After a bunch of socially isolated launches through March and April, I was more than ready to attend a club launch by the time May rolled around. Unfortunately, circumstances demanded that we hold off until mid-June, so I was REALLY ready.
The launch was scheduled from 11am to 5pm, but weather moved through the area right about the time the launch was scheduled to start, so it was moved back an hour. I ran through intermittent showers on the one hour drive to the field, but nothing serious, and it was showering lightly for 30 minutes or so after I arrived. We got the field set up and were flying by 1:30.
First flight on the day for me would be the Red River Rocketry USS Prometheus. I'd bought and built the kit several years earlier, but made a mistake in construction that made it look odd to me. As a result it never made it out of primer. A few weeks back I decided to see if I could correct my mistake and the results were to my liking. From there the project finished quickly, and I actually had it prepped for B6-4 Field duty with an A8-3. That launch never happened, so I was looking forward to seeing it lead off on Saturday.
Today conditions were all but perfect, allowing me to fly it on a C6-5. There was a breeze, but it was intermittent and didn't appear to be there to do much more than fluff the parachutes and blow the baby powder around.
The flight was perfect, dead straight off the pad and a lot higher than the A8-3s I'd become accustomed to at B6-4 Field. It was good to not see the whole flight up close and personal for a change. Ejection came just after the Prometheus tipped over and nothing happened. I cinched up immediately as the rocket began a freefall from around 800'. Something was fluttering along beside it, which we took as a parawad situation, but 30 feet from a hard hit the chute finally unfurled and disaster was averted. The rocket landed just beyond the mid-power pads and was recovered without damage.
My second flight of the day was the legendary Rokitflite Odyssey, one of the coolest sci-fi kits ever produced. This one hadn't flown since 2006 when it was destroyed by an LFK. My fault. I brought leftover Halloween candy.
The Odyssey is a C6-3 bird. I had one. Problem is I brought two C6-3 birds. The Odyssey had been prepped at home, so it got the last C6-3. Apparently they're in short supply in some Hobby Lobby stores. The flight was straight to around the 600' level.
The Odyssey appeared to be in trouble at ejection and was initially heading straight down after a less than enthusiastic ejection charge. It eventually flipped around and began falling sideways. Twenty feet from disaster the chute filled and slowed the rocket some before a hard hit. Damage appeared to have been averted at the field, but when unpacking at home I discovered a fin had loosened fairly badly. It's always something.
Third flight on the day would be the only casualty of the day, my Estes Mega Mini Max. Several years ago I couldn't seem to make a Hobby Lobby run without pickup up an Estes Mini Max kit. I built them in assorted colors, did one with 18mm power, and finally decided to do one as a minimum diameter, 24mm powered bird. First flight came five years ago in the WSR cornfield on a C11-7. A CATO at the 150' mark completely disintegrated the body tube above the fin can, and hot pink cardboard rained down onto the mud of the cornfield. A few weeks ago I decided to rebuild it with the original fins and nose cone and try again.
I overdid it on the nose weight, so the result feels like a piece of artillery when loaded. This flight would be on a D12-5 because I haven't seen a D12-7 for a while. (And I don't trust the C11-7 anymore.) The LCO commented that I should have traded someone, which would have been a good idea if there had been someone in my basement with a D12-7 when I was prepping. Whatever. I was committed.
This flight was a lot like the one five years ago, albeit without the explosion. Dead straight off the pad to a very impressive height, well over 1000'. Ejection didn't appear to come early but as the rocket descended, the streamer didn't appear to have deployed. As it got closer I could make out a bit of the streamer fluttering. Closer still and I could see the body tube fluttering. Past experience has taught me that this is rarely good.
And it wasn't. Could have been worse as it was heading right for the flightline and that nose cone would definitely leave a mark. One of my fellow flyers made the pro-bowl catch behind the cars. For my troubles I was awarded with my second worst zipper ever. Note to self, Mega Mini Max v3 will need a D12-7. Hopefully not five years from now.
Fourth flight would be a recently modified Estes GeoSat LV. I picked this up built and flown from eBay and flew it once on the C6-3 recommended by Estes. It's a big rocket and the C flight was underwhelming at best. After another similar flight I began thinking about switching the 18mm mount out for a 24mm mount. It took me five years to think about it, then one night several weeks back I passed it in the hallway, pulled out my multi tool and yanked the old mount out.
Still wearing some of the dirt from the last cornfield flight, the GeoSat LV would fly on a D12-5 with all new internals, as I ditched the rotted tri-fold mounted shock cord for a new one with heavy duty Kevlar and stout sewing elastic. The expected change in performance was everything I'd expected it would be.
