LDRS 41 (Tripoli Wisconsin Association, Richard Bong State Recreation Area) - PHOTOS AND VIDEOS

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Interesting - it looks like there was a slow roll. Also good to see the mains try to deploy - you can tell when the ARRD released.

-Kevin
Did the drogue cord get stuck in the zipper and that's what prevented the mains from getting pulled out?
 
Did the drogue cord get stuck in the zipper and that's what prevented the mains from getting pulled out?

Yep! When the zipper happened, because of how things were flopping around a bit, the harness that was out twisted. When the ARRD released, it couldn't pull that twist through the zipper and that jammed everything up.

Watching it come down, at first I assumed that things got fouled and it couldn't pull it. Once I saw it on the ground, I realized what had happened and your video confirms it.

-Kevin
 
Thursday
 

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Still going through my photos, but just for fun, here's 2 from my water recovery of my 3" Nike smoke on an I65 that ended up smack dab in the middle of the wildlife refuge. Super props to Eggtimer because my eggfinder mini was still transmitting, and gave me a signal from up to 8500 ft away as I drove around trying to figure out how to get to that spot. And then super shout out to Randy who helped my dad and I get the boat out there. Was a successful flight - altimeter, jolly logic etc all worked. Just an unfortunate place to land, but first time using a long burn motor.
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Had a blast at LDRS 41! So many thanks to Frank, Kevin, Bob, Peggy, Carol, and Randy for making LDRS at Bong happen once again (same crew held LDRS 33). If anything, it went too fast and I ended up way too busy! Kid's baseball games back at home daily necessitated several round trips and limited my after hours social events which was a bummer, but I'll make up for it next time! ;)

Photos were minimal for me this time around, and those that I took aren't the best. Nevertheless, here's a sampling with a bit of the story!

Wednesday

Arrived early for setup with son, C. The calm-before-the-storm selfie:

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Towed around a few trailers and set up the range!

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By the afternoon, we were hot, sweaty, covered in dirt, and looking... stranger than normal!

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The big Goblin consumed any semblance of free time leading up to the launch, so Wednesday evening consisted of supper, a dip in the pool, and prepping a rocket or two.

Thursday

Thursday dawned a lovely day, although there was a bit of a wind out of the north. Bong being my home High Power field, I KNOW that a northerly wind is not ideal. But darnit we're here to fly rockets! C aimed to be the first flight of LDRS 41, and he was successful in doing so. A CTI I470WT in his Loc Gobble (formerly an Adrian Butler Loc Goblin that needed a new outlook on life), it turned in a fantastic flight and landed just shy of the rocket eating trees to the south of the runway. in Tickville, WI.
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After returning, I put up my Wildman Goblin 4 on an Aerotech H238T for the lowest Goblin flight of LDRS. 234' and a full dual deployment...I'll post a vid later if I can figure it out. Fairly amusing nominal flight; landed predictably close to the pads for a pleasant recovery (I should've learned!).

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Back in the pits, C decided we should fly something bigger. My 7.67" Loc Patriot was loaded with an L900 Sconnie Sparky that fit the bill. I didn't love the wind direction, but this was potentially C's only day at LDRS and I'm not one that's too shy about launching at the Bong, so off we went to the pads.

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The big Pat turned in a rip roaring flight, and I was happy to help stomp out the ensuing ground fire with buddy Kevin. By the time we were done doing the fire dance, the main had deployed and was drifting over the treeline. Tracker signal strong, C and I set off on foot to retrieve Pat. Over the woods and through the river (or something like that), we eventually tracked it to the cornfield where many of the big rockets congregated over the long weekend. Note: I'm getting old for this climbing over creeks on downed trees thing!

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Com-Spec (RIP) came through just fine.

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The saying around here for corn goes "knee high by the fourth of July". Well, by the 9th, it was eye height darnit! Children of the corn!

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After returning to the flightline, I had a case of the F Its and retired-ish for the day. In the meantime, Matt, the newest member of the Loc/Precision-PML team achieved his L1 in style with his all black Loc IV. Congrats Matt!!!
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C had a baseball game Thursday night, so I had to get him back to our hometown 2 hours north. Watched the game, spent the night at home.

...to be continued...
 
Friday

Friday dawned early for the family; up by 4:30 and back on the road before 5:30. The day was gorgeous, mostly clear skies, and winds that were a bit more cooperative than Thursday. Bill Bertoldi started off the day with his Beat Cancer rocket. Bill's rocket is signed by many cancer survivors and in honor of those that are fighting and have fought cancer. Today's motor choice was an Aerotech M4500 Super Thunder. Being an 8" all glass bird, Bill recruited some young Tripoli members to help him at the pad. fr1.jpg

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Beat Cancer leapt off the pad, taking a bit of a turn to the south as it thundered toward the skies.

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As we watched it descend, a sense of deja vu entered the arena. The stack drifted south of the treeline to a touchdown that looked very similar to Pat's corn landing the previous day.

