kenobi65's launch pictures

[kenobi65]

The ad agency where I work gives us three "summer days" -- days off which we must take between Memorial Day and Labor Day. I still had two of these left, and so, I took today off.

My original plan was to get up early, and go launch some rockets before the wind picked up. Alas, I took advantage of the day off to sleep in! By the time I got rolling, it was 1100, and both of the parks where I can go to launch had kids on the fields. I went back to my primary field at 1300, and it was wide open, so I got set up.

By this point, the wind was coming out of the south at 10-15 mph, making it a bit borderline, but I really wanted to get some launches in, so I went ahead.

The first flight was with my trusty Quest Totally Tubular, on its usual Estes A8-3. It always flies straight and true, and so, I'll usually use it for the first flight as it gives me a good feel for how the wind is behaving above ground level. As usual, she flew well, but drifted about 40 yards, even on a streamer. I was going to have to be careful with the other rockets.

[kenobi65]

Next up was the maiden flight of the Fliskits Triskelion, also on an Estes A8-3. With those big fins, it weathercocked quite a bit. It looked like the parachute didn't completely open, as it came down pretty quickly. On landing, it snapped off one of the outer fins, right on the glue seam (which was easily repaired once I got home).

[kenobi65]

The third flight was my clone of the Estes Citation Patriot (which had been my very first rocket, back in '76), on an Estes B4-2. The Patriot is a stately flier, but, like the Triskelion, has a lot of fin area, and dug into the wind pretty significantly. With the B4-2, it never really got a lot of height, and it wound up being a fairly low, arcing flight. But, deployment was clean, and it landed safely.

[kenobi65]

Fourth was the Custom TriStar (one of the first kits I built as a BAR), on an Estes A8-3. The adventures continued with this one...flight was fairly straight, but the mylar chute didn't unfold at all, and it wound up being more of a streamer recovery. It landed pretty hard, and snapped one of the two fins, mid-fin. This one may be retired, as I suspect I'd need to completely replace that fin.

[kenobi65]

Next was the Estes Baby Bertha, on an Estes B6-4. This was its tenth flight, and nearly wound up being its last. The flight itself was picture-perfect (as usual for this rocket), but the wind picked once the parachute deployed, and it drifted...and drifted...and drifted...

It went at least 300 or 400 yards downfield, out of the park, and into the yard of the house across the street from the park. As I watched it come down, I was certain that it'd wound up in the 30' tall maple tree in their yard. However, once I got there, I found that it had carried just past the tree, and wound up in some mulberry bushes up against the house. Safe recovery!

[kenobi65]

Sixth flight was the Estes Monarch, on a Estes A8-3. A little bit of weathercocking, but not too severe, and a nice soft recovery. Once I got to it, I saw that one of the fins had gotten a little charred on launch -- I noticed that the spent motor casing which I use as a stand-off on the pad had also gotten charred on one side. I suspect that this particular A8-3 was a little more energetic than usual.

[kenobi65]

The seventh and final flight was the Patriot again, this time on an Estes B6-4. It still weathercocked, but it actually got some altitude this time. Ejection came a second or two after apogee, but the deployment was good, and it landed softly about 50' from the launch pad.

[judo]

Great report!

Any day flying is better than a good day at work.