Now that's more like it, B6-4 Field launch - 12/8/24

 The first order of business today:

Yep, the Rattler 7 is still hanging around after three weeks.  I check every time I drive past.  The parachute seems to have freed itself, but the Rattler remains a fixture.

Saturday was the WSR club launch in the Cedarville corn.  Saturday also started out windy and in the 20's.  In my 40's wind and 20's didn't make or break a launch.  In my 60's I tend to prefer the 50's with a light breeze.  I had rockets prepped and ready to load, but one step out the door was all it took to convince me to wait a day.  Please graph that as a word problem.

First flight on this sunny Sunday would be an eBay refugee rocket that I've had for about ten years, a homebrewed bird I called the Cutlass.  This came along with an auction lot of other home brews, but this one had an issue clearing the streamer back in 2018 and nosed into the infield.  The top of the body tube was crushed, which necessitated removing and reinstalling the recovery system, which is what I did Saturday instead of freeze.

A8-3 flight, which would pretty much be the flavor of the day, although the flights would vary wildly from an altitude standpoint.  This one was on point.  I had the pad set straight up to test the breeze, which was again coming straight over the terrace in center field.  The Cutlass left the pad on an almost dead straight flight path, wiggling slightly because of the recent fin surgery.  At ejection the breeze caught up with it and began blowing it toward left field.  This is a very light, basic rocket, so I'd decided on nose blow recovery.  This turned out to be a good choice, although a streamer might have performed in similar fashion.  Wish I'd brought one.  The Cutlass landed in dead left field with a bounce and no new injury.

The Estes Nike Arrow dates back to my earliest days as a B.A.R.  I picked up a couple of easy to build rockets for my nieces and nephews to fly at an (illegal) family launch, the Good-Fly-day launch of 2001.  Turned out that the kids had no interest in flying "their" rocket.  They were happy to just see my brother in law and I fly whatever we'd brought, which we did.  After the launch, which occurred at Big Bone Lick State Park, a ranger told us we couldn't do what we just did, but he had waited until we were done to let us know.

The Nike Arrow flight was on a 1/2A3-4T and would also be nose blow recovery.  Still no streamer.  Still not an issue.  The rod had been adjusted by this time and the Nike Arrow flew out over right-center field.  It was a quick flight to 163' and recovery was equally as quick, coming to earth back in right-center and sticking the landing with the nose buried in the mud without damage.

My Semroc Satellite Killer has an interesting history.  The original was purchased from Carl at his last NARAM.  (My brother in law and I chatted with him for about a half hour and as we walked away Tony said "That was the guy who owns Semroc?  He's just like a normal guy."  Carl in a nutshell.)  I was building it in the computer loft when we changed internet/cable providers and the guy knocked a lamp over on the half completed Killer, killing it.  (No, he didn't tell me.  I found out later in the week when I went back to work on it some more.)  Randy owned Semroc by this point, and got wind of the killing.  He sent me a new one that week.  It was the one that flew today.

This would be a C6-3 flight, the only motor that is recommended, and a perfect combo for B6-4 Field.  The SK flight path was somewhat of a corkscrew, but overall straight up.  There was an issue with recovery, but that was my fault.  I hadn't repacked the chute after storing it since 2019 and at ejection it announced that it intended to only parawad in protest.  The recovery was quick, but seemed very survivable, so I was surprised to get to the left field landing spot and find that one of the legs had detached.  Simple fix, and it should be ready for flight glory ASAP.

The Esam 58 always surprises me when I dig it out of the tote.  My thoughts run all over the place.  It turned out nice.  It's still available at Hobby Lobby.  It has an 18mm screw-in motor retainer.  It has no business being an 18mm bird.  This one will have to be a B6-4 flyer at B6-4 Field.  Not really, no.

This is a fat bird and it was a pretty scary flight.  The B6 part was okay.  It left the pad heading out toward center field and was clearly struggling to gain altitude, topping out at 162'.  It turned over and began heading back toward the outfield.  This was the -4 part.  I knew it was in trouble when I saw the tracking smoke and it was nose down and picking up speed.  The ejection charge fired when it was under 100' and it somehow wound up recovering without any more damage than the slightest suggestion of a zipper.  Next time I'll give it a C6-3 flight, but that will have to be on a dead calm day. 

The next flight was another B6-4, the Challenger II.  This rocket came around because I was bored and wanted to build something.  I was picking up Estes Eliminators seemingly every time I went to Hobby Lobby, and I had a cabinet full of them.  One night while watching a ballgame I decided that I needed a new project, maybe a rocket for B6-4 Field.  Somehow I settled on the 18mm Challenger II.  These days I find myself wishing that I had more Eliminators in the cabinet, but the Challenger II is a decent flyer at B6-4 Field, so I've got that going for me.

