Date: May 20, 2000

Location: Hartsel, CO

Club: Tripoli Colorado

You know it's the first launch of the year when everyone brings out their Big Stuff. The day started off with an L3 attempt - which was successful - on a Kosdon M1130, followed by an AeroTech K700 then an L1120. Wow!

Today was to be my L2 attempt, so the first thing I did when I arrived was seek out Mick, our resident "expert" on assembling J350 motors (when you've had seven or eight successful flights on a motor with a reputation for being flaky, you're an expert ;-). After Ken dug out the club's 720 casing for me, I had Mick help me assemble the motor. It didn't take long to get the Endeavour prepped, and the weather was starting to look nasty. I wanted to put it off to see if the weather improved, but Mick talked me into going for it. I wasn't as calm as I looked while putting the bird out on the pad and waiting for the wind to settle a bit. The butterflies were fluttering when it was finally the Endeavour's turn. Fortunately, a nice patch of blue opened up in the clouds, and when the J350 came to life and blasted the Endeavour into the sky, she found the clear spot. I lost sight of her for a few moments as she reached apogee (a guesstimated 4,200-4,500 ft). I finally spotted her again, under chute, as she drifted quickly to our south. I thought "Whew, that's gonna be quite a walk!" She landed about a half-mile away, close to the gate at the entrance to the range. A couple of guys who were on their way in picked her up before I could get to her. They dropped her off with me when I caught up to them, and I looked her over real quick. No noticeable damage, and the launch lug held on this time! I carried her proudly back to Ken, who signed off my paperwork. Woo-hoo! Level Two!

My second flight of the day was the first flight of the Patriot. While I was getting her prepped, I received several comments from people who remembered the original Estes Citation Patriot kit. I loaded her up with an I211-M and put her out on the pad. The wind had picked up quite a bit by now, so we waited for a lull. When I finally gave the go-ahead, she took off nice and fast, and tipped a bit into the wind. (Ok, the Patriot has somewhat oversized fins to begin with, and when you goof and make them even *bigger* than scale like I did, it's no wonder it weathercocks a bit ;-). Except for the weathercocking, the Patriot flew nice and straight and stable, arcing westward (to our left). She flew a lot higher than I expected (she simmed out to about 3,300 ft. in RockSim), with ejection just a little past apogee. Her custom, hand-made red, white and blue 'chute opened with no problems, and even though she had tipped quite a ways uprange, I could tell it was going to be another hike by the way the wind was carrying her. She landed a couple hundred yards east of the range, which wasn't as bad as it looked at first. I had to hurry to get to her, since the wind kept the 'chute inflated and was dragging her along the ground. When I got to her, there was almost no damage, just a bit of scrape marks on the fin tips. Nice rocket, nice flight.

I wanted to fly "Scratch-N-Sniff" again, but the wind was getting worse, so I scrubbed it til next time. So, I only managed two flights for the day. But when one of them is your L2, that more than makes up for it! Thank you to everyone who helped make my L2 a success on the first try: Mick, Ken, and everyone at Tripoli-Colorado for all their help. Thanks to Andrew at PML for his advice. Thanks to Steve for not making me more nervous than I already was despite his best attempts, and for the great video footage. Also, thanks to the folks at Tripoli-Vegas for getting me started in this hobby in the first place. Finally, but not least, thanks to everyone on Rocketry Online and rec.models.rockets for your direct and indirect help.

YTD Motor Count: C - 3; D - 3; E - 2; G - 6; H - 4; I - 3; J - 1