Reflections on Airfest XX

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Wayco

Desert Rat Rocketeer
TRF Supporter
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
Messages
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Location
Goodyear, AZ
Sharon and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Rocket Pasture last weekend. Did it in style with a new Toy hauler.
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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.

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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.

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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.

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As you can see, nothing was visible from the road. First thing I found was a red shock cord.

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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:

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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:

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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.

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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.
 
Not like I don't have anything else to do.... Build our 75mm Mongoose, find a place to store all the propellant we picked up from Wildman:
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Clean the rockets I flew and put them away.

But thanks for the reminder.
 
Congrats Wayne-never a doubt! Hearty virtual High Five, back slap and handshake-you da man!
( I am so showing this last post to my wife so she'll quit bitchin' at all the AP I have stored under the baby's crib...)
 
Not like I don't have anything else to do.... Build our 75mm Mongoose, find a place to store all the propellant we picked up from Wildman:
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Clean the rockets I flew and put them away.

But thanks for the reminder.

OMG! Sharon is an understanding wife and/or as crazy as you. If I set up a table in the middle of the living room?!??! Well let's just say it would be like half a dozen high impulse Sparkys set ablaze (and I don't mean rocket fuel)!
 
Congrats Wayne-never a doubt! Hearty virtual High Five, back slap and handshake-you da man!
( I am so showing this last post to my wife so she'll quit bitchin' at all the AP I have stored under the baby's crib...)

Geez public display of affection !

Dont forget to show her this pic and remind her you both shared a room at ROCstock...

Kenny

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OMG! Sharon is an understanding wife and/or as crazy as you. If I set up a table in the middle of the living room?!??! Well let's just say it would be like half a dozen high impulse Sparkys set ablaze (and I don't mean rocket fuel)!

She is just as crazy as I am. After making a huge order with Wildman and unloading two large boxes of propellant in our trailer, she was back in his trailer buying MORE propellant Monday!
If you look in that picture in our front room, you can see the corner of her hand made Mason & Hamlin grand piano. It used to be VERBOTEN to put anything within 10 ft. of it, now we build rockets on that table.
 
Congrats! Great summary ... envious of the stockpile!!
 
Got around to editing the onboard video

Be sure and choose 1080pHD on this YouTube Video:



[video=youtube;VoshDtQLNys]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoshDtQLNys&index=1&list=UUjJN66C6u2FWjdmsm-B0S-Q"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoshDtQLNys&index=1&list=UUjJN66C6u2FWjdmsm-B0S-Q[/video]
 
Wayne, GREAT report and, video...Awesome! And, NO d*ck jokes by me too be found ANYWHERE....Restraint is sometimes very punishing to my primitive brain!;)
 
I like the editing, especially the part where the Mobius is inserted into the 3D printed shroud (I have the Mobius and shroud as well, very cool set-up). I also like the ant crawling across the airframe at the end (all in 1080P HD). Not too much spin, a testament to the straightness of your fins. I actually like a very SLOW spin so you get a panorama of the area on the way up. The way down usually makes me ill when I watch the video. I have started using the 720P 60 FPS setting on the Mobius since I get twice as many still frame opportunities. The trade-off is a narrower field of view. I used my Mobius on my Intimidator 3" that flew on a K456DM at AIRFest (it went to 5,000'). I plan on editing it this weekend and posting. The video really captured the Dark Matter motor in all of it's glory.
 
A big congratulations from me
on the successful Level 3 as well Wayne....

Good for you...
It sure looks like you and the wife had a great time as well.....

Teddy
 
congrats Wayne , wish I was there to witness your flight ! Hopefully next year , Jim
 
The weather was perfect on Saturday, and I was determined to get as much flying in as I could. Sharon was getting ready for the big drag race, while I prepped my 5" Jart "Jughead". Circumstances worked against us though, distractions kept me from flying until around 11am, and by the time Sharon got her "Jimbo Jart" ready, CJ was out at the away cells helping someone get ready for a big flight.
I flew Jughead on the motor I had built for the Extremes first flight, a CTI L995 Red Lightning. It had flown on that motor before with good results. While prepping the avbay, I noticed that both batteries were down a bit, due to the slight draw that the featherweight magnetic switches use. I decided that they were good enough for the next flight and finished my prep. With the Eggfinder locked and talking to both my receivers, I took the rocket to the RSO for inspection. The RSO was very through, and Jughead passed with me answering several questions about the build, and a guess on the CP because i had forgotten where it was on this rocket. I drove out to the 70's and loaded it by myself because Sharon was waiting for CJ to get back for the drag race.
Jughead is not a light rocket, and with the big 75mm motor, weighs in around 20 lbs. Once again, I got the attention of one of the Kloudbusters volunteers because of the Android beeping. He thought it was an altimeter I had activated before putting the rocket on the rail. After I assured him it was my tracker, he gave me a hand loading my rocket. No pictures of this flight, but I did get video. Sharon is still digging herself out of the pile of work that accumulated while we were away, and will post it up when she edits it. Flight went well when it finally got off, there was a delay for the launch, big crowd of fliers were all trying to take advantage of the good flying weather. I watched my flight with binoculars, and noticed that the new drogue I had installed wasn't big enough. The fincan and payload were playing tag on the way down. Recovery was easy with the Eggfinder LCD giving me positional data that I input into my Iphone, and Motion-X showing me where to drive to recover it. When I got close, the bluetooth RX picked up the signal and my Android gave me bearing and distance out into a dirt field. Easiest recovery of the whole launch. When I found it, the Stratologger was not beeping, but the RRC2+ was. Primary charges had not fired, but my backup RRC2+ did it's job and I had a sucessful dual deploy event. Nicks and scratches were present from the two parts smacking into each other, and two fillets had chunks missing. I took a few extra minutes disarming the live charges by removing the e-matches, and lugged my heavy rocket out of the field.
When I returned to the launch area, Sharon was still waiting for CJ to return. Wildman decided to do the drag race without him, so they proceeded to the RSO. The whole process took a bit of time, not only because of the crowd, but Wildman gets a lot of attention and questions continually throughout the process. They finally got out to the pads:

