What a great day at the Bong! Huge thanks to Frank, Kevin, Bob, Randy, Peg, and Carol for running a superb launch in the dead of winter on the ICY grounds of Richard Bong Recreational Area!
Admittedly, I brought too many rockets. But I "had to" fly this rocket for that reason, and that rocket for this reason, and so on. So many thanks to all who put up with the insanity, and helped launched all those things. I snapped photos when I could, and here they are! Side note: we were blessed with Kevin Harnack's skills and abilities with his camera...he's truly an artist and a FAR BETTER photographer than I. His photos are up on the Tripoli Wisconsin website now. Check 'em out there:
https://tripoliwisconsin.org/Harnack February 2019/index.html
First rack of the day. Preston, Kevin, Frank drafting Kevin...
Bruised is Barry's old Bruiser EXP...repaired and fixed up a few times. Always good for winter follies. J570W
The first three flights of the day didn't land so softly...
Bruised started the trend! Justin and company: heads up and watch for that ice!
Peggy Unger has been a staple at TWA launches at Bong forever! At least since the late 90's. Thanks Peg for all you do! Here she is making the new Loc 7.67" Saturn V look good!
Peggy said "fly that thing" and so we did!
As mentioned previously, the first three rockets of the day had recovery issues...those chutes just didn't want to come out and play in the cold. Would the fourth rocket of the day? I hoped so!
Loc Saturn V on an Aerotech K550W. Though it has 5 holes, I thought it best to use just one for flight number one!
Chute? YES! A Kevin H. photo:
Landed gently, over the river and through the woods. Winter is my FAVE time to fly at the Bong...so many less insects, killer vegetation, and mucky pond like things to deal with. Landed on the bank of a frozen swamp-lake thing...YES!
How about a few photos from Mr. Kevin H?!?!!! Kevin, thank you SO MUCH for sharing your photography efforts, my friend!!
Preston N. of Top Flight Recovery fame was nice enough to hook us up with some new chute designs being tested out! My kids got in on the action. B-man flew the 4" Loc Goblin on a G69Sk with a TFR 8 panel 36" chute. Good up, good down, excellent chute!!!!
C-man was on the next pad over. Estes rocket on a Kosdon motor...yeah baby! Estes Leviathan on a Kosdon H155 Fast. Fun combo...zoom zoom!
The Leviathan descended gently under another new TFR chute, a 24" Thin Blue Line 8 panel blue and black chute. I didn't get a good photo...too high up and far away...but rest assured the chute is excellent and benefits a noble cause. See Top Flight Recovery's Facebook page to get one, and support the family of a fallen police officer with a young family...
Eric Burgess had (at least) two awesome flights on Saturday. I was out recovering in the field when the first went up...something loud and sparky in what appeared to be a 3" Punisher. Am I close, Eric??? The second flight was quite entertaining. A J415W operated outside it's normal practices, suffering a blowby, popping the nose right away, followed by some entertaining skywriting. The 4" Punisher appeared to survive without damage!
No no, the chute is supposed to be ABOVE the rocket!
That's all I've got for now. Thanks to all that came out to play. Thanks to my Dad for his help and support, Justin Griffin for flying the Mystic Buzz and taking care of the turtles, the TWA gang for putting on a great launch, Wildman for supporting our habits, and all the others. Love winter flying at Da Bong!
And if you didn't catch it earlier, go check out Kevin's work over on the Tripoli Wisconsin website. Some amazing photography AND awesome video work there!!!
www.tripoliwisconsin.org