Skye Dance XL
First of all, I'm not entirely sure about my Roman Numerals. I'm trying to say Skye Dance 40. I think L is 50, so XL should be 40. If I'm wrong, I'm sure someone will correct me.
Skye Dance 40 blasted into cloudy skies the evening of Sunday, April 4th 2004. The forecast was awful; we under under a flash flood watch with a 70% chance of heavy thunderstorms with hail, tornados, earthquakes, volcanos, your standard biblical end of the world type stuff. Yeah, right! It turned into a fantastic day for flying rockets. The wind was dead calm, temperature was 72 degrees and the overcast was at 14,000 feet. Though there had been rain showers around all week, our field hadn't received any rain so it was completely dry. Let's fly some rockets!
It's springtime in Central Texas and that means wildflowers. The fields are just ablaze in color; dark blue Bluebonnets, red Indian Paintbrushes, pink and white things and yellow things. Since there's been a lot of rain, the show is even better than usual.
Bluebonnets
Pink and White flowers
The sky was also filled with rockets! It was an EX kind of day; there were 3 flights using homemade experimental propellant and 2 flights using commercial (Aerotech) propellant.
Mark Carlson put up 2 EX flights, both successful. The first flight was an I252 (total impulse 450 ns) in his modified PML quarter scale Patriot. The motor performed perfectly and the altimeter deployed the chute at apogee. The next flight was a J356 (730 ns) in his "Turn One", a scratch built rocket. The motor performed perfectly and the altimeter kicked the chute out right at apogee. Unfortunately, the chute was tangled up into a ball and didn't deploy, resulting in a hard landing and a couple of broken fillets. An easy repair job.
Tom Montemayor put up 2 rockets, both successful. First, Tom flew his scratch built "Psychedelic Persuasion" powered by an Aerotech H73 Blackjack. The flight was perfect with motor deployment occuring right at apogee. Next, Tom flew his Hawk Mountain "Bad Attitude" powered by an Aerotech K695 Redline. The 1700 ns motor was fantastic, a beautiful bright red flame and lots of power. The fiberglass rocket reached a max altitude of 4,418 feet where dual barometric recovery brought it home safely and undamaged.
Mark with his Patriot
I-252 EX power
Mark and Ed Jacoby with "Turn One"
J-356 EX power
Closeup
H-73 Blackjack boost
Tom with his "Bad Attitude"
K-695 Redline boost
The biggest motor of the day award went to Ed Jacoby with his 3 inch, full K (2500 ns) EX motor. Ed used his trusty ("still unpainted after all these years") Bad Attitude for a launch vehicle with ignition occuring right at sunset. The boost was fantastic; thick white smoke and a few sparks from the long burn K motor. Dual barometric deployment worked perfectly; the rocket was heading for the trees under streamer but main deployment brought it back safe and undamaged in a clear grassy spot in the middle of the forest. An excellent flight! Max altitude was just over 4,000 feet.
Mark and Ed prep the Bad Attitude
Ed arms the electronics
Full K EX boost