Anaconda

I had photos of the Anaconda on nice red and white motors... time for a blue one. This was the biggest thing of the day, so it was up to me to haul a pad out to safe distance, and then got everything assembled and ready to go. Since it was a quiet launch, I tried to use up some of my old ignition supplies, which of course didn't work :) After installing a big'un, though, things got moving right away. Kurt G had positioned his camera drone overhead and got some super cool footage of the Anaconda zooming by! Drogue deployment was visible and we all went back to chatting. I started wondering where the main would be, and we looked north and saw something falling fast. I started to get nervous before Dierking calmly pointed out that no, I was all together under main to the *south*, and that thing up north came from an unrelated group. LOL. The Anaconda thunked down amongst many deep ruts that precluded driving to get it, but it was a nice enough day for a walk. The Raven didn't fire the main charge (hmm!) but everything else looked pretty good. Not a bad flight to start the day!

I had wanted to burn this reload for a long time and the math said it would be a dramatic flight in the Anaconda, so with calm winds projected for Friday I loaded up and decided to go for it. Jacob helped me get it on the uber pad; Andrew was loading up next door with another L motor. (Yeah, the weather was good!) Neil was on the mic, dad was on video, I was on stills, and after a five count, the 98mm two grain L motor gracefully lifted the Anaconda into the air, leaving a cloud smoke all over the ground in its wake. The progressive motor kept chugging away and by burnout, things were moving pretty well; drogue and main deployment were visible to the southwest and the rocket came to a soft landing about a half mile away. Gorgeous flight!

Gary's bird had flown twice before: once on an M1297, and once on an M2400. I figured I'd split the difference and burn a load that I never had before: an M1550R. I brought the prepped rocket with me, but didn't load the motor until the day-of--but, OOPS, I had sold the liner with an M1315 the day before. Charlie Savoie came to the rescue and fetched a spare from BAR, thanks man! After ironing that out, prep finished quickly, and I lugged the bird out to the back row. Andrew Wimmer helped me get it loaded up, and then back to the next row for the countdown. The M1550 lit right up, courtesy of the thermite igniter, and the rocket arced downrange under power as it headed up to 11,000' and change. Dual deploy worked as planned and I recovered it just at the edge of the scrub brush line. Great shakedown flight!