Date: November 20, 1999

Location: Bear Creek Lake Park

Club: CRASH

Another nice day for flying in Denver, if a little chilly. Nothing I can't handle, though. It was a little breezy, and we had mild gusts as the day progressed.

First up was my Custom Dynamic Carrier for her first flight. This is a really neat-looking kit, but I'd heard that some DCs have stability problems. My DCs first flight was on a C6-5. Hopefully this would be powerful enough to keep her stable. She tipped to the right a bit when she took off, and did a little bit of a tail waggle on the way up. Nothing major, just slightly squirrely. Good deployment at apogee -- gotta love those Mylar 'chutes. I recovered her in the grass with no damage.

Next was the Little Goblin for her third flight on her first D12. I asked the LCO to help me track her, since I'd never flown her on a D before, and I was afraid I'd lose sight of her. But she was very easy to track as she zipped to about 1,500 ft. or so. Good deployment at apogee, and I was able to track her bright red streamer all the way to the ground. When I went to pick her up, I found that she had popped two fins on landing. I guess she's still a bit tail-heavy, even with an expended motor casing. Should be easily fixable.

I had a few friends show up to watch, and I wanted to fly one of my big ones for them. I had just finished my PML Callisto, and I had an F40 prepped for her. It's always neat watching someone's reaction the first time they see a flight of a composite motor. The Callisto took off, the F40 making an impressively loud, crackling noise. She flew with a slight tail waggle, which puzzled me. Ejection was well-timed, and she descended very quickly on her 24" 'chute. Luckily, she landed with no damage, but I still won't use the 24" 'chute anymore. When PML switched over to the Quantum Tube, they forgot to upsize the 'chutes to compensate for the added weight of the new tubing.

Next was my Python on an E6. This was the first time I'd ever used a motor like this, and I was expecting a very "interesting" flight. I wasn't disappointed, either. The E6 is a long-burning motor - almost 7 seconds, and is an end-burner, unlike most other AeroTech motors. The first Copperhead didn't fire, so I replaced it with another Copperhead after briefly contemplating using the Thermalite ignitor supplied with the motor. The second Copperhead worked, and the Python took off slowly. The E6 emitted no smoke and no flame, and made a hissing noise quite like a leaky tire or air tank. She was quite hard to track as she rose into the air, thanks to the smokeless motor. She cocked just slightly into the light breeze, heading towards the lake. As the motor began to taper off, she started to nose over until she was practically horizontal at burnout. I knew the 8-second delay was going to be too long, but it was much longer than I'd expected. She had nosed over and was coming in fast when the ejection finally fired about 100 ft. above the ground. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief and walked out to retriev her. The upper payload section had separated and I thought it was lost, but I finally found it about 100 ft. away in the grass. The rocket itself had missed landing in the water by about 200 feet. The E6 is a very neat motor, the excitement was well worth the anxiety of nearly losing the Python. I wish I could get more of these motors...

The last flight of the day was the Prowler on a C6-5. The Prowler rose slowly and slightly to the South to about 500 ft. Ejection was just slightly past apogee, and the 'chute tangled around one of the fins. She tumbled in slowly, landing gently in the grass. I retrieved her with no damage.

All in all, another interesting day at CRASH.

YTD Motor Count: 1/2A - 2; A - 3; B - 4; C - 9; D - 9; E - 6; F - 8; G - 13; H - 9; I - 2