iROC

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.

Upon arriving at the launch site and hearing that there were SKIDMARKS available, I of course hustled over to Jack and bought the biggest one I could get. This went into my CTI Pro38 5g case, which then went into the iROC for maximum dramatic effect. And for maximum dramatic effect, of course, I had to wait for the sun to almost set before pushing the button. The winds were still strong, but off we went anyways - and it was spectacular! However, the landing was less than forgiving, as the chute dragged the rocket a quarter mile across the lakebed, scraping up the nice shiny finish. But hey, with some Krylon it'll be good as new. And WOW that was cool!

This was a very old J420R - from the era preceding the "bag-the-delay-separately-so-the-ferrocene-doesn't-migrate-to-it" days - and so the first order of business for prep was to get a new delay element from Jack at What's Up Hobbies. With that task taken care of, the motor was quickly assembled, wadding stuffed, chutes packed, and the rocket on the pad. At the end of the countdown, the motor came on quickly and accelerated the iROC into the air faster than ever before. The poor thing was HAMMERED by the J420. But it all held together, and speed is apparently a good thing with this kit, as it was heading dead straight into the sky. The chute appeared at apogee and the iROC returned safely to earth.

With the winds beginning to pick up (and seeing how far away the LOC IV had landed on its last flight...) I elected to keep my next flight a little lower. I wanted to put the I245G in something lightweight (like my Vulcanite), but I ended up using the iROC instead to keep the altitude reasonable. This turned out to be a good thing, as it still drifted a half mile away! The boost was snappy, though the peak altitude was a little low, and chute deployment was on time. A nice, quick flight on the new propellant.

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!

Well, while we were flying freshly-painted rockets, I figured it'd be a good chance to debut the new iROC look that my dad had been laboring over for so long. (What can I say, I just don't have that kind of patience :)) Everyone LOVED the decals, and John Van Norman supplied a free ROC sticker to put on the tail for added effect. The motor of choice this time was an I284W - the classic iROC motor - which turned in a beautiful flight to about 2800 feet with successful recovery.

After fighting with the RRC in the Arcas all morning and having two ejection charges go off in or near my face, I was really frustrated with avionics and decided to prep something quick and easy. The iROC on an I300T seemed ideal. My (sunburned) girlfriend Katharine accompanied me to the pad, setup was easy, and launch was quick. The rocket kicked up a nice cloud of dust as it left, and ejected right at apogee, for a good flight.

We had picked this motor for the Expediter, but to switch it up a bit and slow things down so we could watch the whole flight, I decided to put it in the iROC instead. It was a good flight to 2207 feet.

The iROC made its umpteenth appearance on the classic AeroTech white motor. It was a good flight early in the morning to 2778 feet.

The iROC flies so well on this motor, we chose to do it again in February. After one misfire, the rocket lifted off the pad, cocked off the rod a bit to the west, and raced to apogee. Recovery was nominal.

Hulan was one of our first inspirations to come out to Lucerne, and continued to be one at ROC launches, putting up flight after awesome flight with perfect apogee ejections. His I-Roc was a memorable flier, and so when I finally got one, I was excited to drag race him on I284Ws. Unfortunately, his never went on this round, but ours made a good flight nonetheless.