My home club decided to have two 3 day high power waivered launch's this holiday season, instead of the regular 2 day launches each month. Sharon and I usually go a day early to fly low and mid power rockets before the crowds show up on the weekend. So last Thursday, Dec. 2nd, we headed out to the Eagle Eye launch site for a weekend of flying.
I had been watching the upper winds all week and they were surprisingly light, and the weather conditions were perfect. Sunny, low 50's to low 80's, with low ground winds.
So I decided to send up some high altitude flights.
Thursday was our LPR/MPR day, and I flew some little rockets to warm up with. First was my Estes Eliminator on a E12-6, then "Tommy 2.5" on an F51 NT, third was my Smokin' Nike on a G75. Last was a scratch built Apogee Aspire clone made with blue tube and fiberglass fins I call "Kick Asspire", which flew to 3651 ft. on a G80 skidmark.
Since I had all the fun on Thursday, Sharon started out on Friday with her (just built) Wildman Goblin 2.6 on a G125 Red Lightning, which went to about 2000 ft. My first flight was my Mad Cow Fire Flyer on an L1000 White lightning, which flew quickly to 15,924 ft. We drove right to my Fire flyer, which landed by the road about a mile away. Sharon came back with "Cuddle Monster", a 4" Punisher modified with a payload tube. It flew to 12,630 ft. on a research M1592 "Don Alexanders slow white" in a 75/6000 casing. We walked out to recover this rocket, about a 1.2 mile round trip. My second flight of the day was with "Fast Freddy", a modified 3" Punisher, flying on an L935 Imax to 17,254 ft. "Fast Freddy" headed out into the desert and required 1.4 mile roundtrip hike, which tired us out.
Since Sharon had dinner duty, I flew the last rocket of the day, my Blackstar Jr. on an I245 Mojave green, with an apogee at 2460 ft. It landed about 100 yards away. We ended up hiking through the desert about 7.2 miles on Friday.
Saturday was another perfect day, with upper winds calm to 9000 ft., picking up to 24 mph at 12k, and around 38 mph at 18k. I started off with my new Wildman "Big Bad Dog", a 4" rocket with a 75mm MMT and a 7 to 1 Von Karman nosecone. I'm still tuning the Cd on it, so I flew it on an L1040 Dark Matter load to 12,486 ft. It came off the rail a little wonky, probably because I used our smaller pad with a 6 ft. rail. I went back to the pad after the launch and found that two of the legs had sunk into the dirt and the rail was loose in the mount. Still an exciting flight and I love those dark matter motors.
Sharon's first flight was with "Another Juan", a Formula 54 with a challenging history. She flew it on a J420 Redline to about 3700 ft. and landed about 50 ft. from the pad.
My second flight was the big one, with a carbon fiber minimum diameter Mongoose 75, flying on an M840 long burn. I had flown this rocket before on that motor, and it made 28,905 ft. I was hoping that a slick epoxy paint job would take it over 30k, but it would have to be a perfect, straight up flight. This rocket has two GPS units in the fiberglass nosecone, an Eggfinder and a Featherweight, which has the voice readout on my Iphone. The launch was perfect, and Sharon held the microphone for the PA system to my phone. When It announced the apogee at 30,130 ft. the crowd erupted! We downloaded the GPS coordinates into the GAIA mapping program, and it had landed near where "Big Bad dog" had landed. Things were picking up at the launch, and we were busy helping other fliers for over an hour, so the recovery was delayed. When we finally found it, this is what we found:
The only water within miles, and it barely missed it. This pond was about 1/4 mile from where we recovered BBD.
Things were really picking up at the launch, with a lot of high power flights, we spent a good bit of time helping other fliers, but still managed to get several more flights.
Sharon's next flight was on "Big Bad Juan" a formula 75 that had an extended fincan and payload tube added after we got it from an old friend, whose name just happened to be Juan. She flew it on a research K558 "Wayside White" in a 54/2550 casing to about 5000 ft. It landed about 200 yards away. Sharon recovered it by herself, and ran back to give the FW GPS tracker to me for my last flight. "Slick Willy" was my 4" Punisher, also modified with a payload tube, since neither of us like "head in" deployment. It flew on my only research motor, an M2047 "Not Your Wimpy Red" motor in the 75/6000 casing. Great boost to 19,130 ft. and headed straight down the Southbound dirt road about 3/4 of a mile. Landed right on the road, for an easy recovery.
Sharon's last flight was her Wildman Interceptor, a 2.6" rocket, which she flew on a CTI I175 white. It went to 3650 ft. and landed about 1/4 mile away. We walked a total of 6.5 miles launching and recovering rockets on Saturday.
Finished up before the waiver closed at 5 PM, and showered up for the potluck dinner that night.
