I'm guessing that I'm not alone in saying that 2025 has not been my year. With almost three months gone I've managed one launch, that being a cold launch in January where I forced B6-4 Field to submit despite the cold, snow and ice. Apparently, Ma Nature holds a grudge because every weekend since then has been awful. Cold and snow I can deal with. Winds and muck are another story entirely.
I'd been eyeing Saturday, March 22 all week long. Rain had been working us over pretty well, but Thursday and Friday had only seen sporadic showers. I was tempted to hit the field after work, but I had a new recipe that I planned to try that night, and I still had to hit the grocery store for supplies. I set my sights on Saturday morning.
Saturday dawned clear, cool and breezy, so I once again forced the issue and packed up the gear I'd prepped on Friday. This time my traveling circus included a dozen or so hopefuls, many of which would be first time flyers. Two Estes D.O.M. birds, the Flying Jennie and Tiger Shark, were among the group, along with an Estes Solar Sailer II, a Semroc Oso and Cherokee C, and a US Rockets Stripper.
First off the pad for me would be my clone of the Estes Attack Craft Orion that I hadn't flown since I decided to repaint it in 2010. When I cloned it, I printed my own decals, and they'd always been a disappointment to me, so I bought a new set from Sandman to dress it a little better. I still have to finish, but hey.....
The flight was uninspiring. Like every flight on the day except the Flying Jennie, it was an A8-3, but the added weight of multiple paint layers seems to have made it something of a pig. The flight was straight and stable, but light on altitude as it topped out at 136'. Ejection occurred as it was sliding back and the first chute of the day was a rousing success. Even better, it drifted back to the foot of the pad. Nothing would threaten it for the "closest to the pad" award, which was more decals.
For the next flight I stuck with the underwhelming theme, an Estes EPM-010 on another A8-3. I bought this on sale years ago, then opened it and let it sit around for a few months. During that time a couple of pieces were scavenged for other projects, and eventually the pieces were scattered. I recently found the decals and instructions in the original bag, which got me reinterested in the project. I think this had actually been loaded with a B4-4 earlier in the week, but the Friday prep session caused me to rethink the B flight because of the forecasted winds. Still wearing the initial fill & finish on the rear fins, and minus the rear-facing pod cones because they weren't yet glued in, the EPM-010 would be flight #2 on the morning,
After the vanilla performance of the Attack Craft Orion on the A8-3 I was expecting a similar flight with the EPM-010, and I wasn't disappointed. There's a lot to this bird, tubes, transitions and nose cones galore. It's a cool design for what I suspect might have been an SPEV-type bird meant to burn through a bunch of extra parts. To that end, it's fairly chunky. It left the pad heading left but clearly struggling for altitude. Like the Attack Craft Orion, it reached apogee quickly and began backsliding before ejection. The chute filled instantly and brought it down in short center field without damage. Definitely the best recovery of the day.
Flight #3 followed the flying pig trend. I cloned the Estes Xarconian Destroyer after seeing a Facebox post and realizing that I had the necessary nose cone downstairs. It was a quick and dirty project, with scrounged body tube and motor mount.
The XD began wiggling as soon as it cleared the rod, struggling to 129'. It was sideways at "apogee" and seemed to be lacking in direction. Then it found "down" and followed that direction until the ejection charge fired. It took a while for the body to pass the nose cone and parachute, and by the time that occurred it was too late for the chute to unfurl. The whole XD crashed into short center field with the dorsal fin taking the brunt of the impact. (The glue is drying as I type.) This build was done using basswood because it's what I had in sufficient quantity in 3/32" thickness. I'm guessing a smattering of BBs and epoxy will have it boosting straighter, but nothing will turn it into an A8-3 bird.
The next flight would be the surprise of the day. I'd been carting around the instruction sheet for the Estes D.O.M. Flying Jennie for quite a while before I started collecting parts for it last month. Everything came from the scrap bin, my favorite kind of project. (That's two on the day if you're keeping score.) I managed to get something of a glide on the latest hand tosses, so I brought it along for the day.
1/2A6-2 flight, so no matter how it performed or failed to perform, it would be over quickly. Boost was quick and quite a bit higher than expected, easily the highest on the day. At ejection things happened even quicker. It boosted slightly to the right, then fired to the left at ejection. It did a quick loop back to the right, descending the whole time. I caught up with it as it was strafing the outfield grass, and caught the impact when it hit. At some point I heard the twang that told me the brace had likely broken loose before it came to a rest in straightaway right field. While my phone couldn't keep the flight in frame, I was able to follow it the whole time. It was an impressive flight. The next one will be an A8-3.
The fifth and final flight of the day would be the Estes Alpha II on an A8-3. I didn't plan it that way. Mother Nature did. Back in 2001, I won an auction for three Estes Educator Alpha kits. I built this one as intended but used the other two for various cloning projects. DOH!
The Alpha was another A8-3 flight, but this one appeared to have had its Wheaties that morning. It was a high, stable flight with a slight arc out toward the hill in right-center. It was still moving up when the ejection charge fired and the chute filled immediately. The full chute. It was still well above my head when it passed over me and I knew it was in trouble. The winds had been steady all morning, but they suddenly seemed to have picked up. The Alpha crossed the field quickly, easily clearing the parking pad, the wires, and US 27. It started to clear the doctor's building but suddenly disappeared. I dropped my launcher and started the walk that I fully expected would turn up nothing. I checked the lawn of the office, looked in the trees at the edge of the property, then started checking the yards on S. Ft. Thomas Avenue. I was about to give it up as lost when I glanced on the roof of the office. The Alpha was on the back side of the roof, wrapped around a vent pipe. I was heading back to the launch area and as I was crossing the street, I looked at the flags in front of the school. They were standing straight out from the poles. Yeah, the wind had picked up a little.
Back at the pads I couldn't find another rocket that I felt like sacrificing to the skies, so I packed up and drove back over to the office building. By this time the Alpha had blown off the roof, but I couldn't figure out where it had landed. I was about to check back across the street when I saw it tangled in a tree next to one of the suite entrances. It was hung up by the chute and it was obvious that I'd need help that I didn't have in my car. I headed home, found a piece of trim that was about 8' long and headed back to the landing site. I found that the winds had dislodged the Alpha, causing it to drop a foot or so. I was able to get the end of the piece of floor trim into the parachute, but pushing up wasn't dislodging it at all. It was about this time that I noticed that someone was working in the office next to where I was standing in the landscaping. I took stock of the situation. The wall in front of me didn't look like it would be sturdy enough to me to balance on without risking a divot, but the Alpha fins were only a foot or so above my outstretched fingers. I decided to jump and grabbed one of the Alpha fins. I managed to hang onto it when I landed and began pulling it down until I could get to the nose cone. I was reaching for my knife to cut she shroud lines when the chute suddenly pulled loose from the tree. The Alpha had some shingle rash but was in pretty decent shape otherwise. I headed home with minimal repairs to make and a whole tote full of rockets for next Saturday when temps are predicted to be in the 70's. There's a corn launch and failing that, a B6-4 Field launch again. Whatever the case, I'm flying somewhere.
Great report!
ReplyDeleteThanks. Wish it could have been longer.
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