Christmas Eve Eve Eve Fun Launch
It is so difficult to plan a rocket launch more than a few days ahead of time. We require so many things to come together at the same time; light winds, clear skies, dry fields, no crops, no burn bans, FAA waiver, FAA notam, and motivation. Well, at least I always have the motivation. So far, this has been a terrible season at Skye Dance. We've had several attempts cancelled due to muddy fields or poor weather.
Our field finally dried out by mid-December, but then the winds started to blow. Finally, it began to look like Sunday, December 22nd would turn out to be a good day to fly. So, the notam was filed, the motors were prepped, and the day turned out to be....well.....okay. The winds were light and the field was dry, but the ceiling was only 3,000 feet. So we brought out our low fliers and blasted away! Due to the short notice, only Tom Montemayor and Steve Rogers showed up to fly. Each flier put up 3 flights and had a great day!
Tom's 4 inch Mountainside Hobbies V2 powered by an H128.
Steve's Pro Series Patriot powered by 4 E9s. They all fired for a beautiful flight!
Tom's 4 inch North Coast Archer boosting on a core H128. Two outboard D12s fired later.
Master Model Builder Steve Rogers with his beautifully finished PML Bull Puppy prior to it's first flight.
Steve's PML Bull Puppy boosting. Those H123s put out lots of fire and smoke. The image quality is poor due to darkness.
I don't have any pictures of the most spectacular flight of the day. Steve had a boost glider powered by an Estes E9. The glider had a 3 foot wingspan and used a canard design. The glider boosted vertically under E9 thrust, coasted to apogee where the motor ejected, then glided down beautifully. It initially aligned itself into the wind and appeared to hang motionless, descending slowly, then started a slow, graceful turn downwind and landed gently. A perfectly trimmed glider! A fabulous flight!
Tom's original Spectra boosting on a Kosdon I300. This would be the original Spectra's last flight....the shock cord anchor pulled out of the forward centering ring, which had rotted from age and many flights. The lower section landed hard and will be retired. However, Spectra III lives on!