Flight report - West Chester, OH, April 22

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Thought I'd borrow Doug's form for the title of this thread. ;)
Yeah, I made it out to fly today, and got a little more than I bargained for. This weekend was the Quark Capricorn 4 regional. I've never flown competition before, but since I was the lone person to show up who lives south of the river, they needed me as an out-of-state competitor to establish the contest as a true regional. (That's how I understand it. Correct me if I'm wrong.) This meant that my first two flights were made for B Streamer Duration and B Parachute Duration. Both flights were made with my never-before-flown MPC Icarus C.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/MPCIcarusConQuarkpad.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/MPCIcarusCleavesthepad.jpg
Note the greater than extreme angle of the rod. MAN, it was breezy! The streamer wasn't a problem, but the parachute drifted forever. I finally found it after about a half hour search. I'd passed it up previously because I was sure it had cleared the lake. I was wrong. It was laying just on the shoreline with the chute actually in the water. I thought I had lucked out, but the engine casing had swelled, which leads me to believe that it spent some time in the water. I was able to return it for a qualified flight, so I was happy.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Next up was the PD Rocketry Space Station Aquarius.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/PDRocketrySpaceStationAquariusonQua.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/PDRocketrySpaceStationAquariuslift-.jpg
A pretty decent pair of flights on a B6-4 and C6-5, but one of the large solar panel decals blew off and drifted away. Looks kinda lost now.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

The real reason for me getting out today was to fly the Rokitflite Fake Wulf that I did a beta build of for Scott Branche. This is an incredibly cool kit and today's flight proves that it's virtually idiot proof. I need to do some trim work, but I that's a reflection on the builder, not the kit.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/RokitfliteFakeWulfpre-flight.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/RokitfliteFakeWulfonQuarkpad.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/RokitfliteFakeWulfleavesthepadonaB6.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/RokitfliteFakeWulfabouttoleavethefr.jpg
The flight was on a B6-4 and the rocket performed just as advertised, which if you could have seen it was impressive indeed. I'm going to wait for another chance to fly it in two weeks before I do my review because I want to see if I can correct the balance issue.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

I made two flights with my new Goonybird Sky Shriek, one a B6-4, the other a C6-5. both were about perfect, with the only problem being that the chute didn't deploy on the B6-4 flight. It worked so well that was that I made the C6-5 flight a nose blow recovery flight.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/EstesGoonybirdSkyShriekonQuarkpad.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/EstesGoonybirdSkyShriekignition.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/EstesGoonybirdSkyShriekinflight.jpg

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

I made one flight with the BSG Laser Torpedo. It's shown here with Chan Stevens' Roachworks Little Joe, which he was flying in a sport scale event. His flew first, and didn't do so well as can be seen by the second shot.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/QuarklaunchApril222007032.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/QuarklaunchApril222007035.jpg
Chan's rocket will live to fly again, but not without some repair. I was so shaken that I forgot to get a picture of my rocket.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Last flight of the day was an Estes Maxi-Icarus clone on a C11-5. Very impressive flight. I haven't managed to get the decals printed, but this is an impressive looking bird even without them.
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/EstesMaxi-IcarusonQuarkpad.jpg
http://i155.photobucket.com/albums/s286/Wallyum/EstesMaxi-Icaruslift-off.jpg
The only thing the flight did was make me wish I had loaded it with the D12 like I had planned. I had one, but it was a bit on the breezy side today and I didn't want to knock it out of the park like I saw others do.
I also flew the repaired Cosmik Debris, but since it didn't really leave the pad I won't bother with the pics. I guess I should have cleaned the rod before I launched. :o

[Doug Sams]

Thought I'd borrow Doug's form for the title of this thread. ;) Looks like you borrowed our wind, too :)

The Aquarius looks great. Bummer about the solar panel. That rocket almost looks like it needs D power. What diameter is the main airframe?

