Man what an exciting day! We didn't have a HUGE turnout, but pretty darn good, and we put up a LOT of rockets! I got to bed late and took my time getting up this morning, but I arrived shortly after the festivities began and certainly saw my share of the excitement. Here's the breakdown on what went up today...

Mikus sent up a Birdie on an A10-3T. Gyll put his Phobia up on a G64-7W. Devlin launched an NSA Guardian on a C6-5. Jesse lofted his Patriot with an E9-6. Mikus followed with his Der Red Max on a C6-5. These flights went up shortly before I arrived, so I can't comment directly, but most if not all seemed to be good flights, as I didn't witness much damaged rockets around when I got to the field.

Mikus sent up his Gauchito on an A10-3T for a nice flight but busted a fin on recovery. Mikus also sent up a Corkscrew on a B6-4 for a good show.

Scott returned the Guardian to the skies under C6-5 power for a nice flight, and Matthew soon followed suit with his Big Bertha on a C6-3. Cici brought out here LOC Weasel on an E18-7W, which suffered some sort of cato immediately after liftoff. Upon collecting all the parts of the reload which had scattered themselves in a 20 foot arc around the pad, the nozzle was discovered plugged with paper of some kind and the remains of the igniter, sealing it off completely, The rear closure was found nearby, as was the casing, and both threaded back together, apparently unharmed. The grain was found 15 feet north of the pads, almost completely unburned, save for the cardboard liner. The delay grain was found 10 feet sound of the pads unburnt. The rocket's steel shock cord leader was burned through and the recovery system a bit scorched, but no serious damage was apparent. I got a photo of the rocket on liftoff, apparently a few microseconds before the cato, which I'll post with the reat of the pics shortly.

Mikus returned to the flight line with his Metalizer on a B6-4 which turned in a nice flight. Matthew's Rascal was next on an A8-3. Mikus sent up a neat Shark! on a B6-4, which looked great with it's half-white, half gray paint job, three forward fins and four rear fins, and shark teeth and gills decals. It made a nice flight but cracked a fin on recovery. Devlin sent up his Defender on an E30 for a nice flight. Mikus brought out his Patriot missile for a D12-7 flight that seemed a tad underpowered, but was good anyway. John Thro brought out his neat little Semroc V-2 which flew beautifully on a B6-4. Scott was next up with his Scissor Wing Transport under C6-3 power, which weathercocked but flew nicely, but suffered from a tad too much noseweight on the glide and turned some tight steep fast spirals back down to the ground. Devlin sent up his NSA again on a C6-5 for a good flight.

Next up was a Big Daddy by Mikus I believe (since nobody put their name on the flight sheet for the next three :)) on an E9-4. Nice flight but a busted fin on recovery. Next up was a Renegade on a D12-0/C6-? combination. The flight started well until staging, at which time the rocket staged and it quickly became apparent something was amiss, as the motor separated from the sustainer and left parts all over the sky. The first stage landed hard with it's incinerated streamer gone, and popped one wingtip pod, but was otherwise undamaged. The sustainer returned hard but more or less ok. Photos of the flight will be in the photo album, along with some sky pics of staging, showing parts scattered about.

Mikus' NASA Pegasus flew next on a C6-3 for a nice flight, but again busted a fin on touchdown. Hope you got plenty of glue handy Mikus!

John Thro sent up his Big Dad-E on a D12-5 for a very nice flight. Got some great liftoff shots of the red and blue bird slowly taking to the skies and returning to terra firma. Next up was Mikus's Renegade with a 24mm mount in the sustainer, flying on an E9-6. It turned in a nice flight and I believe returned with all it's fins intact... LOL:) John Thro next sent up his Goemmer Prometheus on an A8-3. Devlin sent up his Legacy on an E18-7W.

Jesse lofted his Big Bertha under D24-7 power, and John Thro broke out a cluster with his 7-UP Flyer on a pair of B6-4's. Mikus sent up his Russkie Goonie on a C6-5. Galen sent up a LOC Aura on an E18-7W, and Mikus returned to the pads with his D-Region Tomahawk on an E9-6. He soon followed up with his Eliminator on an E9-6 for a really nice flight, and his beautiful Maxi-Apha III on a D12-5 for a terrific flight.

