At long last, the 40th Anniversary Alphas have reached the Dakotas! Today, three of us from the Fargo-Moorhead Area Rocket Society (F-MARS) took the rockets on a road trip to South Dakota. It's only about 70 miles south of Fargo, and since no flier could be found for the state, I offered to do it. Kevin Rezac, Mike Maurer, and I were the fliers
After crossing the ND/SD border (yes, they really are two separate states!), we started searching for a suitable field to launch in extreme northeast South Dakota, right by the junction of Minnesota and the Dakotas. A solid week of steady rains didn't make this easy. The fields were either already planted or too muddy. The public lands along the MN/SD border were mostly full of water and geese. We ended up just north of Rosholt, SD, a tiny town of about 500 people 10 miles into the state.
Today was the first time we'd seen the sun in over a week, but it was mostly cloudy by the time we found a decent spot with winds out of the north around 10 mph. We set up the pad, and launched a test rocket on a Quest A6-4. It landed on the gravel road we were on, so we tilted the pad a little to the side to make sure the Alphas landed in the soft dirt.
The Classic Alpha went first, and the boost with the A8-3 was straight up despite the wind. It landed safely in the field about 40 feet south of us.
Next was the Modern Alpha. It flew a little higher, still going straight up, landing about 60 feet away.
After taking pictures and packing up, we stopped in Rosholt to pick up a suitable postcard for the box. We found one with a nice aerial view of the town.
Once I get a chance later this week, I'll post the pictures on a website. For now, stay tuned for the North Dakota launch, coming soon.
Paul Seifert NAR #77554