These days it gets harder and harder to work a full day with unused vacation out there and retirement looming. July 29 was the most recent victim of this, I found myself with a 1/2 day left from the last 1/2 day I used back in June, and used it to clear up a lingering financial issue. That went much more smoothly than I had any right to expect and by 12:30 I found myself home, making lunch and getting into the launch uniform. (Okay, financial issues and a trip to Hobby Lobby for motors. Got some of the deeply discounted E12-6s.)
I know I mentioned that the next flight I made would be #2500 in my last post. Pity I didn't reread the post before I hit the field with the remnants of the last trip and a few more recently prepared birds. As it was, things worked out about as well as I could have planned them anyway. The first flight of the day and #2500 for life would be an Estes Goonybird Galaxy Guppy on an A8-3. How's that for cosmic?
The Gupster left the pad heading out across the outfield, somewhat in the direction of RT. 8, but never in danger of reaching the road. It topped out at 261' and popped the chute as it tipped over. Two pieces were noticed to be falling, the big one being the Gupster under chute. (The other was the build-up of old dog barf from over the engine mount.) The Gupster was swinging like a bell clapper the whole way down, landing without issue. The baked barf was left to fertilize the field.
Flight #2501 would be the Excelsior Der Goony Max. Like the Goonybird Zero, this rocket dates back to 2005 and the start of the worldwide Goony pandemic. Also like the Goonybird Zero, the original decorated B6-4 Field for years. Unlike the GZ, I did the Goony Max rebuild as a 24mm bird, effectively rendering it useless on a small field until I finally built a 24mm to 18mm adapter. Today it would fly on a B6-4. This would be the first flight of the Goony Max since Max Day back in 2020 when I flew every Max then in my stable and almost killed myself in the process.
Today the Goony showed from the start that going with the 24mm mount was a mistake on my part. The B6-4 flight was perfect for conditions, with the Goon heading out toward right field off the pad. Everything looked fine until ejection when two pieces were again seen falling. This time it wasn't just the accumulated dog barf. The ejection charge snapped the 21 year old Kevlar and the body was in freefall back to the field. I knew the grass was long enough to cushion the body when it hit the field, but I couldn't see anything saving the nose cone, parachute and shock cord as they floated off to oblivion. They rode the breeze back over the infield and looked to be fated to a landing in the weeds behind the field. Then they landed on the roof of the concession stand, which was a shed next to where the bleachers once stood. I collected both parts, quite surprised to be taking the whole thing home with me. Repairs should be fairly simple, but I wonder how many other rockets have Kevlar from the same source.
Third on the pad would be the FRW Cherry Bomb, a homebrew rocket built from shop floor parts as the Sky Jart. That rocket met a bad end on flight #1 when it hit the gravel parking lot at a WSR launch and was rebuilt as the Cherry Bomb. It was also built as a 24mm bird but will be another recipient of an adapter for this flight.
The Bomb boosted just to my right and slightly behind me. On the video you can hear me say "That could be a problem." At first it looked like I was going to be right as the flight topped out at 247' and was just across the parking lot from the trees that hang out there. The breeze was blowing the Bomb right at the trees and I was sure I was going to be leaving the field one rocket short for the second straight session, but just when it looked bleakest, the breeze died off. The Bomb slipped past the trees and settled on the grass of the pre-school soccer field. Maybe luck was on my side for a change?
There's no theme here, but this launch would be Max-heavy just because I haven't flown most of them since 2020 when I pigged out. The Stickershot Der Blue Max was the last one finished before Max Saturday in 2020. It involved a guess your best color choice for the nose cone after the body tube was painted, which came out better than expected, although I suspect that no one would have stroked out if I went with the traditional black nose cone.
The Blue Max is normally set up as a single 24mm flyer, so again I used one of my adapters with a B6-4. It left the pad leaning right and looked to be on the same path as the Cherry Bomb had been, if at a slightly lower altitude. I wasn't so much worried about the trees this time, but the gravel lot. Also, there was someone parked at the recycling bins and I didn't want to drop in on his truck unannounced. Much like the Cherry Bomb the Blue Max began drifting toward the woods, but the breeze had little interest in the project and went elsewhere. At this point the only issue became the gravel, and the Max dropped quickly enough that it caught the grass at the edge of the foul line. I talked shop with the guy who was unloading recycling into the containers. He had a friend who had lost a big rocket to a tree here a few years earlier. Good to know I wasn't the only one flying The Grove.
The Centuri ScramJet would be the halfway point on my day at #5. This was the latest in a series of ScramJets dating back to 2001 and was recently pulled from a recycle box after losing the nose cone and shock cord on the most recent flight in 2021. After this flight, I'll be changing out the shock cord with a thinner one because it's too tough to pack in the BT-20 tube.
Chances are this wasn't the first ScramJet flight here in The Grove. I's had somewhere near five of them from faithful reproductions to a failed 18mm powered experiment to a BT-50 upscale. (Thanks, Jay.) This would be an A8-3 flight, which experience had taught me was more than enough motor for a field this size. It left the pad heading out toward right field, topping out at 241' and ejecting as it was horizontal. It immediately began recovering in typical ScramJet fashion by chasing its tail toward Rt. 8 before turning back toward the field and continuing the chase to a landing in right center.
