Date: June 26, 1999

Location: Hartsel, CO

Club: Tripoli Colorado

I've been in Denver for three months now, and this was my first chance to fly with the gang at Tripoli Colorado. I woke up earlier than you should have to on a Saturday and made the two-hour drive down to the buffalo ranch near Hartsel. The weather was great - cool and calm and cloudless. I was impressed with the facilities - lots of open space to fly and chase rockets!

After a short pre-flight briefing from Ken, our prefect, I prepped a G64-4 for my Javelin and an H128-M for my LOC IV. I hadn't flown the Javelin [blurry pic] since mid- April, so it was nice to put her back up in the air. The G64 was a nice ride for her, boosting her to a good 1200 ft. or so. Ejection was right on time, which surprised me because I was expecting the 4-second delay to be a bit short for a rocket as light as the Javelin. She floated down nice and slow on her bright green 'chute, drifting a few hundred feet on the almost-calm breeze. When I retrieved her I found no damage. This was her fifth flight and her first on a G-class motor.

It took three tries and as many ignitors to get the LOC IV to go. Seems to be par for the course with the IV. She finally went on an ignitor donated by Jeff Karpinski - thanks Jeff! Boost was nice and fast and she coasted quite a ways after burnout. She got much more altitude than I'd expected, maybe 1500 feet. She seemed to float up and up forever. Well, for maybe ten seconds or so... She also has a nice roll that's noticeable from the ground. I'm not really sure why she does that, because it's not intentional. Must be them warped LOC fins... Ejection was right at apogee and she drifted quite a ways on the breeze that was starting to pick up. I had to walk about a quarter- mile to retrieve her. No cracked fins this time, but she did have about a half-inch of zipper damage. I'm not really sure how it got zippered, since it was not a high-speed ejection. Talk about a head-scratcher. No biggie. Great rocket, great flight. One of my favorite birds.

After pulling the burnt-out innards from the spent motor, I saw that the top edge of the delay liner (facing towards the delay insulator) had burnt through about an eight of an inch. Not good! It was probably very close to burning all the way through, which could've been disastrous. A close call...

My last flight of the day was the second flight of the Norad, which happens to be my newest addition to the fleet. Last time she flew on a G54; this time I went backwards again and flew her on an F40. The flight started off nice - good, slow boost, then ejection very shortly after burnout. The force of the ejection snapped the nosecone off the elastic shock cord, but the rocket itself recovered without a scratch. Thanks to a sharp-eyed club member (forgive me for forgetting your name!), I found the nose. When I took the motor apart, the delay and propellant liners were both clean - no sign of a blow-by. I'm not really sure why it ejected early. The only thing we could come up with was that the delay element lit before the propellant, and thus ignited the charge a bit early. Oh well, another head-scratcher...

After I was done cleaning my casings, I hung out for a while and chatted with some of the folk from the club, watched everyone else's flights, and got sunburned (gotta remember to bring sunscreen and more water next time...) I look forward to the next launch down there - it's definitely worth the drive!

Motor Count: 1/2A - 2; A - 3; B - 1; C - 6; D - 5; E - 3; F - 7; G - 7; H - 2