Hi again everybody!
Backstory: while growing up, I was internet friends (shut up) with some east coast rocket kids (seriously, pls stop judging meh) and we had a grand old time making fun of each other and flying rockets. Eventually, we all grew up and went to college... the wise ones like Todd and Dan and Ryan got jobs and the not-so-wise ones (i.e., me) went to grad school in the middle of the country to learn more about rockets.
But, one benefit to being in the middle of nowhere is that you're in the middle of everywhere, so one night, inspiration struck and I decided to buy a plane ticket and head to one of MDRA's Red Glare events. Back in my high school days, I was a huge MDRA fanboi-- out on the west coast, I had nothing like it to learn from, and the MDRA dudes like Darren and Jerry and Bob patiently mentored me over the internet machine as I learned to make propellant. (I think that's what eventually got me into grad school too, so I kind of blame MDRA for this whole PhD thing in the first place.) So being able to make a pilgrimage to Higgs Farm and hang out with not only my old internet friends (INTERNET PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE TOO) but also my propellant mentors was pretty awesome. I had a good enough time that first Red Glare that I made the trip every opportunity I could since then... and seeing as how I'm graduating this semester, this one (RGXVI) will probably be my last one for a while. And MAN, was it worth it!
So, end back/sobstory and onto the real reason you're probably here: pictures! Launch report! ROCKETS! I drove in with two rockets (my Jart and my trusty Competitor 4) and a couple of motors, intending to have a nice laidback weekend. After crashing at Todd's apartment on Thursday night, I headed to the Eastern Shore Friday morning. This was the second time that my car has been across the Bay Bridge; it's been from coast-to-coast a few times now, and I'm glad it's been so reliable
I've been to Higgs Farm enough times that I'm happy to say I know the route by heart. Getting there was easy (watch out for the cops on 301, as usual!), and parking was also simple on Friday morning. I stopped by and chatted with Tim and CJ on Friday morning, and then quickly got sucked into a drag race. Surprise, surprise. But first things first-- on my way to the car to get my Jart, I ran into JerryO (vahpr), who already had his T-Smoke on the pad with a 98-7600 "slow white" motor, meant eventually for the upper stage of his new (iconic!) TS. Neil was busy entertaining some "invited guests", so Mike was on the mic for the count... and off she went:
Yet another perfect flight for the old T-Smoke. That thing is a piece of history!
The last time I saw Fred Taverni was at Midwest Power, flying Sonic Karma on a bunch of successful two stage flights. He had Sonic Karma once again, this time flying single stage (?!) on a Metalstorm motor:
dpatell (one of the smart ones) was there on Friday camped with landru; he got to the pads early with his 5" Competitor on a 98mm fast-ish load for a nice flight.
Jerry was also test flying propellant for the booster of his new TS. This one was an N4000 or so in Al Anderson's rocket:
OH YEAH!
Meanwhile, I built an avbay and mounted rail buttons, and got my Jart ready to fly in the race.
CJ and I had grabbed CTI J293BS motors to race, and Tim claimed he had grabbed a J240RL. Mmm hmm, right. We all loaded up on the B rack:
and then off we went. Of course, Tim had a VMax instead. (I should have guessed by how BRIGHT RED the propellant was.) My Jart performed well on the Blue Streak motor:
doing a nice dual deploy and missing the parking area by about 3 feet:
Paddledapimp was back shortly thereafter with a White Lightning Clone (a real one, the expensive kind) in his Bad Attitude:
It ended up breaking the shock cord and dorking into the field, albeit with no damage. Those Hawk Mountain kits are durable!
G_T flew his Sprite on a wicked fast motor, only to have it end up in the trees
Steve Bayak flew his new Fat Boy on three M1297Ws and three L2300Gs. You can see the vaguely green tint in the flame as it battled its way to apogee:
Recovery was very innovative with the drogue coming out of the rear end and the main coming out of the front. It all worked perfectly!
landru had his 38mm rocket with a 3D printed fin can ready to go with one of dpatell's red 38mm motors:
at which point I asked him, "so you've got a tracker in that thing, right?" "No?" "Beeper?" "No?" "Smoke grain?" "I think so?" We lost sight of it and couldn't find it after a brief hunt. He's still looking, I think.
