After some scouting, I decided to launch my newly acquired rockets at San Juan Park, a somewhat small field, but big enough for the A & B engines I had. My friend Jeanne helped with chase & recovery.

First launch of the day with the Super Shot and an A8-3 engine was successful. It's hard to guess the apogee altitude, probably around 500'. Off to an excellent start, we were.

Next up was the X-Ray on a 1/2A3-4T, a pretty small engine. It was a clean launch, but the shock cord failed on ejection-charge (even with that small engine). I managed to catch the main body tube which came almost straight down with the streamer deployed. Jeanne chased down the nose cone which ended up stuck straight into the grass. There was no way to field repair the shock cord, so X-Ray was done for the day. Later investigation revealed that in my haste to slap the rocket together (I bought and assembled it earlier that morning so that I would have two rockets to launch) I got cement on the shock cord, which weakened it. Repairs that evening were successful, and the cord was attached very sturdily, ready for its next launch.

Since the X-Ray was toast we flew the Super Shot 3 more times before heading home (it was getting dark anyway). All three launches with B6-2 & B6-4 engines were successful except for one where I under-packed the wadding and it melted the chute a bit. Apogee heights ranged around 600' to 700'.

My friend Marc was in town, and he and Jeanne and I went to the hobby store to stock up on engines. We didn't expect to fly that day since it was windy (20 mph with gusts to 35 mph!) but when the sun started setting the wind died down and there was an hour of light left, so off we went!

By this time I had assembled a few more rockets in addition to rebuilding the shock cord stays on the X-Ray. The new rockets were the Mosquito and the Astro Sat LSX. The Mosquito is cool becuase it goes 1000+' on an A10-3T. In addition, the tiny rocket uses a tumble recovery and therefore there is no chute to pack. And if I lose it, well, it's a $3.49 rocket. . . Astro Sat LSX deploys two plastic "satellites" at apogee which come down on streamers and keep the chasers busy. The rocket recovers by parachute. . . The trusty Super Shot was of course standing by as well.

First launch of the day was the Mosquito with an A10-3T. For the record, you cannot see a 4" rocket at 1000' -- or however high it went. Out of sight, that's how high it went. And we could not re-acquire it until we heard the soft "thud" of its nearby landing.

Next up was the Alpha Sat LSX with a B6-2. Successful launch & satellite deployment at about 300' or so. Successful parachute recovery as well.

Now for some real fun. The Super Shot had 4 successful missions to its credit and I wanted to see what it would do with a C6-5 engine. Launch was successful but soon after liftoff the rocket began a moderately tight spiral which reduced its apogee height. Plastic fins just aren't as straight as balsa, and with a C engine, the slight bends in the plastic fins become a factor in flight. Still, it flew nearly out of sight and parachuted down between two trees seperated by only about 20'. I thought one of the trees was going to eat my rocket, but I got lucky. C engines need a larger launch site methinks...

Now to see the X-Ray have a successful flight. Up on the pad it went. 3... 2... 1... *BOOM*. The damned engine exploded on the pad! The only part that "launched" was the nose cone section which went up about 30'. The main body tube remained sitting on the pad, whose plastic base had actually been cracked by the explosion. (it has since been expoxied back together). Because the shock cord was well attached now, the plastic mount on the nose cone failed -- ripped apart by the engine explosion. We finally found the engine nearby, its carboard casing split about 75% the length of the engine.

After the launch failure we were ready to go home. It was getting dark, and the bugs were eating us alive. I tried to launch the Mosquito one more time but a fin broke off while loading the engine. Oh well, easy to fix, and probably time to go anyway...

As is typical of rocket launching, an audience usually forms. Today it was a small girl (6 years old?) and her parents. She was fascinated by the whole process, so I let her launch the first rocket, the X-Ray with an A10-3T.

Next up was the Mosquito on an A10-3T. Great flight. Lost it completely, until I stepped on it during the search (doh!) Elmers has since helped with its repair.

For the maiden voyage of the Twister I used an A8-3. An awesome flight, even with an A engine since the rocket is pretty small and very light. The main body tube does a slow flat-spin on recovery. Next launch on a larger field with a B engine will likely be out of sight.

Even though it was windy, I decided to put the Astro Sat up on a C6-5. Launching into the wind @ 10+ degrees resulted in a great liftoff with major curve as it flew into the wind, over & above the nearby houses, and then drifted back all the way across the park and landed in tennis courts on the opposite side of the park! Fortunately, a local kid crawled under barb-wire fence to retrieve rocket for me. No more C engines @ San Juan park!

So what can we launch on a B engine. How about the Super Shot on a B6-4. Nice flight, drifted a ways but landed safely. One thing to be said for plastic fins: landing impact on concrete did no damage.

The last two launches were the X-Ray on a 1/2A3-4T. Smoke streak is very cool. Also launched with an A10-3T. Much higher flight, but smoke stream is not nearly as cool.

Today was my first launch at this site, and I took my 8mm Camcorder out to the site to get some video. First up was the trusty Alpha Sat, and then the Corkscrew, both of which I got on video. These images are stills taken from the 8mm video with Play, Inc.'s Snappy.

Alpha Sat LSX C6-5 Engine

CorkScrew's Maiden Voyage C6-5 Engine

After those two great launches, we fired the Mosquito on a 1/2A. But we lost it because the damn weeds are too high. Oops.

So then we launch Super Shot, which I know we will be able to recover. Put it up on a C6-7, and it was a great launch. And we got it back.

Then Twister went up on a B6-4. The bottom section was recovered, but the very-cool spinning top section was lost. That's when I decided never to launch even medium-sized rockets in these weeds. We spent 20+ minutes searching for Twister and then the wind came up (0 to 20 mph in about 5 minutes!) so we packed it in. We did at least recover the Mosquito when hunting for Twister. Although I would have rather it been the other way around...

Father's Day entertaintment included rocket launching. Dad, Aaron, and I went out to JFK to launch in the wind. You know, where you launch at an angle of 15 degrees and by the time the chute deploys, rocket is travelling horizontally at 2/3 normal altitude. We launch over the housing subdivision behind Kennedy and the rocket drifts 500 feet back over us and onto the grass or blacktop.

The following rockets were launched:

Gnome:	A10-3T engine. Good wind guage. 700' launch.
Flash:	C6-5 engine. The shroud line tangled and limited chute deployment. Probably caused by the wind and the angle at apogee. 800' or so.
Turbo Copter:	B6-4 engine. Good flight, nose cone coptered to tarmac. Over 800'. C engine would be luicrous, especially if launched straight up.
CorkScrew:	C6-5 engine. Good launch & flight. Extra smoke of C6-7 looks better. 900 foot launch.
Alpha Sat:	C6-7 engine. Cool smoke stream. Only 1 sattelite deployed because of too much wadding. 3 squares plus 2 squares is too much. Use 2 + 2 next time. 600'.
Super Shot:	C6-5 engine. Awesome with major drift to edge of tarmac. 800'.