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- Mar 20, 2009
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Our club set up the range for any TARC teams in the area to be able to get some practice in. several teams showed up, but far less than anticipated. This allowed me to get in a couple of launches myself. The Madcow Little John flew well, good recovery, but I failed to arm the Flight Sketch for launch, so no data. I remembered to arm it for my Big Daddy launch on a G53FJ-10, with it's Vanderburn upgrade to 29mm. Also set the JLCR to 500 feet. It flew nicely, and landed somewhere in our swampy brambles thicket. Long story short, hours of searching did not locate it, so I'm sad. My best guess is it went into the pond/creek there, and completely sank. It could certainly be among the thickets somewhere,I found two other rockets that had likely been in there for years, not salvageable, but now disposed of. I may go back for another look tomorrow, as between the rocket with upgrades including Stickershock, motor case, JLCR and FS mini there's a not insignificant investment involved, but hopes are very low.
Madcow Little John
Estes Big Daddy with Vanderburn upgrades
Some years ago, I flew my LOC-IV (extended) on a J-570, targeting a mile as my personal goal. It flew well, dual deploy went well, but the main caught a pretty strong random gust between 1000 and 500 ft and it went sideways. . . I searched for about 3 hours in brambles and was cut from head to toe. It had a camera, Raven, 38/1080 case, Stickershock decals and a custom color chute plus the fact that I actually painted it to look 'nice'. . . I was heartbroken.
I drove the 3 hours home and my wife talked me into going back to the field the next day just to look, because she saw how bummed I was. For reference, she wasn't just trying to get me out of the house, she went to look too. Got to the field around noon (mid-summer, South Carolina) and it was hot. We (myself, my wife and a friend) went looking and had no luck,. I gave up again about 2-3pm and headed back to the truck and a flier saw me. He wasn't there the day before when I lost the rocket.
Roy talked us into going to look again and after another 2 hours, I went back to the car (bad cell service) and just sat there, completely beat/probably heat exhaustion. . .I felt terrible, borderline passing out. Anyway, I would occasionally yell 'GIVE UP, WE HAVE TO GO HOME!'. My wife came out of the brambles about 10-15 minutes later (told you she was a trooper) and we continued to yell for about a half hour. I wasn't going to leave with Roy in the brambles looking for my rocket (obviously not flying himself, which is why he came), but I was feeling terrible. We started walking back into the brambles and Roy popped out saying 'What? I thought you said you guys were leaving???" while holding my rocket in perfect condition. Roy normally flies MPR and that day he got my stash of RMS E's and F's as well as a solid Thank-You!!!
This isn't the only incident of Roy going on the prowl. . .he has found many rockets left for dead and abandoned or just left when a flier gave up looking.
So, my recommendation is to get a good nights sleep, bring plenty of water (if its hot) and hope that Roy is there. . .
Sorry for your lost stuff. I hope you find it and got good data once recovered.
The flight from the recovered camera is linked below. Didn't miss a mile by very much, but never would have known for sure without Roy's help!
Sandy.