Launch Report: June 14, 2000
The past three launches had been on dates divisible
by seven. What's with that? I wondered. Oh, well, I decided,
why not keep up the trend?
I marched alone down to the park in the blistering
heat of a June afternoon to launch my rockets. It was an odd sensation
having to lock up the house before launching rockets. It seems that
previously other people had done that.
After setting everything up I launched Two-Bitz,
a clone of a little tiny rocket produced by Centuri in the '70's.
When it was on the pad the fins were actually resting on the blast deflector.
I worried that having the engine in such close proximity to the blast deflector
might cause some unforeseen adverse effects. I launched it anyway,
and it flew to apogee on an Estes 1/2A3-4T engine. The Centuri engines
originally intended for the design were longer, so I had to place a bulkhead
in the body to accommodate the smaller Estes engines.
Two-Bitz tumbled down to a soft landing in the grass
near the pad. I picked it up and it seemed to be okay.
The next rocket was Sprint. It had finally
recovered from its catastrophic crash on the median in the freeway.
Sprint took off on an A8-3 engine and flew incredibly high, just as it
had on its first flight. It came down on its yellow streamer and
landed in the grass, well within the confines of the launch site.
That doesn't happen very much anymore.
I ran over to pick up Sprint, ran back to the launch
site, packed everything into my cool new range box, and went home.
It was a very successful launch, and resulted in a very happy me.
I later examined Two-Bitz and found some charring
on the bottom of some of the fins. I think that was because exhaust
gases from the engines reflected off the blast deflector and charred the
fins before the rocket could get going. Next time I launch Two-Bitz
I'll have to mount it higher off the pad.
Another interesting thing I noticed is that many
of my launches revolve, intentionally or unintentionally, around patriotic
holidays. I launched rockets once for Independence Day, and have
launched on VE-Day and Flag Day. Should I launch next on August 14?
And, as an added bonus, fourteen is divisible by seven! Moving on...
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