RED GLARE XII

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Now that I am back home, I can do a brief write up on my flights and some notable flights of others. During Friday and Saturday I made the following flights:

Friday:
- Competitor 5 ("Nightmare") flying on a 98-2G L1500 Blue. This was a very good flight, as has become the norm for this rocket. Nice big blue flame, with a visible coast to apogee (10,303' per the Raven, 9,995" per the ADEPT22), great main deployment at 800' and landing about 1000' behind the flight line. I had my keychain camera on board, but unfortunately it ran out of memory on the pad. (Two picture attached of the rocket on the pad, one with me, one without.) Last I knew I was the only entrant in Class 3 Mach Madness, with 755mph (1107 fps).

- LOC Bullet on a 38-2G H125 Blue. Had a Parrot on board in the hatch I put between two of the fins. This flight was a test of the Parrot, which worked this time (more on this later). Altitude was approximately 1600' with deployment not far from the pad. Attached are pics of the rocket on the pad, and the flight (blurry).

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Saturday:

-Crank 54 on a 54-1400 Kosdon K700F. This flight was very interesting, as I had no deployment, but almost zero damage! Rocket lived up to its name and cranked off the pad with a slight wobble off the rail. I was able to successfully track the rocket all the way until it was on the ground, and it seemed as though I had a nominal flight. Then the interesting things started to happen:

1. The wire connecting my Yagi to my handheld radio broke at the connector. HUGE THANKS to Nick Debrita for letting me use his cable and radio to track this rocket. I never would have found it without his lending me that radio!

2. I tracked the rocket to the other side of Route 313. With the help of Rick Comshaw I was able to triangulate the rockets position and concluded that it had landed short of the trees but just over a small hill. This proved to be accurate. I then had to wait approval to enter the field to be sure that the neighbors wouldn't be angered. Thanks to Fred Wallace for radioing around to get my approval to enter the field.

3. Once I walked up to the rocket, I found it was still in one piece :confused: (2nd Picture)

Post Mortem revealed that the onboard LiPo in my Parrot was dead. Despite happily beeping on the pad, I had learned that these batteries need to be recharged every flight. Thanks to Adrian A. for helping me troubleshoot these altimeters. It appears that instead of lawn darting, the rocket flat spun in, and drifted about as far as I would expect under a nominal recovery!

The damage is minimal in theory, but difficult for this type of rocket. One fin fillet is cracked, and the fin is very loose. It is being held on by the opposing Carbon Fiber that was put on tip to tip. Fixing it would require a lot of creativity with composites to have it look good again, so I am unsure of what I am going to do.

The most upsetting thing about all of this? No data for my Mach Madness entry, and what was surely my fastest flight to date...

- LOC Bullet on another 38-2G H125 Blue. This time the altimeter did not deploy the charge (we now know why...), but the motor had a Loki delay element in it that saved the day. Deployment was a little late, but I still have a rocket to fly again. (3rd pic)

All in all, this was an incredible launch with great weather! A big thanks to all of those that helped me out (Dave Reese, Todd H., Ryan S., Andrew Diehl, Nick Debrita, Fred Wallace, Bob Utley, et all) in one form or another. Looking forward to the next MDRA launch!

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Had a great day and a half. Wish we could have made it down earlier on Saturday. The girls got to fly a lot and I finally decided to put the Gizmo up for its maiden flight thanks to my awesome wife who keeps asking when I am going to fly it and I tell her I am being financially responsible and holding off... She takes a walk and returns with a Pro54 Starter Set and an I445 VMAX load for it (I think I will keep her :D ). Gizmo flew perfectly and the only damage to my stuff from the weekend was a torn motor mount (my screw up during friction fit) and my oldest kid lost her favorite rocket (let me know if anyone found a small "freestyle" with stickers and the name Taylor all over it).

Some of my favorite pictures that I was able to capture:

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Tom's Stealth telling the rail to "Get Bent"
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Bad Karma on this round...
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Perfect flight and recovery on the first launch of the Gizmo
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Link to the full album... https://picasaweb.google.com/113977174482920081377/RedGlareXII15APR2012?authuser=0&feat=directlink
 
Tom we loved the Stealth!
Watching all 5-6 of those chutes unfold in sequence was gorgeous. Btw what brand chutes do yoo use?

The take off was equally spectacular, we could feel the roar in our chests....

