Tampa TTRA Launch July 21, 2012

It was HOT today in Plant City, Florida at the monthly Tampa TTRA launch.
Hot enough to where you'd rather sit under the shade of a tent than chase rockets.

Here's my RED MAX waiting for a pad assignment.
It flew well with an Estes C6-5 to an estimated 625'.

Charlie Sharp flew his carded Saturn 1 SA-5 with a D12-5 engine.
Charlie does some beautiful work with card stock.
You might know him as "Rocket Builder" on TRF.

He flew another scratch carded sport model with a long thrusting Quest D5-4.





My SCAVENGER (with the Dollar Tree wine "glass" nose cone) didn't get any altitude when the new E9-6 engine had a fireball blow-through.

It was a loud CATO that blew out the nozzle (see inset) and sent a fireball through the body tube and 100' up.

Luckily, no damage to the model except for a little charring and a pin hole burn through the Nomex blanket and parachute.

Immediately following my CATO, Mike Kochel had another with a new Estes E12-4 engine in his BT-80 Bomarc!

Hank Moleski brought out his original Estes Phoenix.

Still very very flight worthy, the white paint was slightly yellowed.

I'm building the Wolverine Phoenix on the blog right now, I found it a coincidence Hank had his Phoenix today.

I had my doubts about a D engine flight in this large model, but the D12-3 gave it a great ride.




I only had three models in the air.
Like I mentioned, it was hot and I spent more time visiting friends than launching models.

My last launch was the Semroc POINT with a B6-2 engine to 250'.
The "rigid chute" recovery worked like a charm.