B6-4 Field launch, 8/19/13

A pretty big day considering the late hour and the proximity to dinner. I launched 17 rockets in a 2.5 hour stretch.
First up, in memory of Carl, was the recently completed (after 10 years) Semroc Lil Hercules on an A8-3.



As I said, an A8-3. Holy Fire and Forget!



I heard the shotgun ejection which sounded like it was occurring about ten feet above my head and to the left. I saw NU-THINK!! I listened for the sound of the Lil Herc falling to earth. Still NU-THINK!!! I walked around the whole left side of the field. You know the story. It was just gone.
Or not. I found it later on the tennis court all the way on the other side of the trees. It had to go twice as far post ejection as it got height-wise. Landed on the cement and broke a fin off, but it will be an easy fix.
Can't say I'll be flying it again, though.

Next up was the Centuri Screaming Eagle that I've been meaning to fly forever. This one also flew on an A8-3. And for the first time this day, the camera malfunctioned due to an ID10T error, so no picture. (In fact, no pics of flights 2, 3 or 4.) Flight was as expected, surprisingly high for the A8, with a quick recovery due to the too small chute. The Screaming Eagle recovered hard with a definite bounce, but everything held together.

Flight #3 was the Quest Big Betty on a B6-4. Another majestic BT-60 bird on the namesake engine at B6-4 Field. Very cool if you like them low and slow. I do.



Fourth flight was the Estes Star Snoop on an A8-3. Windcocked heavily, but a nice soft recovery on the chute that was too small for the Screaming Eagle.



By now I'd figured out the problem with the camera, so I ran the Big Betty up again. Another B6-4, another perfect flight, but I didn't have a whole lot of perfection left.

The ill-fated Estes Amazon was next.



I flew C6s on the field in the past and wanted to see if I could still do so on a calm day. Well, the answer is apparently NO. Decent liftoff shot, though.





You can already see it nosing to the left in the last picture. It actually drifted back my way for a good portion of the recovery, and once caught a really strong breeze back my way, but then the wind shifted in a big way. I followed it down through the trees to about the 30-40 foot level, but it never passed the last clearing it was heading for. I stand a decent chance of getting most of it back once the leaves fall. Strange that I wasn't able to see it when I went looking later, but things have a tendency to look different once you're right on top of them.

The Centuri Screaming Eagle made another photo op flight next. I had wanted a decent close up shot of it on the pad and as it worked out, it was the one shot I didn't get. A8-3 flight. Bigger chute this time. Still bounced.





This is the second or third time I brought the Estes Solar Probe to the field this year, so I figured I'd better fly it.



This was a B6-4 flight that arched back over my head toward the school. I heard a thunk when the ejection charge fired, but there was no damage when I retrieved it. As it turned out, it was a good thing that it arched back over my head or it probably would have wound up in the trees at the north end of the field. It was a seriously long recovery drift, even with a chute that was more reef than chute.

Before I left for the field I was down in the basement looking for likely victims and found a 12" nylon chute that I'd forgotten I had. It had seen duty already in the Big Betty without incident, so I figured it would be fine in the Patriot.



Well, I figured wrong. The Patriot was in trouble from the start.





At liftoff it kinked to the left pretty badly, but straightened out and recovered over the trees on top of the hill. It was drifting back my way and actually looked like it was going to land on the hill next to the pad, but again the breeze shifted. It still almost made it down without a problem, but at the last second the chute caught a branch on the edge of one of my pet trees.



Pretty sure this is recoverable. I'm just not sure who the recoverer will be. Football season has started and the fields are going to be busy the bulk of the week. It's BOUND to attract some attention.

After I fumed at the loss of the Patriot, I decided to walk the field to see if I could find the missing Lil Hercules. As I mentioned, 1/2A6-2 Field is undergoing a major overhaul. It's dimensionally challenged, so I thought that they were just going to make it a soccer field, but they've left the dirt infield as it was and cleared out some of the outfield overgrowth. It now has a pretty decent outfield for t-ball and coach pitch.



Then I walked up over the hill to see if the shotgun ejection had fired it toward the school. It hadn't, but I stopped to visit an old friend.



It kills me daily.

Next on the pad was the Semroc Micron on an A8-3.



This one is pretty much the same as the Lil Hercules at this field, iffy at best. Flight was high and straight, ejection LOUD and turned the streamer to confetti. Literally.



The 18" streamer I started with was barely 6" when I recovered it. You could see little bits of mylar winking in the sun on the way to the school roof.

Next off would be the FSI Micro, just because I thought it would be funny to fly the Semroc Micron and FSI Micro back to back. (It would have been funnier still if I'd brought the Estes Micron, but I wasn't feeling humorous when I was slogging through the basement picking birds.)



