Left, Center, Right

[MtnViewPyro]

So after watching many of you guys shows. Many of you shoot from a left, center, and right position. I'm curious as to spacing between positions. My shoot site has a few obstacles that come into play. I have a highway to the left, my house, and a big tree to the right. The highway and house of course is my biggest concern but depending on spacing of the positions, I don't think any will be a problem. So if you guys could fill me on how far you space things out and how far you would recommend distance from a highway?

Received an order of fuse, FireWire, and talons today in the mail. I have issues ;)

[Rick_In_Tampa]

I'm going to be interested to hear what people have to say on this as I too would like to add a third position to my show. Having said that, you will always be limited by the distance requirements set forth in NFPA1123. So my expectation is people will tell you depending on the size of the shells you're using, you're going to have to maintain the appropriate distance from the highway and the tree and the spectators, etc. Once that box is drawn for you, you're going to have to arrange your show as best you can in the remaining space accordingly.

For what it's worth... I fired from two stations that were 10' apart. I was only limited by time in that I didn't have enough of it to run scab wire between each cake and the firing mods. So I had to make sure all of the initiators reached back to the mods. The spacing proved essentially meaningless as both sides effectively converged in the air. So my guess is, to see any real separation of effects, you're going to have to space them at least 30'-40' apart.

My $0.02.

[PyroManiacs]

We have done shows from as a little as 10 ft to 50 ft apart. Im not really sure but this past 4th show I did with NorthernSky, I think the 3 rack positions could have been more than 50ft apart? Maybe he will see this and correct that info.

For your highway distance, I would follow your 70 feet per inch of shell rule and then adjust the rest of the positions accordingly.

[Bazerk]

I did 5 positions in the span of an acre and it made for some interesting setup possibilities. If you don't have the space to move your boards out you could always angle them slightly to get the spread in the sky.

[joed2323]

My opinion is 50' between stations works. So 150' for 3 stations. Shoot your 200g from any of the three stations. Shoot your 500g cakes from the two outside positions. You can shoot your 500g fan cakes in the center position, you can also shoot 500g fan cakes from both outside positions but you will run into overlap. If you have plenty of distance 75' for 500' cakes between stations is about perfect

You can tweak these according to your shoot site, but the 50' between stations seems to work best for me

Using the 15' long imatches helps stretch most of my product. These also work great for setting up fan slices and comet/mine racks

If you can't fit 3 stations, go with two stations 50' apart, you can get pretty creative using 2 stations if distance is a issue

[rkmcdon]

I also have limited space. This year I shot from 5 positions primarily because i'm a newb. My plan next year is to fire 3 positions spread out as much as the available space will allow which is probably 10-15 feet max between each board and then i will have the outer boards angled left, center right with the idea being it will make my display bigger without thinning it out. Of course that's all theory crafting from me, so i'll tell next July 5th how it actually worked out ;)

[esgrillo]

my 3 main positions are about 75 ft apart. I am shooting for several backyards facing my show so wide is good for me. I also have 5 smaller platforms that are evenly spaced in about the same total width so those are about 30-35 ft apart. Those are for special effects and I have them elevated since I shoot in an area that is about 8ft below grade compared to the audience view.

[adultuser]

I did 5 positions in the span of an acre and it made for some interesting setup possibilities. If you don't have the space to move your boards out you could always angle them slightly to get the spread in the sky.

Yup- and it works great. All of my boards have angled "wings" and even though I have plenty of room to spread out, I spread out now much less than I used to before I made them.

[PYRODAN]

We had 3 stations, 50' apart. There are some pictures in my profile.

[MtnViewPyro]

Thanks all for responding. I know I can always count on you all to have great advice and even better, several options. I know for sure I can pull off 3 stations at 50' apart and plenty of clearance of the 3 obstacles I mentioned above. When it's not 102 degrees out, I will walk it all off and drill some stakes. Maybe take a pic and post if I don't forget.

[Rick_In_Tampa]

Google Earth has a really cool ruler function that will allow you to measure distances and draw lines on map overlays. So you can play with that to refine your shooting positions before having to head out into the heat. Just a thought...

[djsmurf]

I second the google maps or earth option. There are a few android apps I'll post as well. A few of these have been used by AHJ's to Ok distance. As for position distance, I like 50 - 75 ft from my center position, I have the room for that. If you do not any distance, I think adds to a show.

[TNtwister]

Yeah, 50 to 75 depending on the field. 100 can be too much depending on what you have in your show.

[Birdman]

I was going to post about the Google Maps/Earth distance calculator but found it was already discussed. Since it's been several years since this post was made I thought I'd bump it. It's a great tool to determine distances without going to the site with a measuring tool.

[FWGuy]

Thanks Birdman for bumping this...had no idea Google Maps has that distance calculator...very helpful!!!