Launch Report - SCRA 2012-08-18 - Southern California

[gdjsky01]

Nice thing about this launch is I got to chat a bit with Initiator001. Nice guy. I enjoyed his stories of NARAM 54. Reminds again that most of you are fine folk indeed.

Temps were hot, and for Southern California humid. But the wind was calm most of the time. Good news for two stage rockets.


First up I tried the Gyroc again. I have to be doing something wrong... it came off the rod on an A8-3 and look a sharp turn and flew a shallow arc ejecting about 40 feet above the ground. Fortunately it did exactly as it should and helicopter down. Time to pull it apart and see what is going on. Because it's first flight was awesome. But the last two, not so much.

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[gdjsky01]

Next up: My repaired scratch built Deucey 2.5 which I decided was either "The Pencil Neck Deucey" or "Duecy 2.5.5". On the flight card I went with the latter, just to spare Martin. The rocket survived a plunge it's last flight and I simply cut away the bad part and used a piece of a Sky Writer to repair it.

This flight was a C11-0 to a C11-7

Yep -7 was a tad long... not too long but a 5 would have been better.

Up she zipped to a Adept ALT-1A recorded 826'

I used that REALLY thin kevlar this time instead of the underwear stretchy stuff that broke last flight... and that really thin kevlar zipped about 2 inches of the pencil replacement....

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[gdjsky01]

Last outing I did not get the two C6-5s lit... this time I went with two B6-4s... no worries as she flew a great flight to an Altimeter One recorded 317'

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Drats... as Maxwell Smart would say, Missed it by that much.

[gdjsky01]

Love flying my The Launch Pad Hawk. Funny I have so many of there kits (guess cause I am not a hillbilly), that I really need to build more of them. My Osiris MPM, this Hawk 1.6, and my late lamented Matra 530D just flew so well!

The Hawk, as is it's tendency, had a bit of a ballistic trajectory, but the D9-4 sure looked good push'in her around and the delay was maybe a 1 second longer than I would have wished... but the flight was great with the Altimeter Two squawking 499 feet @ 148 mph with a 8.8G peak and 4.8G average acceleration.

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She sure looks like she's headed for an intercept defending the Mount Wilson Observatories aye?

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[gdjsky01]

Weird launch this day, normally SCRA gets in a good number of rounds, and today was not very busy... but time was running out for me anyway, so I skipped flying the Outlaw Deltie and my MRN Equinox to take advantage of the very light wind and put up my scratch built Farside-X but on two stages, not three...

B6-0 to a B6-6... I must admit she's beginning to show her age as she was built 10 years ago... or so...

Anyways the Farside-X rocketed () up to an Adept ALTIM-1a recorded 400 feet. Recovery was nominal on a 10 inch nylon chute.

Notice I screwed the pooch on the focus this time. (All photos are manual focused, 400ISO, 1/2000th, Shutter Priority.)

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[gdjsky01]

Weird... I could have sworn I published this last post... but maybe not....

Here's a few photos that I like of the 66 I published here.

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A Mozzie on an Estes G80... nice blue flame... mach diamonds?

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A closest to the pad winner... on an E9

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Here's the crop of the best flaming bits...

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Hope you enjoyed...

[Rex R]

I've asked a few folks round here...apparently here you need to actually clear the launch rod/rail to qualify for closest to the pad .
rex

[shreadvector]

In case anyone is interested, a total of 5 E12 motors were flown and all worked perfectly. That makes 14 in row.

[Initiator001]

It was good talking with you, Jeff.

Excellent picture taking.

I hope to see you again at a future SCRA launch.