LAUNCH! Soccer Field, April 4, 2011

It's rare that I run across another hobbyist at the Soccer field, but Julio was there this morning flying his electric RC plane.

Julio had never seen a model rocket fly. He was interested and jumped at the chance to launch a few for me.

I hadn't seen (or heard) an electric motor in a model plane. Compared to my rocket engines, his plane was very quiet.

Julio laughed out loud when the UP! CUP was launched. He couldn't believe a coffee cup flew this well.

This version was the first one I made, a little smaller than the new 18mm kit version. The A10-3t engine gave it a good ride.

With Julio pressing the launch button, I caught the carded Micro BIG BERTHA at ignition.

Enlarge the picture to see the igniter just blown out of the nozzle, still glowing red.

This morning's flight was with an Estes 1/2A3-2t.

My Eric Truax carded PATRIOT was launched with a 40 year old MPC 1/2A3-5m engine.

I've still got a dozen left!

THE WASTED ENGINE OF THE DAY AWARD goes to: The Semroc CENTURION on an Estes A8-3.

The wind was starting pick up up and this 24" tall model has two 12" parachutes. I took out one chute and aimed it a little into the wind.

This was a low "lob" rather than a powered flight. Not near the 100' that the Semroc site said it would reach.

The single parachute didn't fully open but broke the fall so there wasn't any damage when I picked it up.

The Centurion has a Centuri style baffle. I played it safe by wrapping one square of wadding around the parachute before the flight. The baffle worked well - I found the wadding afterwards, there was no burns or charring.

Also flown:
The Fliskits INTERLOPER with a MicroMaxx engine. I would guess it topped out at 100 feet.
And finally, the carded RED MAX with a MMX. Nose blow recovery and I caught it before it hit the ground.