John,
I watched two different birds lawn dart to the South of the pad, one was a red rocket. Everyone was looking up and I told several people I saw it go down. But, I was on my way to the pad and unfortunately did not see if anyone went that way. It would have been further out toward the road. I may be up in Severance next weekend (29-30th), if so I will look around a bit for you.
Greg

Thanks Greg,

I did not go as far as the road in my search. Thanks for the info. Its like a lost family memeber, you just cant' give up until you know what happened to them.

John

I lost a bird - a stretched dual deploy PML Callisto, out at the North Site in early July 2004. Me, my wife, Joe Hinton, Bill Beggs and Bob Messner probably put in a total of 50 hours wandering around out there on the prairie looking for that bird and never found it.

16 months later, while I was looking for something else entirely, I found it just over a mile from where we had all expected tangled up in a fence line. It would probably still be sitting there as it was far from the expected splash zone.

As an added side benefit, I learned intimately the structure of all the hills and swales and probably got to look under every single bush in a 2 mile radius - found something like 3 or 4 other lost rockets in the process too. The amazing thing was the dual altimeters in it (hence the reason for the search) fired right up when fresh batteries were applied.

Warren

I'm getting attached to the little buggers, It would drive me nuts to loose one. I can't even let the little Estes ones go.

If I'm back from working in KS by April launch, I'll help you look for it.

Greg

This is my second rocket to suffer a recovery failure. The first one was a Bull Puppy and the debris pile was'nt more than 1 square foot. I was amazed we found it. I was glad to hear from Greg who actually saw the IO lawndart. That narrows down the search area considerably. I am starting to rethink my launch habits. All my rockets I have built electronic payload bays in because I am a data gatherer. That means when I lose one I also lose an altimeter. Its painful!!

John

Don't feel bad - that rocket of mine that was out on the prairie for 16 months had 2 brand new altimeters in it. Hell, right now there is a bird out on the prairie from my 2006 SSS attempt with a Perfectflight MAWD in it and I've had a reward posted for well over a year. No joy. Perhaps it will turn up this year.

Warren

Let's hope that this wasn't yours that I saw and that yours floated down and is just waiting for you to find it.....

Sparky I found this morning a red IO with a 38mm at case and an e-bay with a slide switch on the side. I haven't opened it up to see what kind of ALT yet. The rocket is red with white stripes by the fins. It looks like it recovered just fine and the only broken part looks like a chip on the piston.
You can reach me at net.dale@gmail.com

- Dale N

Dale,
I cant' believe you found it! I was out there about two weeks ago looking again 😀 and of course didnt' find anything. I had looked in areas where I thought it might have gone if the chute deployed but I really thought it was a lawndart. I will send you an e-mail and Thanks for finding my Io!

John Nelson