Date: February 20, 1999

Location: Eldorado Dry Lake

Club: Tripoli Vegas

I finally got to burn some AP. I joined the Tripoli-Vegas club out on the hard dirt of El Dorado dry lake. It was chilly and windy, so windy in fact I didn't think anyone would actually get to fly. After taking care of club business, everyone set about prepping their birds to fly. I just wandered around and watched and chatted and learned. I figured I'd wait until I saw a few rockets fly in the wind before I took a chance with my own rockets.

An I300 was the first flight of the day. Nice and loud and fast! After seeing a few more rockets flying straight despite the 20-30 mph wind, I felt confident about flying my own rockets. The only problem was everyone had to chase their rockets a bit downwind. I loaded an F20-4 SU into my Initiator and put her on the pad. Nice straight, fast flight to about 1000 feet with deployment right after apogee. I hopped in my truck and picked her up about a half-mile from the launch site, where she was scooting along the lake bed. A few scratches in the paint was the only damage; other than that she was in perfect shape to fly again.

Now I was itching to fly my Javelin. I had brought a 29/40-120 RMS case and an F40-4 reload to fly in it. But I had never loaded an RMS before, so I talked club President Mike Alber into helping me load it. Thanks a bunch, Mike! I had a couple false starts trying to launch her thanks to those wonderful Copperheads, but after loading it with a Firestar, she finally took off. A nice, slow, beautiful flight to about 800 feet, again with ejection just slightly past apogee. What a flight! She floated down slowly on her big green 'chute, and I could tell it was going to be a bit of a chase again. When I caught up to her in my truck, she was scooting along the lake bed, too. After recovering her, I found a crimp in the body tube just above the launch lug, in addition to the usual scratches in the paint. Nothing that can't be repaired. I can't wait to fly her on a G64 or G33 now!

Even though I only got in two flights for the day, I still had a lot of fun just watching everyone else's flights and chatting and picking up pointers. One of the most exciting flights of the day was Vince's "Hawk Pink" on a full-K that screamed to about 6000 feet and nearly disappeared. There was Franco's two-D motor cluster (I think it was a LOC Starburst?) that took off so slow it cocked severely into the wind, gained maybe 200 feet in altitude, and ejected about 100 feet above the ground. It came right back at us and landed about 20 feet from the pad. There were many other flights that were just as exciting, but I don't know everyone's name yet since I just joined the club.

This was my first experience with medium-powered rockets and AP, and I'm thoroughly hooked! There seems to be something addictive about the noise and smell of AP...

Motor Count: 1/2A - 2, A - 3, B - 1, C - 1, D - 3, F - 2