November early recap

From Brad's entry on the Rocketry Planet blog....

"This was one of the best turn outs we have had in a long long time. The weather was perfect - we had only a couple of rockets eaten by trees and one rocketeer got his revenge by cutting down one to get his rocket back. We had flight after flight from LPR to HPR with smiles all around.

Jim Scarpine came from just north of Raleigh as promised and brought his 4.15x Explorer Aquarius and flew it on a K1275-R Aerotech motor. The flight went just before dark and the brilliant red plume of the monster flame was like a laser it was so bright. The flight was picture perfect with a drogue at apogee and a big white (military?) chute at around 500-600'. Jim couldn't have asked for a better flight and it was the highlight of the launch.

We had multiple L1 cert flights - and I think all were successful. Several folks who got out of HPR when regulation monkeys climbed on their backs came out of the woodwork - some kept their certs the whole dark time and others recertified this weekend.

My favorite cert flight was an H180 flown a few minutes before Jim's K powered Aquarius. The H180 flame was a brilliant white in the fading light and the rocket shot off to what looked like about 2500-3000' then the light winds took it and blew it gently but persistently across the field and over the woods into the next field. We all wrote it off but told the flyer how to get to the next field (you can't get there direct due to a deep stream). We tore down the equipment and packed it in and as we were finishing with the last load who should turn up with his intact rocket but the flyer. I didn't catch his name but lucky for him two of his observers were with us and able to sign his form for his L1.

Several AMW Pro-X sparkys flew including one cert flight on a 4" to 3" design that took off like a scolded dog on an H123 Sparky. The prefect who had known this was a AMW Pro-X when he checked the rocket had forgotten that by the time the rocket was announced. He was expecting a gentle roar of an H123 Aerotech motor and the sparks and the deep growl surprised him! This one ended up in the trees but was rescued and a TRA L1 was earned.

A TON of observers came to the launch including 4-6 dirt bike riders from the neighborhood. They liked it so much that they watched for an hour went away and came back for another view.

We had great participation with setup, LCO duty, RSO duty and tear down. We had collaboration, cooperation, sharing, fund raising, food on site (thanks Ralph!), vendor on site (thanks Ken!), and just a pile of happiness and joy.

All in all this had to be the best launch on the Williams Farm I have attended in my short years flying. And it was certainly the best way to open the rocket season that I can think of. Thanks to everyone who attended."