Launch Log 2007.03.10

Today was our first time launching a cluster. This one was the FlisKits Rhino with a 4-motor cluster built with centering rings from Jon's Colorado Rocketry Components.

The Rhino had two flights and both were amazing. The first flight was on 4 A3 motors and the rocket proved to flight straight. I did a quick clean-up, regreased, reloaded, and took a second flight with 4 A10's.

After flying the Rhino, we flew Isaac's Alpha on a C6-7... we were sure we lost the rocket because there was no sight of it even a couple minutes after the launch. While Spencer and I were over in the field to the east of the launch field, we noticed the Alpha decending over the field to the south of the launch field. Wowsers - we'll have to get a pico altimeter and beacon installed in the Alpha before another flight on a C motor!

Launch Log 2007.03.04

We had a beautiful day for a launch at the school by our house today. It was a little breezy, so we started the launch with a C6 in the Outlaw to get an idea what to expect. It was a very pretty flight because the motor was extra smoky and went nice and high.

Those were the last launches of Pipes and Pencil: Pipes got tangled up in power lines and I have no idea when the power company will get it down and I doubt they'll bring it to us; Pencil was flying without a chute (because we forgot all of our chutes at home) and it turns out it doesn't do tumble-recovery so well. BTW, Pipes and Outlaw do tumble-recovery perfectly.

Shanelle went home to get chutes and then we were able to fly some more. Isaac did the prep on his Alpha rocket from Seth. The Alpha had a nice launch, but on its first flight the chute was tangled so it bounced.

Afer the Alpha launch, Spencer decided he was ready to launch his rocket from Seth - the Mighty Mouse. Mighty Mouse flew a couple times and as always it flew beautifully.

The flight was great, but got a little scary because it looked like it was coming down in a tree. It must have been just past the tree or flew through the branches.

The Alpha taking a second flight - the recovery pictures are interesting because we replaced the usual rubber shock-cord with Kevlar thread. The thread is often used in contest models because it is light.

Spencer did the count-down and pushed the button on 3 launches: 1 launch of the Pencil and 2 launches of the Mighty Mouse. He even recovered Mighty Mouse after its second flight.

March Launch Scrubbed

We went to the launch site today. The launch was 'go' as of last night, but a dozen or so of us arrived at the launch site this morning at 9a and high winds made it clear we wouldn't be launching. We waited until about 10:30a to see if the winds would die down but they didn't so the club president officially scrubbed the launch and sent the equipment trailer away :(



Above is a picture of the rockets that I took with me to the launch. I had expected to make my first high-power flight with the bullet today. While I didn't get to fly, I did get a chance to ask another club member to look over the rocket. The red and yellow is an Estes Baby Bertha kit that we've named Mighty Mouse - I actually took two of those today: one with a since 18mm motor mount and one with a cluster of 3x13mm motor.