ROC August 2014

My first flight back on the dry lake started with a n00b mistake: I forgot the igniter cap and set the rocket on the leads to hold it in place, figuring that it was light enough that it wouldn't make a difference. Shocker, it didn't light on the first try, so after getting a roll of masking tape to keep things where they belonged, we were good to go again. Steve Seeright was on LCO and counted down, and off she went -- nice and straight and fast on the 3 grain White Thunder load. Since it was the desert, I could pop the chute at apogee and watch it lazily float back to earth -- how different from the Midwest! -- landing was in plain sight and an easy walk from the pad. Nice!

Flight number two for the day: old-school I-ROC on a new-school AT Dark Matter DMS motor. Rick O'Neil was on the mic this time, and he enjoyed the name of the new propellant. The motor lit right up and spewed sparks in the traditional DM fashion, with the crackle not coming in till later on. (Hey AT! Add some Mg and it'll crackle all the way up!) The chute came out at the top and again with the lazy drifting back to earth -- so relaxing.

Flight #3 for the day (pre-prep really helps!) was the tubby Jart on a really old AT J350W, with the Stratologger on dual deploy duties. The old motor took its sweet time igniting, but once it did the Jart was away on a fat ball of yellow fire. The altimeter functioned exactly as planned, and we got a nice dual deploy show right in front of everybody. Solid flight to end the day, but this rocket really likes K motors better :)