Lost Sirius Eradicator Friday afternoon…But still had a great time at LDRS34

Hi All,

Unfortunately, my son and I lost our brandy new 3” Sirius Eradicator at LDRS34 on Friday afternoon, 6/26/2015 ~3:45PM. During recovery, rocket drifted into the stand of trees at the south end of the flight line, across the creek beyond the road. (Just off the Torry Farm property…On the property of landowner “B” on the map provided in the LDRS34 info pack.)

We did find the rocket stuck in a tree ~50’+ up, but were not able to retrieve it on Friday using URRG’s ~32’ fiberglass pole w/ extension…Rocket was still ~15-20’ out of reach. Tried to come back on Saturday, hoping the rocket had settled down a bit and dropped lower, but due to the muddy conditions we were not able to get back onto the farm before we had to leave for home.

Thought I’d put this out there in the event there were any local folks or URRG members who are on good terms with the land-owners and who might be up for a recovery mission. Rocket is predominantly white, with grey nosecone & ring fins, and black trim. Rocket is 45" long, 3" dia., with a 30" orange nylon chute.

Here’s a photo of the rocket:



Here’s a map of where it landed:


And here’s a photo of the tree it’s stuck-in, and the rocket and chute in the high branches.



Rocket has some sentimental value, as this was a father-son project. Would like to get it back if possible. Hopefully it will survive the recent rains.

Even though we had to leave our bird behind, my son and I had a great time, and left with smiles on our faces. Kudos to the organizers and the folks at URRG for putting-on a great launch, under some challenging weather conditions. Last Friday was still a SPECTACULAR day!

Thanks!

Dan Tyszka
Brookline, Massachusetts
CMASS Member / NAR # 95916

I feel your pain, I lost my Eradicator on its maiden flight, drifted right into the middle of a very large retention lake near our launch site. I should not have used the chute it came with. It is far to large for the kit. I have just finished building a second and will fly it sometime this month.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry to hear about your experience. This was also our maiden flight.

After tweaking my sim post-flight, I also concluded that the 30" chute was probably too large to have on-field recovery, even on the biggest of fields in light winds. And I'm starting to think that an extra large streamer might actually be what's needed for this rocket.

We really loved the way this rocket turned out, but waiting to see if this one might make it home before making any decisions on a rebuild. Hoping someone who lives in the Potter, NY area might decide to go on a hunt for missing rockets this weekend. (Fingers crossed.) This one should be easy to locate. But 50' up a tree is a real challenge...Too far up for most pole systems. And probably at the edge of what you can recover with the old "half-full water bottle with kite string tied around the neck, heave and hope" recovery method.

There will be another launch in Potter coming up in a few weeks, so the chances are good some lost rockets may be found!

This was then and still is one of my favorite builds. A very well designed rocket, a great looking rocket, not hard to build but also requires some skill. Just a great bird all around. I would agree on the streamer. I have a 24 inch chute in mine now and I have reefed the lines, so I will see how that goes. Our field is grass and this time of year is a bit above ankle deep so it can handle a faster landing with no damage.

Well, your rocket is in good company - my D-Region Tomahawk is nearby. It's been in a treetop in the same stand of trees since April.

Greg Young said:

There will be another launch in Potter coming up in a few weeks, so the chances are good some lost rockets may be found!

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Good to know. Thanks for "keeping hope alive."

EXPjawa said:

Well, your rocket is in good company - my D-Region Tomahawk is nearby. It's been in a treetop in the same stand of trees since April.

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Hey Rick,

Always nice to meet the "neighbors" ;-)

We didn't see your rocket when we were in those woods trying to retrieve ours. But then again, the tree foliage in the high canopy was pretty dense, so we probably wouldn't have noticed another rocket unless we had a pretty good idea of where to look.

If you (or any other motivated individual) decide to go back into the woods rocket hunting, feel free to try to snag our Eradicator. Would really like to get it back and (provided it's not a soggy, unflyable mess) would be happy to pay shipping costs plus a nominal "reward."

Dan Tyszka
Brookline, Massachusetts
CMASS Member / NAR # 95916

I haven't been able to spot it myself since the trees leafed out, but I haven't ventured into the stand either, since its way too high to get to anyway...