| Date | 7 April 1996 |
| Time | 1:30ish pm CDT |
| Location | Mustang Spaceport |
| Sky | clear |
| Temperature | mid 70's |
| Wind | 5mph but only at ground level |
| Rockets | Engines: |
| Estes Intruder | A10-3T |
| Rastrocam/Delta II | B6-2 |
| Rastrocam/Maniac | D12-3 |
Until I saw the photograph, I could
have sworn that the Intruder just fell off the pad... all I heard was a
*phfft* and then it was lying at the foot of the pad. What a piece of
junk! I don't think I'll be wasting any more engines on this
particular "rocket." And I'll certainly never buy another
RediRoc... unless I'm feeling really impulsive.
I decided I would try for a different type of Easter family protrait
by flying the Rastrocam on a Delta-II with a B6-2. The rocket took
off and weathervaned a bit towards the southwest. I thought that the
plastic fin unit had melted through and curled up, causing the rocket
to veer off 
like that. Silly me. The camera was ejected on its own chute and
landed safely, but the rocket was snared by a rocket-eating tree.
Ironically, the Rastrocam photographed the rocket's captor. And
of course, none of the family can be seen, since we're all somewhere
below the bottom of the photograph... such is the fun of a rocket
borne camera: you never know what you're gonna get. But I
digress... we still had to get the rocket body out of the tree.
Fortunately, I had brought Mr. Longarm just for this occurance.
Unfortunately, the rocket was lodged out of Mr. Longarm's
reach... so my brother climbed up into the tree and managed to reach
the rocket with the pole... but he couldn't budge it. I attached my
pocketknife to the end of the pole for a last ditch attempt. My
brother finally managed to sever the shock cord and the rocket dropped
to the ground.
We rested a bit, then I wanted to try the Rastrocam on a Maniac. I
shoved a D12-3 [what a moron! (film at eleven)] into the
rocket, mounted the Rastrocam on it, and fired it off. It shot up and
really took off towards the southwest. Apparently the
surrounding hills were shielding us from a rather brisk breeze... Oh,
and a 3 second delay isn't enough, folks... the rocket is traveling
way too 
fast
as evidenced by the photo. I think
we're seeing the cellulose insulation I've begun to use for wadding
as it's flying out of the rocket. [Note to self: Maybe it's not
such a good idea to use this type of wadding when flying the
Rastrocam.] And I'm pretty sure that the horizon is the bright
area at the upper right of the photo.
Another clue that the rocket was going too fast at ejection came
shortly after ejection: the shock cord between the camera and the
parachute broke and the camera fell from several hundred feet onto a
pile of rocks. Believe it or not, it survived... I think. At least,
it has no noticeable damage, so I guess I'll find out if it's okay the
next time I fly it. But I don't really recommend this recovery
technique for any optical device... The rocket, meanwhile, got
caught in the jet stream and headed off towards the northeast. It
also got snared by a rocket-eating tree; after all, it had been over a
year since I'd last fed them [see last year's Easter launch report and the fate
of my first HL-20]. This one was really stuck: I couldn't reach it
with Mr. Longarm even after climbing as high as I could
go... so we retired to the house for dessert. The only way to get the
rocket down was to sever the shock cord with a shotgun blast. 
So my brother loaded up my dad's 20
gauge shotgun and we trekked up the side of the hill that held my
rocket. He took aim and fired. What a
shot! It blasted the snap swivel apart, allowing the newly freed
parachute to drift away. The rocket stayed stuck... Five shots were
required to keep blasting the shock cord free until the body fell low
enough to retrieve it with Mr. Longarm. I decided that the
gods were telling me that the day was not meant for flying rockets.
Good decision. I was running out of parachutes anyway.
Oh yeah, and the comet was fantastic!
