ROCStock 12
November 2000
/ Lucerne Dry Lake
2 flights, 1324 N-sec burned
The weather was foreboding on Friday, as dark clouds rolled across the lakebed and snow fell on the mountains to the south. But things began to clear up on Saturday afternoon, and we were treated to a fabulous day of flying on Sunday. It was cold, but it was tons of fun!
Flight 1: Vulcanite, Kosdon I130
This was to be on our first Kosdon motor, an I130 C-slot. (*cough*WIMP*cough* :)) We had Hulan Matthies (veteran Kosdon guy) help us load up the motor, it being our first of the type. After a few snap-ring troubles, we loaded the rocket and put it on the pad. The waiver was called in, a 5 count ensued, and... nothing. The igniter blew off the pyrogen. Hmmm... what to do, we've got 1 minute left in the waiver, ok, let's reload the ignitor and get it off before the waiver closes. A little thermalite and another daveyfire later, we were back in business. 5...4...3...2...1...launch and the rocket huffed, puffed, and took off. It was a beautiful up flight, and the trademark Kosdon delay formulation did its job and made the rocket easy to track. The chute came out at apogee and it came home intact. That was great.
Altitude: 7,254 ft
Flight 2: LaserLOC 2.1, AT J275
At ROCStock 12, I decided to go for broke with a J275 in this rocket. The 54mm baby J whipped the rocket off the pad to an ALTACC recorded altitude of 10,288 feet! This was my first flight ever over 10K high. I had ignition troubles in the beginning (Daveyfire with pyrogen didn't light it) but then my friend Ken Finwall of CHPMR gave me a piece of Thermolite. That lit the rocket right up after a 5 count. The Laser streaked off the pad and held together through the entire burn. It even came down close, landing perhaps 1/2 mile away. The medusa nozzle filling up the entire back end of the rocket with flame was spectacular. What's next? There is this little voice in my head that is saying "J460! J460!" Sounds good to me...
