I'd missed the last two Zia launches and since the September launch I had built several new rockets as well as been elected Zia's vice president. I contacted Tom before the launch and asked him to bring out any spare 29mm reloads he might have. This would allow me to fly the newly-fixed Nerd Magnet XL as well as my Halloween rocket, Oscar (the furry rocket). Nina, Ben, and Meg came along to watch.

The first rocket of the day was the Eliminator, or as I fondly refer to it, "The Defecator." This was a kit I picked up at Hobby Lobby in Santa Fe on a whim and I hadn't gotten the chance to fly it yet. It was really just an excuse to fly some of the new Estes E black powder motors. Apparently I didn't put enough wadding in it, though, because several shroud lines burned through and the parachute was nothing but a large streamer. The plastic fin can weathered the hard landing without a problem.

Having tested the wind with the Eliminator and found it to be nearly non-existant, I started prepping the Nerd Magnet for its comeback flight after the big crash back in June. Because Tom's reloads all date to back in the stone age and were really difficult to assemble, I had Nina launch the Mini Meanie while I was working. This was another kit purchase from Hobby Lobby, and currently my smallest rocket (appropriate for immediately preceeding my largest). It cost me $2.

It flew nicely on its tiny 1/2A motor (the smallest motor I've ever flown) to a height of about 50', coming down and just missing a car and a dog. The dog clearly thought the landing was too close for comfort. The all-plastic rocket came down on a fin and broke it off. Maybe it needs more streamer.

I got the high power pad set up (I was the only person launching high power today) and got the Nerd Magnet XL ready to go. Tom's ancient motors actually had a Thermalite boosters on the Copperhead ignitors. What a pain. Despite this, the Nerd Magnet XL flew wonderfully. After a bunch of black powder motors, Meg and Ben (who had never seen a rocket launch before) were duly impressed with the composite H.

Ejection was about 2 seconds later than optimal, and when the nosecone came off it really just fell out more than shot off, and it didn't drag the parachute out. This was exactly the problem in June when the rocket crashed. I watched it tumbling down from apogee connected by a ~3' piece of nylon webbing and figured it for dead (again). But at about 150' the chute decided to pop out and open perfectly. If you didn't know any better, you'd say it was a dual deployment rocket that had performed perfectly. The rocket came down with no damage and some of the kids out for the launch ran out and retrieved it for me. I just hope that when I get to the point of building dual-deploy rockets that they work as well as this did.

I felt like launching the Defecator again, but the parachute was toast so I borrowed a nice one from Rob Hermes. I set it up again on an E9 and it flew perfectly. Rob's parachute was a really nice one, with a homemade shroud and attached heavyweight fishing swivel. Again, the kids retrieved my rocket for me. This was fine, as there was plenty of fresh cow pies on the field that I'd rather not walk through.

I was hoping to use one of my new 29mm RMS cannisters, the 29-60 and the 29-100, with my new furry rocket, Oscar. Unfortunately Tom only had 29-180 reloads. He convinced me to fly a G75 in it, even though I thought it would be overpowered. I loaded it up and there was much anticipation. The kids announced that it was the "coolest rocket ever," and Robin sure got a kick out of it.

Because of the fur, it would stick to the launch rod without falling down. This was a bit disconcerting, but it seemed to be an issue with the grain of the fur pointing down. It would slide up the rod nicely, but downwards there was friction. The first ignitor shorted, delaminated, and failed to launch anything. We had to bring it back and make a wire-wrap Thermalite kludge. This also failed to launch anything, but this time it turned out to be a dead battery at the relay box because of the previous short. Finally, with a fresh battery, Oscar took to the sky on its maiden flight. It flew perfectly and had a nice parachute deployment at apogee. It was the last launch of the day.