Article: 1662
By Dave Randall, November 2009

The Turkey Shoot 2009

I sat at the keyboard, ready to scrub the launch about 5 times today… But, the weather charts just kept looking promising. Being a glass-half-full kinda guy, I headed down to 60 Acres at 1pm just in case any other hearty souls made it out. Surprise, surprise, Mark Quinn was there with a truckload (ok, 4) rockets ready to go! There were a few electric r/c planes flying around – we managed to maintain separate airspace throughout the afternoon though.

Mark and I chatted about rocketry in the rain for an hour, and by 2:15 the rain had cleared and some blue sky was poking through. Time to setup! I ran back home to grab a G Skidmark and my PML Callisto, only to forget the after closure ring. Drat.

By 2:30, Mark got his rockets and pad set up with goal of at least one flight out of each rocket. And, he accomplished it! Mark had four great flights, all recovered on the field, all with successful apogee deployments. By the end of the flying time, around 4pm, the wind had picked up to about 10 knots and temperatures were dropping into the low 40s. The last flight of the day – a Mozzie ended up drifting to the far north edge of the field. Mark said he had only a few feet to spare before it would have been off the field. We packed up under the warmth of evening sunlight bathing us in its glory. Ok, the wind overtook the warmth by a factor of ten, but you get the point.

All in all – lightly attended but worth getting the “AP fix” for the month.

Attendees: Dave Randall, Josh Randall, Mark Quinn, Doug Boa, Jeff Mobley.

Flights: 4 flights total, 3 “D” and one “E” motor.

Videos here:
Rock-It: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGwGhnVV_yE
Quark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbyTuB8xxpo
Batray: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSEY0vj_h84
Mozzie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sinnYU8EWQ