Launch pics..

[Sinister Mr. S]

Went and launched a few rockets this past weekend, and I FINALLY!!! got a decent takeoff!! Its a PML AMRAAM on an F40 reload. Big flame, good smoke, and Im guessing 1600-1700ft. (broke my altimeter on the first launch of the day!!GRRRR!!!) But this turned out good I think!

 

[Chrisn]

Nice launch site, where is that? congrats on the succesful flight

 

[Sinister Mr. S]

The launch site is the old rocky flats area, in Colorado... they used to build warheads here and then they turned it into a superfund site, due to ground contamination. Its all been cleaned up now they say, and it has some beautiful scenery and TONS of open space!! My favorite place to launch for sure!! I've had bunches of great launches here, just my first grab of an actual launch...usually all I catch with the camera is smoke:blush:

 

[Grover]

Definitely an awesome pic and launch site, here In PA anything over 1500 ft you're probably not getting it back.

 

[jj94]

Definitely an awesome pic and launch site, here In PA anything over 1500 ft you're probably not getting it back.

Yup. Or, at least in my area too. I'm a bit north of Philly, but there's this one park I know of that I can launch comfortably to about 1000 feet and in low winds, I can get up to 2000 with no losses. 2000 feet is plenty high for me though.

 

[AndyJ]

Definitely an awesome pic and launch site, here In PA anything over 1500 ft you're probably not getting it back.

I couldn't agree more. I live within the city of Pittsburgh and the only possible site to launch is a small field where anything over 800 feet will get grabbed by the wind. Our college club tried going out to the farmlands 2 hours outside the city and one of our members had an unfortunate shock cord failure where the parachute and nose cone separated. As I'm sure you can guess, a 24 inch parachute on an unweighted nose cone is not coming back, in fact I'm pretty sure it caught a thermal and went back up. Is Pennsylvania just a windy state in general?