow!
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| Nov 04, 2011
Posted by Matt
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Tags:
news, launches, WCPC
What a great showing for Team Urban Siege at the 2010 World Championships of Punkin Chunkin. Owing to the team being scattered around New York and Massachusetts this fall, we didn't even get Medieval Postal Service out of storage until the day before we headed to Delaware. But the machine went right back up without a hitch, and fired beautifully right out of the gate. Test shots on Wednesday were around what later was found to be the 1150-1200 mark, and then heavy winds came for the weekend.
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| Dec 12, 2010
