Tampa Tripoli (TTRA) 10/16

[eugenefl]

Greetings all! I've been looking forward to my second outing to fly rockets in 5 years. This weekend I hope to get a couple more flights in although I will regrettably have to depart a bit early for another afternoon commitment. Planned flights are as follows:

1. "Long Time Blue" - Long BT55 scratchbuild, looks like an arrow. 1st flight - E9-6, 2nd Flight - F32-10T SU 24mm. (I'm not counting on getting it back the 2nd time!)
2. Estes Omega (Clone) - D/D 2-stage
3. 2.6x Upscale Gyroc - F40-4W
4. 3" dia. Upscale Estes Bullpup - G53J (or a G Metalstorm motor depending on field conditions)

I'll have my DSLR in hand with a zoom lens and snapping photos throughout the morning inbetween flights. If there's something special you want photographed just come find me and I'll snap a few photos.

See you all out at the field.

 

[AstronMike]

Eugene,

Looking forward to seeing you out there again on Saturday!

Im planning to fly my usual menagerie of large/light gliders, including some new content. Am very much considering bringing and flying my 4" gliding Bomarc (on a 3" tube) on an H123 if Susan shows up so I can get my grubby mitts on some 38mm closures.

Definitely would like photos of my larger stuff if you get the chance.

 

[eugenefl]

I have to leave around 2:00 so give me a heads up before you go to fly it and I'll snap some pictures of it for you.

 

[eugenefl]

Wow, what a great day to fly rockets sans the regular breeze that made high altitude flying a concern. Otherwise, we had cool weather with a slightly warming sun, and some crystal clear blue skies! I had a great time attending the October 2010 Tampa Tripoli Rocketry Association meet and couldn't be more grateful for the hospitality. I sure hope there is a preservation of the field for many years to come! It was my pleasure to photograph rockets in flight throughout the day. If you don't see your rocket in here please drop me a line with a description and I'll see what I photographed. In addition, I have sequences of lift-offs that you may be interested in as well. Thanks again to TTRA for hosting such a great event!

Now to the photos! op: :clap:

I always enjoy documenting an event, so I'll start by posting pics of the people who make this hobby an awesome past time.

 

[eugenefl]

Here are some more hobby enthusiasts' interactions with their rockets.

 

[eugenefl]

Sometimes you have to scare off the herd to get your rockets back.

 

[eugenefl]

Here is a sequence of a large HPR green rocket. It flew nearly out of sight! :shock:

I also flew my Art Applewhite UFO on 1 Ellis G35 and two subsequent flights on Aerotech G35W Econojets from a known batch of bad motors that go kaboom. Luckily, there were only 2 great flights. This little UFO is a hoot. Lots of comments from its flights. It seems to make a lot of noise due to its slow restrictive and lower altitude flights. I'll definitely be flying it again!

 

[eugenefl]

AstronMike was on hand to entertain with his batch of homebrewed gliders. The Bomarc in this series flew on an H motor and turned in an awesome glide recovery! :clap:

 

[eugenefl]

Here are some "stock" style photos I like to take of rocketeers' awesome finishes and pre-flight photos.

The Citation Patriot in the group is yours truly (as is the UFO). Unfortunately, the Quest C6-5 proved to be underpowered on the Patriot with the wind and the rocket weathercocked almost immediately off the pad horizontally. Ejection occurred just feet off the ground. The end result was a fin popped off which will easily be repaired. Time to stick to some C5-3's that I have left over and some Aerotech 18/20 D reloads!

The Der Red Max in this group belongs to Sue DeBerg (aka roadkill).

 

[eugenefl]

The next set is of a few LPR birds.

