LDRS

[gkieley]

Finally back, washed and settled. I would have taken more pictures but with the camera, tracker and keeping an eye on the high altitude flights, I did not lug the camera around. I figured I would wait for the DVD, Rockets Magazine's and Nadine's photos. They probably did a much better job than I could have.

I want to thank Gary T, Patrick McConnell and Fred Taverni for ground support. Dan Michael as the roving RSO, Thursday and Friday, I had those flights RSOed by 9 am. With my back acting up, I could not have done it without you guys.

And of course Al Gloer who had nothing but well wises for me and my flights. It's all good. Guys like you are what make this a great hobby.

I had 3 flights:

Thursday - 6" Intimidator - 62.5lbs
CTI N1800
10,367 Ns
13,145'

Friday - Darkstar Ultimate - 68.5lbs
CTI N2600
11,077Ns
11,518'

Saturday - 8" Lance Beta - 107.5lbs
CTI N4100
17,790 Ns
11,333'

[cwbullet]

Friday - Darkstar Ultimate - 68.5lbs
CTI N2600
11,077Ns
11,518'

68.5 lbs. what that with the motor. How much was it without?

[gkieley]

I'll check when I get home. It was the 6XL case with a spacer and the 4" smoke grain forward closure.

[Neil]

Yes.....the cost of shipping will be determined to where......

The cost.....$20.00 for the Blu-Ray and $15.00 for the standard LDRS DVD.......

Neil,

Can you ship the DVD overseas?

[Neil]

As special thank you to the local land owners around the Potter Field, ROCKETS Magazine would like to send them LDRS XXXI Magazines and DVD's. If anyone has names and addresses of these fine folks who helped out some of our wayward fliers, please contact us off line with the information.

editor@libertylaunchsystems.com

[gkieley]

68.5 lbs. what that with the motor. How much was it without?

The unloaded weight for the Darkstar Ultimate is right about 40lbs

[GaryT]

6" Mad Dog on a CTI M2245IM


Formula 150 on a CTI M2250CS


photos by Patrick McConnel

[butalane]

Finally back, washed and settled. I would have taken more pictures but with the camera, tracker and keeping an eye on the high altitude flights, I did not lug the camera around. I figured I would wait for the DVD, Rockets Magazine's and Nadine's photos. They probably did a much better job than I could have.

I want to thank Gary T, Patrick McConnell and Fred Taverni for ground support. Dan Michael as the roving RSO, Thursday and Friday, I had those flights RSOed by 9 am. With my back acting up, I could not have done it without you guys.

And of course Al Gloer who had nothing but well wises for me and my flights. It's all good. Guys like you is what make this a great hobby.

I had 3 flights:

Thursday - 6" Intimidator - 62.5lbs
CTI N1800
10,367 Ns
13,145'

Friday - Darkstar Ultimate - 68.5lbs
CTI N2600
11,077Ns
11,518'

Saturday - 8" Lance Beta - 107.5lbs
CTI N4100
17,790 Ns
11,333'

Solid flights.

[JStitz]

As special thank you to the local land owners around the Potter Field, ROCKETS Magazine would like to send them LDRS XXXI Magazines and DVD's. If anyone has names and addresses of these fine folks who helped out some of our wayward fliers, please contact us off line with the information.

editor@libertylaunchsystems.com

Neil..not only is that just plain cool...you will guaranty cooperation from the most important people of any launch..THE LAND OWNERS!
You've helped insure the future for this field.
If there are left over T-Shirts....

[MarkH]

6" Mad Dog on a CTI M2245IM


Formula 150 on a CTI M2250CS


photos by Patrick McConnel

Hey Gary, I was the one walking back with my rocket and a broken umbrella Sunday morning. Did you find your Mad Dog?

[GaryT]

Mark:
No not yet but I have faith it will! show up, Was one of my favorite rockets and my L3 bird so I'm REALLY hoping it comes back.

[JDcluster]

What, No tracker???



JD

Mark:
No not yet but I have faith it will! show up, Was one of my favorite rockets and my L3 bird so I'm REALLY hoping it comes back.

[GaryT]

Had a tracker but where it took me seemed much to far away, Per the tracker I was within 20 square feet of it which was right in somebody's back yard, The house owner came out and helped me look but still no luck, Probably searched for 6 hours.

[MarkH]

Mark:
No not yet but I have faith it will! show up, Was one of my favorite rockets and my L3 bird so I'm REALLY hoping it comes back.

That stinks. Seems like it would be hard for a big rocket like that to be missing for too long. Hopefully it turns up.

[troj]

No not yet but I have faith it will! show up, Was one of my favorite rockets and my L3 bird so I'm REALLY hoping it comes back.

Gary, it was great to meet you this past weekend, and I hope that rocket reappears!

