Date: August 21, 1999

Location: Bear Creek Lake Park, Denver CO

Club: CRASH

Sometimes Mother Nature just blesses us with perfect flying days. I didn't think the weather was going to be so great, considering the storms we've been having lately.

I was the first flyer at the gravel lot. It didn't take long for everyone else to start showing up. I hadn't flown with CRASH in two months, so it was nice to see all the familiar faces again.

Today I prepped my Comanche-3, Big Daddy, and Citation Patriot. First up was the Comanche-3 for its first flight, and my first staging attempt since becoming a BAR. I didn't have the guts to fly her 3-staged yet, so I just set it up for two. I used a B6-0/B6-6 combination. She zipped off the pad at launch, and staged perfectly. I didn't watch the booster because I was trying to keep my eye on the upper stage. Luckily, the booster landed just a few feet from the pad. I'm not sure how high this thing flies on the B6 combination, about 1200 feet or so? As it was, I had a hard time tracking her against the white cloud ceiling. Ejection was right after apogee, and she descended fairly rapidly on her dual streamer. When I retrieved her, I found that she had popped two fins on landing, and the booster also popped a fin. Oh well, not too difficult to fix. I think I'll use a little epoxy to hold the fins on this time.

Next was the Big Daddy with an AeroTech E15-7. I met a friendly kid with another Big Daddy while we were waiting in line to put our rockets on the pad (Brian I think his name was... sorry, I'm terrible with names). Dwight the LCO was trying to convince us to drag-race our Big Daddies, but I didn't think it would be fair - Brian's would ignite sooner than mine and would touch down before mine, and I'd get embarassed for losing... My Big Daddy didn't go the first time thanks to a bad connection, so I checked my ignitor, re-packed it, and tried again. This time he took right off, tipping just a little bit to the right of the range, and arcing into a nice, pretty, rainbow flight. Ejection was right after apogee, and he drifted a few hundred feet in the light breeze. I tracked him down to where he landed in the grass on the other side of the bridge. I retrieved him with no damage.

Then I started prepping a G64-4 for my Goblin-4. As you might remember, the last time I flew the Goblin-4, she had a bit of a mishap with the recovery system, and the first few inches of b.t. got crunched. Well, she's all fixed up now with a fresh paint job, and I was anxious to get her back into the sky. She took right off on the first try (I was 2-for-2 with Crapperheads today! Yippee!) and screamed waaaayyy up there, to about 1200 feet or so. Ejection was perfect, right at apogee (I learned my lesson and used a 4-sec delay this time...), and she floated down nice and slow on her bright, fluorescent pink 'chute. She landed in the grass at the bottom of the hill, just a couple hundred feet from the pad. I was so happy to have such a great flight after the Goblin's disastrous previous flight. She's a real crowd-pleaser and always flies great, especially on them G64s.

I think I've learned something about these Crapperhead ignitors. I've stopped using the fat ones that come with the G64s, and instead I bought a pack of the long, skinny ones. The skinny ones don't seem to crack as easily as the fat ones, and this might have something to do with my 100% success rate for the day. (Of course, now that I've said that, they'll probably never work for me again... )

About this time a small storm came through. It rained a bit and the winds picked up, but that didn't stop a lot of die-hards from flying. I decided to wait it out. The storm lasted only about an hour or so, and shortly after that the winds died down. I decided to try the Patriot on a D12. Nice, straight, stable flight like always, but she caught a bit of wind on the way down. She landed at the top of the dam, about a hundred yards away. I drove out to the dam and had to walk along the road to where she had landed on the rocks near the top. She cracked a fin in two places, and had a bunch of scrapes and scratches where she got banged against the rocks. The fin will have to be replaced, and she could use some touch-up to the paint on the nose. If and when I fix her, I think I'll replace the 'chute with a smaller nylon 'chute. Even with a large spill-hole, she drifts way too much.

Four flights isn't too bad, considering the weather. I had hoped to fly my PML Ariel, which I just finished painting a couple days ago. But no one in the club had a 3/8" rod, so I'll have to wait to fly her at the Tripoli-Colorado launch next weekend.

YTD Motor Count: 1/2A - 2; A - 3; B - 3; C - 6; D - 6; E - 4; F - 7; G - 8; H - 2