A8-3 flight, this time with a chute instead of a streamer, which contributed to the fin breaking off on the first flight here last year. Impressive height, a slight arch back toward the school, then rode the breeze back to the field for a HARD landing.



I thought sure I'd find another broken fin, but all was well on recovery.

Sticking with the FSI theme, next to fly was the FSI Viking III clone on a B6-4. I've had a hard time getting enthused about this one. It was supposed to be a 24mm clone based on a BT-50 main body, but the thrust ring stuck when I was gluing it in and I had to go the more traditional 18mm route instead.



Another camera issue caused me to only catch it queefing on the pad.



Flight was high and straight, and it rode the breeze over the fence into the forbidden zone for a homer. As it landed I heard applause and turned to find a car full of people sitting on Woodfill Avenue watching. That was cool.

From this point I had a more permanent audience. William is 9, going to be a 4th grader at B6-4 Elementary, owner of a Crossfire and Amazon, and has probably not stopped talking about flying rockets since he walked out into his back yard and found a 50 year old kid actually flying. I had a half finished Astron Stinger that I built using the vintage cone from the same batch as the ill-fated Astron Drifter, so I decided to press my luck and see if I could give the Drifter some company.



Haven't gotten any real inspiration on this one as far as paint or decals, so it's languished all summer in ready to fly condition. A8-3, as you might expect. Fairly high, dead straight. Nice soft landing that drew loud WOWs from the hillside. William had seen his first rocket launch.



Next was the only mini-engine flight of the day, the Retro Rocketry Blue Max. This 1/2A3-2T flight would be the first for this bird in almost NINE YEARS!



Very impressive flight, surprisingly high and fairly straight. Nose blow recovery because it's only slightly larger than an Estes Quark. This one will likely fly here again.





Now William was REALLY chattering. Fifty million questions. Yes, in fact I just lost two in the trees today. The sight of my Patriot hanging in the tree just about left him speechless. Not.

By this time the offer to press the button was just too much for William. I told him he had to ask his Mom if it was okay to do it, and luckily she decided to come out and watch. Finding out that I was a neighbor set her at ease, and like her son, she was thrilled to know that the field was suitable for flight operations. William chose the Star Snoop, so it became a photo op flight since I missed everything the last time. A8-3. Reefed chute tucked into the cavity of the nose cone. Kinked right off the pad, but recovered without incident. I need to start printing Goony decals. I have the Sky Shriek and Zoom Broom finished, but the rest only started in 1:1 size.





By this time it was seriously closing in on 7:00 and dinner time, so I called last flight. William picked the Astron Constellation, which seemed like a safe bet. A8-3. Same reefed chute as the Star Snoop.





Wouldn't you know, it landed on the infield, which is summer hard from lack of rain. Same kind of mid-fin break that I had on the Zepher 5 and Semroc Mark II. (Someone made a Joe Theismann reference when I showed one of those pics. Still gives me the willies.) Ugly to look at, but not that bad to fix. I promised that I'd knock on William's door the next time I was flying, which gives me a convenient excuse to head up to the field sometime soon. I think I missed a Big Betty flight in the sequence, but you know how those go, eh?

Doncha just wish they'd burst into flames when they land on a power line... that way it'd be over with, instead of it just hanging there taunting you... (not that you should EVER try to recover it unless it blows down on its own or the power company retrieves it for you, for those who may be reading this who might feel tempted).

Always sad when they end up rotting on a power line, as Wes at Dr. Zooch puts it... trees we can at least work with... power lines, heck they might as well have landed over the fence in North Korea...

Later! OL JR

luke strawwalker said:

Doncha just wish they'd burst into flames when they land on a power line... that way it'd be over with, instead of it just hanging there taunting you... (not that you should EVER try to recover it unless it blows down on its own or the power company retrieves it for you, for those who may be reading this who might feel tempted).

Always sad when they end up rotting on a power line, as Wes at Dr. Zooch puts it... trees we can at least work with... power lines, heck they might as well have landed over the fence in North Korea...

Later! OL JR

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Amen, baby. The fact that it's been up there since early April tells you how much respect I have for power lines. I would LOVE to get it back before it just disintegrates. It would make an excellent shelf queen, the ultimate war weary vet.
Or I could just re-use the nose cone. :wink:

Fishhead said:

Amen, baby. The fact that it's been up there since early April tells you how much respect I have for power lines. I would LOVE to get it back before it just disintegrates. It would make an excellent shelf queen, the ultimate war weary vet.
Or I could just re-use the nose cone. :wink:

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I just thought of a safe way to get it back... but it would probably be cheaper to just build a new rocket...

