I had originally planned to do my flying on Sunday this week, but my wife had arranged for someone to pick up a bed frame and mattress that had been stored in the shop, and the idea of more space was stronger than the idea of flying. It had been a cool, but pretty much perfect day, so it irked me a bit to pass on it. Monday turned out to be the same kind of day, so I considered it a wash.
The Grove was empty and looked to have been recently mowed when I arrived. I set up in a clear spot in left-center and pulled out the first rocket of the day, which was almost the last rocket of the day the last time I was here, the LOC/Precision Hi-Tech Mini. I didn't fly it that day because I'd already flown the Iris Mini on a B6-4 and almost lost it. I thought the H-TM was loaded similarly, but when I pulled it out of the tote, I found a more sedate A8-3.
Dumb luck. That's what made this the perfect leadoff flight. That and perfect conditions. The H-TM left the pad heading slightly right and topped out at 364', ejecting as it was still heading up, then drifting back toward the pad on recovery, landing 30' from where I stood watching. Flights like this are dangerous because they lull me into a false sense of security. This would be no different. I was lulled.
With the obligatory leadoff flight out of the way, I went with another 24mm to 18mm bird for the next up. I built the FRW SLS Sprint before Estes announced that they were doing the same thing. I guess that makes me psychotic or something. It's a great cornfield bird, but I wanted to see how it flew on a B6-4 in The Grove.
The SLS Sprint left the pad heading slightly right. The B6-4 provided plenty of power for the flight and topped out at 283'. Everything looked like it was going well until ejection. I was using a homemade chute that I cut out of a checkered tablecloth. I had a bunch of these from a 10-for-$1 eBay purchase a long time ago. I'm down to one, so I bought a pack of plastic tablecloths from Amazon. This was the first one I've used. The shroud lines had been taped on, but the recovery was too much for one of the shroud lines. The Sprint wasn't damaged, but it was an ugly recovery.
Flight #3 on the day would be another eBay bird, this an oddly built Honest John. It had recently been repaired and I grabbed it without thinking. This one has all the hallmarks of being kid built. The fins have been "customized", the shroud omitted, and the nose cone bottom rounded off so that it looked like a light bulb. The paint is a "whatever Mom had in the craft cabinet" job.
This got off the pad fairly quickly, so I really didn't get much of this flight with regard to flight pics. It flew out toward Rt 8, but not aggressively so. I have it shown as a 428', but my reaction on the video says that is conservative. The B6-4 flight took it way higher than expected and it seemed to hang forever on the reefed chute. It eventually recovered behind me, way back in the lot for the soccer fields. I followed it down, but at no point during the video of the recovery could I actually see the rocket. The gravel landing took chunks out of a couple of the fins, but it should be ready for its next flight in 2031.
Flight #4 is when things started getting ugly. I had unearthed the MPC/Phase 2 Lunar Shuttle earlier in the week and planned to fly it on a B6-4. Then I dropped it and shattered one of the fins, a three foot fall that never should have caused damage. That changed my attitude and I subbed in a C6-3 instead.
The first sign of trouble was when the C6-3 seemed to be having trouble getting the LS off the pad. A rocket of this size should have been no trouble for the mighty C6, but it lost forward momentum almost as soon as it left the pad. If it made it to the 20' mark, I'd be surprised. It turned and headed back toward the ground and looked to be on fire pretty fully at this point. The ejection charge fired while it was on the ground and the smell was something akin to the Thingmaker we played with as kids. Flight post-mortem didn't tell much. Lots of melted plastic, about six inches of shock cord left unburned and a badly charred motor casing were what I found. The motor tube just pulled out almost looking intact. This particular Thing will fly no more, but I saved the nose cone, launch lug and engine hook
Ugh, how to follow that? With a first flight newbie! That would be the FRW Son of Fougee, a rocket that I scraped together after finding different parts of it while cleaning the shop. The fin can came from an eBay bird I called the Fougee because it was clearly homemade and because I could kind of make out the name Fougee as the seller. The original rocket had a payload section that survived the flight along with the tail section, but amidships, nothing was recoverable. The payload still flies. Now so does the tail section.
Son of Fougee is fairly small, so this would be an A8-3 flight, and not just any A8-3, but a shortie A8-3. I forgot that the original plan for SoF was a mini-motor, but I never got around to gathering the parts for a mini mount. Still, I wanted to fly it, so I improvised. The flight left the pad leaning to the left and topped out at 397'. The ejection sounded like the shotgun of old and the SoF hung up for what seemed like an eternity on the streamer, dropping back behind the pad and landing in short left. Post-flight inspection revealed a gash in one of the fin tips, apparently from the nose cone rebounding. It's not fatal, just a beauty mark.
