The weekend of April 23rd saw the third annual gathering of the Rocketry Forum. This was the second time I traveled to Whitakers, NC to attend the event hosted by Tripoli North Carolina. Thanks to Jim Flis from FlisKits who drove my stuff down to North Carolina, I was able to fly to Raleigh/Durham where I met up with my friend Phil Gerringer. The weather for the weekend looked questionable, but we knew, rain or shine, the launch would be a blast.
Saturday started with the purchase of a few motors from Ken, including the Loki Hardware set and a couple loads. It was very windy, and we knew that there was a rainstorm headed towards us. Because of this, I stuck with flying my low power rockets. First of the pad was a couple Micro Classic kits. A micro max Alien Explorer and Armageddon. The Armageddon had a perfect flight, the Alien Explorer suffered a somewhat unstable flight and a separation.
Saturday saw the first flight for several of my low power rockets. I flew my Semroc Astro-1 with an A8-3, followed by my Estes Guardian with a B6-4. My FlisKits Triskelion suffered some damage to its fin tips after a brief flight with a B6-4. My modified Estes Cluster Bomb went on its maiden voyage with an Aerotech D9-4W. Then the sustainer for my Lightning got lost after a dual stage flight with a D12-0 to a D12-7.
We left early on Saturday because a huge rainstorm was coming in. Unfortunately, we all left too early, because the storm suddenly stopped and they launched the big one... the rocket I wanted to see fly… the rocket with the M2200 Skidmark... Grrrr....
Sunday my first flight was the Sustainer of my Super Glotova with a Loki H144. I also had the staging circuit ignite the top end of an A10-0T to test the circut and to add a little smoke to the rockets coast. This worked great. Second flight of my day was my Bull Puppy with a F37-6W. I built this rocket in my apartment the night before. I have to say that was a beautiful flight. The motor was aged, so it had a nice flickering flame. Looked real cool with a gray and white rocket.
Final flight I had Sunday was my Aurora with a Loki I405. That is an awesome motor! Since the winds were real strong, I reefed the chute, so after a quick high boost, I was able to recover the rocket within a reasonable distance.
The I405 had a problem though. The nozzle cracked. It did not completely split in two, but it cracked enough that the nozzle washer got marks where the cracks leaked. Ken had no replacements, so looks like I need to send Loki an e-mail.
The second TRF gathering was fun, but because of the weather, I was not able to fly everything that I wanted to fly. No big deal, that meant I had more motors to fly at a later launch.
