January 13, 2002
It was fairly warm today, probably in the lower 60s. There
was a lot of wind blowing today with gusts that were really strong. It
had been about 4 months since we had launched any rockets and I had two
that I couldn't wait any longer for: The Estes Night Wing and the MPC Martian
Patrol. The Martian Patrol has two styrofoam flying saucers (UFOs) that
attach to the fins and separate at apogee to glide back down to Earth.
I also had a new Estes E2 Launch controller that I wanted to try out. It
takes either four "C" size batteries or one 7.2 volt battery pack.
The first launch of the day was the Night Wing on an
A8-3. The parachute didn't open and the rocket landed really hard breaking
one of the wings. Next I launched The Martian Patrol with an A8-3 for a
good, but low flight. I then flew it on a B4-4, B4-2, and a B6-4 just to
see what the difference would be. The best flight was with the B4-2, because
the flying saucers separated from the rocket when it was higher, giving
them more time to glide.
The flying saucers looked cool coming in and the launch
controller worked well today. I have already repaired the Night Wing and
it will live to fly another day.
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