Flight #6 would be another attempt at a 2xA8-3 cluster. The past two attempts with Der Orange Max have not gone well, but they were with the two piece rod that I believe contributed to the issue. The Big Bertha was an older kit that I got on the cheap as a late night eBay Buy It Now. I already had three Berthas flying at that point, and I had the cluster mount sitting around, so it seemed like an easy choice. The paint scheme was my interpretation of the black and white pic on the face card. I have no idea what the actual vintage of image was.
The idea about the possibility of flying clustered A motors at B6-4 Field was where this all started. I flew a 3xA8-3 variant of the Astron Cobra at a club launch earlier in the year and it looked like a viable B6-4 Field flight for a calm day. I figured the 2xA8-3 would be even better suited, but the Orange Max had thus far left me with the goo. I had the Max loaded in the tote as well, but the Bertha was handier for flight #6. I was careful to make sure the leads were tightly twisted and the clips were securely fastened. It was go time and the Bertha went nicely, heading aggressively to the right toward Rt 8. Altitude was as expected at 284' and it worked its way nicely back toward the infield on a perfectly deployed chute. I found myself happy to have upgraded to the one piece rod and hoped for more of the same with the Orange Max.
Flight #7 would be another new build, but an old rocket, the Vaughn Brothers Buzzard, a close cousin to the Enerjet Pterodactyl. I received it back in 2002 when I was a featured reviewer at EMRR, but it was one of two kits I was sent that I couldn't get a handle on, or more likely, didn't see myself being able to keep it from becoming kindling. I recently got the kit back out, realized that a piece was missing, and found the scans to cut a replacement. Turns out this kit was fairly idiot proof.
Certain kits can make or break a launch. I've found that for me, it's the success of a glider that can elevate a bad day back to the acceptable range. There was a lot of carnage at the field today, but this flight let me walk off feeling good about things rocketry related. The flight was an A8-3 because I had no idea what kind of performance I was going to be seeing. The rod for the Buzzard flight was angled to the right since my launch spot in deep left-center left the rest of the field to the right in play for recovery. The Buzzard left the pad heading right, then immediately made a turn to the left. I briefly panicked, thinking the woods were going to claim another of my birds, but the angle kept it over the field. I still had the glider to worry about as far as the woods, but I figured I had a fighting chance of finding something with day-glo orange marker coloring. The colors never came into play. The flight topped out at 276' and at ejection the glider disengaged perfectly. The booster fell to the ground in deep left, while the glider shimmied a bit, then got the wings underneath it and began a fairly steep glide across the field. It still needs some tail weight, but not much, as evidenced by the long glide path. Even with the nose down glide it was able to cross from deep left to straightaway right field, somewhere between 250-300' feet away. I was pumped, and I wished someone had been there to see it with me.
The next flight took me from the penthouse to the outhouse. Flight #8 on the day, still not halfway through, was the eBay Hot Mess, a Frankensteinesque bird that came with a collection of like birds. When the package arrived, I pulled each rocket from the box and gave it a name based on the first thought to pop into my head, hence Hot Mess. The Hot Mess showed signs of being cobbled together with a bunch of leftover MPC parts, something that I feel in my soul, so I got it flight ready.
This flight would be on a vintage B4-6, a Cobra-era pack that was bought on clearance. I flew another one recently and it performed perfectly, so owing to the sleek lines of the Mess, I opted for an extra couple of seconds at the top. Got more than I bargained for. Sensors indicated 386' at apogee, at which point it turned and began heading back to the field. I do what a lot of us do, counted off the delay and expected to see an event. It was a long six seconds. Apparently the Mess only needed five seconds to impact the field with enough oomph to bury the nose cone and an inch of the top section of body tube in the dry ground. It took a good pull to get it out. The earth wanted to keep its prize. I first thought it had spit the motor at ejection, but closer inspection showed that the impact with The Grove had forced the engine mount about 3/4" up in the body tube. I initially thought it would be a simple matter of shortening the upper body tube, but the nose cone shoulder had been shaved away at impact. Unlike the Lunar Shuttle, it might fly again, but it will need to take a place at the back of the repair queue.
The Estes D.O.M. Flying Jennie would be the mid-point of the launch on this day, and it would also continue with the unfortunate habit of incurring damage. This would be the second flight of this glider, and after the successful first flight, I was looking forward to more success with this flight.
Checking the pics and the video, I can't figure out what went wrong with this flight. At any rate, things happened quite quickly. This was an A8-3 flight, so it would likely have attained pretty decent altitude. At liftoff, things happened fast. Both wings detached from the body and fluttered to the right. The motor tube continued on to the left and flew with perfect stability to the fence over by the lake driveway 300' away. I picked up what I could find of the balsa around the pad, then went looking for the motor tube. I truly had no expectation of finding the piece, but walked right up to it, saving it from the mower.
The Estes Bandito was next on the pad. It was a hand-me-down rocket from one of my Friday night friends from The Board. I had bought it for his son as a First Communion present years before and as is the norm, his son lost interest. Rick gave it back to me and it flies sporadically at best.
