I arrived at the WSR Launch in Huber Heights well after things were underway on Sunday, but it was not due to waking up late or other unexpected occurrences. In this case it was totally self-inflicted as I was up and doing final sanding on my Rocketarium Viking Sounding Rocket at 7:20 am. I was late because of goetta, or rather my insistence on having goetta as part of my breakfast. We eat with my wife's church friends on the second Sunday of every month, and I was determined to make this one not be an exception. Mission accomplished, but it did get me on the road to Dayton closer to noon that 9am as would my normal departure time.
I mention the Viking rocket and the sanding because several flights into my day it will become a tragic footnote in this blog entry. Okay, tragic is stretching it a bit. It will become more of a "DOH!"
I arrived close to one, and with the launch scheduled to end at 5, I got flying almost immediately. I'd done all of my prepping on Thursday and Friday, so I could start moving to the pads as soon as I arrived, and my first flight of the day would be the Canaroc Maxi Challenger, a clone I built and last flew back in 2018. I built it as an E-capable bird, but I've become a bit leery of flying E motors on the Huber Heights field, a decision that, if made earlier, could have kept me from losing a decent number of rockets. I've never been a fast learner.
I found the nose cone for the Maxi Challenger on eBay, a part of a lot of resin Canaroc nose cones marketed as originals. I knew they weren't originals, but likely could have been copied using the same process that Moldin' Oldies used to produce their parts. I had great success with the Moldin' Oldies parts that I purchased, so I didn't hesitate to pick this set up. It allowed me to build the Maxi Challenger and Green Hornet and I still have the Black Brant nose cone and a transition that I have yet to identify.
The D12-5 flight was surprisingly quick off the pad and even more surprisingly straight, topping out at 1024' and ejecting as it was still moving upwards. It recovered to the right of the pad and drifted out toward the roadhouse. Prez Dave was recovering a rocket out that way and waved off my recovery walk before taking the Maxi Challenger to visit the Porta-Kleen. Hopefully he washed his hands.
The last time we saw the Estes Eliminator it was enveloped in a fireball after an Estes D12-5 from the bad batch exploded impressively as the button was pushed. Every CATO is a photo op, and this one was no different. I had invested heavily in bagged D12-5s before this launch, and while I enjoy an occasional CATO, I really wanted to see this one fly for a change.
I know I said the Maxi Challenger left the pad quickly, but the Eliminator REALLY left the pad quickly. Plenty of smoke, but no real flame this time. The flight was straight and stable to 967', then recovered deep in the field near the fence and to the right of the pads. All in all, a great redemption after the flaming mess of the previous flight.
The Pemberton Technologies Kraken first flew here in primer a little over a year ago. In the time since then, I've gotten it painted and despite the recent flight, I wanted one in full livery. This was a slightly intimidating project, but I'm quite happy with how it turned out and I'd suggest it as a potential project for anyone looking for something that builds outside standard fin and cone construction techniques.
The Kraken was again flown on a D12-5 and this time in less windy conditions. This time it started out heading straight up but began corkscrewing noticeably several hundred feet in the air. This flight was in a light breeze, which showed in the altitude as the flight topped out at 991'. Recovery occurred deep in the field and to the right of the pads. (That's a phrase I'll use a lot the rest of the day.)
Next up was a first flight bird, the Estes D.O.M. Space Freighter. This was a design that I thought had some vintage cool to it, but what really cinched the project for me was that it was a rear-eject bird, something that I'd never done to this point.
The trick to getting this to work is packing the parachute and shock cord in the recovery department and getting them to work so that the chute deploys properly. I had no experience in packing a chute to work under these conditions, so I just folded it loosely and packed the shock cord so that there were minimal points where it was caught between the inner body tube and the centering rings. The flight would be on a C6-5 and I made sure to ask for it to be called a "heads up" flight because of the uncertainty with the rear ejection recovery. It wasn't needed. The Space Freighter was stable the whole way, and based on how it ejected, a C6-7 wouldn't have been out of the question. It was at the back of the field when it ejected and likely would have been a soccer landing, but the chute only partially deployed which allowed it to land in the football practice field. Now to figure out a paint scheme.
