Sometimes they go, sometimes they blow!!! Well, as you may have guessed, launch day has arrived bright and sunny here in Cincinnati. Temps are not supposed to get out of the 70's and no rain is expected unless it's a late afternoon shower. Watch this space for pictures, interviews and analysis tonight before dark.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark

MAR, where the big ones are!!!

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John Thro, NAR #84553 SR
I was too old when I started! Now I'll *never* become a BAR!

And then I go and show up here after 10 pm without pictures. Suffice to say that today was as advertised and all told I made eleven flights. (Could have been more but I gave up some flight time to help a Boy Scout troop out with their birds. Hot glued fins, taped on launch lugs, you know the story.) First flights were many, with the Semroc Centurion first up on a B6-4. A slight wiggle off the launch pad and only one chute on recovery, but a decent flight.


I followed this with the first flight of my Interceptor clone with Moldin' oldies parts on a C6-5. This flight was marred only by the extremely late ejection charge which looked like it might have caused a zipper. In the end the only damage was a broken shroud line. My kind of damage.

It was about here that the scouts showed up, and it was also about the time that I discovered that the motor tube on my Semroc SLS Lil' Hustler was LOOSE. Not a problem, as I was laden with epoxy. Thirty minutes later I checked it and the whole thing came out in my hand. More epoxy, this time on all of the rings. Another thirty minutes and it was solid as a rock. Not sure what I did wrong there.
Next on the pad was the Citation Patriot clone that I just finished on a D12-5. A really impressive flight and recovery in the veggies, but that was to be expected. It was really quick off the pad, but I managed to catch a decent launch shot anyway. (To go with two shots of nothing but smoke.)


With the epoxy finally cured it was time for the SLS Lil' Hustler. This was the flight that I'd been looking forward to since I arrived and loaded with an E9-6 it didn't disappoint. The rocket weathercocked fairly heavily, but still managed to recover almost in the middle of a soccer field, in fact it was only ten feet from the action when I arrived. I got some stink eye, but I give as good as I get, so that was no worry. No damage, and although it flew no more today, it will fly at NSL.


Work to do now. I'll get back to the commentary after this special message.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark

THIS is what video was made for! It should be a NAR rule... thall shalt ALWAYS have a little video camera handy to capture and share moments like that!

Was this soccer game the kind with announcers and crowds of parents, or just a bunch of punks thinkin they had some kind of right to use your rocket field? People really need to quit putting up goals and diamonds and crap on perfectly good rocket fields... those kinds of things are best built on places with too many trees to fly.

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Daniel Runyon Net

I had my camera, which has video and sound, so I was prepared in the event that my rocket was damaged. I figure I can palm it so that it shows the person I'm talking to without them knowing they're being filmed. In this case I just got a dirty look from the line judge. I could see the rocket almost all the way over to the field and it wasn't touched to my knowledge.
Also, the soccer teams had agreed not to use the park this weekend because they had a dog event, a wine tasting, a large R/C event, and our launch going on. They were breaking their agreement by being there and could have forfeited their use priveleges had we complained. As it was, the only complaints were lodged by the R/C guys. They were concerned that we might land in their takeoff area, so we moved.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark

I'd just like to see the "stink eye" givin and takin... playing that scene through my head a couple of times was just too funny... especially if you were indeed wearing a pirate flag do-rag as I had pictured!

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Daniel Runyon Net

Close. I had my tie dyed do rag on. He probably thought I was a hippie.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark

Another flight on the day was flight #2 on the Rokitflite Fake Wolf. Lucky me landed this one on the access road and the front was damaged bad enough to need a new transition and slide tube. Flight was on a B6-2 this time. Scott's kits and I are star crossed.
Flight #1 and probably only with the Super Vega clone that I fitted with an E mount. An E9-4 shredded this bird at the 150' level, but there was enough fin left to finish the flight. Pretty neat if you didn't have as much time as I did in it. (Still pretty neat. )


I also flew a new rocket that I created out of a couple of dead projects. I started an Estes Guardian a few years ago, but wasn't terribly impressed with the fins when the time came to mount them. Tossed the body tube in a box until last week when I unearthed the old booster to my Astron Avenger clone. I had already cut the fins for the booster, so I had some nice looking, shaped and sanded 1/8" balsa fins without a home. I mated them to the body tube of the Guardian and came up with a bird that I had yet to name when I flew it on a C6-5 today. Impressive flight, especially the way it came roaring back at me after ejection. It landed less than 100' from the pad, just over the access road.
On the way home I was litening to Deep Purple on my XM Radio and it hit me. It's now called the Skyway Star. Anyone want to take a guess as to the song that was playing?


I spent part of last weekend decaling the Argus II (the D.O.M. kit,) with some of the spare Interceptor decals I had. It looks a lot better, but I still need to do some detail work to get it looking complete. Great flight on a C6-5.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark

[QUOTE=
..... I got some stink eye, but I give as good as I get, so that was no worry. No damage, and although it flew no more today, it will fly at NSL. :[/QUOTE]

Hey Carl, there's your next kit - "Li'l Stink Eye"

S.

Scott McCrate e-mailed me with some possible info on the why's of this shred today:

"I can tell you why the Super Vega shredded. This was discussed years ago on r.m.r. The problem is that the landing legs have flat round feet on them and if you use a motor stronger than a D it builds up enough speed to cause the legs to begin to oscillate from the air pressure on top of the feet spilling off. Think of an old style bass plug fishing lure that "swims" or oscillates back and forth because it has a flat round face being dragged through the water. Pressure builds up and it turns a bit to spill off the pressure, comes back to center and pressure builds and it continues in that direction to spill off pressure the other way then comes back etc... Because the feet are attached to long legs they have leverage to twist against the fins above and then it all comes apart.

At one time someone built one with either small cones or hemispherical tops on the feet and it didn't have that problem at all. Come to think of it I actually saw one shred at NSL '98 in Muncie and that was what started the topic on r.m.r."

Now mine had no feets, but it did have those large fiber discs on top of the BT-50 tubes that made up the lander legs. I'm guessing that one of them got to rockin' & rollin', which set off the whole "deconstructive episode". All three of the legs came off at different heights, much like my earlier attempt at balsa confetti, the Cosmik Debris.
Just thought inquiring minds might like to know.

__________________
Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark