After a week of near frantic building and finishing, My Estes Partizon was ready in time for me to take advantage of the great weather today on my vacation from work. The maiden flight was on a RMS AT F40-7W. In spite of the wind we had today averaging 6-8mph with higher gusts, this rocket launched with a straight vertical trajectory and was very stable. Everything worked as it should. Based on my experience so far with the Pro Series ll rockets, I would have to say that Estes has done a masterful job engineering them.
The next flight was to be on a G40-7W, but first I wanted to launch the other rockets I had brought. First was the Semroc Magnum Hornet on a C6-5 and then on a D12-5. Both flights were successful.
Then came my Semroc Cherokee D. Here, my luck faltered. The wind must have suddenly picked up because it weathercocked severely and on a D12-7 it arced way past the park boundary and over privately owned land. Then the chute deployed and it drifted on the breeze even further away. I could barely see it, but I was able to visually track it and I could see it was going to be trouble with all the trees and overgrowth and highways, fences and houses. The next two hours were spent walking through the countryside in search of a small rocket. After much searching through tall grass and brush and looking to see if a tree had captured it, and dodging cars on the country roads, I finally spotted it in the middle of a large patch of blackberry bushes - suspended about 6' off the ground. These bushes are also known as "stickers". I wasn't about to abandon my beloved Cherokee D, so I worked my way towards the rocket and tramped down the bushes as best I could. Untangling the undamaged rocket from the sticker branches was a bit of a job as well, especially when it came to the shock cord and chute. I poked and scratched myself up considerably from all the thorns. I'm typing this post now with arms that are covered in welts. But I got my rocket back! The Partizon G40 Launch will happen another day.

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Douglas

last time I launched my DDbird I had to traipse through bushes...a denim jacket and a pair of leather work gloves worked nicely for protection . nice looking birds you have there.
rex

In 35 years of rocketry, despite several attempts, I have NEVER recovered a Cherokee-D on a D12-7. EVERY single time it was lost. Several successful flights on the D12-5, the old D11-9, and even a mistaken launch on a D12-3 (thought grabbed a D12-5), but NEVER a D12-7. ALWAYS lost to drift on that stupid WAY-too-big stock 18" chute, and will NEVER again launch one on a D12-7. Have used the D12-7 on my A20 Demon and others though.

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When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

Yes, I learned early on that my LPRs don't do well with 7s delays. I made an exception yesterday because I had one D12-7 left that was nearly three years old, but also with the gusty winds threatening, I knew the rocket would be descending nose down at ejection. That way, it would be closer to the ground when the chute deployed reducing drift. I knew I was risking a zipper and a shredded chute.
It didn't work; the rocket went way higher then normal on a D12, maybe it cought an up draft or something, and the wind wisked it away. Here's a pic of the same rocket taken about a year and a half ago when I had another close call with it - and this was with a D12-5.
Incidentally, Semroc is selling these with a 12" chute these days, which seems about right for it since I like to send it crazy high.

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Douglas

I was thinking about buying a Cherokee-D, but after pondering the long recovery walks, I think I'll build an Estes Viking with three fins oriented that way and call it a "Cherokee-1/4A." :-)

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Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
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