Maiden Flight of the Mark II Rock-A-Chute

For this post, I thought I would back-track a couple of years to November 3rd, 2016, the day of the maiden flight of the Mark II.  This is the same bird I took with me to the NAR Reunion in Pueblo and had on display along with its old-school launcher.

I had actually posted this flight as part of the 'Launch Date' series on the first version of this blog.  I had to take the blog down later that winter, and, unfortunately lost all the posts in the internet 'abyss'.

On this particular date, I had contacted fellow Denver model rocketeer Mike Goss, and we met to conduct a launch session at Dove Valley Park in Arapahoe, Colorado. (A suburb of Denver).

Mike kindly took the following photo of me posing with the Mark II.

I made the decision to post these pictures in black and white since this is a launch of a 1950s model rocket.  I had entertained the idea of arriving at the launch field dressed in 1950s style garb, but I opted out.  I didn't even put any white tape on the corner of my reading glasses I usually wear.

Oh, well ...I'm nerdy enough as it is....

Here is a pre-flight 'glamour' shot of the Mark II on the pad.  The high tech launcher is a block of 2 x 8 wood with a 5/16 diameter wooden dowel launch rod.  The blast deflector is a sheet of roof flashing cut and bent to shape.  Old school as you can get. 

And... Lift off!

A nice straight up flight of a big launch lug with a model rocket attached to it! 

Incidentally, the launch lug on this model is the casing of the very motor used to propel my first BAR-era model rocket flight a couple of months earlier.

The Mark II turned in a very nice flight on an A10 motor, and was recovered via a 15" red plastic square parachute, just the way Orville flew em'.

I had so much fun with the Mark II that I quickly re-prepped and flew it a second time.  Again a perfect flight.

Here's the Mark II in living color:

To date the model has flown 3 times, with plenty more flights to go...