Good flying weather (finally!)

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kenobi65

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At last, the winds died down, the rain stopped falling...so I scooted out of work early, in hopes of launching for the first time this year.

My wife was out at her sister's house, and she wanted to see some of my bigger rockets go (Patriot clone, Monarch), so I decided to send up a couple of the littler guys in her absence:
- Quest Totally Tubular
- Semroc Micron
- Estes Bandito

(Note: with my wife not there, I didn't have a photographer, sorry. :( )

I've been working on a review of the Bandito for EMRR, and Nick wanted a flight in the review before he'd post it. Unfortunately, as I went to prep the Bandito, I managed to snap off the bottom of the engine mount. Gah, that whole mount is screwy. So, I took the 1/2A3-2T that was going in there, and stuck it into my new Quark instead.

My preferred field had soccer players on it, so I had to go to a smaller field (though it's closer to my house). With a steady 8-10mph wind out of the east, I set up on the east end of the field.

1) Totally Tubular -- sent her up on an A8-3. This is the first tube-fin I've ever built, and I was pleasantly surprised by just how straight and stable she flew. Perfect ejection, recovered unharmed.

2) Quark -- even on the pee-wee 1/2A, she went about Warp 5. As she went, she began banking to the south -- not good, as that's where the road is. I saw the ejection charge go off, but couldn't see her tumble. I followed the direction of the smoke, and found her a few minutes later. She'd done the classic "Jart" landing for a Quark; unfortunately, it was on 31st Street. The tip of the nose was flattened, and 2 fins snapped off at the root. Fortunately, she was on the shoulder of the road, and hadn't been run over. Very fixable damage; she'll fly again.

3) Micron -- took off fast, but a nice straight flight. I was using an A8-3 on this, as well (the recommended is an A8-5), and the ejection charge went off a bit early, but no harm done.

3 flights, 3 recoveries, only a bit of damage. I can't complain a bit!
 
sounds good man i did my first flight in over a year yesterday,i had nice weather as well. i flew an alpha 3 on a size C engine twice. the first time it drifted like 400 yards away and landed in the middle of the street. the second time it was like 100 yards away. so 2 flights 2 recoveries i guess i cant complain either
 
i got out today with 3 rockets, my first flights in over 30 years. we had 8 flights, 8 recoveries...
ahhhhh...
ain't spring wonderful!
thread posted in events (?) section with pics
 
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