Backstory: while growing up, I was internet friends (shut up) with some east coast rocket kids (seriously, pls stop judging meh) and we had a grand old time making fun of each other and flying rockets. Eventually, we all grew up and went to college... the wise ones like Todd and Dan and Ryan got jobs and the not-so-wise ones (i.e., me) went to grad school in the middle of the country to learn more about rockets.
But, one benefit to being in the middle of nowhere is that you're in the middle of everywhere, so one night, inspiration struck and I decided to buy a plane ticket and head to one of MDRA's Red Glare events. Back in my high school days, I was a huge MDRA fanboi-- out on the west coast, I had nothing like it to learn from, and the MDRA dudes like Darren and Jerry and Bob patiently mentored me over the internet machine as I learned to make propellant. (I think that's what eventually got me into grad school too, so I kind of blame MDRA for this whole PhD thing in the first place.) So being able to make a pilgrimage to Higgs Farm and hang out with not only my old internet friends (INTERNET PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE TOO) but also my propellant mentors was pretty awesome. I had a good enough time that first Red Glare that I made the trip every opportunity I could since then... and seeing as how I'm graduating this semester, this one (RGXVI) will probably be my last one for a while. And MAN, was it worth it!
So, end back/sobstory and onto the real reason you're probably here: pictures! Launch report! ROCKETS! I drove in with two rockets (my Jart and my trusty Competitor 4) and a couple of motors, intending to have a nice laidback weekend. After crashing at Todd's apartment on Thursday night, I headed to the Eastern Shore Friday morning. This was the second time that my car has been across the Bay Bridge; it's been from coast-to-coast a few times now, and I'm glad it's been so reliable
I've been to Higgs Farm enough times that I'm happy to say I know the route by heart. Getting there was easy (watch out for the cops on 301, as usual!), and parking was also simple on Friday morning. I stopped by and chatted with Tim and CJ on Friday morning, and then quickly got sucked into a drag race. Surprise, surprise. But first things first-- on my way to the car to get my Jart, I ran into JerryO (vahpr), who already had his T-Smoke on the pad with a 98-7600 "slow white" motor, meant eventually for the upper stage of his new (iconic!) TS. Neil was busy entertaining some "invited guests", so Mike was on the mic for the count... and off she went:
Yet another perfect flight for the old T-Smoke. That thing is a piece of history!
The last time I saw Fred Taverni was at Midwest Power, flying Sonic Karma on a bunch of successful two stage flights. He had Sonic Karma once again, this time flying single stage (?!) on a Metalstorm motor:
dpatell (one of the smart ones) was there on Friday camped with landru; he got to the pads early with his 5" Competitor on a 98mm fast-ish load for a nice flight.
Jerry was also test flying propellant for the booster of his new TS. This one was an N4000 or so in Al Anderson's rocket:
OH YEAH!
Meanwhile, I built an avbay and mounted rail buttons, and got my Jart ready to fly in the race.
CJ and I had grabbed CTI J293BS motors to race, and Tim claimed he had grabbed a J240RL. Mmm hmm, right. We all loaded up on the B rack:
and then off we went. Of course, Tim had a VMax instead. (I should have guessed by how BRIGHT RED the propellant was.) My Jart performed well on the Blue Streak motor:
doing a nice dual deploy and missing the parking area by about 3 feet:
Paddledapimp was back shortly thereafter with a White Lightning Clone (a real one, the expensive kind) in his Bad Attitude:
It ended up breaking the shock cord and dorking into the field, albeit with no damage. Those Hawk Mountain kits are durable!
G_T flew his Sprite on a wicked fast motor, only to have it end up in the trees
Steve Bayak flew his new Fat Boy on three M1297Ws and three L2300Gs. You can see the vaguely green tint in the flame as it battled its way to apogee:
Recovery was very innovative with the drogue coming out of the rear end and the main coming out of the front. It all worked perfectly!
landru had his 38mm rocket with a 3D printed fin can ready to go with one of dpatell's red 38mm motors:
at which point I asked him, "so you've got a tracker in that thing, right?" "No?" "Beeper?" "No?" "Smoke grain?" "I think so?" We lost sight of it and couldn't find it after a brief hunt. He's still looking, I think.