Friday wasn't all that much better than Thursday as it turned out. The winds were up to 20-30MPH and it was cold. I stayed most of the day, but didn't launch anything. I did, however, help a friend get his Level 1 certification, so the day wasn't a total wash.
Saturday was much better. Winds were still a bit on the breezy side but manageable. And the temperature was warmer.
I decided not to prep and fly the largest rocket in my fleet, the Talon-2, as planned, since I didn't like the winds and I was still feeling the effects of my cold that I was trying to shake for the last two weeks. But both the Emerald Fire and Mustang-XL were ready to go.
The Emerald Fire was first up. Loaded with a K805G motor (propellant is a green formulation appropriate for a rocket named Emerald Fire) and a Ozark GPS telemetry head in the nosecone, she raced off the pad for a really nice flight to 3,700 feet. She reached a maximum velocity of 322 ft/sec.
Plan was to capture some GPS telemetry data for plotting on Google Earth, but since I forgot to set the data recorder I got nothing. I guess when you're away from rocketry for over 3 1/2 years you tend to forget a few things - now where was that checkist :)
The Mustang-XL was a pure sport flight and it performed very well. Loaded with a J450 DM motor, the takeoff was loud, sparky and cool to watch. She quickly climbed to 4,700 feet with a maximum velocity of 670 ft/sec before landing off to the right about 2000 feet across Ell Downes road. The rocket was carrying a Trackimo device which sends GPS signals via the cellular network.
LDRS was a huge success, and I enjoyed my time back on the rocket field. According to MDRA there were a total of 713 rocket launches during the 4-day event.
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