Ninth model was my vintage Renegade on a D12.
Everytime I thought about putting it on the pad the wind would kick up.
It's so old that I won't fly it anymore unless conditions are perfect.
The wind disappeared late afternoon and I was able to get a really nice flight from it.

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Next up was my copy of the Centuri Mars Project.
The St. Louis Arch flight profile of the last season tells me it needs more nose weight.
Weebles wobble but they don't fly well.
I didn't have time to do a proper job of adding nose ballast so I gave it the quick-link Band-Aid.
I was rewarded with the straightest vertical flight to date.

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My Blue Bird Zero was the last to go, and boy did it go!
I put it up three times on E power and they were all perfect flights.
Last season's paint crack on the fin root had been growing ever wider with each subsequent flight,
but the fin was still hanging on at quitting time.
As I was packing up the gear, my wife was egging me on for "just one more flight".
I agreed and fitted the BBZ with a D12 from a group of packages I recently purchased for the Viper.

The combo of a D12 and dead calm air made it easy to follow the flight path upward.
Apogee came and went but the parachute didn't. The nose never even attempted to leave the tube.
What happened next has to qualify as my best lawn dart yet.
I pulled the engine and just as I had suspected the clay cap was still intact.

It won't be difficult to fix. I put a collar inside at the paint break and attached the top half
with #6 screws in anticipation of this happening someday.
About average for my BBZ. It once spent two weeks in a tree during thunderstorms.
I only got it back when it filled up with water and became heavy enough to break the shock cord.

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Thanks. It's just plain old Rustoleum from the big box store.
I have good luck with every color except gloss white.
Must be 6 half full cans around here that don't work anymore.

Hey, I think that Mercury Redstone launch escape tower is repairable! Nice launch report.

Nicely MANGLED BBZ body tube. Engine looks just a LITTLE shy on the ejection charge.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.

Thanks, Joe.

I'm just glad that engine didn't find it's way into my vintage Renegade.

Me too.
That's a nice old Astron Renegade.
One of my 70's favorites.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.