HERC 3-20 Meet! PICS!

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jetra2

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Hi all,

Wow! It was a gorgeous day to fly rockets! Temperature about 83-85 degrees with a 5-10mph wind with short gusts to 15 or so. We had some amazing flights today, some not so amazing, and some just outright disgusting! Let me go ahead and list the ones that I flew:

  1. Fliskits Praetor, C6-5. This was my first flight, and was to act as a "wind tester." She flew perfectly, as she does everytime! Great recovery about 100 yards from the pad on a hot pink 18" chute!
  2. Estes OOP Super Big Bertha, D12-5. This was the first flight for this monster of a LPR rocket. She flew great, straight up to a 400-500' apogee with a great recovery.
  3. THRUSTLINE AEROSPACE BETA-TEST!!! The SMOKE N' FIRE!!! 3xC11-5. One word for this flight. WOW! This impressively sized rocket SHOT off the pad under the fast burn of the C11! An absolutely amazing flight to about 600'. Great recovery in two pieces under the two 18" mylar chutes!
  4. Smoke n' Fire, second flight. I had three C6-3's, and decided that they would make for a great flight. I was correct. Me and my dad cleaned out the three C11 casings and loaded up the three C6-3's We put her on the pad, and after a five count, we let 'er rip! She flew great, yet again! A lot slower than on the C11's, but plenty fast enough for a stable flight. A safe recovery, but the upper/payload section's chute stripped two shroud lines, yet landed with no damage.
  5. Estes Super Big Bertha, E9-4. I noticed that one of our newest members, Pat Dooley (pdooley), also had a SBB. I went up to him with my prepped SBB and pointed over to Mike Hoy's (Zippy) multi-pad and said, "Me, you, over there, 20 minutes!" He accepted my challenge, and while he prepped his SBB, I waited around and talked with him. He finally was finished prepping his, and we went and set up out on the pad. We set off to the respective launch controllers, and after a five count, LAUNCH! Oh, SHOOT! While his launched straight up, mine seemed to weathercock WAY out to the length of the field! It ejected OK, and after an easily 300 yard walk, me and my brother recovered her with no damage! Whew!
  6. Estes Super Big Bertha, E9-4. I had another E9-4, and decided that I would challenge Pat to another drag race! :) I finally determined that the rocket didn't weathercock, and I didn't make the stupid mistake of not tightening down the wingnut on the pad tight enough, but it was that the well-used Porta Pad mount had gone bad, and wasn't capable of holding such a big rocket up under thrust. :eek: Well, I switched pads, and after a five count, the drag race commenced! Both Super Big Bertha's flew straight up this time, ejected right at apogee, and came down nice and slow for a great flight and recovery!
  7. Fliskits Deuce's Wild! 2xB6-4. I had two C6-5's, but after learning how high a stock Deuce will go, I decided against it, and went on a hunt for 2 B6-4's. I went by most everyone on the field, with no luck, then went by Pat's prep area, and finally found two B6-4's! I prepped my DW for yet another flight, and set her on the pad. Another five-count (man, those seems to be popular these days!) and off she went! Yet another perfect set of dual smoke trail's flying the sunny Hillsborough skies! Great recovery, no damage.
    [/list=1]

    That was all my flights for the day. I'm about to pass out, so I'll post what pics I do have, then let everyone else post their pics...

    This one is of my Praetor awaiting launch!

    Jason
 
Now here I am with my Super Big Bertha and my BP t-shirt!

Jason
 
I have other pix that I will post tomorrow after a report of the other flights of the day is posted.

Thanks,
Jason
 
Yep - I'm pretty exhausted myself so this is gonna be short. MANY, many thanks to Leo of Germany for making the 1.5hr trip to Tampa to join us for a day of rocketry. We enjoyed Leo's company. He got to fly a pair of his own rockets while also enjoying our composite flights.

TERRIBLE DAY FOR "eugenefl". TERRIBLE....