• The first cluster should be recognizable. It's a Deuce canted mount.
• Rocket two is, well, a Deuces Wild!
• The fin can on pic3 is of a young female rocketeer's art. I think it's great that the hobby has a few ladies representing rocketry.
• Rocket number 4 is a cluster rocket made from the Estes "Rock-It!" kit.
• The last in the series is my "Long Time Blue" rocket named aptly for all the time I spend in the dumps out of the hobby. After many great E9 flights, I finally donated one to the rocket gods and loaded it up with a SU Aerotech F32-8T. It went up - really high up. I tracked the shimmer off of the paint which was nothing more than a spec in the sky during recovery. A spectator with binoculars confirmed its disappearance well beyond a far away tree line. I'm building another and out of curiosity want to run a sim to see how high went.

 

[eugenefl]

The next series is of some MPR/LPR flights. Good times!

• The first rocket is a 29mm diameter sparky flight
• Sue's 4" dia Der Red Max gets a move on
• Sparky flights like the one in the 3rd picture were cancelled due to a few field smolderings that popped up. It was a shame as I had my upscale Bullpup ready to go.
• An awesome fiberglass Madcow kit takes off under some AP power
• My good friend Russell came out after many years of not flying and flew his 3" scratchbuilt bird called the "B" on a G53-5J. Nice and straight boost and deployment just at apogee.
  

 

[AstronMike]

AstronMike was on hand to entertain with his batch of homebrewed gliders. The Bomarc in this series flew on an H motor and turned in an awesome glide recovery! :clap:

Wow! Thanks for such nice photos, Eugene!

Pics 1 and 2 are of my Marauder LV, which is the large cardstock/Depron model, 24" span with 225in sq of wing area, flying on just a *C6-3*. On its second flight, it stayed up around a minute or so too!

Pic 3 is of my cardstock/Depron Space Camel version I cooked up, details over on YORF. That did very well on a Quest C6 motor and glided nice.

Pic 5 is my 4" Bomarc. Boosted nicely on an H123 although it ejected about 3 secs after burnout, costing me some good altitude, but it glided well enough to make up for that. Still need to make the 6" version of this.

Hope you keep coming out to our launches, Eugene, and posting action shots of myself, proving that Im not blowing smoke but my gliders sure are

 

[eugenefl]

My 2.6x upscale Gyroc turned in a super flight on an F40-4W. Everyone stood on edge, myself most of all, as the Gyroc coptered its way towards the parking area. I narrowly missed filing an auto insurance claim by at least a foot by an eye witness account. A near miss is better than a hit any day. Thank goodness for a clean/safe flight! :jaw:

Sue turned in a high altitude flight on a scratchbuild rocket which I believe was powered by a K motor to 7000ft. (Please correctly if I am wrong.) It was a flawless dual deployment flight expertly executed. Good job Sue!

The last rocket in this series I believe was built on site by a younger teen and his dad. He was excited that someone would be out photographing his rocket. Hopefully it'll get posted on the TTRA website so he can share with his buddies and maybe recruit more rocketry teens.

 

[eugenefl]

Wow! Thanks for such nice photos, Eugene!

Pics 1 and 2 are of my Marauder LV, which is the large cardstock/Depron model, 24" span with 225in sq of wing area, flying on just a *C6-3*. On its second flight, it stayed up around a minute or so too!

Pic 3 is of my cardstock/Depron Space Camel version I cooked up, details over on YORF. That did very well on a Quest C6 motor and glided nice.

Pic 5 is my 4" Bomarc. Boosted nicely on an H123 although it ejected about 3 secs after burnout, costing me some good altitude, but it glided well enough to make up for that. Still need to make the 6" version of this.

Hope you keep coming out to our launches, Eugene, and posting action shots of myself, proving that Im not blowing smoke but my gliders sure are

My pleasure Mike! I absolutely enjoy watching your creations take flight. I am grateful to relive the day's events by photographing everyone's rockets. Perhaps you can point me in the right direction to get started on these lightweight gliders. I'd love to build a few.

Attached is that HPR Bomarc on glide recovery. The other I believe is a smaller LPR version.

I also snagged a cool LPR ejection charge that is shown in the last photo.

I'm already looking forward to next month!

 

[Leo]

Very nice Eugene. I knew some of the rockets looked familiar. I'm glad they are still reaching for the skies