Day 1: Short and dry

Well, now, this is better. Better than last year when the grass was up to your waist and the standing water was up to your ankles… or higher. This year it was dry enough to mow, dry enough that they had to take a short putting-out-the-grass-fire break. A big, flat, short, dry field. I like it. Blue sky, winds 5 to 10 MPH it says here — seemed stiffer. We did get an odd dust devil coming through in late morning; it took down a popup or two, while leaving nearby ones more or less alone, then carried a couple cardboard boxes off into the field before continuing on into the soybeans. Weird.

Aside from the Clunes, who are SRC members but not remotely Syracusans, I was the first Syracuse Rocket Club member to arrive. In fact the only other one to arrive except for James, who was present but not flying. My son stayed home because relatives on his mother’s side are in town. No, that’s not why I didn’t stay home. Not sure where everyone else is, except maybe planning to spend their rocketry time and money on LDRS next month.

Well, more for us, as they say.

Not that I hogged the pads or anything. In fact my first priority was to stop at the AMW trailer to pick up a couple items I ordered last week: a Ceseroni H120 Redline motor for my certification flight, and the 38 mm hardware to go with it (the latter free, thanks to the Ceseroni certification special). Then I put the Metalizer with a C6-4 on a launch rod to start off. Weathercocked a little but not bad. If there were a closest to the flagpole contest it would have been a contender at about 8 feet. The first rocket in the next rack looked like it came down in a similar location, but did it stick the landing? Mine did. I should’ve taken a photo before picking it up; oh well.

Next was the first flight for my Photon Disruptor. No flight photo, sorry. B4-4, per the Estes first flight recommendation, but I guess I built heavy — it was decidedly underpowered. Still recovered all right. Maybe I’ll give it a C later this weekend.

Lunch was pulled pork from the Three Legged Pig. Next I decided it was time to inaugurate the 24 mm hardware I bought last August with a CTI E31 reload in my Mega Mosquito. Someone else brought up a MM with a black powder E to keep it company on the rack. The winds had picked up a bit and shifted by then, so altogether this was my longest walk of the day, almost but not quite to the soybeans. In the next low power rack there were three Mega Mosquitos. Well, that’s the Estes holiday sales for you.

I spectated the rest of the afternoon, conversed, and shopped — a 24 mm motor retainer and six Q2G2 ignitors. If I’d had a chance to paint some of my winter rockets before this I’m sure I would’ve launched more, but as it is I don’t have a lot of rockets with me and want to save some for later. Anyway, watching is fun and a lot cheaper than launching. Then I went off to the hotel and had dinner and blogged and stuff like that.

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Rich Holmes
Camillus, NY
Secretary / newsletter editor
Syracuse Rocket Club

http://richsrockets.wordpress.com

Looks like you had a beautiful day with a crystal blue sky. We could use some of that down here but without the 110 degrees that it usually rides with!

Syracuse . . . I think my sister and her family came across one of your launches, entirely by accident, a few years ago.

They had not seen rockets flying since I was kid launching A - C motors in the neighborhood!

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NAR #27085 - Oregon Rocketry - SAM

Day 2, much like day 1: warmer, a little cloudier, but similar winds, and still dry: No J and up sparkies allowed. Once again I made three flights.

I had a few minutes after breakfast and spent them adjusting the fin slots on my Excel and doing a dry fit. Then it was time to go to the field. I arrived to find people prepping for the day, including Tom Cohen, who was showing off a new and untested 145ish pound, M powered tube fin rocket. Later on I and several other people helped Tom set up his similarly large Red and White on the away tower, but that was after I flew a slightly smaller bird, the Patrioony, on a C6-5. In fact that was the first flight of the day. It went well, showed where the winds were — at that moment; they kept shifting. It also provoked a few smiles and laughs as I was setting it up, which is pretty much the point of the thing. Better yet, it shared a rack with a Patriot.

My t-shirt also was approved of.

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__________________
Rich Holmes
Camillus, NY
Secretary / newsletter editor
Syracuse Rocket Club

http://richsrockets.wordpress.com

I held off on further flights and watched worriedly as winds out of the south carried several flights into the wheat field, not a good place to land without a screamer. Then the flags started flying more to the east and I went ahead and prepped my Mustang with an Aerotech single use F42-8. More worrying as two of the preceding flights off the mid-power rails lawn darted. Things happen in threes, they say. But no, my 18" Top Flight chute came out and brought the Mustang down... a few feet from the soybeans. Then I went back to thinking about spending money. Motors? Kits? A larger Top Flight chute?

After lunch I figured it was as good a time as any for my Ventris, flying on a CTI G57. My first G motor, and first use of my 29 mm 3-grain case. (Two grains and a spacer.) Boost was fine. Ejection, fine. Recovery... well, the chute decided it wanted to see the world. The rest came down a little hard. The second annual Ventris fin repair will be taking place in the near future. I had the shroud lines attached to the snap swivel using a loop of thin Kevlar, which works okay for low power but obviously wasn't strong enough for this situation. I need to figure out a better approach.

So, yeah, I bought a larger Top Flight chute. And a Mini Max.

Tom's tube fin rocket flew toward the end of the day, and was awesome. I got pizza for dinner, then back to the hotel.

Oh, did I mention it was dry?

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__________________
Rich Holmes
Camillus, NY
Secretary / newsletter editor
Syracuse Rocket Club

http://richsrockets.wordpress.com

This year’s NYPower attendance was down, perhaps in part due to conflicting with NSL and to people saving up rocket time for LDRS in nearby Potter. Today was especially low key. Which was fine.

The clouds arrived. (Today was the one day of the weekend that’d had possible rain in the forecast, though by this morning it was down to “sprinkles after 4pm”.) Once again the morning wind was out of the south, but unlike the previous two days, it seemed to want to stay there.

I was pretty much down to my second string flights, the higher priority stuff having been done. I started off with the Razor on a B4-4. Countdown from five and nothing happened. “No continuity” they said and went on to other flights. “Range cold” I thought they said, and I went off to get a new igniter, and then they decided to try my rocket again! Good flight but I didn’t have the best view of it. I forgot to take a picture on the pad, so to make up for it I took one at the recovery point.

I was seeing way too many rockets come down in the wheat field, so I decided to wait and see if the wind would shift. I waited a lot. Finally just before noon with the flag flapping a little further toward the northeast, sometimes, I decided to prep the Test to Destruction with a C6-5. I figured I could stand it if it disappeared, and it’d save me the trouble of repainting the fin I replaced last fall.

The flight was good, though I failed yet again to get a good launch picture — someday I’ll break down and get a more suitable camera, maybe — and the wind carried it, yep, right into the wheat field. Another rocketeer found it, and another rocket of someone else’s. He remarked that he’d rather find his.

Sometime after lunch and a last shopping stop at AMW they launched someone’s MMX model, ⅛A impulse class, immediately followed by a reflight of Tom Cohen’s tube fin rocket, roughly 30,000 times higher impulse.

I packed up by about 1:30 and there were only two flights after that. At 2:00 it started raining… for about a minute or two. But by then I was on the way home.

It was a fine weekend. Very good field (except the wheat), good weather (except the wind toward the wheat), good people.

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Rich Holmes
Camillus, NY
Secretary / newsletter editor
Syracuse Rocket Club

http://richsrockets.wordpress.com

Nice write-up Rich. We enjoyed having you!
I was a bit strange to not see the usual Syracuse club tent up with all their fliers participating in this year's NYPOWER, but given the holiday, etc. it's understandable.
We did have a large contingent of families visiting us, especially on Saturday, so I made it my point (in between range duties) to seek them out, and send them over to Gloria (AMW), pick out a ready to fly rocket, and have one of their children launch their very first rocket.
I think that took, and we will see some new young rocketeers added to our ranks.
Now the trick will be to keep them interested as they get older!
Greg

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Greg Young - L3
NAR #42065
TRA #00234

I get the impression there are several Syracusans planning on 5 days at LDRS in lieu of 3 each at NYPower and URFF. Especially since there seems not to be a single day rate for LDRS. Being a low/mid power flyer, I figured I'd go to LDRS for a day or so as a spectator and do my flying at NYPower.

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Rich Holmes
Camillus, NY
Secretary / newsletter editor
Syracuse Rocket Club

http://richsrockets.wordpress.com

Thanks to all of you for a job well done!

SRC makes it a point to hand out a free, built rocket to any child who shows up at a launch for the first time. They get a motor or two and get to watch it fly.

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Rich Holmes
Camillus, NY
Secretary / newsletter editor
Syracuse Rocket Club

http://richsrockets.wordpress.com

That's really nice to hear Rich, and I think it can be a great idea for others to adopt going forward!
I'll see you and the Syracuse team at LDRS. Stop by and say hi. (I'll be easy to find as I will be RB each morning from 10am to noon).
Greg

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Greg Young - L3
NAR #42065
TRA #00234