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We decided to return to the rangehead to launch our big V-2 before chasing Bill's rocket...in case both landed in proximity to one-another. This is an oldie that we fly every few years. A Dangerous Dave's 11.5" kit that we picked up many years ago, the ~30lbs of nose weight helps keep the pointy-er end up every time without fail. Love flying this rocket! Dad (Tom) prepped the rocket, I made the motor. Sconnie M2777 White Tundra to 5760'. Cool.

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Nominal recovery on the runway, right by the usual TWA site (east of the LDRS site)
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While out at the far pads, another fine research motor went up and landed right on the access road. Nice chatting with the owner about propellant!

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The MN crew preps Darth Vader for the latest episode of Star Wars!

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After gathering up the big V-2 @rfjustin and I volunteered recovery duties for Bill's Beat Cancer rocket and took off toward Showtime Farms in the truck. We spoke with the owner there, securing permission to drive the nursery to shorten up the on-foot distance with the 8" bird (and 27' main).

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Justin confirms we are in the corn. It took a while, but we found and lugged out the monster after some time. We downed a lot of water in the process!!! Back at the range, the elder and younger Cayembergs conspired to race Minie Maggs... kind of a Bong tradition dating back to the 90's!

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Meatloaf said: Two out of three ain't bad! The third lit a bit later...
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B is content with his recovery!

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Before we hit the road for more baseball, Alex Turicik takes a shot at Level 1. Unfortunately the motor fought back. Alex successfully certified L1 later in the weekend!

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After C's baseball game, B and I headed back to Kenosha, arriving around midnight. To be continued....
 
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I have downloaded everything from here and plan to publish some of these in the next Tripoli HPR (Sep issue). I would like to give credit to all the photographers - so please reach out to me (contact info is in recent HPR)... Thanks! MK Tripoli HPR Editor.
 
Saturday

Pulling back into Bong on Saturday, we noticed the signage out front welcomed our LDRS event!

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The morning rain provided a nice opportunity to prep a rocket or two. As the skies began to clear mid-morning, we loaded my second oldest high power rocket, Hot Topic, on the pad. Hot Topic is 23 years old, constructed of Yank Enterprises (now Loc 3.0) parts. Though I had originally planned to fly it with airstarts, plans changed with the lower ceiling, and the 23rd flight of Hot Topic was on a single Aerotech K2050 Super Thunder.

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Charlie Savoie was on the mic at LCO for one of our mutual favorite motors... love Super Thunder! While on the pad, the tracker stopped transmitting. I wasn't worried however because the winds were low, reportedly parallel with the runway, and the rocket was aimed away from the evil trees. At ignition, the old girl kicked right despite the rail angle.

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Uh-oh. Sure enough, Hot Topic, with its dead tracker, was headed for the thickest parts of Viet-Bong.

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Without thinking twice, Tom Maulsby volunteered to help me in the search. It took us quite a while searching through nastiness before I heard faint beeps of Missileworks altimeters! One time I was actually thankful that a rocket of mine was treed! Even after hearing the beeps, it took me another 5 minutes or so to actually locate the bird. Whew, that was some nasty recovery area! Many thanks to Tom for jumping in and helping me recover one of my sentimental favorites!

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Meanwhile, dad Tom did a better job keeping his Patriot out of the trees than I did!

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Back in the pits, it was time to assess the damage to my legs. Smart people wear pants to Bong in the summer...I'm not so smart sometimes!

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The rest of Saturday was devoted to getting our group project airborne. This project came together pretty quickly in the waning moments leading up to LDRS 41; requiring final fit and finish on the field.

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Josh Anderson and Ben Murdock saved the day when we had issues with getting the Altus Metrum units up and running. Here, Josh is listening for beeps.

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How many rocketeers does it take to get a pair of altimeter/trackers to talk to ground control? I am amused...

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Once we had all the right blinky, beepy, and flashy things, the crew retreated to the safe area. Stellar crew!!! There are a few in the cab as well!

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Ignition!

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Climbing out on the new Aerotech N4000W. Outstanding motor, Gary!

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The big Goblin leapt off the pad and climbed to over 8000'. Dual deploy worked as expected, and descent was nominal ...

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....except the GPS shut off after apogee and the Goblin was headed back toward the farm/corn/trees to the south of the range.

So we started looking at the corner of the field which seemed to be waypoint #1 for all recoveries I was involved with on that side of the trees. Josh, Ben, and Brandon begin the search. Ironically, we were very close at this point...Josh is probably looking at it, but it landed on the backside of a very tall tree impeding our ability to see it. After driving around the area, practicing my spanish with a few workers, we honed in on this general area once again. Eventually, coming in from the east, the main chute was spotted in the tallest tree in the area along the creek that borders Bong.

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Running late for our evening activities, we left the Goblin resting overnight in it's treehouse around 6pm.
 
Sunday

Goblins...we like Goblins. The unofficial theme of LDRS 41!

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B hadn't flown his Jr. L1 Cert Rocket, a Loc Goblin yet at LDRS. He fixed that on Sunday by flying the 4" Goblin on an Aerotech I211W from Blue 5.