I posted up on the 2021 Newton tally thread, a total of 25,058 Ns and added up my high power altitude total at 109,773 ft.
Now I'm really looking forward to our New Years Eve launch to finish up a great year of flying.
I had been watching the upper winds all week and they were surprisingly light, and the weather conditions were perfect. Sunny, low 50's to low 80's, with low ground winds.
So I decided to send up some high altitude flights.
Thursday was our LPR/MPR day, and I flew some little rockets to warm up with. First was my Estes Eliminator on a E12-6, then "Tommy 2.5" on an F51 NT, third was my Smokin' Nike on a G75. Last was a scratch built Apogee Aspire clone made with blue tube and fiberglass fins I call "Kick Asspire", which flew to 3651 ft. on a G80 skidmark.
Since I had all the fun on Thursday, Sharon started out on Friday with her (just built) Wildman Goblin 2.6 on a G125 Red Lightning, which went to about 2000 ft. My first flight was my Mad Cow Fire Flyer on an L1000 White lightning, which flew quickly to 15,924 ft. We drove right to my Fire flyer, which landed by the road about a mile away. Sharon came back with "Cuddle Monster", a 4" Punisher modified with a payload tube. It flew to 12,630 ft. on a research M1592 "Don Alexanders slow white" in a 75/6000 casing. We walked out to recover this rocket, about a 1.2 mile round trip. My second flight of the day was with "Fast Freddy", a modified 3" Punisher, flying on an L935 Imax to 17,254 ft. "Fast Freddy" headed out into the desert and required 1.4 mile roundtrip hike, which tired us out.
Since Sharon had dinner duty, I flew the last rocket of the day, my Blackstar Jr. on an I245 Mojave green, with an apogee at 2460 ft. It landed about 100 yards away. We ended up hiking through the desert about 7.2 miles on Friday.
Saturday was another perfect day, with upper winds calm to 9000 ft., picking up to 24 mph at 12k, and around 38 mph at 18k. I started off with my new Wildman "Big Bad Dog", a 4" rocket with a 75mm MMT and a 7 to 1 Von Karman nosecone. I'm still tuning the Cd on it, so I flew it on an L1040 Dark Matter load to 12,486 ft. It came off the rail a little wonky, probably because I used our smaller pad with a 6 ft. rail. I went back to the pad after the launch and found that two of the legs had sunk into the dirt and the rail was loose in the mount. Still an exciting flight and I love those dark matter motors.
Sharon's first flight was with "Another Juan", a Formula 54 with a challenging history. She flew it on a J420 Redline to about 3700 ft. and landed about 50 ft. from the pad.
My second flight was the big one, with a carbon fiber minimum diameter Mongoose 75, flying on an M840 long burn. I had flown this rocket before on that motor, and it made 28,905 ft. I was hoping that a slick epoxy paint job would take it over 30k, but it would have to be a perfect, straight up flight. This rocket has two GPS units in the fiberglass nosecone, an Eggfinder and a Featherweight, which has the voice readout on my Iphone. The launch was perfect, and Sharon held the microphone for the PA system to my phone. When It announced the apogee at 30,130 ft. the crowd erupted! We downloaded the GPS coordinates into the GAIA mapping program, and it had landed near where "Big Bad dog" had landed. Things were picking up at the launch, and we were busy helping other fliers for over an hour, so the recovery was delayed. When we finally found it, this is what we found:
The only water within miles, and it barely missed it. This pond was about 1/4 mile from where we recovered BBD.
Things were really picking up at the launch, with a lot of high power flights, we spent a good bit of time helping other fliers, but still managed to get several more flights.
Sharon's next flight was on "Big Bad Juan" a formula 75 that had an extended fincan and payload tube added after we got it from an old friend, whose name just happened to be Juan. She flew it on a research K558 "Wayside White" in a 54/2550 casing to about 5000 ft. It landed about 200 yards away. Sharon recovered it by herself, and ran back to give the FW GPS tracker to me for my last flight. "Slick Willy" was my 4" Punisher, also modified with a payload tube, since neither of us like "head in" deployment. It flew on my only research motor, an M2047 "Not Your Wimpy Red" motor in the 75/6000 casing. Great boost to 19,130 ft. and headed straight down the Southbound dirt road about 3/4 of a mile. Landed right on the road, for an easy recovery.
Sharon's last flight was her Wildman Interceptor, a 2.6" rocket, which she flew on a CTI I175 white. It went to 3650 ft. and landed about 1/4 mile away. We walked a total of 6.5 miles launching and recovering rockets on Saturday.
Finished up before the waiver closed at 5 PM, and showered up for the potluck dinner that night.
I posted up on the 2021 Newton tally thread, a total of 25,058 Ns and added up my high power altitude total at 109,773 ft.
Now I'm really looking forward to our New Years Eve launch to finish up a great year of flying.
