What a beautiful day to launch rockets! The temperature was in the high 50s, with bright clear skies. It was very windy at first, but the weather was predicted to get calmer in the afternoon. I brought my digital camera and was planning to take some awesome shots, but for some reason my camera decided to open the aperture all the way and that caused most of my pictures to be overexposed
again. Next time I launch rockets, I plan to use my camera in complete manual mode.
Sunward Phoenix C6-3 Was going be my first flight of the day but the wind quickly change my mind when it blew the rocket off the launch pad, so I grabbed the flight card back and went to my table to glue the lug back on. Once the glue dried, I tried again and the wind had fun with the large wing span, throwing the rocket off course into the wind. Its best to fly this rocket when it is not windy
Renegade C11-0 and 2x 1/2A3-2Ts staged to C6-5. Great third flight of this rocket, which staged perfectly. Even with the breeze, the rocket did not drift too far and landed well into the grass on the near side of the road.
Quest X-15 C6-3 - Fourth flight of this rocket. Great flight but the shock cord broke and the nosecone drifted off into woods. I will call Quest and see if I can get a new nosecone for this rocket.
Marauder Road Runner G80-4 Great boost, did not go to height. One of the shroud lines got caught in the shock cord mount, preventing the parachute from inflating so the Marauder lost two fins on landing.
Ladyrobin 2.0 J440BB The first J motor in this Ladyrobin. This was also the first time the Ladyrobin relied entirely on electronics for the parachute deployment. The flight was beautiful. When the igniter fired, pretty blue and purple fire licked the deflector as the motor pressurized. Then the motor ignited. With a deafening roar, a beautiful blue flame spotted with light blue and purple mach diamonds shot out of the motor and lifted the Ladyrobin cleanly off the launch pad. I lost sight of the rocket because there was no tracking smoke, but I regain sight when the apogee charge went off. Then the main chute charge when off without a hitch. Perfect deployment, and the rocket landed close to where I was perched. I really wish that my camera worked, because I would of loved to have the photographs of this flight.
Estes Scissor Wing B6-2 I had this rocket built and painted months ago, but for the last October launch I could not find where I put the elevator. After the launch I found the elevator but when the first November launch came, I could not find the nose cone. Well, I found the nose cone so I finished the Scissor wing. I balanced the glider according to the instructions, but I did not have room to test glide it in my apartment, and my yard is gravel. Not a good place to trim a glider. I attempted to hand toss the glider at the field but the glider just wanted to flop around. So I decided to do the ultimate test. Stick a motor in it and fly it. Worse case scenario is the glider will nose dive it into the ground. It did not. It flew! It had a steep descent but it flew.
Night Launch -
EZ2C 2x C6-5 Great flight. Plenty of fire and sparks all the way up to apogee. The glow sticks had whistles built into them and I heard them as the rocket coasted to apogee.
Mars Lander D13-4W Bill Spadafora gave me a couple packs of D13s thats propellant was all swollen. The pack of D13-4Ws propellant was so swollen I could not get the grain out of the liner, and I could barely seen the slot. The D13-7Ws were also swollen but not that bad. I took one of those grains and used a hobby knife to shave the ends of the grain off and to cut out a new slot. Then I wedged a chunk of Blue Baboon into the top of the core and then wedged a home made igniter in the core. I also took one of the seven second delays that was sealed in its own little baggie and trimmed it to 4 seconds. When the igniter lit, the motor hesitated, started hissing, then ignited. The Mars Lander shot off the pad and I exclaimed, It worked! Bill Spadafora then said that part did, now lets see how long the delay is. Thankfully the delay was short enough and the chute popped at apogee. Perfect flight and landing.
