Launch N.E.F.A.R. Monthly, Bunnell, Florida May 11, 2013

I drove Roger Smith (jonrocket.com and rocketreviews.com) and Tom Rubikov to the monthly NEFAR launch near Bunnell, Florida.
It was warm at first then quickly became Florida HOT! Brian Coyle invited to us over to prep rockets under his tent awning.



My Quest RAPTOR flew well to about 500' with it's first C6-5 engine.
The C engine should be the minimum on this model. Looking back I probably should have made the engine mount to handle a D like the Aerospace One.

Still, very respectable flight with no damage on recovery.





Tom Tweit (tomsrocketgear.com) flew his new Rocketarium Retro Rebel with a C6-3 engine.
Slow and stable it flew very well.
Tom built this one because it looked like his RocketGear logo.

Tom also flew one of his kit crayons and a Fliskits Goddard Nell from the scale launcher.

My Quest X-30 AEROSPACE PLANE  flew again with an Estes C6-3 engine. Altitude was abut 300'.
I took extra time getting the two 12" parachutes into the narrow 20mm tube.
Both parachutes came out at ejection. Even with a dust of talcum powder only one chute opened, just like the first flight.
It did hang horizontally during descent and landed with no damage.

Mike Orpi flew a drag race with three Corkscrews, upscaled from the Odd'l Rockets Corkscrew kit.
It was an great launch with three spiraled contrails during boost.

Check out the tube fins in the inset picture.
That's Mike's original design, the Celtic Warp!
Very creative and a step beyond the Fliskits Celtic kit.

The SCAVENGER had a hard landing!
After a boost to 1,100 feet with an Estes E9-6 engine, only the nose cone blew off at ejection.
That did slow it a bit, but it still nosed in and crumpled the first 6" of the body tube. An easy fix, I have some extra Quest 50mm tubing.
I can only guess it was a weak ejection charge. The parachute has always ejected before!

James Weaver did a great build of the Squirrel Works Police Call Box.
A good ride on the Estes D12-3 engine.

(We all know it's really the Doctor Who "Tardis". James came dressed to drive that point home.)

It's always a pleasure to launch from good equipment.
The LPR pads were busy all day, manned by Steve Ghioto. Steve is responsible for pad maintenance.

A new pad assignment sign was added, see the inset picture.
At any time you could see which pad was armed and ready for launch.
In a drag race, the sign scrolls between the two different live pad numbers!

My also flowns:
Dr. Zooch SLS with an Estes C6-5. Perfect flight, slow roll during boost.
This is fast becoming a favorite flyer.