Sharon and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Rocket Pasture last weekend. Did it in style with a new Toy hauler.
Grosser, our 1998 GMC Sierra 4x4 survived the 2000 mile trip and delivered 6+ MPG for all the legs of the trip but the one coming up out of the valley. We spent the first night in Heber, AZ. with friends. The second night was in Dalhart, TX at an RV park for our first night in the trailer. During that second day of travel, we got a call from Crazy Jim, who was already at the launch area. He told us to hurry, that they had saved a spot for us. So we got up early the next morning and pushed it the last 320 miles to arrive around 10 AM.
It was raining when we got there, but Eden Rd. to the entrance to the pasture had fresh gravel, so no issues getting in.
We took a couple of hours to set up, in between the rain showers. Folks were arriving and stopping by to look at the new trailer. We got a lot of compliments during the event, and provided a cool respite for several of our friends while we were there.
The rockets were stored in the bunk beds in back, and traveled without damage through out the trip.
One of the major benefits of staying at the launch was the time we spent with the "Wildman gang" next door. Tim and CJ were constantly sharing ideas and stories that held a lot of information valuable to Sharon and I. I changed my plan of attack for my L-3 flight based on comments made by CJ and backed up by Tim. One of the few things they agreed upon all weekend! They both thought I should just go for the cert. flight first thing, and get it over with so I could relax and have fun. I ran it by Roy P. (one of my TAP's) when he showed up, his only question was "how much do you trust your altimeter set up?" I had three identical avbays with over a dozen successful flights in my other rockets that I copied for this rocket, so no doubts about it working.
So early Friday morning I started prepping "Red Tailed Extreme" for it's first flight on the M1297. When Roy P. showed up to watch me build my motor, he answered my questions and told me how he had been following my build thread and had read my entire 131 page dissertation and could find no problems with what I had done.
He asked me a few questions, and I got a little nervous, but when Bob Brown walked in a few minutes later, he made a point of reminding me this was supposed to be fun. His questions were easy to answer, and he told me that any time during this setup that I got stressed, I should take a walk and enjoy myself. Good advise that was hard to follow.
Any time Bob stops somewhere, people start to gather, and this was no exception. Pat G. and a few others started talking and when Pat started in telling one of his many stories, Sharon told them to "take it somewhere else". They obediently moved away and left me to finish the prep in peace. We went over the six page checklist and called Bob and Roy back to RSO the rocket. They were conveniently hovering nearby, so it went smoothly. "Where's the CP/CG?" and "Did you hook up your Quicklinks?" were some of the questions, but I had my checklist with each item checked off, and Sharon backing me up. Nobody argues with Sharon. I heard someone comment that it was Sharon's L-3 as much as it was mine, and I can't argue that point. She was there to keep me focused throughout the day, and followed up the checklist with several good questions that made me think about what I was doing.
Signed off and with my Android beeping, we took off for the away cells. The beeping Android had attracted the attention of one of the guys in charge of monitoring everyone that was loading rockets, so I had to let him know it wasn't an armed altimeter. Every time I took the Eggfinder out there, someone was asking about it, either concerned about an armed altimeter, or curious about how it worked. New tech. that most fliers had never seen before.
Not much later I'm loading my Extreme on pad 62.
Sharon took a few pic's and I started the video camera, but you will have to wait for her to edit it before I can post it up. We walked back to the truck and checked the Rocket locator for position data, it was working perfectly. The CSI tracker was beeping, so we went back to the away cell tent to watch the flight. I realized that I was having fun now, and no stress, convinced that everything was going to work. When they announced my flight, I picked up my binoculars and followed the entire flight to 13,124 ft. with drogue deployment, descent and what I was convinced was a very late main deployment after I had decided it was going in. Once I took the binoculars away, I could see that it had opened right at 1100 ft.
We got in the truck and Sharon took the GPS coords off the LCD screen and put them into her "Motion-X" Iphone app. and we could see where it was. As we drove out to the location, both my Android and the LCD RX started beeping again to tell us the latest data. I put on my camelback and started out across a field following my Android/Rocket Locator bearings, with Sharon trying to keep up.