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This next one hurt. I had been up at 7:20am that morning, sanding the rest of the Fill & Finish from the Rocketarium Viking Sounding Rocket, just to make sure it looked flyable and not rushed to the pad. I waited until the 5th flight of the day, so I clearly didn't rush it to the pad. A 2x18mm cluster, it was loaded with a 2xC6-5 for this flight.
Things never looked good. Only one of the two motors lit and the Viking was clearly struggling to gain altitude, wiggling the whole way and looking generally unwell. The LCO began counting at burnout and at "three", it looked like it might survive, but a falling rocket covers a lot of ground in the two seconds between three and five. The ejection charge fired at about 4 1/2, nowhere near enough to allow the parachute to fill and slow things down. You know the sound, like an empty suitcase tossed from the attic before vacation. It actually ejected the nose cone, but the top of the body tube took the full impact. The very top of the tube folded in on itself and six inches below that there was another part of the tube that buckled. It may be repairable, but I see that as a winter project, maybe along with the Estes Sentinel, which also had an unfortunate meeting with a late summer football field last year. The jury is still out on the viability of repairing that one.
Flight #6 was the Estes Renegade, one of my very early clones from 2002. (This might play into what happened on this flight.) The Estes catalog page with the Cherokee D, A-20 Demon, Renegade and Sky Raider was an early favorite because I could not afford to build and fly any of them. As I approached 40, money was no longer the issue. Supply was, and this was why I took up cloning as rabidly as I did.
The Renegade has always been an impressive performer, even on a D12-5. Quick off the pad with a slight arc away from the flightline to 1113'. It was out near the soccer lot when it ejected and began descending under a full nylon chute. The descent was slow enough that I was able to record part of it, record another flight, then record the rest of the Renegade descent. The impact with the field looked normal, but when I got to the landing spot, I found two of the fins broken off and sitting within two feet of the body tube. Back then I'd attach my fins with gel CA and wood glue fillets, both of which seem to become brittle with age. A normal grass landing probably wouldn't have caused the break, but in September, our grass has been dead for months and has long since petrified.
Sticking with the D12-5 theme, the next rocket off the pad would be the Semroc SLS Jaguar. If there is one Semroc regret I have, it's that I didn't invest in more of Carl's SLS kits. In addition to the Jaguar, I have the Scorpion and Lil' Hustler in flying trim, with the Laser X awaiting construction. Ten years down the line, I wish I'd picked up the Aero-Dart and Explorer, if not the Sky Hook, or at least the parts to clone them. At the time, I couldn't justify the expense of the Aero-Dart and Explorer, and the Sky Hook was next on my list when it disappeared. The Jaguar last saw the sky in 2017 and had previously only flown on E9s, so I was interested to see how a D12 flight went.
As hoped, the D12 was more than enough motor for the modestly sized Jaguar. Nothing about this flight was the slightest bit slow, with the D12 providing a nice kick off the pad. The light breeze caused an arc out away from the flightline, but never enough to be threatened by the soccer parking lot. The flight topped out at 1153' and recovered to the right of the pads on the same chute that would have brought the Viking 7 down if given the chance.
After the success of the Jaguar, I decided to get a bit more adventurous.
Who asked you, flying vermin?
Anyway, where were we? Yes, adventurous. The next flight would be the Estes Astron Ranger on a cluster of three C6-5s. Pretty safe adventure, right? The Ranger came together as the result of a late night eBay buy-it-now of vintage Estes parts. I don't remember all of the particulars, but there was a nose cone for an Astron Stinger that has since been sent back to the gods, a vintage Astron Constellation payload section and the nose cone and pods from an Astron Interceptor, along with a bunch of other nose cones and parts. All this was for $10. I immediately started work on the Constellation and Ranger, using my 1970's building techniques to match up with the building techniques employed by the original builder.
I brought out my clip whip for this flight, something I haven't done for several years. Hooking it up was something of an adventure. Years ago I had a really nice whip with clips that had teeth. It was so nice that someone adopted it after a VOA flight. Those clips would hold anything. The replacement is not quite as well made and kind of gums things to hold them in place. Should I have requested a club clip whip? Yes. Was I rushing? Also yes. You see where this is going, don't you?
