Foose Fest III - May 2009

[rosko_racer]

Craig Zicafoose (foose4string) and his beautiful family hosted this year's "Foose Fest" on the premises of their family's hay fields in north eastern Maryland. A few rocket bums (Scott Branche, Kevin Johnson, Jim Filler, Jerry Little) and I traveled far to meet Craig and fly rockets (low, med, and high (?) power) as well as RC rocket gliders. A little after 12:00 noon we drove to the field were we were going to launch. We found out that half of the field was recently fertilized with lots and lots of "cow poo"... ah, the aroma of freshly dispersed manure and loads of flies added to the experience.

We relocated to the other half of the field that was not "fertilized" and set up shop. A nice south-to-north breeze keep the smell and the flies away from us all day. The day was gorgeous, beautiful skies, and an awesome country view that included horses, cows, and the occational bird (hawks or something...). A perfect day for launching rockets!!!

We flew rockets all day until 7:00PM. After that we packed up everything and went to Craig's house for ice cream and cake.

Craig, thank again to you and your family for being such great hosts.

 

[rokitflite]

Don't forget our buddy!

 

[kjohnson]

Here is a link to all the videos I've uploaded so far from the launch...

https://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=31C260101CA4D2E8

kj

 

[foose4string]

What a great time. Here is one of my favorite pics of the day...

This was Jim Filler's Upscaled Renegade. I got lucky on this series of pics...

 

[foose4string]

Raul had some nicely finished models which included a fantastic representation of the Rokitflite Odyssey....

 

[foose4string]

Gotta love an Orbital Transport! What's better than an OT? Answer: TWO of them!

Drag race: Raul(left) and Jim(right) drag race their OT's....

...and a successful mission...

 

[foose4string]

Jerry had a great looking Wolverine rocket...

Will it leave the pad?

Why, yes, yes it did...this time.

Public service announcement:
Motor Hook + Clothes Pin = Static Test

 

[foose4string]

Here's a good sequence of my Semroc Texas Firefly....

 

[foose4string]

The whole album can be seen here:

Foosefest 3

I may add more pics yet. There might be some more that need to be retrieved off the card. Raul, Jim, I did a scout of the field this morning for the Scissor Wing Pod and Firefly Missile's upper stage. No dice.

 

[rokitflite]

Raul, Jim, I did a scout of the field this morning for the Scissor Wing Pod and Firefly Missile's upper stage. No dice.

We will probably find pieces of them in next launch's cow poop.

 

[zog139]

Craig your pictures are awsome. I am partial to the Renegade sequence this was it's first flight. BT-80H upscale and a nice F40 made for a nice flight. Your staging pics are also awesome !

The Cherokee drag race was good too! Thanks for looking for the SST pod, no worry on my end, I can grab the patterns from JIMZ to make anothe

 

[rosko_racer]

Craig: Thanks for posting the pictures of my Odyssey and the Orbital Transport drag race. Scott posted an awesome picture of our scout of the day, Shelby. The Firefly sequence is great, I like the first picture where the 1st stage just came off. Thanks for checking the field for my lost rocket. This just gives me an excuse to build another one... with a few modifications this time and reuse the booster.

 

[BobCox]

Great shots, Craig. I especially like the first in-flight shot of the Odyssey -- I have never seen one from that angle before. The staging shots of the Texas Firefly is great, too.

 

[rosko_racer]

Here are some of the rockets that we flew that awesome day. Jim Filler flew his "2 stage" Big Bertha. He had one of Semroc's New Booster-16 Engine Mounts. Flew great and the booster worked like a charm.

Jerry flew one of his scale missiles... Someone is going to have to point out the name of it. Jerry, post some details of this flight.

Kevin flew his RC Cosmos Mariner. It was a beauty to see it glide with Kevin behind the controls. He is "da RC Glider Master". My favorite is the last picture were the glider is about to land.

... more to follow...

 

[rosko_racer]

Then was the repainted Estes Sky Writer. Had to replace the original yellow BT because it was to fragile. Repainted the NC and printed decals for it. Flew on an A8-3 with great success.

Craig flew his awesome Centuri Bulldog. Also a flawless flight.

Then was my downscale Above Top Secret with a B6-4 on its maiden flight.

 

[rosko_racer]

The first pic is the Above Top Secret on the recovery stage with its 16" home-made parachute.

Who flew the Cherokee? Cluster? What motors were used? Did we have a Cherokee drag race? I like the second Cherokee shot with the sun reflection on the lens...

I pulled out the Phoenix and installed an Estes C6-5 because I had recently added some nose weight. Flew better than I expected. At apogee the ejection charge did fire but somehow the chute did not deploy. It has a removable 18mm MM and looks like it popped out a little. Anyway it came in a nice (and beautiful I most say) ballistic arc trajectory. The ground was soft and humid. When I arrived at the impact site....

