The Captain's personal launch report, LUNAR Snow Ranch 02/14/15

It was a gosh darned good rocket day! The weather was fantastic, for the third launch in a row. Couldn't have asked for better conditions! I was a little worried on the drive there, as we hit some of our famous thick Central Valley fog. But it was gorgeous at the ranch!

My goal was to launch three yesterday, and I actually met that goal! The first up was the venerable scratch built 5 Finger Death Punch on a several years old I600 Redline. Beautiful flight, Death Punch is a boss! He landed about a foot away from the creek. That was close. Oh, and more of Olga's awesome photos!

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The second of mine was my scratch built upscale Centurion XL, on a G76 Mojave Green. Another nice flight!

[YOUTUBE]pFQhXnQwcqY[/YOUTUBE]

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The third and final of my flights was my goony Patriot, the Gooniot, on a G64 White Lightning. Another great flight, and another close call. It landed precariously close to the creek!

[YOUTUBE]MX47cvRoFyY[/YOUTUBE]

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I finally remembered to use my Altimeter One, although I forgot to use it in Death Punch. I did use it in Centurion and Gooniot. What's funny is, when we recovered Gooniot, both Olga and I read the altitude as 2221 ft. We were excited at such a high flight! That is, until we realized that we were reading it upside down. It was actually 1222 ft. I laughed about that all the way home!

I wanted to publicly thank Olga again for her friendship and all her help. She makes the launches even more fun!

Thanks for the launch report! I'm glad to see someone's able to fly this time of year

Nate

Now that you have some Ns this year, you need to add them to our attempt to get a Saturn V up.

Great photos BTW...

K'Tesh said:

Now that you have some Ns this year, you need to add them to our attempt to get a Saturn V up.

Great photos BTW...

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I just added my Ns to the list.

Thanks for the great report! Great pictures of great rockets at a great field! And a great friend, too. Every time I see pictures of Snow Ranch, I say to myself that it would be a blast to launch out there. Then I remember it is in California and have to reconsider.

Madison Alum said:

Thanks for the great report! Great pictures of great rockets at a great field! And a great friend, too. Every time I see pictures of Snow Ranch, I say to myself that it would be a blast to launch out there. Then I remember it is in California and have to reconsider.

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We don't discriminate. We even let Indianans launch there. :tongue:

qquake2k said:

My goal was to launch three yesterday, and I actually met that goal! The first up was the venerable scratch built 5 Finger Death Punch on a several years old I600 Redline. Beautiful flight, Death Punch is a boss! He landed about a foot away from the creek. That was close. Oh, and more of Olga's awesome photos!

[YOUTUBE]TZca2Qs_glw[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]Xeo8OuH32OA[/YOUTUBE]

Click to expand...

I really enjoyed my shift as LCO - not only did I finally get to see this fly, but I got to push the button.

I wish my boys had landed a foot from the creek. The both ended up IN the creek at some point. They both had fun yesterday even if the drive home was a little soggy.