Expediter

Since the Arcas flight went well, I elected to quickly prep another classic bird for a simple, no electronics flight. The Expediter, not having flown in almost ten years, seemed to be a logical choice. We had grabbed this I300T from Jack a few years ago, so I hoped the delay was still OK. Prep was quick, using the old-school LOC shock cord mount and a bunch of dog barf wadding. After I fiddled with the tape fit of the transition for deployment, Kurt Gugisberg performed RSO duties and I loaded the rocket onto a 3/8" rod. Boost was snappy on the 4 grain blue motor, and though deployment was slightly early, everything held together and descent was nice on the 36" parachute. Next on the list -- the Vulcanite or the Graduator... those haven't flown in 10 years, either!

This was the eleventh flight of the Expediter on another J180T. I remember how nervous I was when we did L2 with this combo, but for this one I was pretty confident things would go well. The boost was fast and straight on the long-burn blue motor. Ejection was slightly early, but it all held together for a close recovery.

Continuing to burn up the pile of I435s, we put one in the Expediter. My friend Chris Lam had fixed up my ALTS2 with a new capacitor and beeper, and it was beeping stuff out again happily, so we put it in for the ride too. The acceleration off the pad was breathtaking, but after burnout the vehicle slowed down quickly due to the big, draggy airframe. She coasted to just under 4000 feet and ejected perfectly at apogee. Cool flight!

Since the flight at Bonneville on a J180 went so well, we decided to do it again at the home turf. I was just as nervous setting the rocket up on the pad, but after a five-count, the Expediter boosted off the pad in a hurry on a teardrop of blue flame. She coasted to apogee and ejected that big neon orange chute which, despite the absolutely calm conditions, still managed to carry the rocket about 700 yards across Hwy 247 onto the other side of the lakebed.

For our first high power flight of the event, we chose the old reliable Expediter. The flight went great, with the ALTS2 recording data and the big orange parachute opening on time at apogee with a medium motor delay.

Wind... wind... wind... until about 10 in the morning. Most had given up hope for this launch, but all of a sudden, the typical Lucerne day turned into the not-so-typical Lucerne day and the wind dead stopped. Cool. No lines, open pads. So we pulled out an I300 and stuck it in the Expediter. It was on the pad, altimeter armed, and then all I remember was flipping the switch and the rocket absolutely ROARING out of here on a nice blue flame. It even got comments from the big flyers. This is a really nice rocket/motor combo.

This was our first flight back at Lucerne after traveling to LDRS, and we kept it low with a 3 grain White Lightning motor. The Expediter performed beautifully, reaching just over half a mile with clean deployment at apogee.

Since the Level 2 cert didn't go too well with the Bruiser, we decided to take our remaining 54mm motor rocket and go for broke with a J180. Setting up next to Ron McGough and his I-ROC with a J800 was somewhat reassuring, but the long delay for a raffle beforehand wasn't. I'm wearing out my shoes pacing- hurry up and launch the darned thing! Finally, our name was called and the rocket SCREAMED off the pad and was gone. Just vanished. Finally, a little orange speck appeared and I remembered to breathe again. We walked way out to retrieve it (onto the thin part of the salt) and picked it up without any damage. It came straight down and left the nozzle print in the salt. That was too cool.

This was our first 'big' flight at LDRS, and my dad's Tripoli Level 1 cert. We had been certified in NAR, and we could have "grandfathered" in, but then we don't have an excuse to fly another rocket! It flew as planned, and page 1 of the cert form was signed and gone.

Well, the H242 flew so well we figured we'd stuff a bigger motor in it. The I284 was too much, we decided, so we put a nice little I211 in instead. It was sitting out on the pad after having igniter problems when the rocket next to it (some weird transformer thingy by the infamous guy from Kelly's hobbies) decided to go unstable and loop about 5 times over our rocket. Oh boy. After replacing the igniter two more times, we felt like we had it. The LCO was on the same row launching John Coker's Praying Mantis on a K1100, and accidentally drag raced all of the pads out there, including ours. Oh well, the Praying Mantis shredded, the V2 on the other side of our rocket went unstable, but the Expediter came out of the madness flying straight and true. It disappeared into the sky. It was waaay up there. We walked out to it and listened to the altitude. 3279 isn't much but it is after you haven't flown over 2500 feet before! I was so jazzed that I couldn't get the altitude out right. That was really cool.

The first flight of this rocket was the first HPR flight my dad and I had made since the Bruiser lake staked. To say I was nervous was an understatement. Thankfully, the rocket rose straight up from the pad and made a perfect flight into the Lucerne air. Recovery was nominal, and after a short walk, my confidence in high power was once again restored