LAUNCH! Schoolyard Small Stuff 10/8/10

This schoolyard soccer field launch started later than usual.

I have to be out of the field before the school day starts. While setting up the launcher and noticed there was a lot of traffic, many parents were dropping off their kids at the last minute.

The MMX Red Max had a good flight, but even with nose blow recovery there was drift towards the road and all those cars. Here's the Micro Maxx smoke after walking back to the launcher. It seems to linger for a minute or two.

The MMX SkyWriter carded downscale is one of my busiest small fliers. It never fails, it's tenth flight had great altitude but still drifted towards the road. I couldn't feel any breeze on the ground, but 50 feet up there had to be some wind.

I have thirty, old MPC 1/2A3-5m engines. I thought the Semroc Thunderbee would be a good candidate for this engine. It's a long delay, but even with the rocket coming nose down at ejection, it should be okay.

I angled the launcher just a bit to compensate for the drift. It's got a streamer, it can't go too far, right? Wrong!

The boost was straight but at ejection it drifted and landed in the street, right on the dashed white line between two lanes of traffic.

There wasn't any cars to see it come down, but by the time I got closer, traffic had resumed. I waited for the cars to clear and picked it up. No big damage, just a broken fin.

This was one of my first rockets built after I got back into the hobby. I was still using sanding sealer then and didn't take the time in building that I do now.

Today was only it's second flight, the first flight really moved on a A10-3t.

I'd hoped to fly the new Wolverine carded downscale but after dealing with the drift, I couldn't risk it today with another 1/2A3-5m engine.