At liftoff it immediately became apparent that not all three motors had lit. You could tell because at the 20' mark the Ranger went extreme left. Nothing went left off the pad on this day, not to mention extreme left. It clawed for altitude that wasn't there, gave up and turned down toward the football field, then looped and decided to give it the old college try and headed skyward again. It must not have been much of a student because the college try crapped out in middle school and the ejection charge fired to put the flightline out of its misery. BUT WAIT! There's more! At ejection, the payload section and recovery system went an entirely difference direction than the body tube. They were out near the road by now, but the body tube dropped near the one patch of green grass anywhere in the park, suspiciously close to the Porta-Squirts. The nose cone and parachute hung on a thermal, but the west wind was enough to keep it from drifting into the quarry. It settled down on the access road and I was able to gather the remains up. The Kevlar had snapped, not the elastic shock cord as I suspected. BUT WAIT! Yep, more. I decided to try my luck on the next flight with the C6-5 that hadn't lit. No problem, right? It was a clip error. I pulled out the two spent casings, but the unfired one fought me, so out came the Leatherman. The unfired casing came out freely and brought the whole motor mount with it. BUT WAIT! No, I'm kidding. There's no more to this flight. Bleah.
From this point on it would be smooth sailing. No, that trick never works either. I chose an FSI Viking III clone to fly on the leftover C6-5 from the Ranger flight. When this project started I envisioned it as a 24mm powered bird, but a late light glue error caused it to be turned to 18mm power. I don't remember just what the issue was, but I do remember being immensely pleased with myself for the save.
Nothing about the leftover C6-5 gave any indication that it had been the cause of the misfire on the Astron Ranger flight. It left the pad immediately at the count of zero and the Viking left the pad heading straight up like no other on the day. There was no arc toward the soccer fields at all and it reached 668'. At ejection it began descending on a 12" Centuri chute and appeared to be heading for a nominal landing, but this is September in the Ohio Valley and no landing is easy. The Viking bounced on impact and one tube fin released itself from the confines of the body tube. An easy fix, but one I'm growing weary of.
The Sky Raider is another long-suffering clone from the early 2000s that would be making its tenth flight. That surprised me because it doesn't seem to be one I drag to the pads on a regular basis but it was quite the workhorse in the early days.
Finally, a perfect flight and recovery. This would be another D12-5 flight and would wind up being one of the highest flights of the day along with the Jaguar. The Sky Raider wasn't quite as straight off the pad as the Viking III had been, so that trend was short-lived. Altitude was 1142' and it was still on the way up when the ejection charge fired. It recovered right of the pads out near the fence.
The Semroc Magnum Sprint would be flight #11 on the day, impressive when you consider that I had been three hours late in arriving. Part of that is my Friday prep, but the pads were strangely uncrowded all day, likely because of the NFL opening, so that played a role as well.
I'd found a stray C11-5 that I had no idea I'd ever purchased when prepping the Magnum Sprint for flight, so I decided that it would be a perfect pairing. I decided right as the C11 was more than enough for the field. The Sprint headed out toward the soccer parking lot, but never quite made it there, topping out at 883'. Ejection occurred as it was slowing down and despite a parawad recovery, it landed right of the pads without damage.
The last flight of the day would be my own FRW SLS Screamer, a 24mm bird that had previously flown only on E9s and E12s. This would be the first D12 flight for it. When I brought it to the pads and was filling out the flight card, one of the survivors commented on the amount of balsa present in the fins. She's a porker, the Screamer.
The Screamer flight was a great way to end the day for me. It wasn't quite slow off the pad, but as D flights go, it was slower. It arced out toward the back of the field, topping out at 769', with ejection coming just as it began to tip over. Recovery occurred to the right of the pads with a bounce on the hard-packed football field, (that must really hurt to get tackled on it,) and just like that, my day was done.
There were still flights to be made, but we were down to one bank of low-power pads and one mid-power. Not long after everyone else was also finished and we struck the range for another day. This was probably my last launch at eRockets field this year because cornfield season is nigh, and I have travel plans through mid-October. Last year the big field was not a friend to the mod-roc crowd and I'm going to be a lot pickier about the forecast before I undertake an hour and a half drive for three or four flights. B6-4 Field makes a lot more sense, even without the club atmosphere.
