Launch at Amesbury, MA

Yesterday, CMASS held a wonderful launch in Amesbury, MA. Now, as you know, I fly with CATO in Connecticut, but I chose to go to Amesbury yesterday over Durham, CT because I wanted to take advantage of a 500 acre field and fly my I-ROC again. More on that flight later.

After I got myself all set up, I quickly went to work on prepping my first lfight of the day, my LOC Vulcanite. This rocket has received quite a few looks while it was being prepped. This flight was going to be on a G61 with a 10 second delay. After struggling with the parachute, I finally got the Vulcanite to the RSO table. After the RSO approved the rocket, I was assigned a pad. I was assigned one of the high power pads, as the Vulcaite is a little over 4 feet tall. With the location of the launch lug, and the length of the rocket, the RSO, knew I would need a 6 foot 1/4" rod. After hooking up the igniter, and a quick prayer to the Rocket Gods, I jogged back to the flight line. The Vulcanite was announced and after a 5 count, the button was pushed. The G61 ingited immediately and the Vulcanite moved quickly into the nice blue sky above Amesbury. With the rocket being mostly black, it was easy to track at about 1700 feet. Even though I struggled with the 24" chute, it deployed perfectly. I ended up going for a little bit of a walk into some high grass located on the other side of the access road. The Vulcanite was easy to spot for two reasons, one the nose cone and payload section are silver. The other reason is for the CATO chute. It is orange, white and black. Successful flight and recovery. What a great start to a great day.



My second flight of the day was my Aerotech Cheetah. For this flight, I chose to use the single use F20 with a 7 second delay. After being shown a much easier way of attaching the streamer, I was off to the pads. I hooked up the igniter leads and I was ready for countdown. Nothing happened. Seems at that point the pad that I was assigned to was having some sort of problem. I was moved over one pad and the F20 lit with no problem. This flight proved to me that even a rocket on a streamer can give you a long walk. The Cheetah landed about 10 feet from a river.



At this time, the winds really started picking up and I was thinking that with the amount of time that it would take for me to get the I-ROC ready, that the winds would die down. I was wrong. The wind was welcoming as it helped it not feel so hot as by this time, it had to have been around 90 degrees. I proceeded to prep the I-ROC. The motor of choice for this flight was the I161 with a 6 second delay. I joked with one of the guys and told him that I was toning it down from its first flight on the I211 a month ago. Since the winds picked up since the flight of the Vulcanite, I decided to wait on the I-ROC until after a Level 2 certification attempt on a J330. I wanted to watch and see how far the rocket would drift. It drifted quite a ways and I got to working on reefing my chute. I tied a knot about 2 feet down from the chute and folded the chute and finished prepping. Still concerned with drifting, I requested the furthest high power pad. That gave me some extra recovery room on the field. Even at the RSO table, the I-ROC impressed quite a few people. I then brought the I-ROC out to high power Pad C and hooked up the igniter. This flight also was done without the help of Blue Thunder propellant. I walked back to the flight line where a father showed his sons the I-ROC sitting out there on the pad. The kids were impressed by its size and even more immpressed when they found out they were standing next to its owner. I told them that it was going to be powered by an I161 and the kids patiently waited for it. The LCO even waited for the wind to die down a little before giving me a countdown. The I161 did its job and then some. It lifted the I-ROC to about the 1200 feet as was simulated. The I161 also impressed a lot of people. The I-ROC received quite a few comments and I was paid quite a few compliments on the rocket and the flight. The I-ROC touched down nicely just behind the spectataors and I quickly gathered the chute up so it would not drag the rocket.



My day of flying was done for the day with the I-ROC flight. I watched other flights and I was quite impressed by a lot of them. There were more low and mid power flights than high power. There were also at least 5 drag races.



Until next time everyone. Next month I will be in Durham, CT for CATO 139, which is also our annual picnic.