ROC March 2007
March 2007
/ Lucerne Dry Lake
2 flights, 1139 N-sec burned
The ROC March launch typically falls on the first Saturday of spring break, and I can't think of any better way to start a week off than by flying rockets in the desert. The temperatures were reasonable, and the crowd was light. It was great to see Hulan Matthies and SpartaChris back in action at this launch!
For the first flight of the Small Arcas, I chose one of my dad's favorite motors - the I211W. I figured this would give a decent ride to ~3500 feet so we could see the whole flight and deployment sequence. The boost was gentle, with a bit of porpoising (needs a bigger motor....) and both deployment events happened right on time. A good first flight.
Altitude: 3,338 ft
This would be the second flight of the iROC in its decal state. I remember a long time ago, when I was first going to ROC launches, Hulan Matthies put up an I-Roc on a J350W and it was freaking awesome. So I figured we should try the same thing. As it left the pad, the flight was dead-nuts straight, which is unusual for this rocket, which usually "wanders" a little bit as it's flying. Apparently more power (and corrective moment... and base drag) is really helpful in this case. The rocket ejected an R7C spot on at apogee, and landed nearby. This is really the right motor for this rocket!