/quoute LCO Mike Tyson "keep bringing those Tom"

Hmmmm, you or I must be confused,, the only chute I deployed was a 24" drouge on my Ultimate Dark star,,, (Main charges never fired)
 
Another RG is in the books. Always a first class event!! As Bob said don't thank the BOD thank the members. Scott Szympruch is a perfect example. He offered right away on Friday to transport the Lance Beta out to the away cell in his truck. Here are a few pics of the Lance Beta on the CTI M2150. Thanks to K. Potter for the action shots. If any one else got pics feel free to PM me. I also got the Russian version of the V2 in back to back flights on the CTI L990 and L1080 within about an hour on Saturday.

On Sunday I got my Polecat Goblin off on a CTI I165 C Star. Last seen headed somewhere in the corner of Ell Downes Road and 313.

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Those are some awesome pictures! Did anyone get a video or a picture of Dan Michael's Patriot, or that huge FatBoy?
 
Thanks to all the fliers and spectators who participated in Red Glare XII. The success of these launches is a credit to the members who pitch in with every activity between set up and break down. There are too many to thank, but you know who you are. We didn't want to ban the sparky motors, but we had to and it was clearly the right decision. Despite the variable winds, very few rockets landed in the trees and that tells me people are thinking a little longer about what they want to fly and are bringing back up projects to ensure they are getting something in the air.

Remember the ROCKETS Magazine article and video. Go to rocketsmagazine.com and down load the data sheet to tell us about your project(s). If you have pictures or video you would like us to consider, please send them to the address at www.libertylaunchsystems.com/Contact/

Neil....Rled Zolo Clup.......:rolleyes:
 
Such a shame, with basically the last big flight of the day (Sunday), Kevin Mitchell's N-Sane with a central N (6in) and 4 or 6 54 k's, the Central N cato'd :y: less then 200 feet off the pad. Not sure but it could of been Metal Fatigue on the casing and the aft closure looked like a plasma cutter had split the thing in half. I have video but cant get to it at work. Will try to post a bit later.
 
Here's a link to my poor-quality phone video of N-SANE:

https://skydrive.live.com/redir.asp...72B6CDB70E6A27!727&parid=8672B6CDB70E6A27!683

WOW - what a way to end the event

This was my first Red Glare and my first launch where I got to send up my own high power rockets. A big thanks to everyone that helped me out; I got my level 1 cert on Friday (thank you David for witnessing), and then played with dual deployment for a couple of days. It was a long drive there but my family and I had a great time and everyone was satisfied when we left on Sunday.

-brant


Such a shame, with basically the last big flight of the day (Sunday), Kevin Mitchell's N-Sane with a central N (6in) and 4 or 6 54 k's, the Central N cato'd :y: less then 200 feet off the pad. Not sure but it could of been Metal Fatigue on the casing and the aft closure looked like a plasma cutter had split the thing in half. I have video but cant get to it at work. Will try to post a bit later.
 
Heads up to anyone in attendence this weekend. There was a 5.32" Loc V2//R2/AERO left at the field. Finish is pale green, no decals, NAR#87464 was tape tagged on one fin. The rocket was recovered completely intact. If it's yours or you know the owner, please contact the MDRA BOD. Also there were a few rockets turned in at the lost and found. Info on these will be posted in the MEMBERS section at the MDRA website over the next few weeks.
 
It was a great launch indeed. Squeezed in 9 flights G-J (5 Fri, 3 Sat, 1 Sun), mostly research motors. Lots of awesome flights. Forgot my telephoto lens, so nothing great picture-wise.
 
First batch of videos from the weekend: most are of my stuff, but hey, i was the one driving the camera. I only regret not being able to capture more flights, I still haven't gotten the dual deploy prep streamlined.

[youtube]-7NqE0pSPtg&list=UUT_xb6jKAGVgiB18u8h9YYA&index=8&feature=plcp[/youtube]

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[youtube]ej44VHVSbts&list=UUT_xb6jKAGVgiB18u8h9YYA&index=6&feature=plcp[/youtube]

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[youtube]2jSy3pu5oRA&list=UUT_xb6jKAGVgiB18u8h9YYA&index=4&feature=plcp[/youtube]

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More to come...
 
Ummm,, yea:roll:

With the way that the round was going before we left I was waiting for a similar CATO from the Gizmo. Would have been my luck. With that said, I am pretty sure the wife would have killed me if I CATO'ed the brand new Pro54 case.

Taylor gets a little bent out of shape when we fly without her and unfortunately most of the MDRA launches align with her biological father's weekends with her. I will be doing my Level 2 flight come hell or high water at the August launch though since she will be there then. The only question is if finances will allow for it to be with a 4" Darkstar DD or if it will be with the Gizmo. That launch should be fun as well since she picked out one of Jim Flis' Decaffinators with the glider option and is very excited to fly it.
 
