More wheels-off excitement at the launch site

[Fore Check]

Well, the wife skipped town for the weekend to hang out with her sister and left me home with the boys. Perfect opportunity to spend an afternoon launching rockets!! So today (after cleaning the house of our messes of Friday and Saturday ) we loaded up the truck with a few new goodies and off to Denton for an afternoon of burning BP.

The weather here has been overcast, very humid with plenty of rain the last few days (so the fields are a tad soggy), the temperature hovering at or just below 50, and a mild breeze.

Today I brought a ton of engines, my porta pad and Estes E pad, my new Pratt Hobbies SureFire2 12V launcher, and ten rockets:

Teros clone, Cherokee D clone, Der Red Max (D engine powered), Semper Temper (scratch), Estes Sky Writer, Estes Chrome Dome, Estes Gnome, Estes Astron MarkII, BT70 "Double D" Goblin, and my Deuce's Goblin.

Many of the launches were great (and thankfully NO CATOS!), but still the wheel flew off of 4 recoveries. But that wasn't all the mayhem (I'll explain later)

First flight was the Chrome Dome. Great flight on a C6-5, but I couldn't tell which direction the wind was working from at first. It drifted behind us on the parking lot. Made a terrific noise on landing, but no damage at all to the plastic fins or NC. We promptly moved to the other end of the field.

Next up was the Mark II. Super quick flight on an A8-3, but the streamer didn't deploy from this mid-breaking rocket. It just jammed up to the nose, but it separated. No harm done on landing. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't failed either.

Semper Temper next. PERFECT flight on a C11-5. Landed within 25' of the launch pad.

No. 2 sky writer went up and down perfectly on a B6-4.

Der Red Max was next on a D12-5. Truly awesome. Perfect engine, deployment right at apogee. This was my first flight with a Thrustline ripstop chute (red 18" in this case.) Very, very excellent chute. Zero tangling, and very little twisting of the shroud lines. Excellent, excellent chute. She flew later on a D12-7. This was too much delay, but again the Thrustline chute performed perfectly. The best performing chute I've used. Love it!!


Next was the absolute highlight of the launch day. Two D12-5's were slapped in the 1.67x Goblin and I put her down on the new Estes E pad. Couple of comments here. The E pad is a great pad. Huge deflector plate, wide footprint, and it sits lower to the ground than the porta pad. Too bad it won't accept 1/8" launch rods. Also, I used home made clip whips from Radio Shack components that was described elsewhere on this forum a month or two ago. Worked Great!
Anyway, I stuffed the big Goblin full of wadding and a 24" plastic chute from Balsa Machining. I attempted several launch pics, including this one, and none of them worked. Actually, they're a tad humorous in their futility! This was the only one worth posting. (I'm hitting the attach button now, but who knows where in the post it will appear.)

What a tremendous flight! This thing HAD to go 1500' or better. A thunderous takeoff, and that fantastic double "POP-POP" right at apogee. Perfect chute deployment. I just couldn't believe how high it went. RSim predicted about 1150ft at best. The wind gusted a bit and it drifted into the muddy, plowed field in the left-hand background of the launch pic and it got mud on a couple of fins and the NC. Nothing that a wet cloth didn't take care of (and thankfully the kids didn't mind trekking out there to retrieve it so I didn't have to!) What an awesome, awesome flight. THE highlight of the day!

Next up was the Gnome. We really like these little mini rockets. SCREAMS off the pad on a A10-3T. Great flight.

Then went the Teros. Put a C6-7 in it to see what it would do. Zipped off the pad, and then the motor ejected with a delay of like 2 second with a full head of steam. HUH??!?!?! I've never heard of THAT before. Needless to say, it shredded the chute and she came careening back down almost as fast as it went up. Thank goodness for the epoxy clay fillets on those fins (again!) It chipped the paint (again) where the fins flexed, but no breakage. I'll get this rocket to make a good flight yet!

