RIP "Crossfire Cub"

[Peartree]

My boys and I flew with TORC west of Columbus the weekend before last at their new field. (The new field is awesome by the way. Kudos to Lee Berry for finding this beauty.) The field was big and the winds had been relatively mild all day but were a little stronger in the afternoon. I crashed my upsacel Estes Skywriter (but that's another subject) and at the end of the day I thought I might take a chance. I love my Estes Crossfire. I named it the Crossfire Cub when I painted it in Cub Scout colors with our pack number to help the boys get excited about our rocket launch (see below).

View attachment 13746

The Crossfire flies so well that I almost never get a chance to fly more than an A motor and sometimes a B risks overflying the field. This field was BIG so I thought I'd let it stretch its legs a little and loaded up a C motor. The flight was beautiful (sorry no pics, I was trying to watch the flight) and the chute popped at apogee. It started to drift with the wind across the largest field so I knew I had plenty of room.



And then it happened....




I was running across a harvested corn field.

Sideways to the rows.

I couldn't run and look up at the same time without killing myself so I would run a little and then check on where my rocket was, and then run a little more. Suddenly, after running a few steps I looked up and there was no rocket. Not my rocket, not anybody's rocket. Just POOF and gone. I have no idea what happened. The last time I had looked, the Crossfire was still pretty high up but the next time, just a few steps later really, just GONE. I followed my line almost all the way across that field looking up and down each corn row with no success.

This was the first rocket I built when I got started a couple years ago so I've tried to be careful with it. I asked Lee Berry to let me know if anyone turns it in this winter even if only the nosecone survives.



I'm bummed.



(But I'm definitely going back to fly some more.)

 

[AKPilot]

Well that is a bummer! Unfortunately, I've been there though on a couple occasions and both involved corn rows, similar to your experience.

Sorry to hear about your loss there. I too love my Estes Crossfire; the nose cone and the fins are pretty neat.

 

[evil ed]

Jeez!
I didn't know the Lusty Corn Maidens hang out in the corn stubble too!:y:

Ed

 

[Gillard]

had that happen a few times, its there in the sky, you blink and then nothing.

 

[Peartree]

had that happen a few times, its there in the sky, you blink and then nothing.

I'm thinking its some sort of alien abduction.

 

[rocketman]

I lost my first rocket, an estes wacky wiggler, recently. I put a "C" in it, it was a windless day, big field, no-one around.
It flew straight up to about 1000ft. Then the fins melted off (no, i don't know why either :blush and it started going southwards, but still upwards. At apogee, it broke apart. Not in the way it was meant to. The string holding it together had melted too (biggest C ever!) and all the little pieces free-fell into a field.
That hurt. I got it on video though!
Mind you, the camera man (you know who you are) couldnt follow the rocket, but pm me if you want to see the vid anyway.

 

[AKPilot]

I lost my first rocket, an estes wacky wiggler,

Consider that a blessing in disguise . . .

 

[Pem Tech]

What a bummer..
Always hate that helpless feeling when you lose all those hours of building, painting and sanding. Somehow you always wonder if it was just one more tree line, corn row, hayfield, or county over.

 

[tbzep]

You shouldn't have expected to get the Crossfire Cub back after the cat gave it the evil eye.

 

[Peartree]

You shouldn't have expected to get the Crossfire Cub back after the cat gave it the evil eye.

That's the internal systems quality control inspector.