Plaster Blaster is always a big deal for me. It is outside of my normal venue, and there are usually some much bigger projects than you normally see at a RocStock. Not to slight Roc, and their organization, but Plaster Blaster - despite it's larger turnout - never suffers from over-crowding on the launch range with long lines to wait to fly, or the insanity that goes along with that. One big difference is that the range is always open for loading somewhere and for the kids that just want to fly, there is a pad set up off to one side that allows them to do just that: fly. No announcements, or calls from an announcer, just fly. It actually works really well to keep things flowing on the larger pads, and keep the action interesting, and flowing for everyone watching.

I committed myself months ago, to having a couple of rockets ready to fly, and I was still working on them the night before I left, as usual. This Plaster Blaster, I wanted to attempt Level 2, and this was the first big launch, that my Wife, my Father, and Brother were going to be attending - Seeing an M motor for the first time is always a good time. Attendance of our normal group was going to be down a couple of people, due to several reasons, among which, was a wedding, keeping 'the girls' away, and other issues for other people preventing them from coming for the weekend, but still, it looked like it was going to be a pretty cool weekend. With Chris attmepting Level 3, and myself, Level 2, and the Cox family coming to fly what they can, I was anticipating a weekend of fun.

Arriving Thursday morning to nothing happening but making wind breaks was a bit of a bummer, but like I promised, I helped set up a bit, and got to talking, and cursing the weather with some people I haven't seen in a while, and there were a couple of flights here and there, including Chris' 3" Thor, on an I300, early in the evening, which made for perfect conditions to have a large, visible, blue flame against a darkening sky, and light cloud cover. Staying in a hotel for the weekend turned out to be a very good thing, and offered plenty of reprieve from the weather during the time away from the launch site. Spending time with Chris and Jen was really cool, and did what it could to make up for the lack of flying due to the nasty wind, though there was an interesting story involving Roy Polmanteer, a hand-truck, and a parachute that would have been worth the trip to see. Chris and I ended up doing a bit of prep-work after a nice dinner out with 'the wives', I assembling recovery harnesses, and Chris helping out with making up test charges for ground testing on Friday.

Overnight, in town, there were thunderstorms, and rain. Meanwhile, back at the range, they had sustained winds of 80mph! This was enough to actually wreck some havoc on some of the less attended camp sites that were set up, including knocking Larry Foster's camp trailer off of it's jacks, tossing random tables, chairs, and shades at will, but Friday was much of the same, with a couple of flights here and there, but only a couple of interesting flights. Without committing to fly, it seemed worthless to me to do any prep, or even set up much of any kind of camp, tables, chairs, etc. if it was just going to get blown over. I did manage to get my shade up, which made it easier to chill outside of the car, but the wind was still blowing, and the dust it blew stuck to everything with a 'windward' side - Just ask Julie. The afternoon brought the arrival of more of our party, including my Dad, and his wind-block, er.. motorhome, which was a welcome reprieve from the steadily blowing wind. Joe, Kathy, and Liz showed up a bit later, alledging that they were actually going to fly something eventually, when their mythical 'trailer' arrived. I did manage to ground test Pato's Revenge successfully, so, there was progress, but I discovered that my composite motor mount tube on the Phoenix was just a little on the small side to be able to fit a motor casing.

We ended the day with dinner in town with Chris ans Jen, at what I thought was a good restaurant, but Jen was embarrassed about the suggestion because of the poor service. No worries Jen, The food and the company was good, and the service is not your fault. I stopped by Home Depot in town to find some tools to be able to ream my MMT out a bit in the morning, as the instant I tried it in the hotel room, the drill I was borrowing died. Chris went back to his hotel room with Jen, stripped down to his boxers, lubed up, and.... assembled his motor for his L3 flight on Saturday, all of us hoping for better weather in the morning.

Saturday morning was still a bit breezy, and everyone was obviously tired of this weather, but it showed some good signs of slowing down to flying levels early in the morning. The wind did keep up until about 1:00, when it died off almost entirely, allowing us to fly HPR at will. Chris was busy prepping his 8" Thor, and I was busy ripping my Phoeninx a new one with every borrowed drill that I could get my hands on. The Arizona Rocketry Team was getting their Fat Boy prepped, loaded and on the pad.

Some interesting flights of note on Saturday included the Upscale Drake landing ever-so-close to my car after a beautiful flight, and not losing any fin parts. Jack-Jack, in the Incredibles rocket impressed the crowd. Larry Foster's 'Black Cat' was a very impressive flight, the motor coming up to pressure a full second after the igniter popped out. Of course, Chris' awesome L3 Cert flight, complete with Dual Deploy, and a very close landing. The Fat Boy's 'up' was fabulous. All three motors came up to pressure at the same time, and the redlines threw up a huge cloud of smoke, with a slight rotation to it. Apogee was right on it's tail, and the chutes inflated just as the rocket started to fall. Unfortunately for Val, and his Minivan, the rocket floated right over the first row, and actually landed ON Val's Minivan, crushing an EZ-Up as it fell over. Thankfully, everyone was alright, and the only damage was to egos and property. I favor the second attempt that Larry Foster gave his two-stage Cat Scratch Toy, as the fist try didn't get the sustainer going - electronics saving the day on the recovery of the inactive sustainer. Everyone has seen or flown an Estes Mosquito. But seeing over 1000 of them go off at once was something I was looking forward to. It was quite a sight to see the giant plume of smoke as nearly all of the 1003 mosquitos loaded on the pad took off, going all different directions, and a split-second later, you hear popping all over the place, the ejection charges on the 1/4 A motors popping out the back of the rocket, leaving both to free-fall on trajectory. Rockets and spent motors falling everywhere, and kids running all over the place to find the one mosquito that was specially marked to redeem for a special prize.

