LAUNCH! TTRA Tampa, Florida January 15, 2011

This was my first time flying with the Tampa Tripoli Rocketry Association.

Roger Smith drove me and and all the rockets to the site located near Plant City, FL.

It was a great sized field with plenty of cows.

First in the air was the Odd'l Rockets CYCLONE with a 1/2A3-2t.

This new prototype sported chrome Monokote and Sharpie trim.

Those who hadn't seen it fly before were surprised by performance of the dual maple seed and helicopter recovery.

Astron Mike was there with plenty of pop-pod gliders.

Everyone watched as one stayed aloft a little too long and was lost!

All the others were recovered after long duration flights.

Here's the launch of his VENGEANCE with an I-195 reload.

Mike builds from scratch rolling his own tubes and using Depron foam board.

He showed us how a Quest C6 and D5 should be used.

Roger Smith (rocketreviews.com and jonrocket.com) had a great boost with his AKAVISH spider.

The engine was a CTI J245.

Recovery wasn't as good, with no ejection it nosed in.
Damage was minimal and it will fly again.

Three cameras were strapped to the legs to get some good videos.

The BIG GIRTHA flew with a single C6-5.

It should have flown as a two engine cluster, but only one engine ignited.

It was still stable with the off center thrust.

A little hard to understand the misfire, I used Quest Q2G2s in both engines.

Winds were near calm, I finally flew the DynaStar LEXXJET with a D12-3.
Boost was straight and altitude was better than I would have thought for a D engine. RockSim altitude was predicted at 377 feet.

The 32" parachute was big and and let it down real slow.

Here's the Dr. Zooch TITAN IIIC successfully flown with a B6-4.

The Odd'l Rockets BREAK-AWAY! flew high with a C6-5.

Check out that high tech "launch angle device" under the leg of the launcher.

Also flown was the Odd'l Rockets UP! CUP with a C6-3.

It was great to meet everybody including Dr. Sue and Bill Gibson with his big group!

Roger Smith took some great pictures at the launch.

You can review them at his Payload Bay website at:

http://www.payloadbay.com/gallery/v/ttra/2011-01-15/