Although short, today's flying session was a learning experience as always. I took the time to test out some new camping equipment on Friday before people began arriving and provided some minor assistance in getting pads set up this morning, but my main reason for arriving so early was to maximize my flying time. This ended up being smart, as the range shut down at noon.
Flying began in the 8:00 hour. In that time I managed to get six flights across four of my airframes.
Flight 1: Super Star Trooper on an A10-3T. Conditions were still a bit gusty in the morning, calming down from the previous night. Even as a single-stager, it got blown off to the east. I walked right past it and had abandoned the search when I found it on the way back to camp.
View attachment trim.76FC0FEC-9651-4C55-A40C-EF7BC3A3507C.MOV
Flight 2: Super Star Trooper on an A10-0T staged to a 1/2A3-4T. With conditions having calmed down further, I decided it was time for the first two-stage flight of the day. Staging and recovery went off without a hitch. A gentleman by the name of Chuck, who set up camp right next to me, was kind enough to track the booster and return it to me while I recovered the sustainer.
View attachment trim.839296A8-BF1F-42F1-859B-03A8979E1C05.MOV
Flight 3: Generic E2X on a C6-3. Textbook flight, woosh-pop. Up and down. Just how I like it.
View attachment trim.E97C1BAB-D73A-4E8D-8F43-515004BDB40B.MOV
Flight 4: Super Goblin on a C11-0 staged to a C11-7. This flight was perhaps the riskiest one of the day. Although I had estimated the two-stage Goblin conversion to be stable, it was just that: an estimation. The RSO/LCO agreed that the configuration was probably stable enough, but that it should be flown as a heads-up flight. He also agreed to announce the flight over the PA system as being done by my girlfriend, who constructed the booster with just a little bit of hands-off guidance from me. The booster recovered perfectly, tumbling to a safe and undamaged landing, although it should be noted that the casing fell out. It probably just needed another ring of tape. The sustainer arced over a bit on the long delay and achieved a rare full deployment of the parachute I used to replace the second streamer, but it still managed to crack a fin on landing. I'm now convinced I need to upgrade the parachute to the next size up, 9 inches doesn't seem to be doing it. Perhaps 12 will finally allow the sustainer to leave the range undamaged.
View attachment trim.72818AFA-16E1-4832-9BA8-B8CA4D2B80E9.MOV
Apologies that the video didn’t come out great, I forgot to zoom out prior to liftoff. Still, liftoff, staging, and arcing over are visible/audible.
Flight 5: Hi-Flier XL on an E12-6. After having this configuration being denied flight by DART (no hard feelings, it is a bit of a ceiling buster), it finally got to fly here. I ended up having to replace the igniter, as it had been sitting in that motor for about a month and had broken in that time, but once I did that, it lifted off nicely. It arced over to the northeast, resulting in my farthest recovery trek all day, but I got it back in one piece without any more trouble than being a little out of breath.
Flight 6: Generic E2X. One of the last flights of the day, just minutes before the range closed. Boost, coast, and ejection looked good until it became clear the parachute had tangled. It deployed fully at about half of apogee, resulting in a soft landing and a short walk to the landing spot behind the flight line. Kind of an accidental JLCR flight.
That was it! I packed up and headed for home at noon.
Flying began in the 8:00 hour. In that time I managed to get six flights across four of my airframes.
Flight 1: Super Star Trooper on an A10-3T. Conditions were still a bit gusty in the morning, calming down from the previous night. Even as a single-stager, it got blown off to the east. I walked right past it and had abandoned the search when I found it on the way back to camp.
View attachment trim.76FC0FEC-9651-4C55-A40C-EF7BC3A3507C.MOV
Flight 2: Super Star Trooper on an A10-0T staged to a 1/2A3-4T. With conditions having calmed down further, I decided it was time for the first two-stage flight of the day. Staging and recovery went off without a hitch. A gentleman by the name of Chuck, who set up camp right next to me, was kind enough to track the booster and return it to me while I recovered the sustainer.
View attachment trim.839296A8-BF1F-42F1-859B-03A8979E1C05.MOV
Flight 3: Generic E2X on a C6-3. Textbook flight, woosh-pop. Up and down. Just how I like it.
View attachment trim.E97C1BAB-D73A-4E8D-8F43-515004BDB40B.MOV
Flight 4: Super Goblin on a C11-0 staged to a C11-7. This flight was perhaps the riskiest one of the day. Although I had estimated the two-stage Goblin conversion to be stable, it was just that: an estimation. The RSO/LCO agreed that the configuration was probably stable enough, but that it should be flown as a heads-up flight. He also agreed to announce the flight over the PA system as being done by my girlfriend, who constructed the booster with just a little bit of hands-off guidance from me. The booster recovered perfectly, tumbling to a safe and undamaged landing, although it should be noted that the casing fell out. It probably just needed another ring of tape. The sustainer arced over a bit on the long delay and achieved a rare full deployment of the parachute I used to replace the second streamer, but it still managed to crack a fin on landing. I'm now convinced I need to upgrade the parachute to the next size up, 9 inches doesn't seem to be doing it. Perhaps 12 will finally allow the sustainer to leave the range undamaged.
View attachment trim.72818AFA-16E1-4832-9BA8-B8CA4D2B80E9.MOV
Apologies that the video didn’t come out great, I forgot to zoom out prior to liftoff. Still, liftoff, staging, and arcing over are visible/audible.
Flight 5: Hi-Flier XL on an E12-6. After having this configuration being denied flight by DART (no hard feelings, it is a bit of a ceiling buster), it finally got to fly here. I ended up having to replace the igniter, as it had been sitting in that motor for about a month and had broken in that time, but once I did that, it lifted off nicely. It arced over to the northeast, resulting in my farthest recovery trek all day, but I got it back in one piece without any more trouble than being a little out of breath.
Flight 6: Generic E2X. One of the last flights of the day, just minutes before the range closed. Boost, coast, and ejection looked good until it became clear the parachute had tangled. It deployed fully at about half of apogee, resulting in a soft landing and a short walk to the landing spot behind the flight line. Kind of an accidental JLCR flight.
That was it! I packed up and headed for home at noon.
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