LAUNCH! Schoolyard March 18, 2011

I have to work this weekend and will miss the Tampa TTRA launch so I flew a few to get it out of my system.

Not a cloud in the sky and just a just a slight breeze this morning.

The FlisKits INTERLOPER was up first with a Micromaxx engine. Straight up and landed within ten feet of the launcher.

The micro version of the Odd'l Rockets BREAKAWAY was up next. Great altitude and all four tethered sections blew apart at ejection. It landed close enough I walked over and caught it before it hit the ground.

These are MicroMaxx static shots, I gave up trying to capture MMX models at launch, they are just to quick for my camera.

It looks like I'm going to retire my clone of the Quest COBALT.

It has only flown stable twice out of four launches.

Even with .40 oz. of nose weight it went horizontal with a Chinese made Quest A6-4!

To the left you can see how I cut through the shoulder of the nose cone to make a pull-out streamer area. You can't see the nose weight, it's just ahead of the streamer.

This didn't seem to help stability. I hate wasting engines on rockets that don't fly right!

Here's the best flight of the day.

It's an Eric Truax Carded PATRIOT with a 1/2 A3-4t.
This is my first launch using the engines from the ScoutStuff.com clearance sale. Stable, great altitude and streamer recovery.

I'll get a link the website soon in an upcoming model profile of this Patriot.

Last up was the carded downscale of the CHEROKEE T.

(I know, it's supposed to be the Cherokee "D" but this thing flys with "T" engines.)

I'm still going through my stock of 35 year old MPC 1/2A3-5m engines. The five second delay is about right for this BT-5 sized mainframe. Even with a streamer I had a 100 yard run to pick it up!

This model moves off the launcher. I was using a fast shutter speed and this was all I got!