Memorial Day Festivities.

Aside from barbecues and swimming my family spent a few hours at the schools this morning launching our entire flying fleet. It was hot and became a little windy after the first four or five launches so we called it a day and headed for the lake. The ten launches we did get in were absolutely perfect. Before the wind picked up the rockets were all landing within 150 feet of the launch pad which made for very easy recoveries.

First up: Astronaut Natalie with her Alpha Kitty.


Getting instruction on connections.


Next up: Cosmonaut Ryan (red shirt) with Der Red Max.


Liftoff on B6-4.


Under the chute directly overhead.

The perfect touchdown, less than 100 feet away from the launch controller.

Next flight: Astronaut Ian and his Nova Payloader with T-Rex space explorer. I can't help but to think this is some statement on the American astronaut going the way of the dinosaur.

Checking Continuity.

Liftoff on B6-4.

Missileer Ryan setting up the Patriot Missile to intercept inbound dinosaur invaders.

Liftoff on C6-3.

Abort intercept, the dinosaurs have been determined to be friendly.

Oh no, I really don't feel like climbing up onto a roof today.

Whew! That was close.

Astronaut Ian with Big Bertha. Big Bertha has got to be one of my all time favorite rockets.

Sorry, no liftoff shots of Big Bertha. I couldn't hear the countdown.

Big Bertha under the bright red canopy.

Another Launch of Alpha Kitty. The Countdown.

Liftoff on B6-4. Close to 600 feet!

That corner of the school seemed to attract a lot of the later flights.

The main event: G-Force Redux.

Liftoff on G76-4G. Holy rodwhip Batman!

G-Force Redux disappeared into the sun. I snapped this shot when I heard the pop of the ejection charge. I almost deleted this shot until I viewed it on the computer.

After selecting "Auto Levels" in my photo editor I got this.


A very happy moment: A clean separation and two good 'chutes.

Another Nova Payloader passenger - Astrobones.

Another G-Force flight - we have ignition.

Liftoff on G64-4W.

Ouch! Parking lot touchdown.

Oh my!!! Liner burn through (the Mojave Green load).

Last but not least, I could not have done it without mission control.

I do have videos of most flights. They are all in portrait format and I have not yet figured out how to rotate them. An awesome day for family aerospace.

Looks like a good family kind of day Neat funkadelic shot with the sun
Cheers
fred

Excellent shots...
Family and Rockets
What a great what to spend a holiday.

Ho man those are wonderful shots!
and what a great looking range crew! enjoy them, they all grow up way to fast.

Now THAT was a fun read

I have some videos to upload. I have not yet figured out how to rotate videos with my software (ACDSee) so these rockets are flying right to left.

G-Force on G64-4W


G-Force on G76-4G


Alpha Kitty on B6-4


Der Red Max on B6-4


Since these are cockeyed I will limit them to four.

Those of you who launch mid and high power know what I am talking about. Those of you who have not been up close and personal to a big rocket liftoff just cannot completely get the feel from these videos. There is just an awesome feeling that comes from listening to your rocket's roar still echoing off of the hills while the rocket is under a parachute. I can't wait to fly bigger rockets one day.