The soccer field was cold this morning. So cold I had trouble connecting up the micro clips.
I'd read all the performance stories about the MicroMaxx "Little Plastic Bricks" before. A few years back, I'd flown the Little Joe and No Mercy models. While the No Mercy rocket did okay, I was reminded of the Little Joe at this morning's launch.
First up (and down) was the SR-71 Blackbird. It was stable but no ejection of the streamer. That little nose cone piston was hard to pull out of the grass.
The Saturn V actually flew well to (maybe) 50 feet with a little tail wagging during boost. The shortened streamer did eject - SUCCESS!
The Space Fighter is definitely the best looking rocket of the series. Boost was low, I could have thrown it higher than it got with the engine. No streamer and again I aerated the lawn. This would be a great design to upscale.
Once the Space shuttle left the rod it went horizontal and landed the same. No streamer at ejection. The MMX Tomahawk was also in the air. That's the best description I can give of the flight.
I'm almost asking myself: "Why did I waste four out of five MMX engines?" I didn't remember the performance being this bad with the plastic models. Three out of the five mylar streamers were burnt and crumpled. Fun? Sort of. Funny? Definitely.
In their own right, they are a little bit of rocketry history. In a proper cardboard and balsa model MicroMaxx engines do perform well and are perfect for small fields.
My best flight of the morning was the UP! Cup on an old Estes B6-2. The cup does seem to amplify the engine noise. Boost was very stable and the engine ejected on a streamer.
On a side note: All six launches used recycled MMX igniters. I'm using a six volt Estes controller.
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