Article: 1819
by Daid Randall, December 2009

Frost & Fire II 2009

Thanks to everyone who made it out today for a great winter launch. In fact, it almost didn’t feel like winter. We had blue sky, sunshine, not a drop of rain.

We had about 20 people at the launch today. Mark Quinn and the up -stretched -up -scaled Quark and the venerable Mozzie made their regular appearance. Dave Walp brought along his son and a few friends (Ken) he’s convinced to join the hobby. Ken had a nice set of scratch buiilt rockets, including one that managed to spit the nosecone then do a core sample. Jeff Mobley also invited a friend down to fly a nice little Estes kit, but the motor thrust ring was placed in the wrong spot – rendering the rocket unflyable until some rework could be done. Jeff did a nice job getting three flights out of his Estes Bull Pup. Peter Shurke and crew were down in force after 1pm to fly their test scaled down SLI rocket – with great success I might add! Scott Berfield strolled up with a box o’ rocketry goodies and flew his Fat Boy and der Red Max with some in-field landings. I flew my Patriot on an E-18 to about 1000′ with an off-field recovery to the North. My Madcow Phoenix finally did itself in. An F-10 with an marginal CG/CP resulted in a short flight to 100′ and an arcing path into the soccer grass. After bouncing back into the air, it managed to do a crazy spin before landing on the ground, spitting the chute out and declaring itself done. It will now rest. Forever.

Overall, lots of fun, a bunch of great flights, and a nice 1st Anniversary launch for The 60 Acres Series.

Dave Randall