B6-4 Field Labor Day Spectacular - 9-4-23

 Yeah, that's blowing smoke up a crack that doesn't deserve it.  Nothing spectacular about profuse sweating and biting flies.  Still, it was a bright, sunny day without a cloud in the sky or a kid on the field.  And to top it off, the flags were still asleep when I pulled into the parking lot, although the breezes would awaken quickly following setup.  I had the usual tub o' rockets, a couple that had never flown and a lot that hadn't flown in quite a few years.  I'd bring them all back, some unflown due to battery issues, some of them in pieces.

This perfectly illustrates what kind of day it was for me.  I chose the eBay Sunspot to be my wind test bird for the morning.  The breezes kicked up just as I was putting my pad together, so I wanted to get a feel for how they'd push things around.  As far as I can tell, this was something that someone threw together back in the 60's.  I bought a box full of originals a few years back on eBay, named them, and stuck them into the flying order.  This was the last one to fly because the ancient glue on the motor mount gave way when I tried to load a motor in for the first flight.  I reglued the mount, added some Kevlar to the recovery system, and replaced the elastic shock cord.

The flight was pretty much perfect.  The pad was leaned slightly left, so the Sunspot arced over toward Woodfill Avenue, reaching around 250'.  It was over the trees at ejection, but........

Oh, yeah.  Ejection.  That's where the rocket is supposed to poop out a parachute.  Kinda reminds me that I have one in my pocket.  Yeah, that kinda day.  Not to worry.  The Sunspot took it like a trooper, floating down to a hard hit in the outfield, but coming away with no damage.

For the second flight, I went big, The Grand Wazoo on a mighty B6-4.  That'll wake the neighbors.  (Come on, it's almost lunch.)  The Grand Wazoo is one of my shop scrap birds that I built back in the days when I could actually sit on the floor and build while I watched a ballgame.  Sitting on the floor these days becomes painful after a few minutes, and I have to stand to wake up my butt a lot.  I miss being 50.

The Wazoo left the pad following the same path as the Sunspot, but really labored to reach 300'.  He's a big boy, and he flies like it.  Like I said, a labored ascent, followed by a graceful arch at apogee, then the chute.  Cue the chute.  I know I put one in this one.  Ugh, that's gonna leave a mark.  There was a chute, but the ejection charge for this motor was both late and feh.  I think it eventually fired just before impact because all the damage was to the upper body tube.  I was able to bend the tube out and work the nose cone back in, so it's likely repairable, but it's no longer a pretty boy.

Yeah, you can imagine that the pool was calling me loudly at this point, but I stiffened the upper lip and pressed on.  Flight #3 would be a new bird, the P.A.R.A. Bandersnatch, a plan I found buried deep in the files at JimZ's. para08.pdf (spacemodeling.org)

Unpainted as yet, and with the wrong nose cone until I find my Futuristic Parts Assortment, it still looks pretty good.  This would be an A8-3 flight with the pad angled straight up after two close calls with the trees at the edge of the field.  Turned out to be a good call.  The Bandersnatch flight was dead straight to about 300'.  Ejection occurred just as forward motion slowed, and my pocket parachute brought things back to the field without damage or drama right behind me in short left field.

Finally, a successful flight on the day.  Speaking of drama, while I was packing up the Bandersnatch, I noticed a police cruiser pulling into the school parking lot.  No big deal, but then he didn't pull out.  I made a mental note of this and got about the business of getting my 1969 catalog Big Bertha clone ready to fly for the first time since 2015.  Why so long?  I guess I always found something sexier that needed flight time.

As I was loading it on the pad, I noticed two police officers watching from the driveway of the school.  I waved as I do to all spectators, then started wondering why they were watching.  The B6-4 flight was impressive, way higher than the heavier Grand Wazoo, approaching 400'.  This took it out over the school parking lot and at ejection it began drifting back toward the field.  The problem was that two trees stood between Bertha and a safe recovery, and she clearly wasn't going to make it over the trees.  I was sure it had been treed, but the clearing between the top of the hill and the bottom of the branches showed a flash of red just when I thought all was lost.  It landed hard on Woodfill Avenue to the cheers of my audience, and they disappeared back to the cruiser, hopefully not to write me a citation.  I saw them at the light a few minutes later.  B6-4 Field lives on.

Flight #5 would be the Estes Chuter Two, and this would be as close as you'd get to a flight pic.  I blame the heat for this.  And the bright of the sun.  And my sunglasses.  I noticed the solid red circle instead of the smaller circle when I was trying to keep the flight in the non-existent frame.  

A8-3 flight, so not terribly high, which is just what I want for these launches.  The Chuter Two flight topped out around 250', the chute popped at apogee, and it recovered on the ballfield around pitcher's mound.  This photo was taken with my iPad, just to see what kind of pics it produced.  I don't think I even got the usual glamour shot with my phone.  Once again, hot, sweaty, nasty flies and bright sunshine, the four horsemen of bad photography.