Flight #6 would be the Dr. Zooch Discoverer Thor, one of four Zooch birds in my fleet. The Discoverer Thor was the second Zooch bird on the pads here today as I had the Titan lllC SLV5 loaded and ready, but the igniter was apparently bad and my hands had become to sweaty to trust myself changing it.
Not being a squirming hatch blower, I chose a B6-4 over an A8-3 for this flight. It followed the same flight path off the rod as the ScramJet, but would recover in left center field due to the drift on the parachute. Peak altitude was 318' and the Thor was recovered without damage. I still have one Zooch kit waiting for construction, the Saturn 1 Block 2 SA-5, but I wish they were still available because I'd still be buying.
Next off the pad would be the only mini-engine flyer on the day, the Semroc My Boid. Long after the fact, I found three of these for sale on eBay and snapped them up. I picked the one with the most unusual design and built it, then gave it the usual paint job.
This would be a 1/2A3-4 flight, obviously having been previously loaded for use at B6-4 Field. I ahould have checked before I grabbed it because I assumed it was an A10-3. As it was, this would be the lowest level flight of the day, a fly fart if you will. The flight was dead straight off the pad, topping out at 182' and popping the streamer as it was still heading up. It landed within 20' of the pad, just to my left.
Flight #8 would be another Max, this one the 18mm-powered Mini Max I call the Hemi Max, not because it's overpowered, but because I used Hemi Orange paint on it.
With the 18mm motor taking up a lot of what used to be room for the recovery system, the Hemi Max is somewhat tricky to prepare for flight without the nose cone showing the telltale sign of white at the top of the body tube, but I managed it for the glamour shot. The igniter I used was an old one as evidenced by the tape having lost all trace of adhesive, which caused the leads to want to cross due to the weight of the launcher wires as it hung on the pad. Instead, I used the tape as a block between the two leads. Inelegant, but functional. The flight was straight off the pad to 337' and the ejection charge fired just about the time that forward motion stopped. Recovery was quick. Too quick. Basically, a freefall as the old streamer remained wadded the whole way down. It recovered less than 20' to the right of the pad without damage after a hard hit.
It's been a long time since I flew a Quest motor, and even longer since I flew a Quest rocket on a Quest motor. In fact, looking back through my flight records, I'm not sure it has ever happened. I know I bought a Quest starter set at Hobby Lobby years ago that included engines, but it appears that I never flew the Tracer on anything but Estes motors before losing it in a deadfall. Looks like the Quest Evader Cruise Missile will be my first all-Quest flight.
Like My Boid, there wasn't a whole lot to this flight, but it did everything it was supposed to do. Without an actual Quest igniter, I had used one of my home-grown monstrosities with the acetone melted ping-pong balls and gunpowder to spice things up a bit. I thought this would produce an almost instant reaction, but there was a huge lag from when I punched the button to when anything happened. I was about to give up and pick another rocket when it took off. The boost was somewhat lethargic all through the flight, which topped out at 178'. Ejection occurred WAY late, almost too late. It was racing back to the field when the ejection charge finally fired around 100'. Despite the low level, it was a perfect recovery and landed almost in the same spot as the Hemi Max had.
Then came the finale. On one hand it was indeed of the grand sort, but not really from a performance standpoint. The final flight of the day would be another Max, this one the Stickershock Der Orange Max. I've built four different Stickershock Maxes each with a different motor type. Der Orange happened to be a 2x18 cluster and I'd loaded it with two A8-3s, just to get an idea of whether or not I could fly it here on two B6-4s in the future.
I was anticipating a fairly low-level flight for this one, even with the cluster. I figured about B altitude, which was perfect for B6-4 Field and probably the same in The Grove. Nothing prepared me for what actually happened. There was upward movement when the two engines lit. Scant upward motion. Mere inches up the rod something odd happened. It was clear only one A8-3 lit and the off-center thrust caused a slight turn to my left. This kinked the launch lug against the rod and instead of sliding up it, the rocket began to lift it. The blast deflector had been bent in an aerodynamic shape by the C5-3 CATO at my previous launch. Despite this it failed to fly more than 3 feet or so, and it moved toward the left as the motor continued thrusting. The upward movement wasn't sustainable, and it sank back toward the field almost immediately. It fell over in the tall grass and the tracking smoke began emitting, assuring that I wouldn't lose it. Almost immediately the ejection charge fired the barf load all over the grass, like the college days of Der Orange Max. I'll eventually post this as a reel on Facebox because unlike the Fat Boy CATO, I didn't make a sound during the whole event. Stunned silence. Nothing to edit out. It's a whole new experience for me.
That had to be the end. What can top that? Top it off with the fact that my shirt was soaked to the hem of my shorts and I still had grass to cut and you have a well-defined quitting point. I still had ten rockets loaded, but no more will to fly. The good news is that I'm again set up for my next launch. The bad news is that I still had grass to cut.
