Mini Rage first flight
Today was the annual rocket launch for the rocket club, so I was there instead of Corwin’s swim meet. Corwin came by later, once he was dry.
I had intended all year to get some cool new stuff ready, but of course time slipped by until it was too late. Corwin, however, managed to build two rockets since his last launch, they only needed some paint. So the few days last week that I had time to prepare was spent on helping Corwin get his rockets painted for the launch. He learned about priming, masking, and why grip strength is important for using spray paint.
The launch went well. The early morning weather was very marginal, but since it was the big launch and tomorrow didn’t look any better, the decision was made to go ahead. That turned out well, as after a few hours of miserable weather the day gradually turned very nice, although the wind was near the limit for safe launching most of the time.
I focused on getting in as many flights as possible early one, both to get things moving and because no one else was flying so I got my pick of launch pads and didn’t have to help out with administrative tasks. By late afternoon I had to stop for those reasons, but it was fine as I had already done more launches than I normally manage.
I didn’t fly any big rockets, as I am mostly out of motors for them and most are broken and waiting repair. Sigh. I flew the Green Rage 2 three times, twice having to retrieve from the buildings east of the park. So at least I got some exercise.
Corwin flew his rockets three or four times, his little one only once and the rest on the rocket he built for his Webelos den. The paint job turned out well and he named it “Min-Rage”, presumably after my “Green Rage” rocket fleet. The first flight was on an A8-s and it was a low flight, but that was good because it ended up landing very close to the spot landing stake (70 inches) which is much closer than any one else managed. The other flights used B6-4 motors and Corwin had to do some walking to get those back. I helped Corwin with the first couple of flights but after that he did all the preparation himself. Afterwards he lamented that, while fun, it would have been more fun if he had more rockets. I think I might be able to fix that …