Looking Back At 2023

 Happy New Year, blog readers!

Once again, it's time to hang up the new calendars and take my retrospective look at the past twelve months in terms of rocketry activity in the BlastFromThePast shop.

Most striking is the fact that I only managed to knock out two new rockets in 2023, the Mountaineer-IV and the Deltie Airshow! 

This is my lowest yearly output since becoming a BAR in 2016.  Even going back to my 'Old Fleet' days of 1973-1984, it holds the record for the lowest new-build numbers in one year.

This situation might be offset in the upcoming year because I have been plugging away at several other builds that just didn't get quite finished in time this year.

As for launching activity, I managed to put up 31 flights across six launch sessions.

These all took place in the smaller parks in Castle Rock, since the larger launch site at Dove Valley in Centennial was closed down for most of the year for renovations.  The park is supposed to open back up sometime this coming March, so it is my hope that our band of Front Range rocketeers can get back to business again.

I didn't make it down to Pueblo this past year either to attend a S.C.O.R.E. launch. 

As a result, I didn't put up any flights that involved multi-staging or gliding components. Too much potential for losing them on the smaller fields.  Only two of my launches involved motors beyond a C. These were both D-powered flights of an Estes Big Daddy.

As for the flights that did take place in 2023, most were successful, with no models lost or damaged beyond repair. The most serious issue was a C6-5 CATO that gutted my ESAM-58 model, but the bird will be restored and fly again (in some form).

Another highlight of 2023 was in getting my neighbor across the street interested in model rocketry. He has sunk his teeth deep into the hobby and is proving to be an extremely skilled model builder and flier!

So,  here are the yearly pics of the current flight-worthy fleet. Instead of trying to crowd everybody into one big family portrait as in prior years, I chose to take several shots of different rockets arranged in a more orderly fashion:

...and, of course, the models residing in the repair tote awaiting... well...repair !

Thanks to all of you who have checked out the blog this past year.

Happy 2024, and here's to good flyin'!

Perhaps I will see some of you at NARAM!

More to come...

Cheers!