Adam told me about this thread and ask if I would mind posting some pictures of my level 1 attempt. I'm happy to report that three weeks ago I was lucky enough to get my level 1 cert on my first try. It was also the maiden flight of my Zephyr built over 2 years ago.
Why so long a wait? First of all our launch sight and club ROC is 4 hours away from my home in Ventura. That's one way. When I first planned the trip out 2 years ago the fires blocked our way to the sight. Even at that it was just not safe to try and get back out there in the fires that year.
So next year I get ready to go in March and Covid strikes. All launches for the year were canceled by the BLM. We weren't allowed to have launches until three weeks ago and even then it was only members of the ROC allowed.
We loaded up the motorhome and the 2 dogs and our granddaughter and headed out to the Lucerne dry lake bed the night before the launch and camped out. I got up with the first flight, had my tea and breakfast and headed out to registration at 7 am. The crew for the ROC was very helpful and nice. They helped me fill out all the paper work and checked out the Zephyr and told me I was good to go.
I used a single use White Lighting H100W-14A and drilled the delay for 7 seconds. It turned out to be just right. Then they had me go out to the H pad. It was the furthest out of all the pads and a low walk. I talked to the camera on the way out. Talked about how I felt. Normally this would have all been shot on our professional 4K HD camera with Mary shooting. We do a show every week about our studio work at our film effects studio and make films. But on this day I just didn't want any distraction and remained focused on the task at hand. I shot everything with my iPhone for simplicity.
The flight went perfect, even textbook. We launched in 14-17 mph winds too. The rocket ended up going pretty far down range so I had that long chase as the winds kept dragging it across the desert until it found a slight ditch and came to rest. My granddaughter got there first and a friend that was down range already getting ready for it. Launching in such high winds isn't advisable but after all the time I waited and long drive I was about to be detoured by weather.
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The result was so desert rash but nothing that would prevent me from fly a second flight so they gave me my level 1 cert and patch. It was a happy day for sure.
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But luckily it wasn't. I zippered it last Airfest I was at (LDRS). So zipper is being repaired without having to affect paint. And upper 48" BT will be swapped out for original 32" BT.
