The Captain's personal launch report, LUNAR Snow Ranch 03/07/15

It was another gorgeous day at the Ranch! The weather at all three launches so far this year has been perfect. The Ranch is so pretty and green right now. A couple of Chinook helicopters flew over right after we got there.

My very good friend Olga talked me into trying to launch four this time. So I built the motors and prepped the rockets on Friday before the launch.

First up of mine was my scratch built Who's Your Daddy, on an AT single use G75 Metalstorm.

Oops, forgot Who's Your Daddy's videos.

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The second of mine was my most anticipated of the day, my first ever high power cluster. The scratch built Binary Effusion, on two CTI H163 White Thunders. They both lit instantly. I drilled the delays a second apart, and you can see the puff of smoke from the second delay in the video. It was a great flight! The chute is one of Aerocon's 60" nylon chutes that I dyed. Awesome launch photos by Olga!

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The third of mine was my scratch built upscale Estes Freefall XL, complete with paratrooper. The motor was an AT G75 Blackjack. I was a little concerned about the motor being powerful enough, but Open Rocket's sim was correct. It was a nice flight!

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The fourth and final of my launches was the venerable Estes Mean Machine, on an AT F12 Blackjack. I even used the Copperhead igniter, and it lit it the first time! The chute is a 24" nylon from Rocketchutes.com.

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Looks like you guys had awesome weather for a launch!! Awesome flights, and awesome video. A huge congrats on the successful cluster; that looked like a great flight!

Nate

This was Kit's first dual deploy flight ever, and it was perfect! You can see the puff of smoke from the motor deploy backup. I'll let him fill you in on the details, because I can't remember. You can see Freefall descending just to the right. I missed the main deployment in the video due to a bout of vertigo. I almost fell over! It's terrible to get old...

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This was one of Ari's radio controlled boost gliders. It suffered some sort of catastrophic event, and went into a flat spin.

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This was Kit's pink Crayon, that he calls "Booker", on an I218. He forgot to connect the parachute to the recovery harness. I'm sure glad I've never done anything like that. :tongue:

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Poor Skip had a helluva time getting his Leviathan to light. It spit two igniters, and he damaged a third. I think he finally got it into the air, although I missed the flight.

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I love the Captain's launch reports.

s6

Again, I want to thank Olga for all her help and her awesome launch photos. She makes launches a lot more fun!

More of Olga's photos. The paratrooper from Freefall, and Skip's Leviathan spitting an igniter.

nute said:

Looks like you guys had awesome weather for a launch!! Awesome flights, and awesome video. A huge congrats on the successful cluster; that looked like a great flight!

Nate

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The weather was incredible! And I loved flying Binary Effusion. I want to fly it again on two Skidmarks. That that will be fun!

stealth6 said:

I love the Captain's launch reports.

s6

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Thank you, I appreciate that!

stealth6 said:

I love the Captain's launch reports.

s6

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+1 on that

Nate

Really appreciate the your great launch reports, videos and pictures! Is the creek in the Who's Your Daddy photos the same one from the last report, minus some water?

Madison Alum said:

Really appreciate the your great launch reports, videos and pictures! Is the creek in the Who's Your Daddy photos the same one from the last report, minus some water?

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Oh, there's still water in the creek.

Time to add my photos to Captain Low & Slow's personal report...

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This is the obligatory rocket/launch team shot.


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Binary Effusion being prepped on the pad. Nice flying field, eh?


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Continuity testing the lighters individually and then together.

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The money shot with both motors wired up and just about ready to go.

The launch you've already seen. I pronounced the HPR cluster launch "Epic bordering on legendary" but Jim demurred on the legendary description.

He's going to have to change his title to Captain Mostly Low & Slow. BE Rocket left the pad in a hurry as the two motors were pretty short burns and dumped all their Newton/seconds rather abruptly.

Madison Alum said:

Really appreciate the your great launch reports, videos and pictures! Is the creek in the Who's Your Daddy photos the same one from the last report, minus some water?

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Yeah, it's the same creek. It's drying up fast. In wetter years in the past, it's been very full.

Here are some photos I got of your mean machine.

Awesome Launch report. Great pics and looks like a great time had by all!!

That's a beautiful design and a very well built bird for sure!!
I built my first scratch-built last year and did a quad 29mm cluster. its very exciting of the rod! it's a 4" diameter but only 56" in length.
You have inspired me to do another.
I'm thinking an *" dia. with 5 38mm mounts...........??

oops......8" diameter.

Vinny said:

That's a beautiful design and a very well built bird for sure!!
I built my first scratch-built last year and did a quad 29mm cluster. its very exciting of the rod! it's a 4" diameter but only 56" in length.
You have inspired me to do another.
I'm thinking an *" dia. with 5 38mm mounts...........??

Click to expand...

Wow, five 38's? That would be awesome!