LDRS 38

Wayco said:

Hey Cory, glad the stars aligned and we got to camp together. Thanks for posting up the white board, saves me writing a launch report that could turn into a blog that no one would want to read.

We just sat down a bit ago and caught up on the forum, lots of great comments about this launch, and I agree with most of them, but top of the list is what a phenomenal job the Kloudbusters did throughout the entire week we were there.

Special thanks to the Huston gang (especially Ray) for all the food and booze you shared with us. It would be worth the trip for that Nut brown ale, but the shrimp boil (hot) saved my life after spending the day out at the 80's pads and recovering the O3400 on Sunday. Shout out to Chris, lending me the ham HD and making me use it might lead to another expensive hobby.

So many great memories and experiences:
Building the LOKI M1378 with Scott supervising.
Flaking out the cargo chutes with the Kaboom Krewe
LCO duty with Terry, Sharon and Joe
Hiking through the herd of cattle with Sharon and Joe to recover my Mongoose 75 over two miles away.
Watching all our research loads burn so well, and the comments others made about them.
Preston Nobles sparky flight we watched from the away cell RSO tent.
The long conversation with Teddy about our similar views on recovery.
Cory's N2220 Dark Matter flight, and how jealous I was.
Wildman Tim's excellent sales pitch that convinced Sharon to buy yet another 98mm AT case, just because it had the LDRS 38 logo on it.

All in all, a most excellent rocket launch!

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ECayemberg said:

Cory,

Good stuff!

Random note: DaReese'r mentioned your wife wanted to see my shirt (I know that sounds wierd). So I took a walk during the rainy period on Saturday morning. Visited with many new and old friends. When I got to your camp, you were sleeping with your feet up and I didn't see her, so I kept a walkin'! When I walked by later, you were still out cold, so I didn't dare disturb the peace. Though we ran into each other earlier in the weekend, I wasn't wearing "the shirt" at the time. Oh well...I'm sure at some point a photo of an ugly guy in a Hawaiian rocket shirt will surface; hopefully that's sufficient!

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Cory said:

Wayne - surely you should still do a post about your flights. At best the board is just a brief summary - I want details! Hopefully of both yours and Sharon's weekend.

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Be careful what you ask for.
After unloading rockets and removing spent motors, I realized that I had flown my Blackstar twice on research motors. Somehow, the first flight didn't get on the board.

So, starting with the first day of flying. Thursday we flew two rockets and did range duty for the last shift.
Sharon flew her DX-3 XL on a 76/6000 casing with her "Sharon's Sparkler 2" formula to 13,086 ft. She was a bit nervous being racked right next to Preston Noble's big Sparky flight, and the fact that it was our first 76/6000 motor we had made with this formula. She got a lot of positive comments on this motor, but we still have some work to do on version 3. My flight was my Blackhawk 54, a MD rocket flying on an L935 Imax to 21,321 ft. it's highest flight to date. That recovery was fairly long, and we had to hustle back to the rocket pasture for our range duty shift.

Friday was a busy day for us with three rockets flown, starting with Sharon's Gizmo XL on a research motor made with Pat G's Wayside White, an M1358 in a 98/10,000 casing. It flew to 7626 ft. and landed in the very nice field just North of the rocket pasture.

My big flight for the day was my carbon fiber MD Mongoose 75, flying on a CTI M840 White long burn motor. It flew to 27,503 ft. and was our longest recovery, over two miles South through a herd of cattle and over two fences, one which was electrified. Joe Hepworth accompanied us, and neither he nor Sharon really liked the cows. We got back early enough for me to fit in my Blackstar, flying on a research 54/2550 casing and the Wayside white formula L1091. It flew to 10,398 ft. and was an easy recovery, landing in a plowed field East of the rocket pasture.

We flew two rockets on Saturday, after the rain/cloud hold. I prepped my Blackstar again, assuming we would have a ceiling with the clouds. Sharon and I both flew our Blackstars on 54/1600 casings, with our "Not Your Wimpy Red" formula to just over 5000 ft. By the time we made it to the pads, the clouds had dissipated.
Sharon helped Joe H. recover one of his rockets, and I got mine back from just South of the 80's pads. It was crazy on the range, lots of fliers trying to get a rocket up, and the lines at the range head were fairly long, so we called it a day.

We flew one rocket on Sunday, my Ultimate Darkstar on an O3400 Imax. Cloud cover kept us waiting on the 80's for several hours, with both my Eggfinder and Featherweight GPS's ticking away. When we finally got a window for 20k flights, I pulled out my Iphone and activated the WiFi switches, or at least tried to. One came right up, turning on the RRC-3, my primary altimeter, but nothing I could do would get the other switch to activate. I decided to fly with one altimeter, which added another level of anxiety to this flight. It took a long time for Terry to get to the 80's, or so it seemed to me, but finally our flight was called, and my rocket launched. We watched our GPS data long after the rocket disappeared, and were relieved when it indicated an apogee event. Recovery was in a milo field South of hwy 44. The RRC-3 recorded 21,137 ft.

DAllen said:

Yeah well Bob gave me a hug

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grouch said:

Yea well Bob gave me a cold bottle of water while I was walking back from recovering my Goblin. And seeing how I was slightly dehydrated, it was very welcomed. I will interpret that as a nice gesture from a nice guy.

By the way Dave, I missed your basket flight but heard it went well. It was nice meeting you.

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Davidm said:

Here is a 15 minute video of LDRS 38. Only a small fraction of the actual flights that were launched. Hope you enjoy.

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Ford Prefect said:

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Davidm said:

Here is a 15 minute video of LDRS 38. Only a small fraction of the actual flights that were launched. Hope you enjoy.

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jd2cylman said:

Awesome Dennis. How high did it go? I liked that you could see the late start of the third motor.

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Ford Prefect said:

This is Cj I posted that for Dennis. 18,800

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dekitte said:

CJ,



Is Dennis on the forum? I never got to say "thank you" to him on Sunday for the spare big-un igniter. That saved me a walk, after I burnt CTI's original.

BTW my flight, up to 17kft, turned the additive aerospace Mobius camera shroud inside out - it became an air ram

-David "Jebediah"

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Wayco said:

Simmed to 21,814 ft. flew to 21,137 ft. I'm blaming the humidity.

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Wayco said:

Or as Sharon puts it:
"I didn't say it's your fault, I just said I'm going to blame you..."

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llickteig1 said:

Ok folks here is your LDRS 38 eye candy for the week. Our own Kent Burnett / Drone Point has posted his video compilation from LDRS 38. I hope you all enjoy this as much as I do.

I highly recommend watching this on a full computer monitor or television to enjoy its full splendor. Mobile devices don't do it justice.

https://www.vimeo.com/365565639

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