At NARAM a couple years ago in Cincinnati, Gary Rosenfield of Aerotech was showing off his new high power lasers... we're not talking about the dinky laser pointer types... I mean powerful types...

SO, what if, with a "powerful laser", one aimed at and burned the shock cord in two, or the shroud lines of the tangled parachute, or whatever was holding the rocket to the power line?? Might take some time, but with a tripod and accurate positioning, it SHOULD be possible to get them hot enough with a laser beam to burn through the offending shock cord or shroud lines one by one...

Just thinking out loud...

Later! OL JR

luke strawwalker said:

I just thought of a safe way to get it back... but it would probably be cheaper to just build a new rocket...

At NARAM a couple years ago in Cincinnati, Gary Rosenfield of Aerotech was showing off his new high power lasers... we're not talking about the dinky laser pointer types... I mean powerful types...

SO, what if, with a "powerful laser", one aimed at and burned the shock cord in two, or the shroud lines of the tangled parachute, or whatever was holding the rocket to the power line?? Might take some time, but with a tripod and accurate positioning, it SHOULD be possible to get them hot enough with a laser beam to burn through the offending shock cord or shroud lines one by one...

Just thinking out loud...

Later! OL JR

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One of my flying buds works for the power company. He mentioned something about having it removed back after it happened. I'll have to mention it to him if we have B6-4 Fest in October like we did last year. His interest usually spikes during the fall months.

Really nice pics and flight report! I don't think I've ever flown that many rockets in 1 outing. Bummer about those trees and power lines, though.

nice report.....I'm guessing the baseball, sun glasses, and golf ball that kept showing up are items you found while retrieving rockets? I'm not too bad at those "what's missing" pics.

Dean B said:

Really nice pics and flight report! I don't think I've ever flown that many rockets in 1 outing. Bummer about those trees and power lines, though.

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I think my best day ever was 21 or 22, but that was with a recovery crew of 12 year olds. Cost me a fortune in post-launch Skyline.:wink:
Today we had some wind and rain blow through, so I'm hoping it might have been enough to blow the Patriot out of the tree. I'd really like to get that chute back.

Davidtmp said:

nice report.....I'm guessing the baseball, sun glasses, and golf ball that kept showing up are items you found while retrieving rockets? I'm not too bad at those "what's missing" pics.

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Exactly. Gifts from the rocket gawdz, is the way I look at it. There was another golf ball, (we're right next to a country club,) but I threw it at the Patriot. Kinda dumb, but my golf days are behind me.

I loved your report. It looks like you had a lot of fun too! Lots of nice rockets!

Your B6-4 Field reminds me of a secret little place I used to fly when I got back into the hobby a few years ago. It wasn't the largest place to fly, and some days I'd get daring and push it beyond the safe B6-4. If the winds were right and it was a rocket I could fly sequentially on an A, then a B, and finally a C, with adjusting the angle just right after each flight, I might get it to land on the field on a C. The field had buildings on one side and a wooded area on the other. I would go and burn through 10 to 20 flights every time I went there. Now I fly on bigger fields and usually bigger rockets, but you have me wanting to pay a visit back to my own B6-4 field. It really was fun!

Thanks again for sharing!

Jim Z

Another camera issue caused me to only catch it queefing on the pad.

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Lol...is that a technical term... forgive me but that made me giggle.

JimZNJ said:

I loved your report. It looks like you had a lot of fun too! Lots of nice rockets!

Your B6-4 Field reminds me of a secret little place I used to fly when I got back into the hobby a few years ago. It wasn't the largest place to fly, and some days I'd get daring and push it beyond the safe B6-4. If the winds were right and it was a rocket I could fly sequentially on an A, then a B, and finally a C, with adjusting the angle just right after each flight, I might get it to land on the field on a C. The field had buildings on one side and a wooded area on the other. I would go and burn through 10 to 20 flights every time I went there. Now I fly on bigger fields and usually bigger rockets, but you have me wanting to pay a visit back to my own B6-4 field. It really was fun!

Thanks again for sharing!

Jim Z

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Thank you.
Too much corn growing up nort', so I take any available chance to fly close to home. In my younger days I actually flew a couple of D motors at B6-4 Field, and recovered them both. Now I think about that and wonder if I just didn't care or if I just didn't think it through entirely. I'm going with the latter. I put too much time into my birds to not care about them.:wink:

Luckistrykes said:

Lol...is that a technical term... forgive me but that made me giggle.

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:wink:
To be honest, I forgot that was in there.:blush: