Balls 28

Erik and Dirk Gates had given me an AMW N4000BB as a thank you gift for helping them out at the X-Prize Cup back in 2006. At the time, I didn't have a rocket to put it in, and I stewed on it for over ten years waiting for the right opportunity. Cut to Balls 2019: we're going, I want to fly something big, and I finally had a rocket worth flying this motor... call it a Balls project! This was one of the motors originally intended for flight in Porthos II, and had a modified smoke grain for head-end ignition, so prior to the flight, I added a little epoxy and RTV to keep the fire where it was supposed to be. Prep was simple (even with heckling from the peanut gallery BOB :)) and I had it ready to go by mid-day Friday. Some light upper clouds had blown in prior to launch, but that's what my new Featherweight GPS in the nose cone was for, right? Tim helped me get it loaded up, Charlie was on the mic, and before I knew it the rocket was away at an incredible clip on a huge purple tail. This was a REALLY GOOD COMBO. The rocket was invisible against the clouds, but after a while the GPS started reporting a nominal descent rate, so I let out a shout of success. Robin Meredith high-fived me and then it was off to find it. The GPS led us straight to it laying just past the first row of mud hills to the southeast. Thanks to Andrew, Tim, and dad for recovery help!

One goal I had for this year's Balls was to clean out the motor box a bit. Back in 2007, Todd and I had cast up an oxamide-laden 98/17.5k for John Van Norman, but the finished product had speckles in the grains that we didn't quite trust, so we elected to scrub the burn. We static tested a few smaller motors from the batch with some success, and so after 12 years I finally screwed up the courage to try and burn some of the bigger stuff. I split the original grains into two 3g loads, figuring the environments would be less intense than in the aggressive 6XL environment of the 17.5k case. emFire was a natural fit for this reload—with the oxamide, it was going to be slow, and it was! The morning was windless and cloudless, and after Waysie gave the five-count, emFire slowly rose from the pad on a ratty smokeless orange plume. James Russell commented to me on the cleanliness of the exhaust; it was a surprising change of pace! As the R14 popped at apogee, I was once again relieved that there was no wind involved, as recoveries in this corner of Black Rock had been quite harrowing, and I didn't want to end up too far off the lakebed. (What's the point of having a launch at Black Rock if we're flying from the brush, anyway?) Descent took forever, but the rocket gently touched down and settled in to the brush just over the first row of mud hills. Dad and I were easily able to walk out and get it back.

I had four 76mm grains of TurboWhite left over from the Alpha O motor (see also: Little Dragon, March 2014) that I was too chicken to fly with a spiral-wound liner. However, deep cleaning of the garage uncovered a nice convolute piece that would serve perfectly. I loaded it up into the trusty Competitor to give it its first ride in three years. Gary Rosenfield gave it the once-over at RSO ("looks like it should work well!") and I loaded up on the "front row" with a bunch of other flyers. I was a little concerned the angled blast deflector would lead to an angled liftoff, and I was right—the motor hit hard and it jacked off the pad towards the left. The burn was hot and fast, with a great flame and roar. Apogee deployment was easily visible, and we saw it pop the main and land by the first bank of away cells, right on the fairway. The booster was stuck vertically, which made it easy to see, and the Featherweight GPS tracker was reporting location too. (3/3 on that unit for the weekend!) As we drove out to get it back, we passed the sustainer of Bob's two-stager with the motor hanging halfway out firmly planted on its butt in the playa; that's a memory I'll never forget. Recovery was easy and the rocket's in good shape, awaiting its next mission in hopefully fewer-than-three years.