 

[rosko_racer]

... the NC was buried about 5-7 inches into the ground and very solid. It took some effort not to damage the rocket and the NC when pulling it out. But the body and the NC are made of solid balsa... it is built like a tank. I later cleaned the NC and there was not a scratch... the only damage was that upon impact the MM crushed against the tail cone and some paint came off... She will rise again from the ashes!!!

 

[rosko_racer]

Jerry brought out two more of his rockets: the Sirius Rocketry S.S. Cestris and his Rokitflite USS Odyssey. Both beautiful rockets with excellent finishes. Jerry, mind telling us what motors you used? I like the one where I can see Jerry and his Odyssey in the same shot. Last pic is the Odyssey with an open parachute. Another one that flew straight as an arrow. The Odysseys seem to fly well on C6-3 so if you have one, do not hesitate to try it with a C motor.

 

[rosko_racer]

Another one I brought out to the field was my StarPoint Alpha Futuristic Fighter, original design. I think I flew it on an A8-3. Sorry, no take off or recovery shots on this and on a few.

I flew my OT twice. On the second flight I few it with the parasite glider for the Estes Condor on a C6-5. It went preeetty high and was very stable. The glider does not "sit well" on the OT and it was moving everywhere as it was going up with the OT. The glider needed some nose weight so it kinda tumble on its way down. But that was cool because it landed right by one of Craig's rockets that his daughter had been looking for and had given up on her search.

 

[rosko_racer]

Another one of my favorites, Jerry's Star Wars X-Wing Fighter. Great rendition of this Sci-Fi Classic. The build thread can be found in the archives of TRF v1.0, link here. I think the pictures speak for themselves...

 

[rosko_racer]

Craig flew his Estes Solar Flare. This was the first time I have seen one of these. Great finish and one rocket model I would like to have in my colection. It stages well and can climb to some serious heights...

 

[Bravo52]

Jerry brought out two more of his rockets: the Sirius Rocketry S.S. Cestris and his Rokitflite USS Odyssey. Both beautiful rockets with excellent finishes. Jerry, mind telling us what motors you used? I like the one where I can see Jerry and his Odyssey in the same shot. Last pic is the Odyssey with an open parachute. Another one that flew straight as an arrow. The Odysseys seem to fly well on C6-3 so if you have one, do not hesitate to try it with a C motor.

What Raul isn't telling you is that the Cestris was almost toast after the first flight! So after having a run of bad luck with the Wolverine, I decided to fly some of my "tried and true" rockets and I love the Sirius Rockets Cestris as one of my favorite models. I've flown it a ton of times and it flies great on a C11 or a D12. So I put a D12-5 in it and added a little dog-barf and folded in the chrome mylar parachute. 3-2-1 Lift off......super straight boost....slight roll......coast.....boom! Ejection.......motor mount goes left, nosecone goes right.......and the body floated straight down! It was kinda cool the way the booster glided.....then not.....then glide....(ground getting closer)...more glide....about 25 feet....NO Glide......10 ft......glide....phew....:y:

Not really paying attention to the noescone, the thing started drifting over the Poo-line and into the next field. I was worried about loosing the vac-u-form nosecone in the trees.....but.....just as the rest of the day was sooo cool, it landed at the base of the treeline......phew....

It will fly again!

 

[rosko_racer]

If anyone was wondering how Jim's Big Bertha looks like here is a closer shot...

A better shot of Jerry's Phoenix Missile...

Scott's upscale Mosquito (where is the bug spray when you need it?...:confused2: ). Scott tested several Quest motors... he has a thread on the topic on TRF and on YORF.

 

[rosko_racer]

Here is my Centuri KS-19 Scale V-2 on its maiden flight. Nice flyer, took of quick and straight. Looks like I packet a chute in it but forgot to hook it up to the NC... "tumble recovered" on its way down and landed in the middle of the "freshly padded" poo field :y: ... recovered without a scratch!!!

 

[rosko_racer]

Scott really outdid himself on this one, his Deuce "Pharaoh's Wild"... you have to see it in person to really appreciate this work of art...

Then Scott pulls out his "Pirate's Booty", another of his "Theme" rockets. We have Kevin as the camera man of the day!

 

[rosko_racer]

See, I knew we had a Cherokee drag race!!!

Flew my Semroc's Nighthawk. Good flyer but the glider needed some nose weight. I flew it twice that day.

Kevin took his theme rocket out for a breath of fresh air, the "Valkyrie"... sexy fins, sexy decal... definetly a crowd pleaser!!!

 

[rokitflite]

Thanks for the great shot of my "...Booty" Raul:y: