November Roc Stocks seems to be the 'end-of-the-year' blowout before Christmas, the holidays, the cold weather, and the rain getting set in for the winter. I've been to two, and both of them were pretty darn good.

Since I got my certification in April, I have only flown a couple of small rockets, and two of those flights just plain blew. One was lost, the second was not assembled correctly, and the third was on an Estes C motor. After Trying to hurry and get things ready for Plaster Blaster, and trying to finish up some projects at home before I got to rocket stuff, I didn't have much time to make an altimeter bay before I left, and after my experience in the wind on an H123, I really didn't want a repeat, or worse, on an I285, so I was determined to build my alt. bay prior to my next flight. Well, this time, I had gotten busy a little earlier this time, and actually had a couple of extra nights to re-paint Pato, though the clear-coat for that was curing as I took a nap after packing.

So coming to this launch, I was really very excited to fly, but at the same time, I was a little nervous about my first dual-deploy flight. I'd done a bit of homework, and I think that I made a decent altimeter bay, at least I was getting a couple of compliments on it here and there. I spent most of Saturday trying to make sure that all of my odds-and-ends were in place, all the while snacking, and spectating. It turns out I wasn't in a hurry, and like anything else, I went over it and over it to make sure everything was in order, so it took a while, but I finally got everything ready, and went to go stand in the 45 minute line that had shrunk from just over an hour to get a pad assignment. Stark contrast to the 'no-waiting' policy strictly enfored at the April club launch (because there might have been 100 people there in total). Much to my chagrin, when the RSO went through the High Power Pads, the rocket perched on my to-be pad number, went nowhere. That side of the range was cleared, and everyone that had rockets on the pads were very clearly instructed to remove their rockets so the next group could fly, and get that group to fly before they closed the pads for the day. As I walk out to the pad, I see people going to where they are supposed to be going, and I see someone coming from the flight line on the East, heading right for my assigned pad. When he got there, instead of removing his rocket as instructed, and as he should have, he proceeded to insert a new igniter into his rocket. Not wanting to be a jerk, I went back to the RSO table, and mentioned it, but when no one gave a crap, I began to get a bit preterbed.

*RANT*

The person that was manning the flight cards, and giving pad assignments couldn't figure out what I was trying to tell him, and the RSO became very flustered, and very quickly gave up when I told him that I was supposed to be on pad 40, and the card and name he had for pad 40 was mine, but the rocket on the pad was NOT mine. He gave up, and flew the rocket anyways, which I think is a pretty cowardly move, instead of resolving the issue, just go ahead and reward those not paying attention, and not following instructions, or who are so selfish that they blatantly ignored the perfectly clear instructions. Please, don't feel the need to do anything to help things move smoothly, or reward those listening, and paying attention.

Most of the time, I really do have respect those who give of their time and efforts at events like this, and I appreciate their contributions toward trying to keep everyone flying, and I do pity them for the number of people that must come up and complain about one thing or another, but I think I had a valid complaint, and while I usually don't mind waiting, it was 45 minutes from the time I got in line until I was let on the range to load the pad, and another 15 minutes arguing about the mishap, and both the flying time and the sun were very rapidly dissappearing. One person's lack of preparation or skill, or even pure chance, does not constitute an emergency on my part, and I think it was very immature of them to either not pay attention to the RSO as to what is going on while your rocket is on the pad, or to just blatantly ignore the instructions that were very clearly stated over the P.A. system to everyone there, just so that you can get another shot at it. I was very upset that I didn't get to fly that day, despte my best efforts. But what I was more upset about was the lack of organization in resolving conflicts, and the apathy with which the volunteer staff handled complaints. There was another guy who was given a pad number, and when everyone was let onto the field to clear/load pads, his pad was removed by it's owner. There was no communication of this intention to the RSO, so all the guy could do was stand there, rocket in hand, looking around for someone to help. There was no pad manager, no bank manager, the closest help was all the way back at the RSO table, so off he went. He ended up getting prompt attention, and was served very quickly, and that issue went away, and the guy good service, and he got to fly. I still didn't.

*/RANT*

With that out of the way, I really do think that the weekend went pretty well. The last couple of launches I've gone to, I enjoyed spectating just as much as anything else, but I was determined to fly on this trip. The weather could not have been better, and that helped, because we never had to shut down the range because of weather, as had been the case at a couple of other launches in the past. The group that I was hanging with, was really a kick to be around, and all-in-all, I really did have a very good time.

