This is my second year at Plaster Blaster, and this time I got to stick around for a couple of days. I have been looking forward to a big rocket launch all year, and since I couldn't make it to BALLS, I figured this would be it. I put in for my vacation, cleared my calendar, and set off on the 195 mile drive to Plaster City, California.

There were a couple of people I was looking forward to seeing again while I was there, and it seems even more that I didn't know I was going to meet, which just makes it better. I made it out at about 7:30AM on Thursday, and began unpacking, and setting up for the weekend. Up with the shade, and the tent, and the table, and then I was to sit back, conversing, and chatting away, hoping for the wind to die down, and the action to begin.

Well, that didn't happen.

The wind kept up, over 10mph all day, and not much got done, except buying some motors from What's Up Hobbies, the on-site vendor at the time. I also had a chance to take some pictures of the set-up, and preparation of the 'Clash of the Titans'; the main event for the weekend. Andy Woerner and his Team had built a 1/16th scale Russian N1, and was going to be flying against Ken Sparks and his Team's American Saturn V at 'High Noon' on Sunday. Both projects were very mightily impressive, and both were equally complex, and detailed. The N1 team had all 42 of the motors they were going to use in their launch sitting out on the table all weekend, and that in itself was a sight to see. I had been keeping up with both projects through people within the project that I knew in one way or another, and they both had spent a lot of time planning, sourcing, building, and detailing both of these projects, and it was great to see them in person, and all stacked together. The pictures just don't do them justice.

There were several other projects that looked pretty interesting as well, including Andy Woerner's Space Shuttle. As I understand it, this had flown before, but there were a couple of issues with CG & controlability on the orbiter, and I think I heard that the impulse mix between the boosters & the orbiter was not quite right the last flight, so while the results were spectacular, I'm sure, they were not what was intended. Andy didn't dissappoint with his Space Shuttle flight though, as you can see in the video below, the boost was great, the rotation was as intended (if not clear in the video, it launched, boosters away from the croud, and arched over the front row) and the boosters were dropped just before the tank was, and while the main engines continued to burn shortly after the tank was gone, it was for good reason. Andy begun swinging the orbiter around the outside of the front row, and back toward the range. It probably wasn't going as fast as he would have liked, but it looked like it was going plenty fast to me. Just before the orbiter entered the range, there was a thump. The orbiter was a few feet short of a spectacular, incident-free landing, when it hit the ground at about 75mph, and then bounced up into a Volkswagen. Thankfully, all eyes were on this flight, and the owner was a good sport.

Another really great project that I saw while I was there was Val Derkach's 'Thunderbird 3' which he scaled up from a 2" Die Cast model. The workmanship alone in this rocket was awesome, but the fact that it flies made it all that much more impressive. Val was showing a couple of people his little project, and the morning of the flight, he still could only guess at the Center of Pressure because programs like RockSim would choke on the types and quantity of elements involved in this model. If you look at the pictures, it really is difficult to tell where the Center of Pressure would be where you can usually take a decent guess by looking at most rockets. That being said, the Video below is evidence to how well it does fly, though I don't know how close my guess was, or if Val had to add nose weight in order to ensure stability or not. But at any rate, good work Val!

Chris Willaims and Jen Berger had another interesting rocket. I'm not a huge fan of the Pteradactyl, but it does look kinda cool. Well, Chris decided to make an upscale, and power it with a central 54mm mount, and 6 outboard 29mm mounts. It's Maiden flight was on a We flew it on a K700 and 3 H268's in the outboard mounts lit by a PerfectFlite timer. The Redline H268's came up right on schedule, but as they burnt out, the nose-cone drag-separated, and gave the rocket a nice 10" zipper as a result of Acute Deceleration Syndrome. The Nose-cone came in ballistic and made a mess of Chris' hard work. It looks like it can be repaired, and I think it will fly again.

Jay and Jacob Dennis' 8x Upscale Estes Gemini DC was an impressive sight to see as well. If you don't know, they have an impressive collection of upscales of this rocket, and this one has been in the works for a while. Up close, construction and finishing are fantastic. On the pad, it loomed over the tower shortly before it was lit. Excellent liftoff, and a beautiful, straight flight. Over the top was very graceful, and you can really tell that it's just a HUGE rocket in the video. Just after apogee, the main chutes came out of the rear, and began to inflate, but they did so quickly, and the shock separated the nose cone. But not to fear, the cone has it's own rocket, and there is a chute in the front of the airframe as well to smartly pull it into a horizontal position for landing. Touchdown was nice and soft, even if later than expected, and the flight was a big success. Congrats!

It has to be mentioned that Tricia Duffy had a big weekend. She flew her 10" Polecat V2 for her Level 3 Cert! The rocket was beautifully finished in a smooth coat of metallic green that glistened as if still wet in the sun. I can appreciate that. The flight was very nice, and everything went smoothly. The landing was graceful, and the rocket came back in one piece, with Tricia proudly carrying it back to the Level 3 CC. Andy and Larry signed off on the flight, and the congratulations dispensed among the tears of joy, and the shivers of nerves in a wreck. Tricia also flew her 4" V2 'Flying Pooh' which flew beautifully, even though she just brought it for 'show and tell'. Don't bring a rocket to a launch unless you're ready to fly it! Congratulations again Trish.