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Sharon had been intentionally vague about what motor she was using for this race, claiming a dyslexic moment when she told Tim that it was a K490 instead of the K940 she had in it. Tim, being the gentleman we all know he is, and wanting to be fair, like we all know he is in all his drag races, chose an appropriate motor, which I think was a K445. Then he stole the igniter CJ had made to use in the drag race. Here are the results, with Sharon on the right:

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Smoked him right off the rail! Not only that, but her rocket landed right back at the pads:

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Tim took off to recover his rocket, and we walked back to camp, only to find a very unhappy CJ.

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He had returned from the away pads and waited patiently for everyone else to return, then heard the announcement of the flight too late to get in on it.
 
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Great video and reports on you and Sharon's flights. Very cool editing.
 
What great reading Wayne...
You sure are making me wish I went...
Such great stories and details of the flights...
Thank you for going to the trouble,,,
I know it takes quite a bit of time...

Teddy
 
Not like I don't have anything else to do.... Build our 75mm Mongoose, find a place to store all the propellant we picked up from Wildman:
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Clean the rockets I flew and put them away.

But thanks for the reminder.

Holy Cow Wayne! You and, Sharon have quite the arsenal there!:lol: I highly recommend getting some "Plastic Totes" and, organizing your stockpile. I like to label mine with labels like: AMW, CTI, CTI, CTI....

See a pattern here? Lots of them marked *CTI*.

Plus they stack real easy giving you MORE room to store MORE propellant! Evil....:dark:
 
As always, I had a great time at Airfest!

Of course the highlight being my 4 pound 75mm minimum diameter rocket that flew on an AT M685W successfully to 30,719'!!
Almost exactly what the sims were predicting... although I could squeeze out a little more without rail buttons :cool:

We drove right to it - only 30 feet from the road (no walking!)

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Unfortunately I didn't have an accelerometer onboard, but It went fast enough the bubble the paint and strip part of the leading edges!
 
Wayne;

It was a pleasure to be one of your TAPs.

Once again Congratulations and Well Done !
 
As always, I had a great time at Airfest!

Of course the highlight being my 4 pound 75mm minimum diameter rocket that flew on an AT M685W successfully to 30,719'!!
Almost exactly what the sims were predicting... although I could squeeze out a little more without rail buttons :cool:

We drove right to it - only 30 feet from the road (no walking!)

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Unfortunately I didn't have an accelerometer onboard, but It went fast enough the bubble the paint and strip part of the leading edges!


Wow,, Is that a cool flight..
The AT M 650 is a 9 sec burn...
What did the altimeter say for peak velocity...
The sims were really close on altitude,,
what did they say for peak velocity...

That thing must have been movin that's for sure...

Teddy
 
Since these are my reflections, I have to add in this observation. There are always a few guys that abandon flying their own rockets to help others. This becomes more apparent at big launches, where there are a LOT of fliers. CJ, Tim, Bob Brown, Roy Polmanteer and a host of other guys spend an inordinate amount of time helping us get a good flight in. No matter what they are doing, they will stop and answer questions or lend a hand. I want to take this opportunity to thank them for their efforts. I have resorted to using my Iphone to write down these little jewels of info. they share, and my list is long after a big launch like Airfest.
When I saw how disappointed CJ was, I had a talk with Sharon and encouraged her to get her "Jimbo Jart" ready for another flight. Then I went to CJ and cajoled him into giving Sharon another chance. Both my conversations got the results I had hoped for, and the drag race was on for Sunday morning. Sharon tried to fox CJ by getting a K1100 for it, but pictures of the launch will show how close it was.


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Once I had things back on track, I looked at all the rockets I had brought and picked my MD Blackhawk 54 for my next flight. I went over to Kaycee's camp and talked to him about borrowing his tower. I also talked to his son Kyle, who had one of the new 54mm 4000 Loki cases mounted into a nice looking carbon fiber MD rocket of his own design.

