Just got back from our annual 11th grade El Mirage Rocket Launch. What a day! Blue skies, light winds, lots of sun. They've actually paved the road out to El Mirage now.......what a change from 10 years ago when even porta-potties were non-existent. We flew over 100 rockets today and I honestly couldn't have done it without the help of Jerry Irvine and Jeff Dyer. Both of these guys when way beyond the call of duty manning the two prep areas. We flew everything from clustered C6s to G280s. Out of the more than 100 launches, the failures were fewer than 10. Not bad considering that for the most part, these were the very first rockets any of these kids had ever built. Some of the highlights included a two-staged scratch built that lofted a video camera. This whole stet up including the camera was cobbled together by one of the girls and her dad. As a tribute to how well the rocket was built, it's final flight of the day was on a AT F55. Not only did it works, but it was returned in flyable condition...minus some paint from the fins. (Flutter near mach must have been terrific. ) A cluster of 4 F21s in a Big Daddy didn't fair so well. It was the most expensive and dramatic lawn dart I'd seen in a long time. Three of the girls built a two staged Fat Boy with a four engine cluster of Cs in the booster and a D engine sustainer. It flew three beautiful flights with perfect deployment each time. Lots of TFNC rockets using C6-7s..all were great. All in all a perfect time.
- posted
18 years ago