Joshua F Thomas
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2019
- Messages
- 664
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- 342
As an adolescent I thought that to be true. Most fields were clandestine and on the small side. When I taught rocketry to 4H, we got to use a farmer's field. We built Alphas and flew them on A8-3s. The kids were not impressed. We launched one a C6-5. Now, I had their attention. We could only see it because of the tracking smoke. We were able to recover the rocket because the field was so big. The next launch we used only C6-5s. Now decades later I belong to a club that launches at a farmer's field (different field, different state). After a couple of "not enough gas" comments, I bought a bulk box of C6-5s. No more comments. I use smaller motors for park flights.
It's funny, but I started off wanting MAX POWAH! motors and altitude all the time, and after losing rockets into trees a few times, I'm suddenly way more interested in lower-altitude successful recoveries. I'm going to start using more conservative "max altitude for this park is X" rules when I go flying on my own. The park I'm currently using I think I will limit to about 600 ft, despite the physical dimensions allowing for - in theory - 1000 ft. It's just way too easy to drift into trees when the wind up high is stronger.