I got pictures of the tower so I could clone it when I got home:

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After visiting with them, I walked down the row of vendors and stopped to talk with Scott (Loki Research). He was glad to show me the new casing, and let me pose with it for a picture:

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The forward closure with the bigger smoke grain and ignitor through it:

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If that doesn't give you some ideas, you're just not an altitude junkie!

I got those pictures to razz Scott Wathley, a member of our local club TRA/PHX who is building a MD rocket specifically for that case. He took it in good humor, and suggested a 2 stage with my inferred casing purchase. Sorry to both Scotts, new Loki casings are not in my budget yet....
With Sharon's interest in mixing her own propellant, that could change by next year's launch.

But here is a shameless plug for Loki Research, Scott had a good selection of snap-ring casings that looked awesome to my untrained eye:

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Just taking the time to go around and talk to some of the guys I had met and knew from the previous Airfest took up a good bit of time, and I realized that my "Silver Streak" MD Blackhawk wasn't gonna get ready in time to launch on Saturday.
Walking back to our trailer, I noticed Wildman had recovered from his Jart recovery and was making frozen margaritas with this fancy machine.

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He had a tough recovery getting his 4" Jart back from the drag race, and was in bad shape when he got back to the motorhome. As you can see from the pic., he made a miraculous recovery when the frozen margaritas started flowing.
So I sat down in the Wildman camp and had a cold one, or two, I can't remember now. I will admit that being around Tim increased my alcohol consumption dramatically, but for me that means three beers in one night. Sharon says I'm a cheap date, and I can't argue that. Good thing we were parked right next door, or I might have spent the night in the grass.
As another day comes to a close, I realize that even if you only get one rocket flight a day, there's a lot going on at these big launches to distract you, and that's not a bad thing. Speaking of distractions:

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Both of my TAP's emphasized how important it was to have fun, and not take this hobby too seriously, but this guy really "walks the walk". Thank you Roy, for the comic relief, and for being one of my TAP's.
 
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Thanks Wayne. :) It was great to see you and Sharron again. I only wish we had more time.
 
What's that saying?
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning;Red sky at night, sailors' delight.
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This is what we woke up to Sunday morning, I grabbed my camera and took some pic's of the trailer and around our camp.

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They had predicted winds for Sunday and Monday, and unlike Arizona, Kansas weathermen usually get it right.

Gus had shown up with his black Camero, so I had him and Wildman pose:

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He had managed to get his rocket "Chicago Fire" into the back seat of his car, and all this other stuff too:

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Gus and Troj had a surprise planned for Manny, thinking he was sleeping inside his Jeep. They had some plastic wrap, and proceeded to trap him inside his car:

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Manny had a surprise for them too, having spent the night elsewhere, and arriving as they worked, and catching them in the act:

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The ensuing mayhem was quite amusing.

As you can see, the weather was looking threatening, with the forecast saying it would get worse as the day progressed. Sharon and I both wanted to get one flight in before it got too bad, so I finished prepping my "Silver Streak" and enlisted Kaycee to set up the tower by the 40's pads. Flying a 54mm MD rocket with a J430 for it's first flight, I still had to wait for the clouds to clear for a 6500 ft. flight. No video, but the Eggfinder was beeping. Good flight, but I had to recover it myself, Sharon was NOT gonna miss her chance to fly with CJ. I watched the flight with binoculars, so I knew the general direction it went, but lost it while it was descending. Took the GPS coordinates off the LCD RX, and proceeded to a field filled with weeds, about 1/2 mile East. No signal when I arrived, but I looked around and found nothing. No tracker beacon, no GPS, no rocket. Sharon called, so I had cell signal. She and CJ had launched, and wanted to know when I would return. I started back, heading North and picked up GPS 1/4 mile from where the original coordinates had taken me. The wind had blown my rocket 1/2 mile from where the last signal was sent from. I called Sharon back and told her I would be a few minutes late, and went out into another milo field to retrieve my rocket.
This time I remembered to disconnect the battery on my Eggfinder, saving the last battery I had for it. Sharon and CJ were waiting for me, their rockets were blown North also. CJ and I both had CSI receivers, and my signal was strong. We set out fox hunting both rockets, which had headed in the same direction. After circling a field of milo, and getting heading by climbing hay bales:

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We spit forces with CJ taking a green belt in from the East side, and Sharon and I walking along the South edge. We entered across the rows, heading into the same area CJ was. Tough going, but found it about 100 yards into the field.

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Here's a happy Sharon, with CJ in the background, both rockets recovered in the tall stalks of milo:

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Walking back out against the wind pretty much finished us for the day, it was a tough but rewarding hunt.

With the winds increasing, we took down our tents and retracted the awning on our trailer. Our flying was over for Airfest, with me flying four of the seven rockets I had brought, and Sharon flying her "Jimbo Jart" three times.
 
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