Andy Woerner made a deal with the owner of a Whirleygig rocket that if the whirleygig flew, his Futurama rocket would fly. The whirlygig did fly, and was really cool to watch. So, Andy kept his word, and flew his Futurama rocket on a K1100, which despite 20 extra lbs of nose weight, still managed a sommersault before the magnetic apogee detector popped the chute ouf ot the hatch on the top. It landed not far away with no damage. Speaking of marginal stability, Charlie Cox flew his Wasserfall on a K185, which didn't seem like enough oomph to get it past the wind-shear at 100', but as a testament to his building techniques, it basically fell flat on it's side from 50' after a number of powered sommersaults, and was recovered without damage. Joe Cox flew his 4" Starburst on a K700, which was a beautiful flight, but he learned a lesson in prepping that we won't soon let him forget. He's also banned from having the blue tape anywhere near him whenever he is packing chutes. =)

I finally managed to get Pato's Revenge prepped, and loaded with an I211 for a test flight, to make sure that my new ARTS worked the way it was supposed to before I flew it solo in my Phoenix. The up part was awesome, and perfectly straight, and the drogue deployed right on time, thanks to the ARTS, with the Perfectflite as a backup. The main failed to fully deploy, however, and was found on the ground behind the third row on the west side, still crumpled up, and folded in half. Dusk brought a drag race of two beautifully detailed Estes upscales on Cesaroni L730s. Unfortunately, one came in ballistic, removing it from the running for People's Choice. In an effort to quickly rectify my failed main deployment, itching to fly some more, against my better judgement, I flew my Estes Bull Pup on an F-21. The up was great, but I lost track of it as it sank below the rays of the sun on it's way back down. Perhaps an 18" chute was a bit much for it, and I should have gone for an estes 12", but this is the second rocket I've lost in this manner on an F-21. When will I learn?

There was one interesting night flight called "Big Night" which was filled with glow-sticks in a transparent airframe section, that started off with a couple of I motors for effect on the ground, and then the Redline main motors kicked in for a cool looking flight, and perfect recovery in the shroud of darkness.

Sunday Morning brought the Little Joe camp to life, moving the rocket to the range for a photo op, and then out to the away cell for erecting. I opted for a second Pato's Revenge flight to get that dual deploy monkey off my back. Again with an I211, but this time, the main came out, and inflated right on time, but I somehow managed to both deploy the drogue, and kick the motor case out the rear. It was easily found, as the flight was straight up, and thanks to my Dad's keen eye, he walked right to the case, and picked it up. The lack of wind brought the rocket right back down on the range.

There were a couple of really cool R/C Glider flights, including one that belly landed at the feet of the operator. Nice touch!

Charlie started the morning off right, with the launch of his 'Fat Bastard' - an Estes Fat Boy, glassed, with plywood, glassed fins, and a 38mm motor mount. He flew it on an I566. Watch the video for this below, the commentary is the greatest... "Oh Myyy". The Little Joe flight was awesome, and definately worth sticking around for. All of the motors lit, and Blue Thunder galore came roaring out of the aft-end. Some of the staging elements went awry due to some mis-calculations with shear-strength of aluminum screws, which sent the capsule free-falling to the death of the occupants (R.I.P.) and the tower spiraling out of control. It was a fantastic sight to see the three cargo chutes inflate on the booster, and watch it come down very gracefully, only breaking one fin on landing. The escape tower, and it's nose cone came down on seperate chutes, and thankfully, there were no vehicles underneath any of the descending pieces.

Joe's 6" Starburst made it's second flight on an M1315, and this time the dual deploy worked as intended. It was a fantastic flight to watch, and I know Joe was excited to fly it again. Chris' 17' Cargo chute inflated right on time, bringing it to a nice soft landing to finish off an awesome flight. The last flight of the day was my L2 flight. With people piling out right after the Little Joe flight, the range was wide open. So wide open in fact, that they had to hold off on disassembling the pad I wanted to use. (sorry guys) I had just passed my L2 test several minutes before, and managed to get a K185 loaded, chute packed, shear pins installed, charges loaded, and wired, and altimeter installed, I headed over to get the blessing from Andy. He suggested that despite the 9lbs of nose weight, the 13lb Phoenix would look like a Wasserfall. I loaded up the pad, and got the count, and hit the button. The rocket lurched off the pad as the motor came up to pressure. There was a bit of a 'lull' in the thrust, as it came up to maximum thrust, and the Phoenix arched over just a bit, and then took off in a very large arch, over to the south-east. The ARTS threw out the main at apogee, and I heard the backup charge at 800 on my trip to recover it. Recovery was perfect on a borrowed chute, and it landed about a quarter mile away. Thanks to Charlie for driving the All Terrain Recovery Vehicle, and the celebratory donut in the dirt on the way back. With the nod, and the signature of Andy, it was official - I am Level 2!

Overall, the trip was worth it, but I was really beginning to wonder on Thursday, and Friday, with them all blown out. I could have just as well stayed back home, and worked those days. I was very happy on Sunday though, as my cert flight made it all worth it. I was thrilled to have actually made my construction deadline for both the Phoenix, and Pato's Revenge, and with the poor weather, I had my hands full, and didn't even miss not having the GBU to fly. Like a good trip to Vegas, I came home with money in my pocket, and still managed to have a great time. It was very cool to chill with family and friends, and I was glad that they all made it out there to experience it. I think my Dad and Brother had almost as much fun as I did, watching the bigger flights, which they had never seen anything like. It's back to reality on Monday, but it was a lot of fun (and a bit of frustration) while it lasted!