This would be an A3-4T flight, almost a fire and forget thing. On the previous flight I'd been unable to get the little green engine ring off and when it finally did come off, it was pretty clearly not going back on, so for this flight the motor was pretty securely wedged in with masking tape. Not much to show for the flight. It was dead straight off the pad and was over the field for the whole flight. I was able to follow it all the way up, but after it topped out at 581', it ejected and began drifting back toward the left field foul pole. I took my eyes off of it to get my bearings and when I looked back to where it had been, I couldn't find it. I walked the whole field from deep left to the infield and back toward the pad. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Chances are the black and green went deep in the taller grass and just hid it enough that I couldn't easily see it. Bummed, but fire and forget, eh?
My second 24mm to 18mm flight of the day was next, this one being the Estes Red Nova. For some reason, this has not been one of the kits I grab when I'm heading to the big field, so this might be a perfect solution to getting this more air time.
Almost forgot what kind of juju was flowing through this launch, but the Red Nova flight reminded me. I had replaced my old two-piece rod with a one piece, hoping to curb the odd habit some of my rockets had of taking the rod for a ride, blast deflector and all. The Red Nova left the pad, but took the rod, blast deflector and all. It headed left and landed near the lineup of the flown, still thrusting until the ejection charge fired. Not sure what the "hangup" was this time, but I suspect the lower thrust of the B6-4 didn't provide much initial upward thrust and allowed the lug to bind as it started up the rod. Whatever the case, at the end of the flight nothing was damaged. Heavy sigh.
From the frying pan to the fire, the next out of the tote would be the Stickershock Der Orange Max on a pair of A8-3s. There, I said it.
To say this flight put my nerves on edge is understating it. A lot. After the Red Nova experience, I was even more anxious about this flight, but I felt like I had to go through with it. I checked to see that the wires were twisted tightly enough, hooked it up and checked it all twice before I counted it off and punched the button. This time I got the flight I'd expected all along. The DOM left the pad strongly and flew slightly left to 313'. Ejection seemed early, making me wonder if I would have been better off with a pair of A8-5 motors, but that's for another flight. There was no issue with recovery, and the DOM came down within 30' of the pad to my right and behind me slightly.
I was in the home stretch now and with each flight I wondered if I'd start packing up at the end. Flight #13 would be one of my Estes Comets. I'd bought two lots via eBay that contained Comets that needed repairs with this being the better of the two. Oddly enough, this would only be the second flight and the first since 2018. I think it might have gone along for the ride on several occasions but just didn't get pulled for duty.
The B4-4 flight angled slightly left and behind me off the pad. It topped out at 293' out over the access road, deployed a perfect chute and drifted back into short left field just 20' from the pad. "Like it's done it a million times," was how I described it while watching the recovery, and on a day like this, that's high praise indeed.
The Shecter Streamer Recovery Rocket was an old kit that I picked up on eBay just because it was a rocketry oddity. I bought it to fly and had it built and ready to fly in short order. The first flight resulted in a core sample that resulted in no damage but wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. This would be a redemption flight, always one of my favorites.
This would be an A8-3 flight just like the last time. This time I checked the fit of the nose cone much more thoroughly, ensuring that it came out easily. I had also made sure that the motor was taped in securely. The flight took off slightly left and topped out at 418'. It popped the streamer while it was still moving upward and immediately began streaming back across the field, eventually streaming to a landing back toward the infield in short left. Redeemed.
The Art Applewhite 24mm Hourglass would be flight #15 on the afternoon. This would be the first flight since 2019, surprising because it would have been a perfect rocket to fly during my socially distant launches back in 2020. This was an EMRR contest prize back in 2004 and is a popular rocket with kids because of the way it finishes up.
True to form, the Hourglass started the flight normally, then roughly halfway through transitioned to the spinning, lost control type of flight that always got the attention of the flightline. Altitude reached 392' on the D12-0 after which it dropped into right-center. Perfectly executed and entertaining as always.
I know what you're thinking. "Wait, here we are 15 flights in and Bill hasn't gotten Goony yet." Well, fear not. Flight #16 would be my Goonybird Cloudhopper on an A10-3T. Most of my Goons have been 18mm power, which have been too much power and too little space for the recovery system. I know that now, and my last few builds have corrected the error in favor of the original 13mm power.
I built this as an homage to my original, which explains the color. It was the closest thing I could find to the bargain basement Rocket Red spray paint that I found on the cheap back in 1977. Decals are forthcoming, but I know not when. The A10 flight was pretty much what I've come to expect from the Cloudhopper with its oddball fin configuration, with one exception. The flight was decidedly wiggly, bouncing down the bunny trail to a 269' apogee. Nothing new there. From that point it did a free fall back to the field, not ejecting until the 25' mark, far too late for the chute to deploy. The flight ended with a hard hit and a bounce, but none of the expected damage.
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