[youtube]BZlDebE4BYg[/youtube]


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*Note the rocket taking off in the distance at the ~0:05sec mark of the descent video!

*On both of these uploads I'm trying out a new YouTube feature that reduces "shakiness" and improves lighting.... dunno how I like it yet...

Thank you to:

  1. Troy for helping me get my SM-XMR on the pad on Saturday - Troy the attached shot is for you buddy!
  2. CrazyJim for helping me locate my main chute on Sunday/Nosecone/ContourGPS camera.
  3. The guys in the corn field on Sunday (~1-2pm) just to the West side of 313 searching tirelessly for a Black 4" rocket that went off the away cell on an M? sometime earlier. One of them tied my drogue to a nearby branch that eventually enabled me to hone in on it. I really hope they found their rocket too!
  4. Everyone that worked to make Red Glare what it is. This was my first one and what a great experience it was!

Mike

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I spent most of the time socializing/prepping/deprepping, so I didn't take as many pictures as usual. Here's what I got.

Dan Patell's Competitor 5 on a 3 grain 98 blue:
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Nick DeBrita's Redstone making a flawless flight and recovery on an M1939W + 4x K550W:
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Randy Appelbaum's Competitor 3 on a K700:
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and his Competitor 5 leaving the pad at 1.86 gees (average, doing the math from the photos!) on an M1000:
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Ryan and Todd prepping Todd's Little John (full scale):
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on a P7200 Infinity Green:
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with a gentle recovery nearby, seen here under drogue:
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JerryO's Iris on nine I540WTs:
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making an EPIC drag separation:
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and then...
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My Little John (half scale) on a L1300 Infinity SuperBlue:
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Ryan with his Patriot:
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on an M1700 Infinity Red:
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Thanks, as always, to Neil, Bob, et al. for running a great show.
 
Nice flights guys, I need to make it out to an MDRA event one of these days.
 
........

  1. Troy for helping me get my SM-XMR on the pad on Saturday - Troy the attached shot is for you buddy!............


  1. No question, she flew laser straight. Spectacular flights all around. Sadly I only got two flights up on Friday; the ground was just so friggin HARD.

    @ Burner. Yes, please do come out to a launch. We'll be starting at the Sod Farm next month. Not as big as Higgs Farm but still good for L2 capable around 2000' to 3000'.

    Thanks to everyone who helped with the field tear down afterward. I myself couldn't do as much as I would have liked (knee went out) but there were many new faces helping out this year as well as the diehard regulars.

    Lookforward to seeing old and new friends next month. :D
 
Great pictures Mr. Reese! This is one of those events that i have too start working into my calendar in the future......Looks like and, sounds like a great run, well done event!:D
 
A few more videos from friday:


[youtube]xGhDLGU-n3s&list=UUT_xb6jKAGVgiB18u8h9YYA&index=3&feature=plcp[/youtube]


[youtube]x5OMIc_qgLA&list=UUT_xb6jKAGVgiB18u8h9YYA&index=2&feature=plcp[/youtube]


[youtube]VIpJVN6M1KQ&list=UUT_xb6jKAGVgiB18u8h9YYA&index=1&feature=plcp[/youtube]
 
Beautiful flame and Mach diamonds on Ryan's Little John...infinity green...? Any more on that formula?

Wow ...what happened to Jerry's Iris?
 
Wow ...what happened to Jerry's Iris?

SOMEONE forgot to put a snap ring on the forward bulkhead,,, but to protect Jerry I won't mention any names, Coolest thing,, because there was no pressure,, there was ZERO damage from the cato, there was slight damage to the booster caused by a small chute and hitting a little hard,, (bent guide rods) but no biggie. Airframe, chutes ect were NOT damaged.

Tom
 
Did anyone get vid of my Giant Stealth? Either Fridays successful flight,, or Sundays,,,, well,,, rekit

Tom
 
SOMEONE forgot to put a snap ring on the forward bulkhead,,, but to protect Jerry I won't mention any names, Coolest thing,, because there was no pressure,, there was ZERO damage from the cato, there was slight damage to the booster caused by a small chute and hitting a little hard,, (bent guide rods) but no biggie. Airframe, chutes ect were NOT damaged.

Tom

Been There.
Done that. LOL:)

Actually, I put the snap ring in - but didn't wait for the "snap".
Upon ignition it promptly ejected out the top with all the flaming solid fuel right behind it.
In my case - the Raptor didn't fare so well.
 
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