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Initially B and I were going to drag Goblins, but the pads were mostly full and flying from separate banks meant we couldn't drag race. No worries, by random chance, a fellow rocketman showed up with his Wildman Goblin on a J415W on the pad next to my Wildman Goblin on a J415W! We were destined to drag race... though I didn't do any special prep to my motor/igniter for a drag race.

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I lost! But a fun chase!

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Meanwhile, Charlie, Josh, Jay, Ben, and Robb returned with the top half of the big Goblin!!!!

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Great Googly Moogly Eyes!

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I put the 23rd flight on Hot Topic at LDRS... and the 23rd flight of my Loc Magnum at LDRS. I fly this rocket a lot....if you fly in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, or Indiana, you've probably seen this fly. You may already know this, but I opine that everybody should own and fly a Loc Magnum. Just the perfect size and functionality of a rocket! Originally slated to shoot for the closest to 9k' contest, I ran out of time to fly it earlier in the week, so Sunday it was.

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The camera struggled to focus and I missed the liftoff on the Aerotech L1150R. The Magnum landed a ways down the runway East of the LDRS range and just north of the trees. I was relieved to see the stack reach the ground from a distance. Making my way out to the landing spot, tracker signal was good, but I became concerned when I approached a lower area with cattails. Sure enough, there was the Mag floating in pond by Waterfowl Blind #14! (White, orange chute in background, center).

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Bob Justus was kind enough to bring a boat, Frank was kind enough to unlock it, and Tom, Brandon, and Charlie were kind enough to help me lug the boat around. Row row row the boat...

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To cap off the event, dad Tom flew his 5.5" Loc Packer Patriot on a K456DM. Gerald "Skippy" Meux, a Minnesota Vikings fan, was on the mic at the time, which made for an entertaining preflight ribbing. The Packer Pat flew well and landed at the edge of the gravel runway.

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LDRS 41 was great! My recoveries were arguably not-so-great, but they were consistently entertaining! I wouldn't trade the experience of hanging with some of the finest folks in rocketry for anything! Rocketry is great...but rocket people are the best! Had the privilege of flying the high power alphabet at LDRS and hanging with my favorite people on earth. Thank you TWA and all my rocketry peeps for making it an amazing event!!!
 
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If you don't watch/listen to the Jim Rome show some of this isn't going to make sense...but its a good rocket video anyways.
😉


 
Sunday

Goblins...we like Goblins. The unofficial theme of LDRS 41!

View attachment 592061

B hadn't flown his Jr. L1 Cert Rocket, a Loc Goblin yet at LDRS. He fixed that on Sunday by flying the 4" Goblin on an Aerotech I211W from Blue 5.

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Initially B and I were going to drag Goblins, but the pads were mostly full and flying from separate banks meant we couldn't drag race. No worries, by random chance, a fellow rocketman showed up with his Wildman Goblin on a J415W on the pad next to my Wildman Goblin on a J415W! We were destined to drag race... though I didn't do any special prep to my motor/igniter for a drag race.

View attachment 592065

I lost! But a fun chase!

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Meanwhile, Charlie, Josh, Jay, Ben, and Robb returned with the top half of the big Goblin!!!!

View attachment 592068

Great Googly Moogly Eyes!

View attachment 592069

I put the 23rd flight on Hot Topic at LDRS... and the 23rd flight of my Loc Magnum at LDRS. I fly this rocket a lot....if you fly in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, or Indiana, you've probably seen this fly. You may already know this, but I opine that everybody should own and fly a Loc Magnum. Just the perfect size and functionality of a rocket! Originally slated to shoot for the closest to 9k' contest, I ran out of time to fly it earlier in the week, so Sunday it was.

View attachment 592070

The camera struggled to focus and I missed the liftoff on the Aerotech L1150R. The Magnum landed a ways down the runway East of the LDRS range and just north of the trees. I was relieved to see the stack reach the ground from a distance. Making my way out to the landing spot, tracker signal was good, but I became concerned when I approached a lower area with cattails. Sure enough, there was the Mag floating in pond by Waterfowl Blind #14! (White, orange chute in background, center).

View attachment 592071

Bob Justus was kind enough to bring a boat, Frank was kind enough to unlock it, and Tom, Brandon, and Charlie were kind enough to help me lug the boat around. Row row row the boat...

View attachment 592072

To cap off the event, dad Tom flew his 5.5" Loc Packer Patriot on a K456DM. Gerald "Skippy" Meux, a Minnesota Vikings fan, was on the mic at the time, which made for an entertaining preflight ribbing. The Packer Pat flew well and landed at the edge of the gravel runway.

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LDRS 41 was great! My recoveries were arguably not-so-great, but they were consistently entertaining! I wouldn't trade the experience of hanging with some of the finest folks in rocketry for anything! Rocketry is great...but rocket people are the best! Had the privilege of flying the high power alphabet at LDRS and hanging with my favorite people on earth. Thank you TWA and all my rocketry peeps for making it an amazing event!!!
Thanks for the drag race! I'll have to make it back over to race again once I get my fins reattached!
 

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