Jesse and John Thro had a drag race-- Jesse's Big Bertha under D24-7 power, and John's 7-UP Flyer on twin C6-5's. I didn't see that one but I'm sure it was a good one. I'd put money on the D24 in the Bertha taking the twin C6's, though!

Mikus broke out his CBU-87 Cluster Bomb and sent it uphill on a C6-3, which weathercocked in the breezy afternoon wind and scattered streamered bomblets all over my south pasture, and returned unscathed. That kept the kids busy collecting the rocket and bomblets for awhile.

It had to happen sooner or later, and it happened today... the ubiquitous Blue Ninja drag race! On one end of the launcher we had Blue Ninja on a D12-3, and at the other end Mikus's Blue Ninja on a D12-5. The countdown was given and the button pushed, and both Blue Ninja's leapt skyward in the gusty breeze, rapidly crossing paths just above the launcher and providing some spectacular photos which should soon be in the album. Both had nice flights, with Mikus's of course deploying pretty close to apogee, while Scott's was a bit early, and both drifted north about 100-150 yards from the pad. Upon their return, BOTH Blue Ninja's suffered one fin snapped off, which made an interesting group pic... Never a dull moment!

John Thro brought out his upscaled Totally Tubular and sent it up on a C6-5. A gust hit it as it left the rod and weathercocked it sharply WITH the wind, and it flew off at high speed on a rather flat ballistic arc toward the west northwest carrying a good deal of speed and not very much altitude. It crossed the fence and deployed right about on impact. It suffered some tube crushing on the front but shouldn't be TOO hard to fix... sorry John!

Next, Gyll sent up his Legacy on a G64. Mikus broke out some of his recently arrived Quest long-burn C's for a test flight, since none of us as far as I know have seen the long burn C's fly here yet. He loaded up his Chrome Dome with the Quest C6-5 and sent her up. Those motors do burn L-O-N-G! and turn in a VERY nice flight, but upon return, we opened the twist-lock Estes plastic motor retainer to find that the motor had basically melted the motor retainer! We gave it a short cooling period since the casing was almost too hot to touch to let the plastic re-solidify, and then with a slight rocking to stretch the plastic a bit and break the casing loose, I extracted the still-hot spent motor casing from the retainer, which came out ok despite significant melting on the inside. Surprisingly, the outer paper label of the motor was scorched, so I pulled my pocketknife and did a quickie post-mortem on the case right there. The Quest Chinese motor cases cut surprisingly easy; far easier than splitting an Estes case, as the Quest cases seem a bit thinner and less well-laminated together, like they're assembled with less adhesive between paper layers when the casings are wound. Upon splitting the motor, there was a lot of scorching and delamination on the inside as well, with multiple layers of burned paper inside visible, and some spots burned well past the half-thickness of the paper case, which led to the marked scorching of the white motor label. I got some interesting photos of the casing, retainer, and post-mortem of the motor. One question raised was what the nozzles are made of, which appears to be a fine powdery clay almost like flowerpot clay, forged into a solid nozzle. It can be scraped with a knife and liberates VERY fine clay dust almost like chalk dust. Good motors but if this heat level is typical, you might want to be careful what you use them in!

Next on the flightline was John Thro's Big Orange under the power of three C6-5's. It turned in a beautiful flight and recovery! Mike sent up his Aerotech Initiator on a G76-7G green motor for a nice flight, and finished off the day for us with his D-Region Tomahawk on an E30-4T motor, but suffered a separation, dropping the rocket back from the D-Region of the atmosphere (well almost) ballistically for a shovel recovery, and sending the chute and nosecone 200 yards northwest. The D-Region suffered a tightly accordioned tube that shortened her up by about four inches or so, but she'll fly again.

With that we called it a day. The wind meter showed that the field conditions for the day, with temps in the low 70's, had an average wind speed of 6.7 mph, with a maximum gust of 21 mph. At times the wind would be around 10 or so sustained, sometimes gusting a bit, and then a little while later would be practically still with almost no wind at all. SO, basically a terrific day of flying.

Looking forward to next month, and the upcoming Challenger Memorial Regional Meet.

Yall have a good one! OL JR :)