¿ Reality ? 3...2...1...

These are the flights done since moving to Maryland.

When/WhereRocketMotorPerformance Comments
2012 Dec
MDRA
Wildman Vindicator K686 ex CATO This CATO was spectacular to watch, but damaging. Both the rocket and the motor casing is toast.

With each CATO, the lesson can be hard, but knowledge is gained. Hopefully the CATOs will become a rare experience.

2012 Dec
MDRA
90% Recycled Material
(scratchbuilt)
J407 ex 2653m (8705ft)
1228 km/h (Mach 1.00)
The lower section of the rocket was built, on a whim, starting the previous weekend, using new tubing and new launch lugs. However, the fins were cut from old stock, the nosecone and upper portions were recycled from Alako.

This was a nice, fast, flight that leapt out of sight into the clouds. "Elvis has left the building" as the LCO (Neil) put it.

On this flight, my handheld stopped receiving the homing beacon about the time it hit the ground. Fortunately, I had a general direction because, after the loss of the Cirrus Dart, I now try to get a general idea during its descent so I had a better idea for the cut-out scenario. After some while, I used the car to scout it out, and this turned out to be a wise idea. Despite the handheld/yagi not being able to hear the homing beacon, my mobile radio in the car could, it was very faint, but it could hear it; this let me play hot-and-cold. On hindsight, if I had realized this back in April, I might have been able to recover the Cirrus Dart too!

2012 Nov
MDRA
Wildman Vindicator K529 ex CATO Unfortunately, the forward closure failed on this, so this counts as a "half flight" as the upper section flew a little ways up (not too much). The rocket was in need of repair.
2012 Nov
MDRA
Wildman Vindicator K526 ex 888m (2914ft) The 54 Special was determined not to be flyable for this particular launch, so the vindicator was all that was left. It did mark the first rocket that I launched which was taller than me! And it was rather heavy which accounted for the lower altitude. The very nice thing is that the altimeter worked successfully so the rocket was reusuable.
2012 Sep
MDRA
54 Special J409 ex 1715m (5625ft) This flight had a hard altimeter failure, so it came down hard, and the beacon cut out. Spent the remainder of the launch searching the infamous soy bean field for it -- successfully recovered (Ben happened to have seen it right as I was about to cut off my search).
2012 Aug
MDRA
54 Special J260 ex 1043m (3421ft) Rebuilt the lower section, the upper section was reusable. So, I was back up to one usable rocket that could fly.
2012 Jul
MDRA
54 Special
(scratchbuilt)
J260 ex CATO
~75feet
The other rocket brought along was "Alfar" because it's damaged fin wasn't noticed until just after this one entertained the crowds. Thus, I was down to zero flyable rockets.

The lower section of this rocket came back in "kit form", but the fins were usuable and went into the new section during the repair.

2012 Jun
MDRA
Alfar 3x 315 H255-14A 1130m (3707ft)
667 km/h (Mach 0.54)
Two of the three motors lit. After this flight, some (unrepairable) damage was noticed along the root of the fin, so it's been pulled from service.
2012 Jun
MDRA
Alako II I243 ex 1130m (3708ft) This flight came down hard, and subsequent examination showed the bottom section to be warped. Therefore, this rocket was pulled from service. (It's upper half saw action a while later under a new name.)
2012 May
MDRA
Alfar
(scratchbuilt)
3x 348 I204 13A 354m (1161ft)
305 km/h (Mach 0.25)
The trouble with this flight is that only one of the three motors lit, so it deployed really low to the ground (which builds up the suspense of the moment).
2012 May
MDRA
Alako II
(scratchbuilt)
538 I303 1536m (5041ft)
914 km/h (Mach 0.75)
This was marked with the "II" as it's got the rebuilt lower section.
2012 Apr
MDRA
Public Missiles: Cirrus Dart 548 I242-16A -- This one went roaming despite the homing beacon. Hindsight is 20/20 and I should've tried to use the mobile radio in the car to listen, for my handheld radio wasn't picking up the beacon. By now, it's MIA.
2012 Apr
MDRA
Alako II 338 I180-14A 3087ft? As it turns out "skidmark" means sparks, lesson learned to the ire of others (we weren't supposed to be doing sparking motors).
2012 Mar
MDRA
Alfar 3x: 348 I204-13A --
2012 Mar
MDRA
Alako 784 J425 16A -- This came down hard, another deployment failure (as if the altimeter reset itself in flight). The bottom half of the airframe had to be rebuilt.
2012 Jan
MDRA
Alfar 3x: 315 H255-14A bluestreak 1173m (3848ft)
1091 km/h (Mach 0.89)