Unlike the previous B6-4 flight, this one didn't have piggish weight to lift.  The altitude wasn't terribly impressive, but decent for field size and conditions.  The CII left the pad heading toward center field like the ESAM did, but in no way seemed to be struggling, topping out at 236'.  It was heading down as it recovered, and wound up with the same slight zipper that the ESAM did, but the extra altitude gave it some space to allow the parachute to do its job.  All in all, it was the most impressive flight on the day.

Next on the pad was another "feel like building something" inspired rocket, the FRW Mohawk.  It came about after the death of my father.  One night before work I was cleaning my shop desk and found a bunch of disparate parts laying around the desk.  They included a section of BT-50, a smaller section of BT-55, a 5055 transition and a BNC-55 nose cone.  Something about them spoke to me, so into my bag they went to seek inspiration on my lunch break that night.  The name came from a stack of old programs from a Cincinnati minor league hockey team of his youth, the Mohawks.  There was a significance to the fins, but I can't remember what it was.  They may have been rescued from the clutter of my desk as well.

Yeah, I really should learn.  The A8-3 Mohawk flight was marred by my inexcusable decision not to unfurl the chute after a four year flight layoff.  Other than the recovery drama, the flight was much like the previous two, heading toward right center off the pad to 226' with a recovery in straightaway center.  

I didn't plan this.  The Estes Goblin would be flight #7.  I can see you're thinking "A Goblin?  Is this guy nuts?!"  (Yes on both counts.)  This was another rocket that came about because I was in the mood to build something, specifically something to fly at B6-4 Field.  I had bought a bunch of marked down Goblins from Hobby Lobby and, while I'd built one previously as an E-powered bird, I'd never powered one down.  

Well, powered down it was.  I thought an A8-3 would be a reasonable choice here, but I was sorely disappointed in the choice.  The Goblin isn't a large bird or a heavy build, so I can only assume that the A8-3 that I chose for the flight was gutless, topping out at 183'.  The Gob was on the way down when the ejection charge fired.  Way down.  The chute filled and tragedy was averted, a perfect landing without a trace of a zipper.

The Estes Galactic Taxi was one of the rockets I picked up in an eBay lot back when old junk wasn't priced with an eye toward sending a kid to college.  It came along with three others, all of which I repaired and flew.  The Taxi had lived a rough life.  It showed signs of having spent time at the bottom of a box under something weighty.  No worries about squared up fins here.

The Taxi would be another A8-3 flight, and this one would be more of what I expected.  It left the pad leaning to the left out toward center field.  It topped out at 283', popped the chute just as it tipped over, and began racing back toward US 27.  For a moment I was envisioning it hanging 'round with the Rattler, but the winds didn't have that kind of push on this day.  It settled to the ground at deep third, just beyond the infield.

Flight #9 would be my first attempt at a Bo-Mar Spartan.  I say first attempt because there would be another after I realized I got the proportions off more than I was comfortable with.  I decided that the unfortunately squat rocket that I wound up with could be salvaged by grafting on another piece of ST-7.  Thinking back, I'm not sure why I just didn't cut the fins off and start over, but I made a whole other Spartan and left this one languish before dragging it out for this launch.  To be honest, I just really hated the idea of having another rocket on the spreadsheet that hadn't been flown in six years.

This would be another A8-3 flight, but being a minimum diameter rocket, I fully expected this one to scream.  It did an excellent impression.  Since this has never made it out of the "body in white" stage, I felt like I could fly it with abandon, which at B6-4 Field is an A8-3 in a rocket this size.  It left the pad heading in a similar direction as most of the previous flights, though not going as deep into the outfield.  My notes mentioned that it flirted with the softball complex, but I don't remember that being the case.  I remember it coming down on the infield along the first base line.  I also remember it core sampling slightly, but without damage.

By this point in the afternoon, my flying conditions had taken a turn for the worse.  Winds were steadier, the temps were dropping, and the once sunny sky was now full overcast.  My final flight would be the Cherokee B, another minimum diameter bird that would overfly the field on an A.  Despite knowing this, I still went on with the flight.  I've done the Cherokee family from A to F with A and B being the two hardest to track in flight, but I've always managed to find them.

The Cherokee B left the pad following the same flight path as the Spartan before it, heading straight away from the pad toward the softball complex.  Altitude was excellent to the point that it was difficult to track against the clouds, but I kept the camera pointed close to where I thought it would be.  It was like the old adage "Wherever you go, there you are!"  And there was the Cherokee B.  Altitude reached 379' and it appeared to be in the no-man's land between the fields when the ejection charge fired.  It landed on the infield in the bunting zone down the first base line, slightly core sampled, but undamaged.

I had more rockets, but I also had thin skin, dinner to start, and a sneaking feeling that I'd pushed my luck enough for the day.  Aside from the ten I flew, two MRI clones, the Phobos and Theta 37, made it to the pad only to suffer ignition failure.  There's something of a chance that between now and the end of the year the two of them with be the leadoff flights here, but as usual, that is weather and time dependent.  As for this launch, who wouldn't consider a ten flight day a success?