mguerra
08-20-2014, 10:48 AM
One year ago I was lighting festival balls in a cardboard tube with a Bic lighter. I didn't know anything about mortars, racks, fusing, efiring, and the terms "1.4G" and "1.3G" and "BATF Type 54" were unknown to me. Friday night I put on my first 1.4/ 1.3 mixed fireworks show as a licensed pyrotechnician. We had a super successful private party at a local golf course driving range. It was a whirlwind year of learning and studying and sweating like a pig on display sites but it all paid off! Thanks to Jacob Dell at Magic in the Sky and Mike Wagner at Extreme Pyrotechnics for their instruction and advice. Thanks to Dave for encouraging us to pursue our Type 54 license. It all came together Friday night. I kept the 1.3 minimal for my first go, 60 3" shells and 7 cakes. Followed NFPA 1123 to the letter, but I did increase my distance to 100 ft/inch. Using Wili's brass poke to I-Match some of the cakes was cool! I have two videos, one does not include the 1.3 product as the videographer turned off the camera after the 1.4 was finished! But that video has the product labelled and was shot on a Canon EOS7D:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjOI...4DpB86o-O4A3LQ
The other video has the 1.3 at the end and was shot on a Fire cell phone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLYyOlut-I4
All the 1.4 product was shot using a Sequencefire 32, as were the 3" shells. I shot the 1.3 cakes manually with a cheap little QF-2X6LR, because I did not have timing numbers. I had a screw up in that all my consumer mortars were shoved together in one pod and some crossfired and went off early on cue 2. So when their time came to go later in the show, I had dark sky for that interval. I hated it, the crowd never noticed! The finale was not too intense, I just set off the 1.3 at the end. But the family was happy and so was I. I can't wait to do it again, and better!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjOI...4DpB86o-O4A3LQ
The other video has the 1.3 at the end and was shot on a Fire cell phone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLYyOlut-I4
All the 1.4 product was shot using a Sequencefire 32, as were the 3" shells. I shot the 1.3 cakes manually with a cheap little QF-2X6LR, because I did not have timing numbers. I had a screw up in that all my consumer mortars were shoved together in one pod and some crossfired and went off early on cue 2. So when their time came to go later in the show, I had dark sky for that interval. I hated it, the crowd never noticed! The finale was not too intense, I just set off the 1.3 at the end. But the family was happy and so was I. I can't wait to do it again, and better!!!