1. Estes OOP Helio-Copter, C6-5...uh, only one of the few rockets that actually flew properly.
2. Estes (Clone) Citation Patriot, C6-3...so far so good. 2nd good flight back to back.
3. Estes Snitch, C6-0...how can you mess up a Snitch flight?
4. AT Mustang, E11-3J RMS...Well, this started off my run of bad luck for the day. The E11 took forever to come to pressure. When it finally did, it lazily left the pad and weathercocked right for the forest. It landed in the thick brush where I was able to recover it only after getting cut by thorns.
5. AT Mustang, E16-4W RMS...Nice boost over our heads. An even nicer landing RIGHT IN THE FRIGGIN LAKE!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: Thankfully, the wind of all things, blew it to the edge where I was able to recover it. I'll have to see if there was any tube swelling later.
6. 3" 2.6x Upscale Bullpup, G64-7W...Odd boost. This bird usually does me good. It weathercocked RIGHT INTO THE FOREST. My favorite bird got hung up in a really tall tree. Luckily my buddy Tim climbed like a monkey and got it down for me. The Bullpup now bears new war marks.
7. 3" Scratch 4-fin rocket, G80-7T...Beautiful boost...Ooops, the chute didn't deploy! "Incoming!" SMACK...gone are 2/3rds of the rocket. It now looks like a Wacky Wiggler.
8. FlisKits Corona (1st Flight), C6-5...This was to be the redemption flight for my mishaps. Nope. No joy. Left the pad and went into an end-over-end loopty-loop flight. It hit the ground horizontally and suffered no damage thank goodness. Sheesh...

Finally, for laughs I thought I'd end the day on a positive note and fly my Snitch again. From the sealed Quest C6-0 pack I pulled a motor that appeared to have a clay cap on top. I figured "this is odd", but grabbed it anyways. Well, I suppose the folks at Quest messed up and included a motor with a delay in their pack. The Snitch touched down and promptly burst an ejection flame right into a pile of what looked like dry hay. :eek: A little dancing on the smolder and Jason standing by with an extinguisher ended my day.

All in all, I still had a great time. Afterwards we went to Chili's where I commenced consuming the "fuggedaboudit" juice. (Beer)

Pics coming soon. The camera is in the car and I am too darn lazy to go get it right now.
 
uh Jason... ya didn't tighten the wing nut enough. :eek:
 
Another nice launch day in FL... I wore sun screen and brought water this time, much better!!
My friend John and his 2 daughters joined us, we had a lot of fun.
The older of the 2, maybe 5 or 6years old, was very interested in the rockets, helping me with everything from stuffing wadding and shock cords to loading the birds on the launch rods.
And she definitely enjoyed pressing the launch button, countdown or not!!:D

I let the girls decide which rocket to launch first, they happen to pick one of my highest altitude rockets, nice way to start the day!
We loaded the Big Bertha(not Super BB) with an E9-8 and let her rip.
I think 3-4 people asked at the same time: "what was that??":D
This was also probably the only Big Bertha they had seen with streamer recovery:)
The decent was interesting, the wind direction changing with altitude, even bringing the BB back toward us at one point.
I don't have any pics, but I think Jason's brother captured a nice liftoff shot??

I launched a ton of stuff today, the kids couldn't get enough, taking turns pressing the button:)
A short list:
Scratch built Maxi Streak/ D12-7 -- strait and fast.
Wizard/A8-3 -- my only glitch, and that was just a broken fin..
Alpha/B6-4 -- Good flight
Alpha/C6-7 -- Jason's dad said I'd never see it again, I did!!:)
Fat Boy/C6-3 -- Weathercocked as expected.
1/2 Mean Machine/D12-5 - high flight, 12inch parachute recovery
Super Big Bertha (3 flights, she's getting a workout)
D12-3 - slight weathercock.
E9-4 - Drag race against Jason's SBB, I won altitude, he won horizontal distance:eek:
E9-4 - Rematch against Jason, nice high flight.

