My First Finale, 4th of July 2016

[Rmonsive]

Hi Pyros,
Please take a look and let me know what you think. This is my first finale that I've done. Used 26 cakes, and lasted about 3 minutes. Had a couple ground breaks which was kinda scary. Next year I want to shoot in a park to get some more space.
Single fuse. Nothing huge. But it was pretty big for my sub-division.

Thanks!
:cool:

https://youtu.be/nSfZt2VyWe8

[Rick_In_Tampa]

For your first attempt I'd say you did rather well as far as cake selection and timing. Having said that, I would also offer that it appears you put way too much way too close to way too many houses and people. Including yourself! Every time I heard you say "Ouch!" on the video I cringed!! You didn't appear to have any mortars in the finale, so I'm assuming it was the cakes that had the ground breaks?? Did you take the paper off the top of each cake before you fired them? If not, I highly recommend it. Besides cutting down on the debris you need to clean up after your show, it's also a good way to check each cake to make sure none of the internal tubes is crushed or damaged in such a way that might cause a miscue like that.

[Rmonsive]

Thank you Rick.
Ya I do remove the paper off the top of the cakes. All cakes, and not motors. No motors in Utah.... :-(, but there are a lot of good cakes out there.
Yes we were too close, and it was too much for that area. Learned a lot this shoot. In that setting for a finale I would probably stick to 200 gram cakes, and spread them out a bit more both in timing and space. Lite the 500 gram cakes slower 1 or 2 at a time. We actually moved our sitting a few times, but the wind kept changing and blowing towards us like the law of the camp fire. :-)
I just need to get my firing system this year so i can move to a near by park and get some more space.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Thank you Rick.
Ya I do remove the paper off the top of the cakes. All cakes, and not motors. No motors in Utah.... :-(, but there are a lot of good cakes out there.
Yes we were too close, and it was too much for that area. Learned a lot this shoot. In that setting for a finale I would probably stick to 200 gram cakes, and spread them out a bit more both in timing and space. Lite the 500 gram cakes slower 1 or 2 at a time. We actually moved our sitting a few times, but the wind kept changing and blowing towards us like the law of the camp fire. :-)
I just need to get my firing system this year so i can move to a near by park and get some more space.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger (and smarter!) right?! lol... We all learn something every time we shoot. That's part of the beauty of this hobby. I'm already looking forward to next years show. Have lots of plans in mind based on what I learned from this years show. It never ends. And that's a good thing!!

Which firing system are you looking into? The one I used for the first time worked great, but it's only a 12 cue system. So I can already see how I'm going to outgrow it, probably next year! So it's a good idea to get something you can add on to later. I couldn't justify getting a Cobra system, but as it turns out, I'm probably going to spend more in the long run anyway. Live and learn....

[Westpapyro]

Just a side note from some experience when you are able to leave the tops on it is so much quicker to safely see what has shot OK and what has not?
Just shot a show last night that poured rain on us at 9:00
After cool down. We were quickly able to see lots of cakes had issues, either firing one shot or one row then stopping.
Wet fuse!
Yikes!