NOVEMBER 1st 2008 COVERAGE

On November 1st, we had a launch in conjunction with the Skybusters. The field had been cleared of crops the week before, and in spite of all the rain (and snow!) that we got the week before, the field was dry. This is the first launch held on the field since June. The hay field to the north of where we usually fly was cut and we were allowed to fly off of that instead of the dirt field we usually do. The flying field for next year will be much smoother, and no corn stalks to tear up your legs as the field was planted with beans this year instead of corn.

The weather was perfect, hitting about 60 degrees early in the afternoon before cooling off under the cloud cover. No sunburn! The cloud deck was about 10K feet, and the winds light, ranging about 4 MPH most of the day, and blowing in the right direction. We started flying right about 10AM and flying ended around 3:30PM. Over 75 rockets were flown, with lots of high-power stuff ranging from H128 to K556 motors. This was a marked contrast to the last two launches we had in which only one H motor was flown. All the rockets flown stayed on the field because of the light winds, even the ones with two stage deployment that accidently deployed their main at altitude. Four Tripoli Level 1 Certification Flights were done at the launch, including two minimum diameter I211 powered rockets that just about touched the waiver.

Everyone went away happy, and weather permitting, we plan on having another launch on November 15th. .