Several months back I discovered a new hobby shop while on a project run for my wife.  They just happened to have the elusive paint color that matched the Custom Tristar that I had two decal sets for.  (One of my Tristars got treed here at B6-4 Field in 2001.  The other died when my nephew tried to get the nose cone into the top of the body tube by slamming it in with an open palm.)  I bought one of the new Tristars a few years back, now called the Galaxy Rescue.  2001 was a long time ago, and it wasn't until I started the decal process that I realized that the old Tristar was taller.  Luckily, I still have a decal set to build one with the correct tube.

The Galaxy Rescue flew well on an A8-3 to around 300'.  I had several birds perform extremely well on this day.  This was one of them.  After arcing out toward the trees the GR popped the chute at apogee and began drifting back across the field toward me, eventually landing in short left field.  I'll have to pick up another one and find a Tristar-length piece of BT-50.  I forgot how much I like the old Custom birds.

Next in the air would be the Estes Super Alpha, always a favorite of mine here at B6-4 Field.  It's the perfect bird to fly on a B6-4 here.  It was the rocket that convinced me that BT-60 based birds have no business flying on an A8-3 here, even Goonies.

The Super Alpha didn't disappoint.  Anyone.  While I was doing my between flights stuff, I noticed a blacked out SUV cruising by slowly on Woodfill Avenue.  They stopped right at the end near the telephone pole where I hung my Astron Drifter many years ago.  It eventually dawned on me that they were waiting to see a rocket fly, so I went into hustle mode.  Actually, I didn't hustle.  I just skipped things that I normally did like checking the parachute.  (A lot of that going around these days.)   I got it set up, attached the clips, did a quick count, and fired it up.  The B6-4 flight went to 350' or so, fairly straight with a slight lean out toward the hill.  Ejection occurred just as it slowed down and the Mylar chute brought it back across the field to a nice, soft landing.  The SUV erupted with cheers before driving off.

The next flight would be another one that conditions would conspire to keep me from capturing on video.  That turned out not to be a bad thing.  I'd flown my Harpoon AGM 84A here several weeks ago on an A8-3, a low level, but stable flight.  This time I loaded it with a B6-4 and anticipated a stellar flight.

Yeah, no.  Apparently, I need more nose weight for this one.  It left the pad and immediately began cartwheeling off to the left.  Total altitude was about 50' and it hit the ground under power.  The ejection charge fired into the dry grass and I initially worried that I was going to have to get out my fire bottle, but it just made a mess by barfing all over the outfield.  It got a broken fin for its troubles.

Flight #9 was the Kopter Rotor Recovery Eagle, a clone that I did based on a catalog drawing.  Despite such an inauspicious start, it actually turned out well and flies decently.  This flight would be on an A8-3 like the previous two flights.

The flight of the Eagle could have been triumphant had it not been for the parawad recovery.  That could have been avoided had I thought the situation out more carefully.  The parachute for this flight had been in my pocket for several flights.  Several sweaty flights.  Due to the incredible moistness of my thighs, the parachute was also moist and therefor incapable of deploying correctly.  The flight was to about 250', a pretty standard flight on an A8-3.  The parachute looked like a wad of gum someone had spit out after a long, unpleasant 1/2 inning where the entire roster of the opposing team scored.  Ptooie.  Splat.  It hit hard and bounced about a foot.  At first I thought a miracle had occurred and it was left undamaged, but when I turned it over one of the smaller fins was broken off like a tooth in a hockey game.  Bummer.  I really liked the finish of this one.

This brings us to the end.  The final flight.  The realization that the batteries, after a good long run, have finally crapped out on you.  Flight #10 would be the Tau Zero Prometheus, a rocket that has had a long, rough history here at B6-4 Field.  It last flew in 2015, and I thought that was going to be the last flight ever.  Two fins were broken and the mid-body tube was creased bad enough to look like it might not be flightworthy again.  A couple of months back I traced the remaining fin, cut out and applied two new ones, wicked some thin CA into the creased body tube, and decided to give it another shot.

When I first built this, I anticipated going from an A8-3 first flight to a B6-4 and possibly C6-5.  To date it has never flown on anything but an A8-3, and all flights have incurred some damage.  This flight would be on an A8-3.  Tradition, you know.  In the past this has been a streamer recovery bird, but for this flight I fount a tiny T.H.O.Y. parachute that I believe came with my T.H.O.Y. Macron.  It appeared to be the perfect chute for the Prometheus.  The flight itself was perfect, arcing out slightly toward the hill to about 350'.  It ejected as it was tipping and began racing toward right center at a rapid rate, the tiny chute looking as if it had not read the job description.  Impact was hard, another bounce that I felt in my moist bones.  I approached the crash site, fully expecting to see another cracked fin, but to my shock everything held together.

I still had rockets at the ready after the Prometheus flight.  The Estes Challenger 1, the Semroc Hydra One, the Estes Starchaser, which I'd hoped to make my first B6-4 Field cluster.  All of them tried and failed.  It occurred to me that these batteries had been doing B6-4 Field duty since around the start of Covid.  They were probably tired.  And moist.  I know I was.  I have a couple of weeks before my next vacation, one of my Wed-Fri weekend extenders.  I've traditionally used at least one day during these breaks to slip off for a nooner.  I have a shopping list.  A8-3s, B6-4s and C-cell batteries.  Maybe a sweatband, too.  Maybe several.