I am back from the first Tripoli Mid Ohio launch of the season and can describe the experience with a single word...
...AWESOME!!!
It was a HUGE showing with people from all over the midwest to include Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and others. Some great birds were launched and when I left at 2:30pm, there had been over 70 HPR launches so far...WAY busy day!
One of the highlights was our former Prefect and all around great guy, Kreig Williams, launched his HUGE two stage that was first debuted at LDRS99...It went up on a L850 to K700 with J airstarts...a perfect flight and recovery and awesome to see. Several more launches included airstarts, and all were successful. Another debut launch was an L3 Cert attempt on a Green Gorilla M in a MegaNuk...great flight and recovery!
My Deuces Wild! 38 Special was also debuted and flew perfectly on two I212 Smokey Sams...another one for the books. There were a few models lost, but every launch was kept safe. I actually had my first "core sample" since I got into HPR...guess I was overdue. My 1/3 Scale Harpoon AGM-84A will not fly again and is about two feet shorter. It was launched on a 4 grain I285 Smokey Sam and flew great, but the delay, which was cut to ten secs, fired WAY late, about 1 sec after it hit the ground...not sure what happened there but I got to use "bag recovery" for the first time. Funny thing is the model from the fins back doesn't have a mark on it...pretty wild.
Other launches for myself included my son Thomas' PML Amraam 2 on a H128W...one of the first launches of the day and it got everyone "wowing" with it's bullet launch! Also, I flew the Maverick AGM-65A to a perfect flight and recovery. It was the shortest, heaviest for it's size rocket there and flew the straightest of all the flights...really cool!
We flew serious HPR today, and nothing but...the Phoenix was also loaded up with an I161W...oh yea, we prepped all the rockets the nite before..what a great thing to arrive and fill out flight cards, then just walk to the pad with a pre-prepped model. One more note...the Estes BLU-97B Cluster Bomb flew again today...it has gone up a bunch on C11's, D12's, E9's and E18W's. Today, it received a F24W...Holy Shnikies!!! That's all I can say...recovery was also perfect and close, for once.
I want to thank our Prefect Gary Dickinson for hosting a great launch; I thiink he was very pleased with the turnout. We even had people just show up to watch, thanks to the Discovery Channel broadcast...one of em helped me fetch my birds and had a blast!!! Also, a HUGE thanks goes out to Dan Crane, who was LCO for the entire day and did a fantastic job...thanks much Dan!!!
Well, my feet are killing me, I must have walked what feels like 10 miles through plowed field...tough walking! The afterpains are worth it though as my son and I had one great day of flying...as did the rest, at the Tripoli Mid Ohio 2004 Opener!
Pics, of course:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/ctulanko/album/index.php?dir=tmo/nov2003
Carl