June 22, 1997 - Launch Report


A beautiful Sunday evening and the yard work is finally completed. There's still a few hours of daylight left so you know what that means. After nearly a month of no activity, it's rocket time! At 7:00pm, the sky was clear and sunny, temperature in the low 80's and only the slightest of air movement. We called a few friends on 15 minutes notice but only Tim could make it. He's been working odd shifts and has never made it to our launches before. He's working that night, but can hang around until 8. So Kyle, my daughter Veronica and her friend Naomi and I head over to the college.

The soccer fields were clear, only a few people practising at one corner. The Plumbers Delight launchpad went together and I decided to bring out the refurbished Shadow first. I was dying to see her fly again. When Tim saw Kyle pull it out of the Aerostar, he thought we were nuts! Ha - I love the reaction I get with this rocket! The Shadow was soon prepped, ready and on the launchrod, pointing at the sky. Now I'm getting nervous. The last time I saw The Shadow in this position, it was a wreck a minute later.
Well, hold onto yur butts...

5-4-3-2-1
Mash the wires Dean!
Big Whoosh!
Both motors fired for a perfect launch. I got to see the twin flame columns as The Shadow roared into the sky. Now that's neat! She went straight up this time because of no wind and made very good altitude. The nosecone blew and YES - a big beautiful parachute deployed. Yay! No problems. Down she came and landed about 50' from us. I am a happy man.

The second flight was a repeat of the first. Very exciting to see 4' of rocket launching into the sky on a big column of (smelly) white smoke. Very gratifying to see my rocket with its modifications work flawlessly. It did drift toward the college's driveway the second time, so I got over there and caught it in the palm of my hand.

Tim regretted that he had to leave for work, but he definitely wanted to know how much these things cost. I think we may have another rocket-nut to launch with soon.

Afterward, we sent up Big Bertha a few times. On one flight the chute didn't inflate and Bertha came in pretty hard. When we picked her up, we were very relieved to see that there was no apparent damage.

We packed up and headed home, a happy bunch of ModRoc'rs.

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