The Scouts in our troop wanted to launch again, so I set up to use the Jr high parking lot on Saturday Oct 10. 10 boys showed up and I brought out several old rockets including a 35 year old Phoenix missile I built in 1980. I had not flown in in almost 15 years.

That day was perfect for flying. clear skies and NO WIND at all. A rarity for northern Illinoisy. I put a D12-3 in the Phoenix and launched it. It went straight up and the only thing that marred what would have been a perfect flight was the shock cord broke right above the mount. I had checked it out and thought it was ok, but I guess my jerk test was what caused it to start separating. Everything was recovered and there was only two cracked fins. Nothing broke totally.

Unknown to me, one of the scouts took a video using his Iphone and sent me a You Tube link to it yesterday.


http://youtu.be/MaL5G1iFBJw

I asked him if he took any more pictures/videos, but he said that was the coolest looking rocket there that day and it was the only one he photographed. We probably launched over 100 rockets that day, many several times. I wowed them with several two stage launches and the two grand finales were two scratch built rockets I had. One I launched on a G80-10 that a couple of kids chased for almost a mile to get it (and they did), and another one I put an E60-6 in. The E60 went up about 150 ft and then blew out both ends. The rocket was not destroyed, but was well scorched and after re-mounting the shock cord will be used to do another E60 next spring.

The kids loved seeing the spectacular CATO.... I wish Freddie had videoed it too....