June 20 Pickrell, NE
Day two of NE Heat 2004. Well the weather wasn't quite as nice and the turnout was less than half of the day before, but we still had some nice flying and the cloud ceiling continually raised throughout the day so that we could get some high power flights up.
Tannor again made the pick for the first flight of the day and chose the Estes Sizzler, our 24mm version. So we loaded it up and took it out to the pad and we had the first flight of day 2.
And here she goes for a nice flight on an Estes D12-5, good straight boost and a nice burn on those D motors made for a great flight, a little long on the walk for recovery but hey that's the kids job.
We were all a little concerned and wondering about the cloud ceiling and where it was at, so we quickly loaded up another rocket, the AT Arreaux with an F20-7. Per Aero Tech's motor matrix this flight should attain about 1600' so we decided to give it a go and see how it looked compared to the clouds.
As is the usual for this bird, a nice arrow straight flight, deployment was right on the money and it came down fine on the stock 16" nylon chute. The whole flight was under the clouds so we knew we had a little room.
We slowed up for a little bit and did some watching and waiting for the clouds to lift up a little. While we waited a couple of 4" Amraams flew.
As you can see the clouds lightened up and we were starting to even get the sun poking through every now and then. This Amraam flew like they all do, nice and straight and if I remember right up over 3,000' and stayed below the cloud cover so we were in good shape.
Nicholas' Estes Longshot, he needed a motor for it so we supplied an Estes C5-3. A nice flight, however it separated at apogee and came down a little hard but other than some dirt in the body tube from a core sample there was no damage.
Next of Dionne was ready to fly her Horizon. So I started helping her to prepare it, after getting it prepped she built an AT I218 Redline for the flight and was ready to go.
On the pad and ready to go.
Liftoff above on the AT Redline motor.
It did fly nicely, a good straight boost, a short AT delay deployed a little early but the parachute deployed nicely and Devin and I were in for a long walk for recovery. We found it and everything was fine with no damage despite the early deployment.
We readied the 3" Horizon for our next flight, after getting it fully prepped and ready to go I took it out to the launch pad only to find that the rod just wouldn't fit inside the launch lugs, they were just too tight. I'll have to get them off of there and replaced by the next launch.
So we took the G64 out of the rocket and readied the AT Arcas for a flight using the G64. The AT lugs fit the rod fine and we loaded it up. It lifted off nicely and flew for a nice flight.
This rocket was looking very nice before and after flight, unfortunately when I got home I wiped it down as I've done in the past, and as I do with all my rockets with some Windex, and for some reason this time the Windex smeared all the decals on the Arcas, so now it's not quite as pretty, which just basically means it will continue to fly nice and not get lost.
Some other flights had gone off and the cloud cover had lifted up nicely, I was ready for another flight with the stretched Horizon on it's favorite motor, the AT J350.
The rocket was prepared for dual deployment with the RRC2 altimeter, drogueless at apogee and my favorite Rocketman R7C parachute for the main at 500'. All kevlar for the recovery systems.
Here she is ready to go.
Coming up to pressure on the AT J350.
And she's off again for another nice flight. That's a 69" rocket and as you can see the flame from J350 is nearly as long as the rocket at this point, one of the reasons I really like this motor.
This is the third J350 for this rocket, why I bought another rocket for my level 2 attempt I have no idea, oh yeah now I remember because I really wanted a THOR, level 2 was a "reason" to get one.. heh.
Once again it went up nicely, very straight and very quick, separation at apogee right on cue and then the main deployed nicely at 500' for a soft recovery. Upon reaching the rocket, I found it fine once again with no damage, the RRC2 beeping out an altitude of 3,620' for this flight.
That was the last flight for us on Sunday, below are pictures of other flights if you know details about the rockets please let me know, name, motor, etc.. I may also have higher resolution photos that I'd be glad to send to the owners of these rockets.
A rack of low power rockets ready to go, Estes Fat Boy (Tim Trojanowski), Estes Big Bertha, and an AT Cheetah on a D12.
Kevin's all fiberglass rocket on it's maiden flight, an AT H165 Redline.
I'm not sure who's this was, went up on Sunday, looks like an AT white lightening motor.
Andrew's Loc Caliber ISP on a SkyRipper J144 Hybrid, it started out nice, then it appeared the lower end of the motor came apart, all of it was eventually found later.
Anyone know who's rocket this is or the name of it...? :-)
An Estes Python lifting off.
If you can see that streak that was the last flight of the day on Sunday, a slightly modified Quest Nike on an AT G80, needless to say it was moving out quickly. Not found, hard to tell but it's yellow in color, or it was......
Finally at home it's time for cleanup and re-organization of launch boxes....Luckily the kids went into business for themselves and started cleaning cases, so I already had all my cases clean. Just time to clean up rockets and boxes.
That was it for our weekend at Nebraska Heat 2004.