I agree 100%, I had a great time, even with 2 failed "A" attempts. 😆

Great pictures Mike, thanks for posting.

OH! Thanks so much for posting these. You actually caught a good picture of the recovery failure of my Hyperloc 1600 on slide 65. I had thought the parachute didn't pull out but it did it just didn't open. Looks like the firecloth caught the wind instead, its closest to the nosecone. Following the line down from the cloth, the parachute is at the lowest point of the picture in a ball. Something tells me I tied this wrong and the chute should have been closer to the nosecone?? Eventually I am sure I will master dual deploy, but this is a bugger. At least no permanent or difficult damage to the rocket.

Nose cone - 1/3 of shock cord - chute - 2/3 of shock cord, rocket... works for me every time so long as I have enough charge to push things out with a little authority and the chute is fluffed and re-packed just before flight.

Goes to show that politeness helps, as the rancher to the east, Nathan, actually found my rocket. He intercepted Mike and I as we were meandering around their private lands. We explained what we were doing and Mike invited him to come and watch our launches. Nathan gave us permission to keep looking. He then walked back to his ranch house while we continued searching.

Half an hour or so later, he came riding his mini-4x4 towards us with my rocket! He found it in an area that Mike and I had given up on.

Thanks Mike. Thanks Nathan.

Steve J.

While it is difficult sometimes to know exactly where private land and public land boundaries are, it is pretty critical to make the effort to contact nearby ranchers before going onto land you're not sure about. Consideration and politeness towards these folks is never misplaced and goes a long way to ensure continued good relations with these folks. Do keep in mind that regardless of legalities, these guys often feel that they "own" the public sections that they lease from USFS, so asking permission is a good move regardless. Once you are more than a mile east or north of the pads or 3/4 mile west or south of Rd 122, consider it a necessary evil.

Stopping by the ranch house, explaining your mission, shooting the breeze if needed, and inviting them to come out and observe a launch are all critical to this. I've chatted with Nathan myself a number of years ago during my search for one of my lost Level 2 cert attempts. He didn't quite seem to "get it", but he was very nice and mentioned that he appreciated being asked first. When I located the Beyond Earth test rocket, after I determined that it was not on our site, I contacted several ranchers before wandering around in their fields. Unfortunately, the Beyond Earth folks did not when they went to collect the rocket and pissed at least one of them off.

We are truly fortunate to have these launch sites and our continued good relations with the ranchers is one reason we do.