Doug

[Ltvscout]

The real reason for me getting out today was to fly the Rokitflite Fake Wulf that I did a beta build of for Scott Branche. This is an incredibly cool kit and today's flight proves that it's virtually idiot proof. I need to do some trim work, but I that's a reflection on the builder, not the kit.
And here I thought you said it was idiot proof. :D

[Ltvscout]

Chan's rocket will live to fly again, but not without some repair. I was so shaken that I forgot to get a picture of my rocket.
Yowzer! What happened there? It looks like it's in S.A.M. mode. ;)

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Yowzer! What happened there? It looks like it's in S.A.M. mode. ;)

IIRC, it was a five motor cluster and one chimed in late. I went into immediate cinch mode. The chute popped before impact, but it still hit hard. I still haven't checked my BSG Laser Torpedo for blast damage. ;)

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Looks like you borrowed our wind, too :)

The Aquarius looks great. Bummer about the solar panel. That rocket almost looks like it needs D power. What diameter is the main airframe?

Doug


I believe it's a BT-50 to BT-55. A D would have fit, but then I might have lost all the decals. :eek:

[CPMcGraw]

I believe it's a BT-50 to BT-55. A D would have fit, but then I might have lost all the decals. :eek:

That nose cone and transition have a very familiar look about them... :rolleyes:

Jay, whadda you think?

[sandman]

IIRC, it was a five motor cluster and one chimed in late. I went into immediate cinch mode. The chute popped before impact, but it still hit hard. I still haven't checked my BSG Laser Torpedo for blast damage. ;)

Rats, that news ruined my whole weekend! :(

Let Chan know I have a bunch of repair parts available if he needs them.

Glad you had some good flights.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

That nose cone and transition have a very familiar look about them... :rolleyes:

Jay, whadda you think?

:D :D :D

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Rats, that news ruined my whole weekend! :(

Let Chan know I have a bunch of repair parts available if he needs them.

Glad you had some good flights.

My choices were 1) Fly rockets, or 2) hang out at the house where my wife was having a baby shower for her cousin. :eek: Sitting by myself in the field would have been better than being overcome by the Estrogen fumes in the house.
Chan had a rough day. His D-Helicopter entry thermalled away, he lost sport scale by a point, chose to re-fly, and lost by nine, and crashed the LJII. I think he'd have preferred that over a baby shower also. (Even though my wife is a good cook. ;) )

[Tau Zero]

That nose cone and transition have a very familiar look about them...
Jay, whadda you think?:D :D :DWhat's *really* funny about that is I kept *looking* at that picture, and *couldn't* quite put my finger on *why* it looked familiar... :eek: :rolleyes: ;) :D :cool:


Cheers,

[Tau Zero]

Next up was the PD Rocketry Space Station Aquarius.It looks vaguely like Shrox:

http://www.rocketreviews.com/reviews/oop/shx_icarus.html



...meets the Centuri SkyLab:

http://www.dars.org/jimz/kb-4.htm



and... I don't know *what* else. ;)

http://www.oldrocketplans.com/estes/est1902/est1902.htm



Cheers,

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

What's *really* funny about that is I kept *looking* at that picture, and *couldn't* quite put my finger on *why* it looked familiar... :eek: :rolleyes: ;) :D :cool:


Cheers,

I happened to have the Tau Zero along with me today. I was planning on flying it, but it was pretty windy, so I decided to save it for the next time. :cool:

[Daniel Runyon]

That is indeed a good lookin PDR kit... I'd bet they would send you more decals... I didn't even buy a kit, just asked if they could sell me some fresh ones for the old SDI Satellite I got off of Ebay, and he said he would send me some free! I wouldn't mind adding a Space Station to my fleet... it looks better in your pic that I would have envisioned.

[A Fish Named Wallyum]

Forgot to mention this. When I arrived at the range on Sunday, our club Prez mentioned that I had just missed a new member who had shown up with a bunch of dusty vintage Centuri stuff that he had unearthed from his attic. According to Mark, one of the birds that this guy was flying was the Centuri Power System X-16, something that I've long lusted to clone. They tried to talk him into staying until I got there, but he's a fireman and had to report for duty. Hopefully this won't be a once in a blue moon launch for him. I'd like to see if he'll let me take some pics. :cool:

[barone]

......Hopefully this won't be a once in a blue moon launch for him. I'd like to see if he'll let me take some pics. :cool:Pics? Here I'd have thought you would try to talk him in to letting you take them home for an unspecified duration ;)