Launch Report: December 14, 2003

Location  Espanola, NM
Temperature  mid 40s
Wind  N 5-10 mph


Flight  Rocket  Motor  Comments

1  Eliminator  E8-6  Drag race w/ Tommy English. Separated
2  Oscar The Grinch  G75-S  Perfect flight.


Pictures from this launch are on the Zia Spacemodelers launch page.

I flew the Eliminator because I saw that Mr. English was setting one up for his son Tommy, and I wanted to drag race. The shock cord broke at apogee. It doesn't appear to have burned, it just fatigued and snapped. I'll replace it with Kevlar. Also, the body tube fell to earth from very high and suffered no damage. I may start using a streamer with this rocket.

I invited my admins from work to come see the launch, so when one of them showed up I prepped Oscar on a G75 to show them a big launch. As it turns out, Mark had brought a ton of new propellant to sell to everyone, so there was no shortage of big rockets. Neverless, Oscar flew perfectly. We decided that because it was near Christmas we should temporarily rename the rocket "The Grinch."

I spent most of the rest of the launch drooling over other people's giant rockets, and showing off the incomplete parts of my L2 rocket. I had to leave early to go to the caving club's annual party, so this was a short launch for me.