Once the rocket got off the immediate area, hunting was a challenge -- I spent a fair amount of time helping someone find a rocket in the potato field to the north. I've learned that potatoes are as bad as rocket-eating corn!



-Kevin

[GaryT]

Kevin:
Good to meet you as well, Yes it was some pretty rough terrain out in that bush, I was in that dense jungle for hours during that heavy rain.

[GaryT]

LDRS 31 Lost & Found Page is up. http://ldrs31.org/lost-and-found/

[dlb]

Great Gary

Listed for my missing Thor-X booster an motor case from the L900 drag race.

I know it's in the corn and walked a good portion of it Sunday morning in the pouring rain for a few hours, with no luck, but some of that corn is over 5 feet tall with 4 foot weeds in between the rows. Got soaked

and Good meeting you at last!

[GaryT]

Good meeting you too Don, Hope yours turns up as well.

[SMR]

Had a tracker but where it took me seemed much to far away, Per the tracker I was within 20 square feet of it which was right in somebody's back yard, The house owner came out and helped me look but still no luck, Probably searched for 6 hours.

I'm always the cynical one, so ignore this if not a possibility. Any chance the tracker was telling the truth and calling for help from the living room of the people whose yard it landed in?

[GaryT]

There is always that possibility and I DID think about it but the owner of the house came out introduced himself and helped me look for about 30 minutes, Seemed like a great guy had his kids helping as well and shook my hand when I left? But it still could of all been a ruse... I'll never know unless it turns up.

[Wingarcher]

How was the tracker secured? Maybe it fell out of the rocket on the way down and it WAS where it was saying it was?

N

[GaryT]

I have the tracker come out with the main so it only has to fall 800' instead of 12,000', Allot less chance of it breaking free that way, Was attached by a Kevlar strap as its a GPS Dog tracker.

[blackjack2564]

This field is the worst I have EVER encountered for tracking in 10 years.
The problem is: it's a large bowl sunk in about 300 ft from a rim of foothills. It was a swamp drained for farming. The hills are full of metal buildings & silos that are very prone to signal "bounce". Along with that they are covered with large old growth thick,poison ivy covered trees.

You could get a great signal, get to a close point, then the signal would be full strength in a 360 degree circle. This would lead you to one side of the field....ya get there...then it would point you clear across [1-1/2 mile] the other side or turn you in another 360 circle. I know most of the 'tricks' antenna orientation. High ...low ground pointing, 180 degree double check. Stand on high ground, change attenuation etc. nothing matters when ya got so much reflective structure. You must get away from it and get clear signal. I did it in some instances, but roads and sheer rock face cliffs put a damper on it in other situations. I'm sure if I could have spent the hrs/days required i could have found anything as I have ALWAYS brought home the bacon if I get lock on a signal. [But time ran out and we had to leave. I searched Sat from 1.30 till dark. Sunday from 5.30 till dark and Mon. for 2.5hrs for others.]

Start over, drive a mile away from that point and search for another false/positive. It took me 4hrs to find my rocket and I have years of experience and "knew" what was going on. Then there were several rockets with the same frequency, and some fliers were NOT turning the trackers off once found, compounding matters further!

Even GPS was being tricked. That one I don't know how. I went with Bill B. his GPS took us right to where the rocket should have been, instead when we got there it would say....37yrd to right. ya'd get there and it would continue to take you on a wild goose chase. Go figure. I spent over 12 hrs tracking rockets for myself and others. Some we got, some are still out there.

So I can easily see how Gary got a signal telling him where his rocket was,but once he got there...it wasn't....yet said it was. Bounce from all the surrounding reflecting objects.

[JDcluster]

I finally bought my own receiver just before LDRS and used the transmitter on every flight, It paid off!
I flew my 4" rocket with a 4 grain L on Friday. I predicted it to hit 14k and it did 13,901.
It landed 2 roads over from the field behind the Discovery tent. It took me a few hours to find it as it was in a wooded area near someone's house.

One of the things I have learned when tracking a rocket is: It is better to walk around the signal than to walk straight path to follow it.
This way you are boxing in and cutting down the searchable area.

Another thing I noticed at LDRS is: someone else had the same frequency as me.
Even with the channel list ( mine wasn't listed ) I was hearing 2 distinct beeps: one coming from the pits and the other in the direction my rocket was heading.
I never found out who else was on the same channel luckily it didn't hinder my efforts.

JD

[jflis]

Got my pix up from LDRS. Great fun and glad we could make it this year! Pix can be found by clicking this link!

[vahpr]

My 1st flight at LDRS was a "do-over" of the Iris 2 stage. Good result this time despite a sustainer motor on the ragged, hairy edge.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_R-Sd...ature=youtu.be