Hi All,
Since Janaury I've had today on my calendar as a vacation day. Almost every year I use some precious PTO to give me a long Labor day weekend. The kids are in school, the wife is at work, and I can kick back and relax without any demands on my time. For seven or 8 hours, that is...
Anyway, as the week progressed I kept my eye on the forecast. Here in Indiana, we've known for days that the remnants of Isaac will cause a "Labor Day Washout" but the weather report showed clear for this morning. Light winds, building by noon as the outer fringes of the storm approach.
Taking advantage of the window, here was my timeline:
7:50 am: Kids on bus headed to school
8:00 am: Wife in car heading to work
8:15 am: my car packed with rocket stuff
8:30 am: after taking care of a last few work emails so I can relax, I'm headed to the field.
8:45 am: At the field, setting up on the hill where I usually launch.
Wind gusts were already starting to be felt, though the normal wind was a southerly 5 mph flow. Bright blue sky, not a cloud in the sky. I talked to a guy exercising who was happy to watch the rocket show, and a few more parkgoers came by once I got started as well.
First up, my traditional Mini Max. I ought to get a picture of it. It's had maybe 35 flights and is quite worn, but still a reliable flier. Straight up, straight down, landed within 100 feet.
Next: My BT50 upscaled Estes Screamer clone. I flew it on a B4-4 in an Estes red plastic adaptor (the clone can take a 24mm D). Just as I hit the launch button, a pretty hefty gust blew. It was uncanny in it's timing. Here's a picture showing the Screamer weathercocking before it even left the rail:
So it arced over, popped out a streamer, and landed pretty close.
That's when I got cocky. The winds died down after that while I was prepping my Hornet, but I decided to put that one on hold and I slipped a D12-5 into my Semroc Aerobee 150. A build thread from last December is around here somewhere. Anyway, it had my newish 808#18 Keycam on it. I thought about swapping out the chute for a big streamer but decided against it. The fins are tapered to a knife-edge and I didn't want to bust 'em. BIG MISTAKE.
Up she went, not weathercocking at all. I had expected significant arcing into the wind up there, but none at all happened. The cone blew probably around apogee and I found out the winds were much stronger up there than at ground level, this morning.
Here's the video:
[YOUTUBE]FoEE1z9r1l4[/YOUTUBE]
And a still.
It drifted off into the woods to the north, probably landing in the canopy way up there about 100 feet into the stand of trees. I'll document a bit more later, but the bottom line is she's gone. I'll return to that area in the fall and may be able to spot the Semroc yellow chute. I didn't have a confirmed sighting when I reconnoitered the area today, though I saw something WAY UP that might have been the chute. But with 4 inches of rain on the way this weekend, rocket and camera are a write-off. Maybe I'll get the memory card back in the fall if I'm lucky.
(more to come when I get more time to write this all up)
Since Janaury I've had today on my calendar as a vacation day. Almost every year I use some precious PTO to give me a long Labor day weekend. The kids are in school, the wife is at work, and I can kick back and relax without any demands on my time. For seven or 8 hours, that is...
Anyway, as the week progressed I kept my eye on the forecast. Here in Indiana, we've known for days that the remnants of Isaac will cause a "Labor Day Washout" but the weather report showed clear for this morning. Light winds, building by noon as the outer fringes of the storm approach.
Taking advantage of the window, here was my timeline:
7:50 am: Kids on bus headed to school
8:00 am: Wife in car heading to work
8:15 am: my car packed with rocket stuff
8:30 am: after taking care of a last few work emails so I can relax, I'm headed to the field.
8:45 am: At the field, setting up on the hill where I usually launch.
Wind gusts were already starting to be felt, though the normal wind was a southerly 5 mph flow. Bright blue sky, not a cloud in the sky. I talked to a guy exercising who was happy to watch the rocket show, and a few more parkgoers came by once I got started as well.
First up, my traditional Mini Max. I ought to get a picture of it. It's had maybe 35 flights and is quite worn, but still a reliable flier. Straight up, straight down, landed within 100 feet.
Next: My BT50 upscaled Estes Screamer clone. I flew it on a B4-4 in an Estes red plastic adaptor (the clone can take a 24mm D). Just as I hit the launch button, a pretty hefty gust blew. It was uncanny in it's timing. Here's a picture showing the Screamer weathercocking before it even left the rail:
So it arced over, popped out a streamer, and landed pretty close.
That's when I got cocky. The winds died down after that while I was prepping my Hornet, but I decided to put that one on hold and I slipped a D12-5 into my Semroc Aerobee 150. A build thread from last December is around here somewhere. Anyway, it had my newish 808#18 Keycam on it. I thought about swapping out the chute for a big streamer but decided against it. The fins are tapered to a knife-edge and I didn't want to bust 'em. BIG MISTAKE.
Up she went, not weathercocking at all. I had expected significant arcing into the wind up there, but none at all happened. The cone blew probably around apogee and I found out the winds were much stronger up there than at ground level, this morning.
Here's the video:
[YOUTUBE]FoEE1z9r1l4[/YOUTUBE]
And a still.
It drifted off into the woods to the north, probably landing in the canopy way up there about 100 feet into the stand of trees. I'll document a bit more later, but the bottom line is she's gone. I'll return to that area in the fall and may be able to spot the Semroc yellow chute. I didn't have a confirmed sighting when I reconnoitered the area today, though I saw something WAY UP that might have been the chute. But with 4 inches of rain on the way this weekend, rocket and camera are a write-off. Maybe I'll get the memory card back in the fall if I'm lucky.
(more to come when I get more time to write this all up)
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