As you can see, nothing was visible from the road. First thing I found was a red shock cord.
Then the rest of the rocket was extracted from the millet, everything in perfect condition. We loaded it into the truck and took it back for my TAP's to inspect. Other than a little mud, it looked like it had before the flight. Just a little of the red sharpie had worn off the tip of the N/C, despite the mach 1.3 speed recorded.
After the inspection, the all important signature:
Then I was carried away on a wave of congratulations and handshakes. One highlight was when Bob took my Airfest badge and changed the L-2 to L-3. Now the badge is prominently displayed in the rocket room at my work station.
I did get a joke played on me regarding this most important document:
According to my TAP's, it has to be filled out before the flight, or you have to do it over again. I think they decided that I had done enough other paperwork to more than cover this flight, and I'm a Tripoli L-3 certified flier.
Of course, there were lots of little things that occurred that morning that didn't make it into this report. Several people commented about the glittery paint job, and how nice our new trailer setup was. I even got to talk to Jim Jarvis, who was walking by. He was getting ready for Balls, and we talked about his 3 stage rocket and the launcher he had made for it.
Next up was Sharon's first flight of her "Jimbo Jart" on a K513 Fast Jack.
I don't remember much about that flight other than the black streak as it launched. She wrote in her logbook that it was a good flight, but no altitude. We will be downloading altimeters later, so more info. is coming.
I managed to get another flight in with my DS Jr. It flew on an AT I366, but I didn't write anything down on my logbook, due to the "roasting" I got that evening.
The entire Wildman gang and many others showed up to share champagne and Dos Equis amber at our campsite that evening. I drank my share of beers and a glass of bubbly, so I can't detail the entire event, but the highlight was when CJ started reading his version of my L-3 paperwork. I laughed so hard it hurt! Where he came up with water rockets and the fire department refusing to supply the 1000 ft. hose is a mystery.
I'm off to dinner with Sharon's parents now, so I will continue this thread tomorrow.
Grosser, our 1998 GMC Sierra 4x4 survived the 2000 mile trip and delivered 6+ MPG for all the legs of the trip but the one coming up out of the valley. We spent the first night in Heber, AZ. with friends. The second night was in Dalhart, TX at an RV park for our first night in the trailer. During that second day of travel, we got a call from Crazy Jim, who was already at the launch area. He told us to hurry, that they had saved a spot for us. So we got up early the next morning and pushed it the last 320 miles to arrive around 10 AM.
It was raining when we got there, but Eden Rd. to the entrance to the pasture had fresh gravel, so no issues getting in.
We took a couple of hours to set up, in between the rain showers. Folks were arriving and stopping by to look at the new trailer. We got a lot of compliments during the event, and provided a cool respite for several of our friends while we were there.
The rockets were stored in the bunk beds in back, and traveled without damage through out the trip.
One of the major benefits of staying at the launch was the time we spent with the "Wildman gang" next door. Tim and CJ were constantly sharing ideas and stories that held a lot of information valuable to Sharon and I. I changed my plan of attack for my L-3 flight based on comments made by CJ and backed up by Tim. One of the few things they agreed upon all weekend! They both thought I should just go for the cert. flight first thing, and get it over with so I could relax and have fun. I ran it by Roy P. (one of my TAP's) when he showed up, his only question was "how much do you trust your altimeter set up?" I had three identical avbays with over a dozen successful flights in my other rockets that I copied for this rocket, so no doubts about it working.
So early Friday morning I started prepping "Red Tailed Extreme" for it's first flight on the M1297. When Roy P. showed up to watch me build my motor, he answered my questions and told me how he had been following my build thread and had read my entire 131 page dissertation and could find no problems with what I had done.
He asked me a few questions, and I got a little nervous, but when Bob Brown walked in a few minutes later, he made a point of reminding me this was supposed to be fun. His questions were easy to answer, and he told me that any time during this setup that I got stressed, I should take a walk and enjoy myself. Good advise that was hard to follow.
