August 7, 2004 TQC
A new first for me, I actually made it to a launch by myself without the kids. Don't know that it was as much fun without them but I enjoyed the lack of some hassles. The weather turned out to be beautiful with light winds and partly cloudy skies, ceiling reported by the airport was around 12,000' so we were in good shape.
Anyway, my first launch of the day was with the Binder Jaguar. I wanted to fly it on an I154 Black Jack but the night before while prepping and building motors I'd found that my 38mm seal disk was missing so I went ahead and loaded up an AT I161 instead.
I got the final prep done and I was ready to launch. Flight plan was for a 12" drogue at apogee and the 30" main at 500'. This was all controlled by the Missile Works RRC2.
Lifting off on an AT I161. Flight went as planned, but again a little wobble at motor burn out, RRC2 functioned fine and everything went as planned. Achieved an altitude of 2361' per the altimeter.
Next up I had the Thor setup and ready for it's flight. I just had to build the motor, for this flight I'd selected an AT J350 and got it built and I was ready to go.
On the pad and ready to go, one last picture.
Here it is lifting off and moving up the rail. I ran out of luck and didn't get much of a liftoff picture on this one. The flight was arrow straight as usual and beautiful all the way up. The RRC2 was set for drogueless at apogee and the Rocketman R7C main at 500'. The apogee charge fired and separated as planned, then a couple seconds after that the main deployed for some reason. Still haven't been able to figure out why, as the main charge fired at around 500' as it was supposed to.
Flight was to 2,672' and touched down softly, other than the early unexplained main no problems.
This just in thanks to Vic for supplying these pictures of the Thor lifting off.
I've been itching for a while to get my 3" Horizon up on a high power flight and have backed down do to winds several times. Well today was different, with the light winds and plenty of flights to judge landing I was ready to go.
I had loaded an AT H128 the night before and I just needed to prep the recovery system, after completing that I was ready to go. Understand that an 18oz rocket with an H motor moves out pretty quick, so the picture is a little blurry.
Even with the camera set on a high shutter speed this thing is blurred it's moving out quick. That's a nearly 3' rocket with a nearly 3' flame underneath it. Flight was perfectly straight up and quick, the 10 second delay looked to be just about right with the ejection appearing at apogee and a good deployment of the Rocketman R3C parachute for a touchdown on the sod.
After flight inspection showed that the deployment must have been a little higher speed than it looked with some mild paint damage from the shockcord coming back across the body tube, but overall no problems.
I had one more flight and it was on the Fliskits Deuces Wild which is a fun little kit. I forgot to set the camera to burst mode and missed liftoff pics unfortunately. It went up for a nice straight flight on dual C6-5 motors for an overall good flight, and recovery.
During the day I was able to snap these other liftoff pics, if any of these are of your rocket and you'd like the full size pictures just let me know. Or if you have any of the specifics on the flights I'd appreciate it.
Pete Heavilin's AT Arcas going up on it's maiden flight on an AT F20-4 for a nice flight and recovery.
Unknown rocket lifting off, I don't recall any other details on this one, looks like a Cessaroni flame?? Been updated that this is Chuck Swindler's rocket and was advised maybe a K660 or K570, I do recall there was a K445 flight this day also maybe that's it.
Another nice liftoff going up.
Another lifting off on an AT Redline motor, I believe it was an H165.
Here we have an upscaled Estes Orbital Transport. This was a great job, looks much better in person.
Here it is lifting off on an AT I211 for a nice flight. The main body was flown and then recovered via parachute, standard recovery. The glider was radio controlled and flown back to the ground, a great flight.
Pete's Oscar going up on a Cessaroni K motor for a nice flight and dual deployment recovery.
One of the more interesting flights of the day, this lifted off then turned west and landsharked, it was found and recovered in the corn field to the west.
This was a 2.6" Black Brandt II, going up on an AT H165 Redline for a level one cert attempt, the first shot didn't work out quite right but it was put right back up again for a second attempt and a successful cert flight.
A nice looking rocket lifting off on an AT Redline motor.
I don't recall much about this flight I think it must have been pretty boring. ;-) Just one of those new Cessaroni 54mm L730 motors going up in all fiberglass rocket, that crashed and came back unharmed... In reality it was a great flight to watch, quick and high and neat to see a new product.
If I remember correctly this was an AT I284 lifting up an unknown rocket.
On the pad and ready to lift off...
And lifting off on obviously AT White Lightening, unlike one of Pete's little fire motors.
Vic hadn't been having the best of day's today, but he got it all perfected with this flight, his PML Black Brandt going up on an AT I300 Blue Thunder.
Then just what he wanted to see, a fully inflated shoot with a clear blue sky behind it.. Nice flight Vic.