And yes, my in-flight video is low resolution, a limitation by my camera.

A cool in-flight photo was taken by Scott Szympruch, which can be found here.

2012 Jan
MDRA
LOC Lil Nuke 164 H90-12A --
2011 Dec
MDRA
Public Missiles: Cirrus Dart 517 I255-16A 2485m (8153ft)
1960 km/h (Mach 1.60)
Again, the homing beacon came to the rescue. The camera wasn't attached because I wanted to see how high it could go with the biggest motor it could handle.
2011 Dec
MDRA
Alfar
(scratchbuilt)
3x: 163 H133-14A --

This is my first cluster, running three motors, it flew beautifully and landed rear end first.

2011 Dec
MDRA
LOC Lil Nuke G64-7W -- Scott Szympruch took a nice inflight photo, found here.
Cool Rocket Video 2011 Nov
MDRA
Public Missiles: Cirrus Dart 411 I175 14A 1780m (5840ft)
1585 km/h (Mach 1.29)

Onboard video was highly successful for this (clearly) supersonic flight. It also turns out that the ditch system proved highly effective in ducting 70cm wavelengths, as the hunt of the rocket via the homing beacon lead to a very nice survey of the ditches in the area!

2011 Nov
MDRA
Alako
(Scratchbuilt)
700 J400 SS 1795m (5889ft)
1290 km/h (Mach 1.05)

This was my Tripoli Level 2 Certification flight and was successful. It also happened to be my first supersonic rocket flight, but that fact eluded me for some time due to the details of the *next* flight.

The two pictures are of the residual smoke plume, from this launch, that lingered for several minutes before dissipating.

2011 Nov
MDRA
Alako
(Scratchbuilt)
548 I242 15A 1510m (4954ft)
899 km/h (Mach 0.73)
This rocket flew successfully, and so it was prepped for a third flight.
2011 Nov
MDRA
Alako
(Scratchbuilt)
413 I236 17A 1230m (4035ft)
761 km/h (Mach 0.62)

This rocket flew three times on the first day of this launch. As I was using electronics for the first time for deployment, this was flown a first time as a shake down flight. On this flight, the electronics didn't work due to a miswiring of the altimeter.

Peter Abresch took a nice 55s video here.

2011 Oct
MDRA
LOC Lil Nuke G76-10 736m (2415ft) The parachute failed to work (can't remember why it didn't, but my notes mention "Core Sample").
2011 Oct
MDRA
LOC Aura E18-7W 154m (505ft) The motor here was another one from long, long, time ago, and did not perform as anticipated. While the damage was technically repairable, given the duration of service and the desire to move up in motor sizes, a retirement was warranted for this bird.
2011 Sep
MDRA
LOC Vulcanite
(my original one)
H159-12 1256m (4121ft)
967 km/h (Mach 0.79)
This recovered after a long, long, trek (nearly a mile away). If it weren't for the homing beacon, this would never have recovered. The long trek emphasized the need to start looking into electronics and dual deployment.
2011 Sep
MDRA
LOC Vulcanite II
(a new one)
H123 CATO Those 38mm Cessaroni motors are wickedly easy to assemble, but also dangerously easy to install the propellant WITHOUT the metal casing. This, unfortunately, rendered the booster "well done".
2011 Sep
MDRA
LOC Lil Nuke G64-7W 663m (2175ft)
2011 Sep
MDRA
LOC Aura F12-5 (old) --
2011 Aug
MDRA
LOC Vulcanite H133 653m (2142ft) This one recovered a good walk away, about a half mile, up in a tree. It's good that the club has a pole capable of reaching 40 feet!
2011 Aug
MDRA
LOC Lil Nuke F52-8 465m (1526ft)
2011 Aug
MDRA
LOC Aura D15-4 139m (456 ft) First use of the Jolly Logic Altimeter One, and a metric to go by.
2011 Jul
MDRA
LOC Hi-Tec H125 -- This was a nice flight, but it went MIA into the corn field and could not be found as the homing beacon was unavailable for this flight. I now have spares when I go to launches, or even bolt one per rocket.
2011 Jul
MDRA
LOC Vulcanite H133 -- This was a nice flight.
2011 Jul
MDRA
Wildman Mini Darkstar F52 --

