South Whittlieburn Farm – a New Home.
After last year’s dramatic, almost at-the-last-minute, move of the IRW from Kelburn Country Centre to South Whittlieburn Farm (SWF), in Brisbane Glen, near Largs, in Scotland, SWF will again be the Base Camp for the IRW 2009 event. Kelburn made a policy decision to drop the IRW (after 22 years of being the event venue) in favour of corporate events. So be it. The warm and extraordinarily helpful reception that the IRW and its participants received from Tom and Mary Watson at SWF last year, and the greatly superior camping and caravanning facilities there – showers, better toilets, proper dish washing facilities, plus fixed caravans and B&B rooms – convinced all who were at IRW 2008 that the event had fallen on its feet in finding this new home.

Please go to the Base Camp Accommodation and the Site Directions page for South Whittlieburn Farm details.

Flying “Fairlie Close to Space” at the IRW.
All right, this is now a well worn pun about the IRW Flying Site – the Fairlie Moor Rocket Site (FMRS) - but with the 16,000 Feet (4,876 Metres) Above Mean Sea Level ceiling at the FMRS this is as close to space as Model, High Power and Large Rocket flying gets in the UK at the moment. And as we learned in 2007 where we fly at the FMRS was from circa 1946 to the early 1980’s a professional rocket motor static test firing site, operated by ICI out of their explosives and propellant manufacturing plant at nearby Ardeer on the North Ayrshire coast (between the towns of Stevenston and Irvine).

All IRW 2009 rocket flying will be at the FMRS ~ Model, High Power, Large, and Aquajet/Water Rockets.

Please go to the Flying Programme and the Site Directions pages for details.

What IRW 2009 offers (or Why Travel to Scotland to Fly Rockets?).
• 8 days of very eclectic Open, Research, and Competition rocket flying, where veteran rocketeers boost beginners.
• One of the UK’s best and most scenic launch sites, which can accommodate up to Level 3 and Large Rocket flights, to 16,000 Feet (4,876 Metres) AMSL.
• UKRA Level 1, 2 & 3 Range Safety Officers.
• Space and time for UKRA Model Achievement Programme or Level 1, 2 & 3 work and attainments.
• “Rockets & Things” shop (prop. Malcolm Jennings), and other traders at SWF Base Camp, to supply all your rocketry requirements.
• Very much a rocket village, with rocket clubs, families and individuals participating – rocket society as well as rocket science.
• Proximity to the town of Largs offers many attractions for non-rocket flyers accompanying active rocketeers, plus a range of shops (including the Largs Chandlers at the Yacht Haven marina) for all sorts of supplies, needs and wants.
• And we always have fun.

Other things to be said.
Rocketeers worldwide are welcome to come to and take part in IRW 2009, the 24th annual rocketry event held in Scotland since the first Scottish Rocket Weekend in August 1986, which was inspired by the Paisley Rocket Weekend in May 1985, organised by John D. Stewart and the Paisley Rocketeers’ Society.

IRW 2009 is an event for all model and amateur rocketeers, and rocketry followers, of all ages, be they individuals, club members/groups, or families.

The IRW 2009 event gratefully acknowledges the support of the United Kingdom Rocketry Association (UKRA) and the Scottish Aeronautics & Rocketry Association (SARA).

The Organisers also thank David Grove and Geoffrey Smith at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Airspace Utilisation Section (AUS), and the staff at Glasgow Air Traffic Control (GATC) and the Scottish Airways Control Centre (ScACC) for their assistance with NOTAM and Launch Window arrangements to help enable the IRW 2009 rocket flying.

The Organisers also thank Mr and Mrs Watson at South Whittlieburn Farm, Largs, and Mr and Mrs Fergie at Knockendon Farm, Dalry, for providing the IRW Base Camp and Flying Site facilities respectively.


The IRW 2009 Organisers, Colin MacLaren (SARA & UKRA), Andy Norrie (SARA & UKRA), and John Bonsor (STAAR Research, SARA & UKRA) look forward to seeing and flying with you at this year’s event.

The ethos of the IRW is to celebrate the fellowship of rocketry, and for that reason every rocket flight at the event matters. Every flight is someone’s run into rocket time, where ten seconds can encompass a whole mission, soaring in spirit with the Eagle’s flight to Tranquillity forty summers ago. If I may introduce a personal note, in the summer of Apollo 11 I flew alone, now thanks to the fellowship of rocketry I fly with many friends, old and new. For me this is the most important thing that has changed in model and amateur rocketry over the years.

So, fly high, fly safe, and have fun!

Yours ever,

John Bonsor,
IRW 2009 Organiser.