Red Glare XII
April 2012
/ Higgs Farm
1 flight, 3200 N-sec burned
For this Red Glare, my friend Adam wanted to tag along, so we packed up on Thursday evening and pointed the car at the eastern shore of Maryland. As usual, RG was three days of fun in the sun and the fields behind the Higgs Farm; highlights included Todd flying his full scale LJ on a green P, Nick DeBrita putting up his Redstone on a big white cluster, and hanging out with the whole crew in the after hours of the event. Ryan even made it out from California to hang and fly a rocket. Thanks to everyone for making it a great time!
Flight 1: Little John, PPL L1400
Last Red Glare, the entire event was spent tracking down my Competitor 4 from unknown heights. So, to fix that problem, I made up a quick batch of SuperBlue, which included a 3500 load to fly in the Little John. I figured the blue would be a nice combo with the red and white, and also provide some thrust to get it through any wind present, without putting things too high. I spent Saturday morning prepping at a leisurely pace, dealing with rail button issues and nose cone fit issues that turned out to be a combination of dirt and lack of Gold Bond, apparently. (Good thing Ryan brought that.) By the time it was ready for the pad, the breeze had picked up a bit, but the SuperBlue motor had no issue hammering the LJ to 6600 feet at 20 gees. Deployment at apogee was visible beneath the cloud deck, and at 1000 feet the main inflated for a gentle touchdown inside the field boundaries. Sweet.