So, with Sunday morning warming up, the smoke still smoldering from the previous night's fire, and the sun piercing through the walls of my tent as it rose, I managed to get up at around 7:00. After a brief breakfast, I began going over my rocket yet again to make sure that all was well, and that it was indeed ready to fly. I pulled the tape off of the body tube that held on the igniter I was going to use the day before (which I had forgotten to remove) and it seems that the clear-coat under it was removed as well! Oh well.. It's going to need some touch-up anyways. I got my wits about me, and when the pads opened, I got up there in a hurry, and got assigned an empty pad. Thank God for small miracles. I loaded up, and everything was good. I found my borrowed video camera, and headed to a good clear spot to film it.

After the typical mis-pronunciation of my Rocket's name, the button was pushed, and the rocket lifted straight and true off the pad. The boost was such a beautiful sight, as the larget motor I have yet flown. Nice and clean, and again with no spiral, though this time, there wasn't so much as a hint of weather-cock. It looked really good going up.

Apogee seemed like it came too quickly, but everything looked fine. The PerfectFlitge altimeter fired the droque charge, and the rocket began to come down on it's 12" drogue. The main charge was set for 700', and everything looked good up until that point. The 12" chute was doing a marvelous job of keeping everything organized, which actually surprised me a little bit. I was going to go drogueless, but was convinced out of it at the last moment, and that chute is what was going to fit. Unfortunately, 700' came and went, and there was no event. I watched helplessly as my rocket passed 700', and then came down much quicker than I wanted it to. Fortunately, the ground was still somewhat soft from the rains just a couple of days prior, so the impact didn't hurt it too much.

Upon arriving at the scene, I first turned off the altimeter, and let the capacitor die, because I figured that there was still a live charge within. After that, I looked over the damage. It was slight, but still hampering. The upper tube, that the altimeter bay, and nose cone were mounted in was broken around the nose-cone, and the 'break' spiralled down the tubing seam. This really, is no big deal, but it means that there is going to be more painting going on in my house in the near future. The main recovery harness, upsettingly, was still all tucked away inside the broken tube, with the rolled-up chute still rolled on top of the harness, and the Nose cone was still set inside the opposite end of the tubing, just in front of the break.

After I brought the rocket back to 'camp', I started breaking everything down to figure out what was wrong. It turns out that the ejection charge never fired. A friend of mine made the 'pre-wired' ejection-cannisters that I used, and I tested both of them before I put them in the rocket, but I did not get resistance values from the test, though I will in the future. One lesson learned. It kind of irked me that the main charge had not been fired, especially since everyone I know of thinks the PerfectFlite is one of the most reliable units available.

When I got home, I reported my experience with the maker of the ejection-cannisters, and then he became worried. I managed to do a bit of testing, and (finally) some manual reading. One of the limitations of the PerfectFlite is that it only puts out 190mJ of energy, which really isn't much, but I can't for the life of me understand why it didn't blow the charge. The charges are pretty handy little units. When you receive it, all you have to do is fill it with powder, and seal. They come with one of those little foam ear-plugs, and when you are using less than a full 2g of BP, you can stuff that plug in there to take up the air volume, and keep the BP in contact with the igniter head, ensuring a burn. I tested the PerfectFlite with the same charge for the main, and a different charge for the drogue, and nothing fired. I don't think that the PerfectFlite gives enough energy to be able to ignite these charges, fantastic (and cheap) as they are, they will have to wait. I Mind you, I have nothing bad to say about the company, or the people involved. It is simply an in-compatibility issue between the cannisters, and the PerfectFlite.

Aside from my disappointing results, there were some fantastic flights, including those shown below. Joe Cox got both his Tripoli Level 1 & Level 2 Certs out of the way, and did so in an honorable fashion, with the same rocket, on some pretty decent motors. I had a hard time keeping up, Joe. Mark Hayes managed to get the only Level 3 cert of the weekend with his GIANT Mercury Redstone, and that too was a beautiful flight. Congratulations Mark. David pleased the crowd with a traffic-cone rocket called 'Crash' which flew a couple of times, and had some interesting results. There were many more, and I enjoyed them all, but I can't remember all the details, sorry.

Thanks to the BOD, and the fantastic people of ROC for another cool launch, and a good time, despite it's personal low points. I love the club, and despite my normal stance, I love the people, and there is always a good time to be had when ROC is involved. Thanks all, and fly safely!