Hi folks,
It's well into May and today marks the first time I've gotten out to the park for a solo launch. I did launch in April with the AMOREA club, but usually I'm out by myself (maybe with my kids) to the park by the end of March. It's a sign of the difficult weather we've had this year. When not cold, it's been either rainy or windy on my off days.
Anyway, I had an hour and half out on the field. There were only a few people around. Winds were variable between 5-10 miles per hour, with occasional gusts more than that. I kept myself to C and smaller engines to avoid long recovery walks or getting distracted by loss of rockets this weekend. Flowers for my wife were waiting to be picked up. I was on a schedule!
Got to the field and set up. Was distressed to see the parks department had applied herbicide to the "prairie" area of the park. The field is basically a big circle 500 feet in radius. The back half, away from parking and such, is designated "grow, don't mow" prairie. The started that several years ago. At first I was concerned due to it seeming less useful to rocketry as overgrown prairie than flat grass, but I've come to like the prairie area since there are never any sports going on there, and I plan recovery to land there. Sometimes hard to find my stuff, but avoids soccer groups...
Here's what that area looks like now:
I'll send a note off to the parks department if I don't find anything online about what's going on. I hope they're not planning to kill the prairie to put soccer fields there or something...
A note: I was photographically challenged today. I have to check my camera settings... seems like most of my pics weren't in focus, more so than usual.
Anyway, first up was my trusty Mini Max on A10-3T.
Good flight, close by recovery, no signs of disturbing wind trends aloft.
Next up: Photon Probe on a B6-4.
Don't worry, it was actually 50 feet past that tree... landed safely in the grass.
It's well into May and today marks the first time I've gotten out to the park for a solo launch. I did launch in April with the AMOREA club, but usually I'm out by myself (maybe with my kids) to the park by the end of March. It's a sign of the difficult weather we've had this year. When not cold, it's been either rainy or windy on my off days.
Anyway, I had an hour and half out on the field. There were only a few people around. Winds were variable between 5-10 miles per hour, with occasional gusts more than that. I kept myself to C and smaller engines to avoid long recovery walks or getting distracted by loss of rockets this weekend. Flowers for my wife were waiting to be picked up. I was on a schedule!
Got to the field and set up. Was distressed to see the parks department had applied herbicide to the "prairie" area of the park. The field is basically a big circle 500 feet in radius. The back half, away from parking and such, is designated "grow, don't mow" prairie. The started that several years ago. At first I was concerned due to it seeming less useful to rocketry as overgrown prairie than flat grass, but I've come to like the prairie area since there are never any sports going on there, and I plan recovery to land there. Sometimes hard to find my stuff, but avoids soccer groups...
Here's what that area looks like now:
I'll send a note off to the parks department if I don't find anything online about what's going on. I hope they're not planning to kill the prairie to put soccer fields there or something...
A note: I was photographically challenged today. I have to check my camera settings... seems like most of my pics weren't in focus, more so than usual.
Anyway, first up was my trusty Mini Max on A10-3T.
Good flight, close by recovery, no signs of disturbing wind trends aloft.
Next up: Photon Probe on a B6-4.
Don't worry, it was actually 50 feet past that tree... landed safely in the grass.