There are great launches and less than great launches, and yesterday’s was not in the great category. Not terrible, but not great. Let’s start with this, which you can take as a tip for the next launch you go to: It helps if you bring your rocket motors. Failing that, it helps if you, like me, live less than 15 minutes’ drive from your launch site.
It also helps if the weather cooperates. Yesterday’s weather wasn’t bad at all. On the other hand, it wasn’t what was expected. It was supposed to be mostly sunny, high about 74°F, winds about 6 MPH in the morning and higher but under 10 MPH in the afternoon, promising to give May a run for its money as best launch weather this year. Instead it was overcast, with winds near 10 MPH and occasionally gusting to 16 MPH, until late afternoon, and the temperature just barely hit 70°F. After about 3 pm it started to clear up and get less breezy. No one would have complained (yes they would have, but not as much) if that had been the forecast, but we’d been expecting better.
This being August it was the annual Family Picnic launch. We put the big striped tent up the evening before, and set up the flight line and pads, leaving pretty much just the electronics for the morning. At the big tent there were burgers and dogs available, and pot luck contributions which seemed to consist just about entirely of desserts. The giveaway rockets table was set up, and a table for the $1 raffle for that day, the $5 raffle we’d been running for the season, and the door prize. One of my tickets was the first one drawn for the $1 raffle and I came away with a donated Delta IV Heavy model, set up for perilous 3-motor clustering. “Designed and built by REN” it says on it; I have no idea who REN is or how this ended up in our club donations pile.
My camera’s battery wasn’t properly charged, so I only got a few photos on it, half of which were hopelessly overexposed due to an incorrect mode setting. For most of my pictures I had to rely on my phone, which has a pretty good camera, but no optical zoom.
My first rocket up was the White Sands V-2 No. 3. I put a B6-4 in it, and it flew fine.
My entry in this year’s ongoing B Streamer Duration contest was… the same as it was in May and July, the Yankee with the big creased Mylar streamer, also on a B6-4.
I got only about 49 seconds this time, 12 seconds off last month, maybe in part because it was tilted into the wind and maybe just less thermal luck. Meanwhile my competitors were getting better times than before. I still came out on top, but by a lot smaller margin.
The launch theme was odd-rocs, so it was time to get odd. I flew the R13 on a D21-4 Aerotech single use motor. It moved fast! Flight was good and I squeaked out a few notes on it after recovery.
This is where things started going a bit sideways. I put the Star Orbiter up on an Estes black powder F15-6. I had a chute release in it. Too bad I forgot to turn it on. The rocket flew well but tumbled down, no damage.
And then there was the Scion. I put a CTI G125 in it. I used the chute release again (actually I just unclipped the chute packed with the chute release from the Star Orbiter and put it in the Scion) and turned it on. I pointed the rail into the wind that had been blowing rockets across the flight line…
… and it came nowhere near the flight line. In fact it came down way away. Into a tree. Way up.
I left it there to contemplate its behavior while I prepped the Big Daddy with a D12-3. I got decent pictures Before
During
and, uh, After.
Me before the flight: “Is this nose cone too tight? It’s not too tight.” Me after: “It was too tight.” I could maybe salvage the fin can and nose cone, but I may not bother.
The other contest was Drag Race. One on one with points for first motion, lower height, and later landing. I put my Flat Boy on a B6 up against Scott S’s Make It Fake It.
The Flat Boy was first off the pad,
but I should’ve used an A motor. Not sure what motor Scott was using but mine actually got higher, and it landed first, so Scott won. The Flat Boy broke a fin on landing (maybe surprising this hadn’t happened sooner). Repairable.
Before evening set in, Scott R. and I took a long walk out to where the Scion was hanging and managed to recover it intact.
There was a night launch this time, only four rockets and two of them mine but that was four more than last year. Big Blinka did its usual good job.
It was hard to tell, being, you know, dark, but Roll Model appeared to spin rather violently on the way up.
And now it needs repairs. Seems to have torn itself apart, or at least loosened a couple parts. I’ll think about ways to make it sturdier this time.
So: one forgotten case of motors, one failed chute release, one tree landing, one lawn dart, one broken fin, and one structural failure. Not so great. Still fun though.
Rich's Rockets 