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  #1  
Old 02-19-2019, 08:09 AM
MarkB.'s Avatar
MarkB. MarkB. is offline
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Location: El Paso
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Default President's Day 2019 at the Park

Comrades:

I finally got a chance to launch! No swim practice, golf tournament, ballet recital, Scout camp or other reason for my recovery crew to be absent. My sister and her kids and even my Dad went to the park and over two hours got 16 launches from a wide variety of rockets. We checked some boxes as my nephew got his Viking launched for his Webelos badge and I managed to get my NARTrek launches done. All photos are by SWMBO

First off the pad was my Dad's V-2 in White Sands colors with scale fins on a D12-5. I think it's absolutely the best rocket/engine combination Estes makes. Rock solid on boost, the upgraded TopFlight parachute opened in the 39 degree morning air and landed about ten feet from the pad.

It was also day of the gliders, on the pad is my Glider-Launching Rocket with a Vashon X-13 and Estes Firefly on board. We experimented with engines and decided a C6-3 was best with both gliders on board. Although covered in period-correct Monokote, the X-13 was the better flyer.

The MPC Nike Smoke from the eBay Rescue thread flew fine but the parachute, shock cord and nose cone became hopelessly tangled on the way down so it landed a little hard and cracked a seam on the nosecone. I already fixed it.

Great picture of my Sandman/Semroc Scrambler on three A8-3. This was supposed to be the test flight for an egg launch but we couldn't find an egg small enough to fit in the compartment. The egg launch will be next time. My sister's friend, who has her own chickens, said she would provide us with a smaller egg if we help her son launch his rocket. Deal.

Last is the return of the GLR, this time with a full-size Enerjet Pterodactyl, No problem on boost but the glider was more Steve Austin than Mitchell Gant. Gotta work on the glide on that one . . . .

I'll post some more pictures this evening.
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I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Last edited by MarkB. : 02-19-2019 at 08:42 PM.
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  #2  
Old 02-19-2019, 11:06 AM
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mojo1986 mojo1986 is offline
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Very nice! The GLR/Pterodactyl combo on boost looks a bit like a Bomarc........


Joe
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  #3  
Old 02-19-2019, 11:32 AM
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ghrocketman ghrocketman is offline
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Nice launches and photos.
I'm thinking you need to loft your Pterodactyl with a more "Enerjet correct" launch vehicle such as an Enerjet Aerodart clone with at least an equivalent to a 40 n-sec Enerjet E24.
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  #4  
Old 02-19-2019, 12:24 PM
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Newbomb Turk Newbomb Turk is offline
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Awesome pictures. How was the boost on the Nike Smoke?
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  #5  
Old 02-19-2019, 08:35 PM
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MarkB. MarkB. is offline
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Comrades:

After some shuffling of the pictures when I uploaded. . . .

My Centuri nose cone/Semroc parts Nike-Smoke was next with a polyester 16" parachute that was in my parts box; might have been a Semroc, but I don't remember. Flew fine on C6-3.

Next is a flight shot of my 1/10 scale SS-520-5 on a D12-3. This flew much higher than I anticipated given its meter tall size and two inch diameter. Looking forward to an E flight next time.

My Rescue Arcas from the eBay Rescue thread flew well on a B6-4. The plastic chute didn't open all the way but I already fixed the broken fin. The cold is just deadly for the plastic chutes. The only two rockets that had problems were the ones with plastic chutes.

Next was the one I was most proud of: my first pod-glider, a FlyBaby from plans Chas. Russell posted on this forum. And while the first flight on 1/2A6-2 was almost a Kamikaze death-dive with the glider still attached to the pod, the second flight on A8-3 was fabulous, netting a 48 second glide in tight left-hand circles right about the pad. Thanks, Chas.! I'm going to keep working on this one.

I realized that I didn't have any Russian rockets this time, other than the Pterodactyl looking a little Russian in black Monokote with an Orange fin. Here's a picture from the other side. I was happy to find that the big glider would fly off the relatively small GLR. Launch was on a C6-3, but GH may be right that a larger mid-power launcher might be better. In any event, it was a good combo for my small field. I'm really looking forward to sorting out this one at future launches, too.

Last up was special: my Sandman Excelsior Rockets upscale Sprint. I built this years ago, but for some reason never got around to launching it, fancy TopFlight nylon streamer and all. It flew great on a C11-7 and recovered about 30 feet from the pad even as the wind started coming up. At that point, we called it a day.

Rockets flown but not shown included: Black Hole Probe, Aerobee with a payload bay and a Jolly Logic AltimterTwo, Swift, my niece's Scouting rocket and my nephew's Viking.
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__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Last edited by MarkB. : 02-19-2019 at 09:15 PM.
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  #6  
Old 02-20-2019, 07:50 PM
A Fish Named Wallyum A Fish Named Wallyum is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MarkB.
My Rescue Arcas from the eBay Rescue thread flew well on a B6-4. The plastic chute didn't open all the way but I already fixed the broken fin. The cold is just deadly for the plastic chutes. The only two rockets that had problems were the ones with plastic chutes.

Cold? Someone is wearing shorts. I'm going to need a definition of this "cold" of which you speak.
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  #7  
Old 02-21-2019, 07:44 AM
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MarkB. MarkB. is offline
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That's funny.

Yes, cold is relative. Launch time was 9:45, temperature was probably 40 when we started and 50 when we finished just before noon. Thin wispy clouds and thinning contrails and most importantly, very light winds until the last launch or two. The park is right next to the river so altitude is about 3400 feet. It was a very nice February day.

So yes, if I'm running after rockets, I'm going with shorts and a hoodie. It's the wind that makes it cold and if it's windy, I'm not launching.


Note that the next day, it rained and snowed.
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NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7
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  #8  
Old 02-21-2019, 02:10 PM
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BEC BEC is offline
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Yeah, 40 degrees in the morning rising to 50 or more with the wind coming up sounds pretty typical for El Paso this time of year (I went to college just west of you at NMSU, so have a fair sense of what that's like). Nice launch report. Good to see the old original-style Portia-Pads getting some use, too.

Thanks!
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  #9  
Old 03-07-2019, 01:13 PM
Blastfromthepast Blastfromthepast is offline
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Nice launch session.
Love 'em Flybabies. I built two back in my old fleet days. If properly trimmed out, they can be goners on a thermal.
Nice fleet of rockets! This is making me really itchy to get out and launch, but the dern weather in Colorado says 'no'.
Great posts!
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