During the July 10th launch session at Founders Park in Castle Rock, I flew my scratch-built Astron Alpha.
Powered by a B6-4 motor, the bird flew to a very respectable altitude, popped its ten-inch square para-sheet, and immediately began drifting away, courtesy of a brisk wind aloft.
It didn't take long for the model to clear the flying field boundaries and head directly into a residential area due east.
I lost sight of it during the descent, but Mike Perreault followed it as it passed over some high power transmission lines before disappearing from sight.
Mike and I set out on the search, leaving our significant others and my grandson to stay with the launch gear in our absence. Since the model had landed somewhere in the middle of a residential neighborhood, I didn't entertain any thoughts of successfully finding it.
But, it was worth a try.
Following some landmarks that Mike had noted when he last saw the bird, we crossed the street and searched there first.
Next we backtracked and circled around the corner of the first row of houses. This led us to a large greenway / power line easement that was grown over with waist-high grasses and weeds. Oh, Joy!
I had noted that the estimated drift path of the Alpha had passed over the third house in from the street, so we resumed our search in the field behind that particular house. Carefully scanning the vegetation as we passed through the field revealed no presence of a red parachute and attached white model rocket.
I was encouraged by the fact that there was no Alpha hanging from those tall power lines!
Our trek led us to an access pathway between two houses in the neighborhood beyond the field.
Emerging onto the street, we still saw no sign of the Alpha.
It wasn't until we reached a point where the street curved that, lo and behold, there was the model lying in the road near the curb!
Mike and I were completely astounded that the model had landed in the open like that, avoiding so many house rooftops, fenced yards, and rocket-eating trees!
Here is a satellite view of the area, courtesy of Google Maps. The red line is the model's drift path, and the blue arrows represent the path that Mike and I followed during search and recovery.
The Alpha did sustain quite a bit of 'road rash' from bouncing onto an asphalt surface, but I'll certainly take that over losing the model entirely.
Glad you got it back. I sailed an Estes Firehawk cluster out of VOA about 20 years ago. I went looking for it, mostly because I felt I should at least pretend to look. I saw a woman waving from a townhouse porch and found it laying in the middle of her front yard. She saw it land and figured someone would be coming for it. The same launch I landed one in the dog park and found it stuffed into the trash when I arrived. Of course, no one would own up to it when I arrived and asked who did it. I may have been too loud.
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