Everthing went pretty well today for me, considering the wind. I was prepared to lose the Alpha or E powered Bertha, but Eugene was there to absorb all the bad luck for our club:p
Sorry Eugene, I guess bad things just happen to nice guys..

To summarize, we had a great time and look foward to the May launch. Thanks guys.
 
I'll bite on the describe your own launches kinda thing that seems to be going this month.

1. Estes Patriot , C6-5. Nothing dramatic, she goes up, she comes down (old reliable) but a bit of a walk for recovery in the wind.

2. Estes Mercury Redstone, C6-5. Wind cocked and arced bad. Seemed (at least to me) to have a bonus delay. Landed on concrete with no damage except a torn off shroud line.

3. Scratch Cargo Star upper stage on scratch Scorpion booster, D12-0 to B6-4. Flew well enough with a little wind cock. Second stage ignited nicely and Cargo Star deployed 'chute and floated down field aways. Scorpion booster refused to tumble or glide and hit concrete sidewalk hard. Major damage to V2 boat tail but can be repaired.

4. PML AMRAAM 2, F40-7. Great flight up heading into wind a little. Parachute deployed right on time but tangled up a bit. It came in fast right towards the spectators and vehicles. It landed hard almost on top of a nice ladies toes. I think it actually brushed her arm. She's not sueing. No damage to rocket.

5. Yank Astrobee D, F52-5. Fine flight fairly straight up considering the wind but a bit of a walk for recovery.

6. Scratch AMAZON 3", H238T-M. Bang Zoom right to the Moon! Couldn't have gone better. A soft scratch free landing but a long walk to get it. My first H round and my first rail launch as well.
 
I just got this picture in my Email from Leo. It's of my clone Citation Patriot lifting off on a C6-3. I don't think I've ever seen a better picture of it in flight. There's another element to this photo that makes it great. Check it out...
 
6. Scratch AMAZON 3", H238T-M. Bang Zoom right to the Moon! Couldn't have gone better. A soft scratch free landing but a long walk to get it. My first H round and my first rail launch as well.

Was this the one that seemed like a cannonball launch? I have never seen a rocket that size leave the pad that fast. Super thrust, very short burn. Arrow strait flight, no spin, no wobble.
I think it was painted white/orange?

I was wondering what motor that was!!
 
Hey guys! Sounds like the launch was a good one. Louise and I spent the day in Mount Dora celbrating our 5th anniversary.

By the way Zippy, how much does that Amazon rocket weigh? What kind of altitude did you get on that H238?

ChrisVG
 
Chris,

It should weigh in at around 42 ozs. , thats according to RocSim since I don't have anyway to accuratly weigh it. Altitude was at least 1400', could have been more maybe less since I don't think I'm a great judge of height. Are you thinking about how much VanDamage your VanRam will do on an H238 ?
 
Here is Jason posing with the beta Thrustline "Smoke 'n Fire."
 
Here's a great liftoff shot of the Smoke 'n Fire. Check out that C11 burn!
 
Leo's FatBoy takes flight on a C6-5. Although he says the Testors paint job wasn't that great, I tended to disagree. The red looked like candy and was absolutely flawless.
 
Check out my dad posing it up with my 2.6x Upscale Bullpup. He's a real character and loves watching our rockets fly just as much as I we do!
 
What a guy...Leo came all the way from Germany to give me a hand retrieving my rocket from the alligator lake. I swear I'm just going to jump in there and take my chances some day. Luckily for me, the wind was gusty and blew my primed Mustang (w/ 29/40-120 case) to the edge of the lake.
 
Chris V G has the video of the 3-20-04 event. it's a huge file so I don't know what he's gonna do to post it.

Eddie
 
Originally posted by eddieg
Chris V G has the video of the 3-20-04 event. it's a huge file so I don't know what he's gonna do to post it.

