Lucerne launch 5.31.09

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kelltym88

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Wow. What a day we had yesterday. I was able to make it out to our club launch at Lucerne Dry Lake. The 2 ½ hours we (my 9 year old son Kole) and I spent prepping on Saturday sure paid off. We were able to get 30 flights in. Yes I said 30. That was just the 2 of us. The conditions were near perfect, it was a little breezy 5 to 10 mph, but never above that. It wasn’t even cold in the morning and got around 85 or so by the time we left. Mostly sunny all day. We got there about 5:45 am, and after setting up, it was on. Here is a list of rockets, motors and results: (These are in no particular order)

1.Arapahoe E E9-6
2.Renegade (the original) D12-5 Had a hard landing and bent the fin can/body tube
3.Rock-It D12-5 Broke a fin (does that every time)
4&5.Red Max B6-2 launched twice
6.ARV Condor C6-7
7.Manta Bomber C6-7
8.Super Neon C6-7
9. Meanie A10-3T
10.SS Cestris D12-5
11. Argosy B6-2
12. Photon Disruptor C6-7
13. Baby Bertha A8-3
14. Cluster Bomb C5-3 CATO on the pad, blew the whole motor mount/plastic section to bits
15. CC Express D12-0/ D12-5 lost the sustainer
16.Madcow Scooter G77R
17. Crossbow B6-2 (Yes the New Estes kit) Flew great
18. Silver Comet D12-5
19. Blue Bird Zero D12-5 I love this rocket, always puts in great flights.
20. Madcow Solar Express G78G Broke fin on landing
21. Interceptor E F12-5 This one sat on the pad for about 5 seconds chuffing, didn’t seem to get too much altitude, then core sampled into the ground. OUCH!! Then we heard the pop of the ejection charge. I have no clue what happened, other than maybe the delay was longer than it said. I think it’s fixable.
22. Scimitar flight #1 2-D12-0 to 2- E9-6 CHAD staged. One of the D motors shot some propellant backwards at ignition, but still ignited the E motor. It actually was a good flight.
23. Scimitar flight #2 G77R Nice flight, caught the wind and ended up about ¾ mile away. Broke a fin on landing.
24. Warthog G77R again no ejection, major core sample, rocket destroyed. This was a motor already built by someone else, so I can’t say for sure what happened there.
25. Nike Ajax 3- D12-5 Nice!!
26. Deuces Wild 2- C6-5 This is another rocket that always flies great
27. Black Brant II D12-5
28. Optima F32 Man that was fast
29. Goblin D12-5
30. Commanche 3 D12-0/C6-0/ C6-7 All three stages recovered successfully.


Another reason we had such a good time was the fellow TRF'ers and rocketeers that were there. We got to catch up on old times and new, got to razz each other, and just got to have fun. Kole met some new friends as well and was playing with them, showing off his rocketry skills(he was loading a rocket with wadding, folding the chute, installing engine and ignitor, and launching it, all on his own. I'm so proud.) It was just a BLAST!!

Oh, and the coup de gras, I got a shot of a Redline. I'm jazzed.

Here are few pics, most were of smoke trails, so that's why there's only a few.

morning view.jpg

silver comet.jpg

arapahoe e.jpg

kole.jpg
 
More pics: Note: the Upscale Freaky Flier is Mark Hayes. And yes he made the decals. Also, if you click on the middle picture, you can see the motor casing in the middle right.

right at ignition.jpg

scimitar ignition.jpg

whoa.jpg

freaky flier upscale.jpg

c-3.jpg
 
Last edited:
Looks like a lot of fun. I need to drive out there one day during the week and launch my rockets.
 
Great pictures Tim. I flew everything I brought (about 12 rockets) and a couple of them twice.

Even though I scorched my Rubicon, and broke a fin on The Freaky Flyer, we had an awesome time.

It was great flying with you and the rest of the club!

:D
 
Thanx for the kind words. Others took pics as well, I hope they post them. I got lucky with the Scimitar shot.
 
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