Any time Bob stops somewhere, people start to gather, and this was no exception. Pat G. and a few others started talking and when Pat started in telling one of his many stories, Sharon told them to "take it somewhere else". They obediently moved away and left me to finish the prep in peace. We went over the six page checklist and called Bob and Roy back to RSO the rocket. They were conveniently hovering nearby, so it went smoothly. "Where's the CP/CG?" and "Did you hook up your Quicklinks?" were some of the questions, but I had my checklist with each item checked off, and Sharon backing me up. Nobody argues with Sharon. I heard someone comment that it was Sharon's L-3 as much as it was mine, and I can't argue that point. She was there to keep me focused throughout the day, and followed up the checklist with several good questions that made me think about what I was doing.
Signed off and with my Android beeping, we took off for the away cells. The beeping Android had attracted the attention of one of the guys in charge of monitoring everyone that was loading rockets, so I had to let him know it wasn't an armed altimeter. Every time I took the Eggfinder out there, someone was asking about it, either concerned about an armed altimeter, or curious about how it worked. New tech. that most fliers had never seen before.
Not much later I'm loading my Extreme on pad 62.
Sharon took a few pic's and I started the video camera, but you will have to wait for her to edit it before I can post it up. We walked back to the truck and checked the Rocket locator for position data, it was working perfectly. The CSI tracker was beeping, so we went back to the away cell tent to watch the flight. I realized that I was having fun now, and no stress, convinced that everything was going to work. When they announced my flight, I picked up my binoculars and followed the entire flight to 13,124 ft. with drogue deployment, descent and what I was convinced was a very late main deployment after I had decided it was going in. Once I took the binoculars away, I could see that it had opened right at 1100 ft.
We got in the truck and Sharon took the GPS coords off the LCD screen and put them into her "Motion-X" Iphone app. and we could see where it was. As we drove out to the location, both my Android and the LCD RX started beeping again to tell us the latest data. I put on my camelback and started out across a field following my Android/Rocket Locator bearings, with Sharon trying to keep up.
As you can see, nothing was visible from the road. First thing I found was a red shock cord.
Then the rest of the rocket was extracted from the millet, everything in perfect condition. We loaded it into the truck and took it back for my TAP's to inspect. Other than a little mud, it looked like it had before the flight. Just a little of the red sharpie had worn off the tip of the N/C, despite the mach 1.3 speed recorded.
After the inspection, the all important signature:
Then I was carried away on a wave of congratulations and handshakes. One highlight was when Bob took my Airfest badge and changed the L-2 to L-3. Now the badge is prominently displayed in the rocket room at my work station.
I did get a joke played on me regarding this most important document:
According to my TAP's, it has to be filled out before the flight, or you have to do it over again. I think they decided that I had done enough other paperwork to more than cover this flight, and I'm a Tripoli L-3 certified flier.
Of course, there were lots of little things that occurred that morning that didn't make it into this report. Several people commented about the glittery paint job, and how nice our new trailer setup was. I even got to talk to Jim Jarvis, who was walking by. He was getting ready for Balls, and we talked about his 3 stage rocket and the launcher he had made for it.
Next up was Sharon's first flight of her "Jimbo Jart" on a K513 Fast Jack.
I don't remember much about that flight other than the black streak as it launched. She wrote in her logbook that it was a good flight, but no altitude. We will be downloading altimeters later, so more info. is coming.
I managed to get another flight in with my DS Jr. It flew on an AT I366, but I didn't write anything down on my logbook, due to the "roasting" I got that evening.
The entire Wildman gang and many others showed up to share champagne and Dos Equis amber at our campsite that evening. I drank my share of beers and a glass of bubbly, so I can't detail the entire event, but the highlight was when CJ started reading his version of my L-3 paperwork. I laughed so hard it hurt! Where he came up with water rockets and the fire department refusing to supply the 1000 ft. hose is a mystery.
I'm off to dinner with Sharon's parents now, so I will continue this thread tomorrow.
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