Launch Date: April 10th, 2023

 After over five months of chronic cold, snow, ice, and wind, this week's weather conditions along the Colorado Front Range have finally been suitable for flying model rockets.

A massive high pressure system has parked itself over the state, bringing warmer, calmer conditions.

Yesterday, I packed up some of my smaller models and some launch gear to head to Founders park in Castle Rock.

As I noted in a previous post, our local group of rocketeers has lost the use of our favorite park for the next year, and we have yet to find a suitable replacement.

I wasn't able to pull the group together in time yesterday, so I had to go solo.

I arrived at Founders around noon to find fairly nice conditions: temperature around 70 degrees and a small amount of breeziness. Aside from a few people walking their dogs around the perimeter path, I had the entire place to myself.

The first model off the pad was the EAC Viper flagship. Powered by a B6-4, this would be its eleventh flight.

The bird boosted straight and high, deploying its parachute at ejection. Unfortunately, the chute tangled in its own shroud lines, and did not fully open. The Viper came in fast.

Despite all of the wide open turf on the field, the model 'chose' to head straight for the six foot wide strip of concrete perimeter sidewalk.

Two fins broken off....

My poor flagship! My aim is to get fifty flights out of the bird, but with all the recent mishaps and breakages, I fear that might not happen. It still needs to survive 39 more flights.  

All I can do is keep gluing it back together and hope for the best.

The second launch of the afternoon went to a Generic E2X carrying a Flight Sketch Mini altimeter.  The model turned in a very nice flight on B6-4 power.  The altimeter recorded 394 feet.

Next up, I broke out a little beginner's bird, a Bandit 3 that I had put together a few years back while building models with my grandkids.  It deserves some airtime, too....

An A3-4T motor took the bird on a very nice flight, which was easily recovered by streamer.

Because a little bit of wind was starting to pick up, I declined to launch the remaining two birds I had brought along.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Founders Park sits on top of a wide mesa.  Winds consistently change direction at any given moment, sometimes as much as 180 degrees!  During the course of this hour-long launch session I had to relocate my launch position on the field to compensate for sudden shifts of wind direction.   On the third such move, I just sat things up in the center of the field and hoped for the best, Somewhat irritating. 

I Did It Again...

After packing up my gear and trekking back to the car, I noticed that my launch rod was missing.

Yep, I had left it back at the launch site.  At least this time, I had soccer net landmarks to go by and was easily able to find the launch area.  I recovered the rod with no problem.

Another 'Senior Moment', perhaps ??

Cheers....