Instead of leaving the pad clawing for altitude like it had on the C6-3, the Geo Sat LV left the pad looking as spry as a Sky Hook on a C6-7. There was slight windcocking to the left, but the flight was fairly straight overall. Hard to say what the ultimate altitude of the flight was, but it flirted with 1000' and looked good doing it.
What I learned from this flight was that I lucked out and picked the five second delay over the three second delay. As it was the ejection charge fired just as it tipped over. Three seconds would have been a tad too early.
From this point on I'm having to replace everything from flights 5-9 because they didn't save when I pressed the save button. That said, I'm still getting bang for my buck from Blogger.
Fifth flight on the day would be another minimum diameter D flight, a Custom Venture that I'd had built for ten years plus. The original had flown twice in 2004 with the first flight being a lesson in nose weight for me. The second flight landed by the park access road at VOA, but was "rescued" before I got to the spot.
This one suffered from paint problems, which is why it hung around unflown for 15 years. I recently decided to refinish it just to get it in the air. This flight would be on a D12 with a 3" wide by 4' long streamer. It would fly high, but I figured I should see something at ejection with that setup.
Yup, flew high, windcocking fairly sharply to the left of the pad. It was still moving up at ejection, but not at a velocity that would cause damage. I was expecting a long majestic streamer, but nothing was streaming. As it got closer it was obvious that things had tangled on the shock cord. The descent was fairly slow, sideways, with the weighted nose cone leading the way as it drifted back across the field.
The whole mess came to rest back behind the mid-power pads to the right. No damage from early ejection or the hard hit on the ground. It should fly again, but I hope to find some D12-7 motors before then.
Flight #6 was an Estes Astron Streak that I picked up as part of a late night "Buy It Now" purchase on eBay. It reeks of vintage, with a hippy-dip paint job and decals from one of the generic Estes decals sheets. It came along with another oldie, an Astron Sprite that I'd already flown, and nearly lost, on an A8-3. I had the Streak loaded to fly that day, but chickened out when I almost didn't recover the Sprite.
Today I had a big crowd and a large field, so I loaded it with a 1/2A6-2 and called a heads up flight. That turned out to be a good call as I lost it as soon as it left the pad. The 1/2A ejection charge wasn't quite as shotgun like on this flight, but as I scanned the skies after the launch I was sure it was lost. Luckily the crowd had better eyes than I did, and Loopy saw it land behind just beyond the mid-power pads.
Landed without damage. Might give it a try on an A8-3 some calm day, but I also might retire it now that I can be sure it has flown. It's a rocket. It's what they're supposed to do.
Flight seven was the Semroc Sigma II, one of two Semroc kits from the original lineup that Carl never got around to reproducing. (A Black Brant III was the other.) At this point, no actual documentation exists as to the fin pattern for this kit, so I used the catalog representation from the 1970 Astronautic Modeler. http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/catalogs/semroc570/570semroc36.html Not perfect, but close enough for me.
I went conservative for the first flight with a B6-0/A8-5 combo. Things were fairly calm when I loaded it onto the rod, so I figured that I'd be able to see the whole flight. That idea lasted until the button was pushed when a big gust blew across the field.
The Sigma II windcocked to the left off the pad, but things didn't become critical until it staged. The booster raced back across the flightline and the sustainer disappeared on a horizontal flightpath. I got distracted by the booster and saw no more of the flight, but I knew approximately where an A8 flight might take the sustainer. I'd loaded it with a bright pink streamer just to make spotting it in the air and on the ground a bit easier. With this in mind I began walking the field toward the fence, scanning the freshly mowed grass for a flash of pink. I got all the way to the fence, then turned and walked back from another spot even with the launch pad. Not a flash of pink. I began wondering if I still had the fin patterns to recreate the sustainer.
My eighth flight of the afternoon would be a clone of the Estes Arrow that I built before NARAM 55 using an Estes Screaming Mimi as a donor kit. Over the years I bought quite a few Mimis. The kit was like a Designer's Special for me and I built many of the kits that used the PNC-60AH nose cone, and many a Hobby Lobby trip ended with me buying another Mimi with my 40% off coupon.
I was surprised to find that some of the people I was flying with at NARAM thought the Arrow was a scratch build. Mark VanLuvender commented at this launch that he'd never seen another Arrow in the wild other than the one that he built some years before. As I was carrying it to the pad I was struck at how sturdy it was. It has six fins and I did mine in basswood, so it feels quite a bit heavier than a normal bird. Flying on a C6-5, the Arrow was noticeably slow off the pad and left angling into the breeze to the left, standard on the day. Things topped out around the 700' mark and ejection occurred as forward motion stopped.
