I did not get a chance to fly this speedy little critter at Airfest. For that I apologize; my intent was never to disappoint anyone.
Behind the scenes, I had two *other* relatively high altitude, fast moving projects slated for flight at Airfest. One is a well traveled 4.5 bird thats been to Black Rock and back, and now Argonia and back; originally built for Balls 22, and still hasnt flown
though IT WILL SOON. The other is a well-flown 75mm bird named Carbon Slipper thats been all over and is well versed in melting stuff courtesy of drag-induced heat. The latter carried a carbon-copy of the electronics and tracking package for Mac Pappy, serving as a good test bed for the more aggressive 54mm M flight. I did choose to fly Carbon Slipper first upon arrival at Airfest.
So lets proceed with the Carbon Slipper flight; it flew early Friday afternoon to ease into the Airfest experience. I had good GPS lock and satellites in the pits, but had trouble acquiring signal out at the pads
go figure. After eventually getting good lock, the rocket was erected on the pad, alts armed, camera recording, and away we went. Nice straight flight and the Fly-Away Rail Guides worked flawlessly. No pictures as both my camera and Dave Bs camera freaked out during the countdown
go figure! The first packet retrieved after boost was a hair over 30k msl, then a few additional packets as it descended telling me that it was under a controlled descent. At 24,000+ msl, the GPS signal cut out and was never regained. I did not have my trusty Com-Spec tracker in as a backup
go figure! There was no room in the Mac Pappy for the backup RF tracker, so this was again a true representation of the Pappy setup. For recovery ops, we first went to the last received coordinates
not surprisingly, no sign of Carbon Slipper. Walked ¾ of a mile out and back on the same line
nothing. Went to RSO for my shift Friday afternoon, then went back out again after the range closed. Walked over 2 miles in the generally predicted dispersion area
though late in the day, it was still hot for this Sconsin boy
.nothing.
At supper Friday evening, Crazy Jim offered to bestow his Windy.com app knowledge on me in order to hopefully find the Slipper. He spent the balance of his evening working through the wind direction, magnitude at different wind levels until we finally arrived at a calculated landing location. Crazy Jim aint so crazy; hes pretty darn bright and helpful
.but you probably already knew that! MANY thanks to CJ for spending his Friday night playing descent calculator with me!!!!
Saturday was a great day; full of wonderful activities that we thoroughly enjoyed. Helped prep and fly some really neat projects; had a great time visiting with folks in the afternoon at the RSO tent. Had a rocket out to the away pads and wasnt able to fly it. It was a great day; no regrets, but ultimately I was unable to personally fly on Saturday
.and Carbon Slipper was still missing. After my shift ended, I went out in search of Carbon Slipper again, this time starting the search .75miles East of the last received coordinates. I walked for about an hour and a half in the projected landing zone
nothing. I gave up walking and returned to the vehicle. Forever in the back of my mind lies Its always further out than you expect. That thought drove me to driving around for a bit, navigating farther and farther South-Southeast of the rocket pasture. As the sun began to settle, to my disbelief, I stumbled upon a pink chute 15 off the side of the road. Could it be? Sure enough, roughly 3 miles south and 2 miles east, Carbon Slipper was found. Returning really late to the Burger Bash, I celebrated the find with my friend the Spotted Cow and some tasty food that Jay grabbed for me in my absence (thanks Jay!). You see, I have a lot of rockets and Im okay with losing one on occasion; but this one is special to me. For various reasons, but most of which is that it is signed in Silver Sharpie by my late friend Dale that always supported and encouraged rocket efforts in my home area. Ive melted epoxy, paint, carbon, and otherwise off this rocket, but his silver signature remains onboard the rocket. Its worth a lot to me and I wanted it to come back home! Its also my Wolf Park rocket (side story there
if you dig you may just find it).
So, its Saturday evening and the sun is set. I have the 12+ Mother Lode fully prepped but not yet flown; Mac Pappy is 95% prepped and could be flown Sunday as well. But A) gotta hit the road Sunday afternoon in order to make it home to see the family and work on Tuesday, B) still no idea for why my signal failed me at 24k! As I mentioned, there is literally no extra room for an RF tracker in that lil critter as built. C) Plus, it took Kyle three tries to get his M1378 lit; and frankly I didnt have that kind of time on Sunday. So I ask: would you have flown it? As stated in the Viper Family thread; Im lifting Whitneys words
.rocketry isnt all about the rockets; an event such as Airfest is as much about the people as it is the projects. Would I have loved to fly more: absolutely yes! Do I have any regrets about the way it all went down: absolutely not!
Then some Thank Yous. I realize much of this is not directly related to the Pappy Project, but its all tied together under the rocketry umbrella!
-Kloudbusters! What a fantastic launch! Just unmatched camaraderie, environment, opportunities, and experiences. Many of us love the Argonia experience; its thanks to you guys. Thank you so very much!
-Crazy Jim for spending the time going over the Windy App with me, determining a general landing location after some calculations. Wouldnt have found it without you! Wow; thanks bud!
-Jason Griffin: hooking us up for the computer read outs. Thanks for taking the time to do so!!!!
-Tom C: Pad help and travel partner; walking the field Friday night
-Jay and Dave for covering the first few minutes of my RSO shift while we were out searching a bit!
-Dave Rose, Deb Koloms, Tom Blazanin for holding onto the Slipper between XPRS and Balls
-Dennis Watkins: delivering the loaded Slipper from Black Rock to Princeton
-David Reese and Ryan Sebastian (RIP my friend) for juggling motors; one of which was the M1545 used in the Slipper flight.
...more to come...
. I'll share what was shared with me; I gave it a best guess and then did some experimenting and fine tuning since then. 
