I attained my L3 cert on 8/9/08 and was promoted to L3 TAP on 6/22/11. Let me know how I can help you achieve your level 3 on the very first try! Glad to serve. :)
Last weekend's launch was the club's first since it's cooled a bit. I had planned to attend this weekend's Lucerne launch, Octoberfest, but received notice it had been cancelled due to previous rains and pooling on the lakebed, Oh well... back to last weekend.
I had packed lightly, only bringing two well-flown rockets, but the launch still rocked. First off was my trusty, unpainted 3" Madcow Nike Smoke on a AT H550 Super Thunder. I'll reiterate that this is my new favorite, punchy propellant. In the video notice that the rocket's gone in the upper-left corner before the rock debris even passes the camera:
I forgot which motors that Val and Bruce had flown. Oops. Finally I busted out a Pro29 CTI 138G106 Skidmark for my trusty, painted DarkStar Lite. I was a bit surprised that very little titanium made itself available for inefficient yet spectacular external combustion. I like sparks.
I'm behind. I therefore deem it appropriate to place my April and July 2018 Lucerne flights in a single blog post. 'Cause that's how I roll.
This Mega Cowabunga simply rules. It's of a stubby aspect ratio but it's diameter is eight inches. And is has a 98mm motor mount screaming for increasing thrust. It's inaugural flight was on an AT L1500 Blue Thunder and I've continued with increasing thrust. In April I flew it on an AT 4668L2500 Super Thunder. In July I flew it on a CTI 4807L3150 Vmax. The vessel takes that accelerative abuse like a champion (full-screen viewing remains recommended):
Both flights were very similar. Rapid ascent off the pad, ejection at apogee, gentle unfurling of the 'chute via deployment bag, and recovery less than one mile away on the lake bed. Flight didjits:
I think that Super Thunder has become my favorite punchy propellant of late due to its excessive flame length. Unfortunately I failed to catch a photo of that in April but I seem to remember it being over 15 feet long. I did, however, get a sweet sequence of the L3150 ascent and here's a peak shot:
I've ordered an AT M4500 Super Thunder so you know what's next.
I drove out to Sunday of April's launch to witness Cris Erving's L3 attempt. Saturday was supposed to be horrible so I didn't bother. Cris certified without a hitch:
I was excited to finally fly an Aerotech 98mm, 2-grain, L2500 Super Thunder with stainless steel forward closure at Lucerne. It was raining lightly in North County SD as I left to drive up that way. It continued to rain, on and off, over the drive until I got through Apple Valley... where it worsened. As I got closer to the dry lake bed the rain further increased. Hmph. I turned around and headed home at the pink X below:
That's the closest I've been to Lucern in nearly a year and a half. Better luck next month.
Holtville Havoc II was supposed to see reasonable conditions on Friday, terrible conditions on Saturday, and brilliant conditions on Sunday. I can attest that Friday amazed, Saturday was flyable until about noon, and I wasn't there on Sunday. Here's a group photo and the rest of my photos from Saturday:
I had just one flight planned, on Friday, for this three-day event: the mighty CTI M6400 Vmax! I had mostly prepped my L3 vessel, a 7.5" Nike Smoke, when I realized two problems with the reload. The first was that the now aging resin, Dow PAPI 901 [polymeric with MDI], included with the reload was not curing from the day before. It was thickening but not curing. Secondly I could not fit the nozzle/liner/seal disc assembly into my Dr. Rocket 98/10240 casing. With the forward closure fully threaded into the case I did not have sufficient depth to thread the aft nozzle ring into place. Based on these two issues I scrapped this one flight so nothing to report here. I'll see what CTI recommends as next steps. :(
I was trying to get that flight out of the way on Friday to free Saturday for two L3 attempts. Both Larry Hermanson and Cris Erving pulled their L3 flights together that morning because the weather was unexpectedly good. Larry and Cris finished prepping at nearly the same time and got set up on the two 500' pads. Larry was first with a CTI M1401 White which seemed successful. Cris went second on an Aerotech M1500 Mojave Green and also ascended successfully:
Both flyers seemed positive on their way out to retrieve their rockets. Larry retrieved his first and was indeed successful. Congratulations, Larry! Cris took a bit longer to retrieve his. Upon seeing his rocket I learned that his main had not ejected properly so he's going to try again in April. Props for an amazing launch, all!
Howdy, ya'll. I've been absent from this blog for awhile. This was not my intent and I hope I'm back for some time to come.
I attended the February launch at Holtville and here are my photo selects. I'm quite sure that Mark Treseder shot some of those. Teamwork! I flew only my trusty 3" Nike Smoke on a CTI 540I470 White Thunder:
I had no doubt that this little rocket would withstand the motor's substantial max Q and, surprisingly, I could see it all the way to the ground under chute. Is my vision improving? Cheers!