Eddie

Thanks a bunch Eddie! I really like that camera!

I will be converting the video to Windows Media format and posting it to our multimedia Web site this week! I will post a link to it here as soon as it is ready!
 
So I'm checking out the forum everyday to look for posts on our meet. But stupid me never thinks to look under "Events" doh! :mad:

Well, I have to say that I had a great day. There were many different kind of rockets going sky bound. I finaly got to see some more powerful engines other than D's :)

It was great meeting everyone that day, especially Eugineo who had a tough time with his birds. Thankfully most were recovered and will get the chance to fly again I'm sure :)

I made about 77 pictures and I can tell you some turned out really great. I think one of my best rocket pic's has got to be Eugineo's Patriot with Flag in flight. I just love that pic. Should be nice as windows background :cool:

As soon as I get back to Germany I'll post the better pictures I took in this thread, stay tuned :)

Thanks to all for the great time that day!
That we have to do again!!
 
Hey all! I finally got a chance to edit and post the awesome video that Eddie shot on Saturday. Here's how to view it:

1. Point your browser to the HERC Rocketry Multimedia Site.
2. At the bottom of the page, click Guest login. (You may also register with our site so that we can update you on HERC events!)
3. On the left side of the page, click Events. Look for HERC Sport Launch 20 March 2004 on the right side of the page.

Feel free to look at the rest of the videos!

Enjoy!

Chris
 
Hmm...nice toilet bowl flush effect. :rolleyes: You just love to poke at sore wounds don'tcha Chris? :p Oh yeah, that rocket in the end that drifted into the patch of trees - that was my Bullpup. Friggin' awful day out.

Thanks for the video post Chris.
 
Originally posted by eugenefl
Hmm...nice toilet bowl flush effect. :rolleyes: You just love to poke at sore wounds don'tcha Chris? :p Oh yeah, that rocket in the end that drifted into the patch of trees - that was my Bullpup. Friggin' awful day out.

Thanks for the video post Chris.

Thanks for the kind words. I am sorry you had a crappy day.

My crappy days are coming, and I fully expect that you will (and should) retaliate for the poking. But you have to admit, it put a smile on your face! :D

Did you get the Bullpup back? That is one of my favorite rockets.
 
ChrisVG - what video editing software are you using? I'm trying to deal with Pinnacle Studio 8, and I was hoping there's an easier and less buggy program I could try.

S..
 
Originally posted by Bushrat
ChrisVG - what video editing software are you using? I'm trying to deal with Pinnacle Studio 8, and I was hoping there's an easier and less buggy program I could try.

S..

Bushrat,

I have been using a mix of different programs to edit the videos. The March 20th sport launch was actually edited with Pinnacle Studio 8, but you are soooo right! It is incredibly buggy. On two occasions I lost all of the edits I made because the program crashed as the file was being saved. :mad:

I have also used Windows XP's Windows Movie Maker for some of the videos. That program is nice and easy to use, but not very powerful.

I have ben wanting to get my hands on a copy of Sony's Screenblast Movie Studio (formerly Vegas Video). It is apparently widely used. I just found a link to download a trial at Screenblast Movie Studio 3.0. Check it out!

Chris
 
ChrisVG -

Thanks for the link. Good job on those videos - you've inspired me to create some rocket launch videos of my own. I really liked the HERC Sport launch, Jan 04. Theme music, stills, slo-mo video. Cool.

S...
 
Originally posted by Bushrat
ChrisVG -

Thanks for the link. Good job on those videos - you've inspired me to create some rocket launch videos of my own. I really liked the HERC Sport launch, Jan 04. Theme music, stills, slo-mo video. Cool.

S...

Thanks!!! I really enjoy editing the videos. If you like the January one, check out the new one I posted that covers the Tour de Deuce launch. It is one of my favorites!!!

Chris
 
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