Asa 10/28/06

Conditions were absolutely ideal at HOTROC's Asa launch site Saturday, October 28th. Skies were clear, temperatures were in the low 70s and winds were less than 5 mph all day and virtually calm the last couple of hours.

My first flight was with my Hawk Mountain "Bad Attitude", powered by an Aerotech K695 Redline. This was flight number 31 for the all fiberglass kit. Liftoff was fast and VERY RED with the rocket reaching a max altitude of 3783 feet. The Aerotech "long" delay (which I use for a backup) fired early, limiting the max altitude.

Next up was my scratch built (from Dynacom parts) 5.5 inch all fiberglass "Unshredable", powered by an Aerotech 98mm L952. This was flight number 9 for the trusty Dynacom. Liftoff was very slow for the heavy rocket, but with the calm winds it remained almost vertical and reached a maximum velocity of 827 feet/second at 7.5 seconds after liftoff. Max altitude of 9212 feet was reached 25 seconds after liftoff where the rocket began a slow descent under an 18 inch drogue chute. At 750 feet the main charge fired, cutting the shear pins and ejecting the nose. Unfortunately, for the first time in 9 flights, the main chute did not clear the airframe and the rocket landed under drogue only. Fortunately, the soft ground prevented any damage to the rocket. Next time....MORE POWDER!

My final flight was with old, reliable "Spectra", a 4 inch scratch built made of glass wrapped flexible phenolic. This was flight 86 for Spectra, powered by a K350. Actually, this is third generation Spectra so it doesn't really have all 86 flights. This was flight number 24 for Spectra 3. Liftoff was fast and straight with the rocket reaching a max velocity of 679 feet/second and a max altitude of 5187 feet. Dual barometric deployment brought it back less than 50 yards from my car.

We also had an impressive airshow provided by the U.S. government. A couple of military Intruders checked us out for a few minutes, demonstrating their low altitude formation flying skills while circling over our launch site.

I normally take pictures of lots of fliers and their rockets, and end up taking some of my rockets home unflown because I usually run out of time. This time, I was determined to get 3 flights off in the 5 hours I was at the site. I got all my flights off, but didn't have time to take pictures of any other rockets. Sorry.