Today, the weather forecast apps showed favorable conditions for Castle Rock around the eleven o'clock hour, so I deemed the situation worthy enough to get out and fly a few models at Founders Park.
After sending a group email to the Front Range crew, I was delighted to get a response in the affirmative from Mike Perrault.
We arrived at the field around 10 a.m. to find that the weather models weren't entirely correct. There was a 5mph breeze blowing.
Also, Founders Park, being situated atop a wide mesa, is notorious for abrupt changes in wind direction, which makes it very difficult to assess where a downrange recovery area is.
Mike and I decided to give it a go with a couple of small 13mm-powered birds to see what would happen.
Mike started things off with a flight of his veteran 'Not-So-Hi-Flier'.
Excellent flight! Even though the rocket descended under a 1x18 streamer, it drifted a good distance down-field, confirming that we should stick to smaller birds.
Mike followed this up with a launch of his Estes ACLM.
The model lifted off nicely and flew straight to Apogee. For some reason, the delay was way too long until ejection, which took place on the ground just inches from Mike's range box!
My first flight of the day went to a Bandit-3 on A3-4T power.
Excellent high flight, however, the parasheet did not eject, causing the model to assume break-apart recovery.
As it turned out, this was for the better, as the model still drifted away by a half- football field's length. If the 8-inch square para-sheet had ejected and deployed, it might have been "Bye-bye Birdie".
Next up, Mike launched his diminutive Star Trooper model.
Excellent flight with streamer recovery.
The model drifted down-field in line with a pair of large pine trees. We didn't see the model hit the ground beyond the RETs, so we feared the worst.
After about 15 minutes of scanning the branches, the model was finally spotted in one of the lower boughs about nine feet above the ground. Luckily, we had found a 3-foot long pine branch nearby which was just enough reach to nudge the model free.
We trekked back to the launch pad with a Star Trooper rocket and a pair of sore necks!
With that done, we made the decision to scrub the rest of the flights for the day. Wind conditions were just not favorable enough to risk the loss of any models.
Satisfied with getting four birds in the air, we packed up and headed out, leaving a couple of disappointed pine trees behind.
"Not today, you, pesky RETS"
Cheers!
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