This launch report post is a wee bit late in coming.
For most of the month of August the BlastFromThePast household had been the center of a substantial amount of family activity, resulting in precious little keyboard time.
The August 19th Dove Valley launch was initiated by Mike Goss, who had happened to plan a rocket flying outing with his two young grandkids.
Mike put out an email invitation to the rest of the rocket gang to join them at the park, to which Jesse Ulibarri and myself responded in the affirmative.
Mike and the kids arrived at the field at 10 a.m. and began launching birds. Jesse and I were there by 10:45.
The weather conditions consisted of temperatures in the mid 70s and sustained wind around 6-7 mph.
After having some encounters with rocket eating trees in the downrange area, it became a good idea to limit BT-50 and smaller models to A motor power, and B's for the BT-55 and 60 sized models, though a few models saw some C-motor action.
We were also very wary of the activities of a grounds crew operating mowing equipment around the park. They turned out to be a non-issue as they worked around our little setup.
Here is the pictorial rundown of the flights:
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| Mike's Granddaughter, Naomi, poses with a Satellite White Crayon rocket. |
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| Mike's Grandson, Aaron, ready to launch an Estes Chrome Dome. |
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| Mike's Grandkiddoes preparing to launch an MPC Duck Dodgers Star Traveler on a C6-5 motor. These young-uns proved to be an excellent launch and recovery crew! |
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Another favorite of grandkids - a Generic E2X awaits ignition on an A8-3 motor.
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| A Goss Crossbow SST ready to go on A8-3 power. The model experienced a shock cord burn-through, but all was recovered successfully. |
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Mike Goss flew a nicely finished Photon Probe on a C6-3 motor.
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| Liftoff for a great flight... |
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...that culminated high up in a 'Rocket Eating Tree'!
Mike returned later in the afternoon armed with a long pole and was able to retrieve the model. |
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| My first flight of the day went to the newly refurbished and upgraded EAC Viper. |
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| Flying on a B6- 4 motor, the model flew high and drifted out of the park, barely missing landing among a row of RETs (Rocket Eating Trees) |
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| Jesse Ulibarri's Black Brant II scale model ready for flight. |
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| Perfect Launch and Recovery! |
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| Mike Goss flew a Loc Precision Big Nuke on an A8-3 motor. For some unexplained reason the model went unstable. |
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Young Aaron was soon back in the action with a successful
launch of a Power Patrol on a B6-2. |
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| My Big Bertha set to go on a B6-4 motor. |
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| Next up was my freshly repaired Citation Patriot ready to fly on B6-4 power. |
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| Jesse prepares a Sky writer for flight. |
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| This is Mike Goss's scratch-built 'Flame' built from an Estes Booster-55 unit. The model flew nicely on a C11-3, but the parachute failed to deploy. No damage. |
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| Here is a model not often seen on the flying field - a scratch-built McKibben Special, an old Estes Design-of-the-Month bird. |
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| Impressive flight !! |
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| My next model to take to the skies was a B6-4 powered Nike-X. |
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| My final flight of the day was a launch of a Quest Nike-K on a B4-2 motor. |
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| The last model to fly in this session was Jesse's nicely finished Alpha. |
Also flown by Mike Goss, but not pictured -
- Quest X30 NASP on a C6-3
-Estes Indicator, A10-3T
Just too good to be passed up...
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| Mike Goss demonstrates that it is necessary for rocket and rocketeer alike to compensate for wind! |
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| A very ecstatic Jesse Ulibarri !! |