The winds started picking up during the flight and at ejection the rocket began racing back across the field toward the maintenance garage. The closer it got to the garage, the less the garage appeared to be in play. The storage containers behind the garage, however, looked like a definite possibility as a landing area. The Arrow hit the top of one of the containers, but bounced off and landed on the ground behind it. Fine with me. At this stage in life any climbing I can avoid is a plus.
Ninth flight was an Estes Monarch in full livery. This is my second Monarch. The first flew in primer, then in full paint, with the decal application planned for after the flight. Never happened. At this point it has been in a tree at B6-4 Field for six years. I waited for this one to be completely finished before I was tempted to fly it.
I took it to the LCO table to check in and found the sustainer for the Sigma II. Someone had retrieved it and dropped it off. Never found out who to thank. As for the Monarch, it would fly on a C6-5.
The winds had faded to their normal breezy self. The Monarch windcocked lightly to the left off the pad and topped out around 750', popping the chute just as it turned over. Things were obviously a little windier above the pads as the Monarch rapidly began drifting back across the flightline. There is a maintenance building behind the flightline and to the right, and I began to worry that I might need to get on top of the building to retrieve the Monarch. Luckily I'm not one who minds using his car as a ladder in emergency situations, but that point became moot when the Monarch fell short of the buildings.
Next up, flight #10, would be a C6-5 flight for the Space Station Aquarius, an Estes kit sold by PDR back in the mid 2000's. PDR stood for Pimp Daddy Rocketry, but they soon changed to PD Rocketry in order to keep from offending. The name didn't bother me at all, the business practices did. For a couple of years PDR was as popular as the refurbished Semroc. The kit lineup was impressive and focused on 1970's-80's Estes kits and a few cool scale kits. They did a brisk business and things looked good on the surface. I picked up six kits and had several others on my want list when orders started taking forever to fill, then stopped altogether. Promises were made for refunds. Excuses were made involving a family emergency and transfer of the business within the family. Then silence. I'm not sure how many lost money due to this exit strategy. I wasn't one of them, being between orders when things started going south, but I knew a number of those who'd been left high and dry.
The Space Station Aquarius is a great looking kit, even with my less than exacting build skills. The only mark against it was the decals seemed to lack adhesive, as evidenced by the solar panel decal that floated away on one of the initial flights at VOA. That could have been an issue with my application, so it's a wash. I always meant to print off a new decal, but I've never managed to fin the time for the project, despite an excellent scan of the decal at YORP.
The flight mimicked most of the flights on this day, windcocking slightly to the left as it left the pad. Ejection occurred around 700', just as the rocket tipped over. It began a slow drift back toward the pad before recovering near the outfield fence of the baseball field.
Last flight for this day would be another PD Rocketry product, the SS Cassiopeia. This was the first rocket I bought from PDR and it flew once back in 2006. It turned out nice, but I flew it without decals the first time, usually a mistake for me as we've learned. After a C6-5 flight it landed on the asphalt access road at VOA. Despite the fact that the road was narrow, I had a lot of rockets land on it over the years. The Cassiopeia fared the worst out of all of them. The landing tore the ring fin off the back of the rocket and shattered most of the mounting points. It was so thoroughly damaged that it sat in my repair pile for 14 years. The only reason I decided to see if I could fix it was because I was socially isolated and running out of projects. As you can tell, the nose cone was scavenged for another project, but I have several of these laying around from various sources through the years.
Clouds had really rolled in and thickened by the time I got the Cassiopeia to the pad, and we were drawing closer to the 5:00 shutdown time. I thought I still had time for this flight and the mini-engine Sequoia, so I was glad that I'd prepped the previous night. The C6-5 flight boosted straight off the pad and only windcocked slightly as it rose. Ejection occurred almost perfectly at apogee, and it began the now familiar cross field trip to the open area to the right of our pads.
It was one of the few that I followed all the way down with my phone. I liked the backdrop of clouds on recovery and actually managed to get a few frames with the rocket actually recovering with my point and pray method. The landing was fairly soft and the previously damaged ring fin held up to the contact.
At touchdown I still found myself with fifteen minutes before the end of festivities, so I grabbed the pre-prepped Estes Sequoia and filled out a flight card. We tried, but the Sequoia sat through four attempts before I decided to pull it down and likely start with it the next launch. We'd been having occasional pad issues all day which caused the need to recycle the wireless system to start the signal again, but I think that the problem may have been with my igniter. I'll change that before the next launch which is scheduled for Saturday, June 27. Be there or be somewhere else, but be flying.