It tookoff beautifully, but the parachute failed to deploy. Lawn darted as it attempted to enter a lithospheric flight regime. (Damage rendered it unflyable.)

Also, it was discovered that the black nose cone was not a good spot to put the homing beacon on a summer day. Some of the solder on some of the components melted from the heat! This meant that the next two rockets were not using the homing beacon.


Cool Rocket Video
2011 Jul
MDRA
LOC Vulcanite G64 -- The onboard video worked!!!!!
2011 Jun
MDRA
LOC Graduator G64 -- The Graduator went free roaming and is MIA.
2011 Apr
MDRA
LOC Vulcanite G83 --
2011 Apr
MDRA
LOC Graduator F52 --
2011 Apr
MDRA
LOC Aura D15 --
2011 Mar
MDRA
LOC Vulcanite G76 --
2011 Mar
MDRA
LOC Graduator G64 --
2011 Mar
MDRA
LOC Aura D15 --
2011 Jan
MDRA
LOC Graduator G64 --
2011 Jan
MDRA
LOC Aura E28 --
2010 Nov
MDRA
"Bat Axe" G64 -- At the time, I couldn't remember what the kit was called, so I had to make one up. I've since found the little sheet that came with the kit, but I'm keeping the name that I used on the flight card.

Went MIA for two months, recovered most of it, but enough damage rendered it unusable for future flights.

2010 Nov
MDRA
LOC Aura D15 --
2010 Oct
MDRA
LOC Vulcanite G76 --
2010 Oct
MDRA
LOC Graduator G64 --
2010 Oct
MDRA
LOC Aura E28 --
2010 Oct
MDRA
Soyokaze
(LOC Aura)
E28 -- The Soyokaze, unfortunately, roamed free after it landed in a nearby ditch.
2010 Oct
MDRA
LOC Vulcanite G76 -- Another (unsuccessful) attempt at onboard video.
2010 Oct
MDRA
LOC Graduator F52 -- Made an (unsuccessful) attempt at onboard video.
2010 Oct
MDRA
LOC Aura D12 --
2010 Sep
MDRA
Soyokaze
(LOC Aura)
E23 -- Attached to this is a camera, the first attempt to onboard video, but that was not successful.
2010 Sep
MDRA
LOC Vulcanite G76 -- (No pictures for this flight.)
2010 Sep
MDRA
LOC Graduator F22 -- This one sort of went up, there's smoke on the pad. But, this flight decided to do an early recovery. Having just restarted the hobby, the motors that I'm using these first few launch weekends were over eight years old, so some of the flights were "interesting".
2010 Sep
MDRA
LOC Aura E11 -- (No pictures for this flight.)

2010 Aug
MDRA
LOC Vulcanite G?? -- A nice inflight picture of my LOC Vulcanite, it's first launch. Eight years after construction, it's finally flying. I managed to capture it's nice descent.
2010 Aug
MDRA
LOC Graduator F?? --
2010 Aug
MDRA
LOC Aura D?? -- The first "back into the game" flight, after an eight year hiatus.