I'm running out of room, so I need to start a new post and continue below.

 

[Fore Check]

Ok.

Next up was the Deuce's Goblin. Again, a truly failed launch pic. So failed, not even worth posting except in self-depricating humor.

Anyway, I loaded her maiden voyage with a pair of C6-5's and off she went.

Now, this is my first Deuce launch. Truly, truly cool!! LOVE the smoke trails, the noise, the whole shebang! I am now a Deuce lover! PERFECT flight! Ejection right at apogee, excellent deployment of the 18" plastic Balsa Machining Chute, and great recovery.

One thing though. THE DAD-GUMMED BALSA NC RETURNED WITH A BIG WHIPLASH GASH ON THE SIDE FROM THE TOP OF THE BODY TUBE!!! I don't get it. The body tube is 11.125" long, and the kevlar mount extends about 3" beyond the top of the tube. The shock cord is about 40" long of 1/4" flat elastic. What gives?? Was it the 10g of weight attached at the screw eye?? ARGH! I will replace with with a PNC60AH which is almost identical in shape, but is about 0.5" longer. It won't be true upscale anymore, but I don't guess it ever was being a Deuce kitbash anyway. I'll sacrifice the durability for the scale factor. I'll just weigh the Balsa cone with weights, weigh the PNC60Ah, and add clay to make the new cone equal. Other than this blemish, I truly awesome and perfect flight! VIVA LE DEUCE!

Up next was the Cherokee D on a D12-7. A would be great flight, but at ejection, the screw eye was stripped from the balsa and everything failed. The body tube came crashing down as the chute got all tangled in the kevlar and elastic, and the nose cone came down like a bullet all alone. Banged up and dented the Balsa cone, and broke a fin off.

Then we started cycling through the rockets again. The Gnome was a big player until the shock cord failed. Otherwise, no harm done.

Then the Semper Temper had a great launch on a D12-5, great deployment, and started drifting down under it's 12" chute. But at about 800-900', the kevlar shock cord anchor failed. The main body came crashing down and broke a fin off and the nose cone drifted about 400 yds downwind under the chute. I'll try to repair. So weird - looked perfect, and then failed halfway down.

The Big Goblin had another wonderful, thunderous launch on D12-5's. Simply beautiful! Can't rave enough about my big Goblin! Love it!

Too bad the Deuce cone got gashed on her maiden flight. I'm sure it would have flown fine, but I left her in "sick bay."

I'm leaving out a couple of flight logs, but my wife just got home and I need to wrap up.

As the afternoon went on, the temperature seemed to drop. So, I sent my 6 yr old to the truck to get his jacket. When he came back, I sent my 7 yr old to do the same. Somehow, the 6 yr old locked the keys in the truck!! ARGH!! So, I had to call the locksmith. (Did I mention that the wheels were shooting off in all directions at various times??) Oh, well. Because we couldn't leave, it was a fine excuse for a few more launches!!!!!

Aside from the failed recoveries, it was a great day of flying!!! A few positive notes:

Thrustline ripstop chutes are WONDERFUL! Treat yourself to a few!

If you want to save a couple of bucks over the ripstop but still want quality, get the plastics from Balsa Machining. The chutes (above 12") are pre cut, have re-inforcement vinyl tapes, the shroud lines are pre-cut, they come with swivels, the 18" + chutes are 8-sided (rather than 6) and they work GREAT. I like them MUCH better than Estes chutes for LESS MONEY and they are 1,000,000,000 times better than the mylar crap.

The Pratt Surefire2 system is a GEM! I burned at least 35 engines, and the battery barely showed any charge loss on the voltage test. The hand controller is very light weight and durable - Heck, the whole thing is very lightweight and just great. I can't gush enough over the performance and overall useability (it that's a word) of this launch system. Well worth the money!!!

Needless to say, the boys and dad had a great day flying! Thank goodness the corner convenience store had hot chocolate available for my cold flight crew for the ride home.