Skye Dance XXVII roared into Kimbro skies the afternoon of Sunday, March 25th, 2001. The day started off with north winds around 15 mph, but by the 4:30 launch time they had dropped off to around 5 mph. Temperatures were in the mid 50s and the sky was streaked with high cirrus that produced a beautiful sunset.

Mark Carlson put up the first flight of the day, flying his shortened Patriot on an Aerotech H123. Next, Ed Jacoby flew his custom scratch built phenolic rocket using an experimental motor rated as a J500. The homebuilt motor performed flawlessly, wowing the crowd with a vivid green flame. The barometric two step recovery performed as planned, but the main chute did not fully deploy and the rocket landed under drogue only in the soft mud. The rocket was undamaged, and Ed flew it again later using an Ellis Mountain J279. The boost was beautiful, but again the main did not deploy and the rocket landed under the drogue chute only, again landing undamaged. Tom Montemayor then put up his first flight of the day, flying his worn out Mountainside Hobbies V2 on an Aerotech H238. The boost was fast and straight, deployment was right at apogee and the rocket was recovered safely.

Anthony Taylor was up next, flying his scratch built twin engine rocket "Doce" using two G80s. Both motors fired simultaneously and the rocket vaulted off the pad at warp 9. The ejection charges fired a little early but the shock cord held and the rocket landed safely. Next, Rick Taylor launched Dufus, his veteran scratch built, flourescent green, round fin rocket. Rick used an I284 core motor airstarting 3 outboard G80s. The rocket boosted fast on the core I284, then after a brief pause, two of the G80s kicked in. While they were burning the other G80 fired resulting in a beautiful flight. The I284 provided enough velocity to keep the flight path vertical during the brief period of assymetric G80 thrust. The rocket was recovered undamaged just over a half mile away.

As the sun grew low in the sky and the clouds turned orange, Mark Carlson launched his 27 pound, 6 inch diameter scratch built "Hot Rail" using an Aerotech K700. The powerful, full K motor put out over 6 feet of fire as it easily lifted the large rocket skyward. At apogee, the altimeter deployed a drogue chute and at 500 feet it deployed the main. Unfortunately, the main chute tangled up in the shroud lines and did not fully deploy, but the big rocket was undamaged by the hard landing. The onboard altimeter showed a peak altitude of 3152 feet. Rushing to beat sunset, Tom Montemayor finally got Spectra prepped and launched using a Kosdon K350. The Kosdon "slow" propellant provided a bright orange flame and lifted Spectra to 5418 feet, the highest flight of the launch. The onboard Adept altimeter deployed a streamer at apogee and a main at 250 feet, safely lowering the rocket into the forest east of the field. The parachute hung in a tree, but the rest of the rocket made it to the ground where it was recovered along with the parachute (after a few tugs).

While most of the fliers were in the fields recovering their rockets, Mark Carlson put up the last flight of the day on a G33. The flight was perfect, ending a great flying of flying that produced NO ignitor failures (a first), no lost rockets, and except for cosmetic damage, no damaged rockets.