Rocketeer's Corner: Pics from Saturday's launch...

Duane's Estes Make-It-Take-It leaves the rod on an A8-3 (Click to enlarge).

Saturday's launch did not just involve the TARC Geezers; quite a few other folk joined us at Pegasus, many bringing rockets to fly. In addition to me, Duane, Marc, and Vince, there were Art, Blake, Matt, and Phillip, along with the Hope Rising and James Clemens TARC teams. We also had a few spectators, including Art's pastor and a young rocketeer who got to start the launch by pressing the button that sent my A8-powered Estes Alpha 3 skyward. Needless to say, there was a lot of activity, and I had a very hard time keeping up with rockets taking to the air. In addition to the Geezer TARC birds, more than 25 other rockets made voyages on Saturday; I say "more than" because the two TARC teams were still flying their BMS 3" School Rockets when Duane and I departed the field.

A couple of things of note:

Duane had the "Curse of Recovery" while I was afflicted with the "Altimeter Curse". My GDTV-1 rocket hit an altitude of 479 feet on an Aerotech E20, but the payload section got a nice bounce on landing. The bounce broke my altimeter bay, resulting in the Perfectflite Alt 15k/WD altimeter tumbling free inside the tube. It beeped out the altitude just fine, but chirped like a deranged bird when I tried to reset it for the next flight. I didn't see any obvious cause, but the net effect was that the GDTV-1 flew without an altimeter on its first rail-guided flight. I will have to conduct my experiment on a later date with a new, stronger altimeter bay - and a different altimeter. This one is toast.

My last flight of the day was made by my reliable Probe-18 on a B6-4, loaded with my favorite Micropeak altimeter in the payload section. The rocket grabbed some good air, but I was horrified to see it separate in two at recovery. The sustainer tumbled to earth, suffering minor damage, but the payload section - with my beautiful altimeter - drifted to the southwest and was lost to sight. It's probably somewhere in Mississippi...


My GDTV-1 is about to clear the rail riding an Aerotech E20-4 White Lightning motor (Click to enlarge).	The Probe-18 gets started on its ill-fated journey (Click to enlarge).

October 3 and 4 are the 75th and 60th anniversaries of the 1st rocket to reach space (the V-2) and the flight of Sputnik 1, which opened the Space Age. In keeping with the spirit of these events, Art Woodling and Vince launched some Sputnik-like rockets, and there were a couple of V-2's leaving the pads. I was going to bring a small Sputnik, but Mr. Klutz (me) broke one of the dowels when I pulled it out of storage.


Art's "Pumpkinik" on a C6-3 (Click to enlarge).	The "Flying Purple People Eater" gets going on an Estes F15 (Click to enlarge).


Vince launches his C-powered V-2 (Click to enlarge).	Blake's V-2 heads north towards London on an E9 (Click to enlarge).

So here are a few more pictures - I was busy with Geezer TARC during much of the time and didn't get to take as many as I would have liked, but they should give you a flavor of the rockets launched at Pegasus yesterday.


Marc's Aspire going up on a F44 (Click to enlarge).	...and coming down under chute (Click to enlarge).


Art's 50+ year old Scout (his 1st rocket) recreates its 1st flight on a 1/2A6-2 (Click to enlarge).	Phillip's camera-carrying Sprint XL rides a D12 motor up into the sky (Click to enlarge).


A Zooch Saturn 1 on a B6-4 (Click to enlarge).	Vince's "Spooknik" clears the pad under the power of an Estes A10 (Click to enlarge).


A "Sputnik Too" under the thrust of an A8-3 (Click to enlarge).	Vince's Ares scale model riding a B6-4 (Click to enlarge).


An Estes Interceptor leaves behind a cloud of smoke from its C6-5 (Click to enlarge).	A Space-X Falcon with Dragon capsule makes a successful flight (Click to enlarge).