12-24-07 Launch Photos

[tbzep]

My son (Intruder) and I launched a few rockets this afternoon. We had a good day. He put two in trees, but one was chest high and easy to reach. The other took some effort, but we got it and only damaged one shroud line. Some photos are better than last time, others worse. My biggest problem is figuring out the best focusing/metering with this new lens.

First up, my son's scratch Goblin.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0044.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0047.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0049.jpg

[tbzep]

Next up, my Citation Patriot clone. This series of images were by far my best of the day.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0053.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0055.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0056.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0058.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0059.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0061.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0062.jpg

[tbzep]

My son's Estes Patriot

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0065.jpg

My Quest Tomahawk

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0072.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0079.jpg

My son's scratchbuilt HARM

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0080.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0083.jpg

[tbzep]

My son's modified Quest Intruder. This was it's first flight. It's his pride and joy. The flight was nominal, but the typical Quest chute material combined with cool temperature kept the chute from opening. Luckily, it had no damage.

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0093.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0094.jpg

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/tbzep/Rockets/12-24-07/DSC_0097.jpg

I also flew a Semroc Snipe Hunter and a scratch built Astro-1, but I didn't get good shots of them. All in all, it was a good day of rocketry. We had no bovine intervention today, the sun was shining, and my daughter is bouncing off the walls in anticipation of tomorrow. I've had to keep a page open to NORAD all evening so she could track Santa. :p

[CPMcGraw]

Great shots, Tim! Those Patriot images are incredible. I love those two of the model coming toward the camera, the one just before deployment and the one just after. How high would you say the model was in those shots?

The image of the Goblin deploying, with all those burning shards, is good testimony about those over-powered ejection charges. I can almost hear the shotgun going off.

Good to hear about the Intruder not being dinged badly. That's a very nice-looking model to have something happen to it...

[pantherjon]

Awesome shots!! Makes me green with envy! ;) One of these days maybe my rocket photography skills will come close to 'tolerable' instead of horrible!

How far away from the rocket are you standing to get these shots?

[tbzep]

The Citation Patriot flew on a B6-4 to keep it in the pasture, so it wasn't very high. I stayed behind the camera lens so I couldn't even give an eyeball estimate. It would be interesting to see what RocSim shows on a B6-4. For good photography, you can't blast them to the stratosphere anyway. :D

I probably was around 20-30 ft. from the pad for the launches, and considerably closer for the Intruder pre-launch shots. I don't think I stood in the exact same spot for any of the launches. I guess I should pay more attention....whatever way I held my tongue, or stood for the Patriot photos is the way I should be standing all the time. :p

[DaveR]

Whew, all those images took forever to load on the old dial-up; but as usual, the pics were more than worth the wait. Gotta love those shots of the Citation Patriot and the ejection photo of the Goblin is fantastic.
It's easy to see why the Intruder is your son's pride & joy, great looking rocket. :cool: Good to hear it sustained no damage.

[Rocketflyer]

Tim, those were some incredible action photos.
Your son is right on your shirttail when it comes to building. :D

Enjoy Christmas.

[Thruster]

Wow Zep those pics are outstanding, thanks for posting them.
How does the green ammo box work and should I have one? :)

[tbzep]

Wow Zep those pics are outstanding, thanks for posting them.
How does the green ammo box work and should I have one? :)


Thanks, everyone.


It houses my 12v gel cell and the pad relay. I used to have it all integrated in a plain plywood box launch pad with ducted smoke deflector scaled to the size of my Centuri Saturn V, but it was just too much trouble to use as my only launch system. I moved it into the ammo box for convenience.

[moonzero2]

Beautiful,... just Beautiful!!!!!

Merry Christmas!