Great photos Mike! Good time today!

Art

Yeah Mike, thanks for documenting a nice, casual launch on the prairie. For those not there, there was a good mix of low, mid, and high power launches. Notable was Joe's J shot to about 7000' and Mike's J to J two-stage to 5700', but there was more that I missed while helping to shag rockets. Wind at the surface was only a few knots, but there was a strong NW wind above about 4000'. The clouds broke in the middle of the day and melted off the snow and allowed for good tracking of high rockets. We also had new member Larry (?) and young son Max come out.

On the third page of Mike's photos is Adrian's 24mm rocket in the tower. On an Ellis G37 he logged 8700', which is both a club record and a Tripoli record. We tracked the rocket most of the way to the ground and found it by radio transmitter over two miles SE of the Atlas site.

YA

I saw his gate coming back in! It was full of victory!

Scott e

Thank you Mike Shinn, for capturing my two-stage 'The Twins' flight which showed the transition from boost to sustainer. I made a composite from the pictures he sent me. To understand the time sequence, the J570 burned for 2.05 sec, the separation charge went off when the acceleration stopped. The J350 lit off 2 seconds later (using a Timer). You can see the booster (Ricky) following the sustainer (Micky) in the smoke trail until it falls away in its own apogee, then deploys its own chute. Micky landed 838 yards away to the SE (per the on-board DC20, along the same line, but not quite as far as Joe's launch which went higher.

There is a peculiar orange dot (seen in the 2nd row of pictures and the last row) that is falling after the initial separation, which I don't know quite what to make of it. There was a red cap on the suatainer nozzle, but it hadn't fired yet when these were taken, and the separation charge was in a latex glove finger. It doesn't make sense to me what it is.

Thanks to everybody who pitched in the set up the rails and help me recover the rocket sections.

There is a peculiar orange dot (seen in the 2nd row of pictures and the last row) that is falling after the initial separation, which I don't know quite what to make of it. There was a red cap on the suatainer nozzle, but it hadn't fired yet when these were taken, and the separation charge was in a latex glove finger. It doesn't make sense to me what it is.

Its an Alie.......... oops 😳 I mean Undocumented being from Outer Space. 😉

Its an Alie.......... oops 😳 I mean Undocumented being from Outer Space. 😉

That's what Becky said ...a UFO! 😆