Hellfire 21 - Aces High - 04 to 07 Aug 2016 at the Bonneville Flats - Tomorrow!!!!

Seems reasonable. I know UROC is wanting things to go smoothly.....

The weatherman is predicting monsoonal moisture to be reaching northern Utah starting on Sunday. Hopefully, this will not be a show stopper. It is amazing that everything has been dry so far this summer and now that Hellfire-21 is coming the monsoons might be arriving.

aerostadt said:

The weatherman is predicting monsoonal moisture to be reaching northern Utah starting on Sunday. Hopefully, this will not be a show stopper. It is amazing that everything has been dry so far this summer and now that Hellfire-21 is coming the monsoons might be arriving.

Click to expand...

I'm just glad the weather has cooperated, and we should get at least three days of launching in.

Per the Weather Underground:

Thursday: Clear, high of 90, low of 68
Friday: Clear, high of 93, low of 70
Saturday: Clear, high of 92, low of 69
Sunday: Clear, high of 92, low of 70

75Grandville said:

Per the Weather Underground:

Thursday: Clear, high of 90, low of 68
Friday: Clear, high of 93, low of 70
Saturday: Clear, high of 92, low of 69
Sunday: Clear, high of 92, low of 70

Click to expand...

Terrific weather! About 15 degrees cooler than here, I'm going to bring a sweater....our low this morning was 91 degrees

There is still a weather concern from Saturday to Wednesday, because rain storms can produce large puddles of standing water on the Salt Flats. I'm not wishing for this, but I am concerned. Our launch site has always been dry after such storms, but sometimes we have to cross a puddle that is about 4 inches deep by about a mile long.

BTW someone in UROC always marks the path from the end of the asphalt road to the launch site about 5-7 miles away with traffic cones across the Salt Flats. Make sure you follow these traffic cones. There have been some attendees in the past that have gone off on side tours away from this path and have broken through through the salt crust into underlying patches of mud and got stuck. You will be fine as long as you follow the traffic cones.

Ben Whitfield and I are rolling from Pueblo, CO. about 5 PM Wednesday, expecting to find our way out to the site very early Thursday to help with finishing the range set up and establishing our spot on the flight line. Looking westward, upward and with out words to describe the journey that is HELLFIRE!

I have a company party up at Snowbird Tuesday through Thursday, so I won't make it until Friday morning. Dave Spencer promised to save me 10 ft of space on the front row. Really looking forward to spending time with some friends.

Joe

Wayco said:

Sharon and I are leaving Goodyear early Wednesday, probably arriving at the salt around 3 pm. We will be eating lunch at the Salt Flats cafe and would like to get out to the launch site around 4 pm. Any chance someone would be out there? Not sure I could find it without some markers out or some of the UROC gang to guide me....

Click to expand...

We (UROC) are planning to arrive at the salt at 5 on Wednesday. We will start setting up, marking things out, etc. I'll pm you my phone number.

75Grandville said:

We (UROC) are planning to arrive at the salt at 5 on Wednesday. We will start setting up, marking things out, etc. I'll pm you my phone number.

Click to expand...

Thanks Bill, maybe we will wait at the cafe for you. I will call you when we get there.

Well, I will be coming out to the salt on Saturday! I'll be bringing one or two of the kids with me....maybe a few smaller rockets as well. I do look forward to observing the Darkstar drag race! My money is on Sharon!

In other news, still need to ground test for deployment! K1127 and L875 all assembled and glued - J650 will hopefully get glued up tonight.

Heading out this afternoon to do set-up!!!

Got here yesterday in time to help set up the range. Once a year we get to be contributing members of UROC! Today is LPR/MPR day, see if we can get a few rockets in the air. Yesterday it was nice weather with a light wind to keep us cool, hopefully it will be the same today.

Wow! What a great day of launching rockets! We slept in a bit this morning, I guess driving ten hours and setting up with UROC yesterday took it out of me a bit.
Got out to the salt around 7:30 am and started setting up our campsite, then we finished up the launch pads before we could start launching rockets. We still managed to get a bunch flown. Sharon got eight and I got seven flown before they closed the range around 5 pm. Great weather, almost calm all day. Might have gotten a bit too much sun, despite multiple applications of SPF 50.

Another great day, my first day on the salt this year. Overcast most of the day so we had to keep things under about 3,000 feet. Late in the day the clouds parted to allow an M and an O. One big cone rocket came in hot and punched a 12" hole through a windshield. Pictures to follow. I launched a Wildman Punisher sport on an H redline. Sweet motor. The best flight of the day had to be an Aerotech development model that came off the rail unstable, did a 360, got stable and went straight up. None of us had ever seen anything like it. Sadly, it doesn't appear anyone was taking video.

Joe

Last day on the salt for us, but we still managed to get a couple more rockets off. Sharon flew her RW Stinger on an M1297. Great flight but it took off over near the race course and we had to walk out a bit to recover it. I flew my Red Tailed Extreme on an M1550 to 14,400 ft and it headed the same way, over the race course for a long recovery. I made one more flight with my 3" Blackstar on a K540. This was supposed to be the drag race motor, but we couldn't put that together so I flew it anyway. After that recovery, it was getting late and we packed up. Got to see several more flights, including Aerostat's Saturn flight, very impressive. Also an AT load that I will have to purchase when they come out, an N2000 Dark Matter.
This is our second Hellfire, but it won't be our last. Great bunch of folks to fly with!

I always enjoy Hellfire. Spending time with Wayne and Sharon makes it even better. Appreciate the advice. I'll rebuild the Darkstar and fly it again, with a more successful recovery.

Joe

The drogue in my 3" Darkstar did not deploy, the main shredded, and the payload went into the salt pretty much straight down. I was able to salve the nose cone and about 18 inches of fin can. The avionics bay was compressed into the booster. I cut the booster and AV-bay with a Dremel after I got home to see if anything survived. Nothing did. The orange fragments in the picture are the 3D printed sled. The threaded rods are pretzels. The aluminum bulkheads are twisted. And of course the battery and RRC2 were destroyed. A lot of expensive lessons learned on that one.

Joe

I apologize to Joe, our LCO, on my pulling the Atlas/Mercury from launch at the last second. I thought having the relay box set up for the motor cluster was essential, but it turned out later it was not. Joe's introduction for the Atlas (or God Speed John Glenn) was terrific. Later when Jed was LCO, there was little or no introduction, but the Atlas went up right away without the relay box. Except for a few minor glitches it looks like everything on the Atlas worked fine. I am hoping to have photo's later so I can put together a report on my Atlas thread.

Again, Joe, please accept my humble apologies.

It was a good launch, even with the wind shutting us down early on Sunday. I enjoyed meeting lots of folks - Wayne and Sharon were great neighbors. I successfully flew my first dual deploy flight - Darkstar Jr. on a Loki J650 to 7973'. I didn't get the switch band for my Interceptor, so the L875 will have to wait for another launch, although I did get a nice motor deploy flight on a K695. It was great to see Charlie from Aerotech again, too.

And here is a picture of me with a bird on my head. This little guy or gal was visiting everyone, and spent some time on several people's heads. Completely fearless! The official bird of UROC.



I'm in Ueda, Japan. It's after midnight, and I've been up and traveling for 24+ hours. Time for some sleep.

It was a pleasure to make it out on Saturday and fly a couple rockets. My 8 year old boy did pretty good for a day in the desert. For me, with the short notice being able to come out, I was more thrilled than everything else just to see all you guys and put on a couple hours RSO/LSO. Wayne and Sharon, thanks for making the drive out again. Hope to see you next year and maybe I'll be able to make a better trip of it!