TSM July Launch - 07/28/2007

After 2 months of weather that would not cooperate, the July 28th 2007 launch turned out to be a beautiful day at Maple Island. Complimenting a beautiful day for flying were many first time events for Tripoli Southern Minnesota.

This was Larry and Coles first TSM launch and they flew a Black Brant II on a G64 motor. One of my first mid power rockets was a Black Brant and a very good choice for an inaugural flight at Maple Island. I hope to see both Larry and Cole back at our upcoming launches.

Two more firsts for TSM were a R/C glider and a R/C plane flown by Mark. Both the glider and plane performed well. The plane was armed with an onboard camera to take video of some our birds taking off. Hopefully we will see some of the footage soon.

There were three level two certification attempts by Jerry, Mike, and Mario. It was Jerry and Mikes first attempt at level two certification.

Jerry's Golbin looked great. It was loaded with a J420R motor which seemed as long as the rocket itself. Short rockets and long motors seem to make for very stable flights and in this case it resulted in a fine looking certification and a great flight. Good Job!

Mike attempted to certify with his 'Next Jen'. The rocket performed well, however, at an apogee of 3600 feet; NextJen came down under chute, but floated far in the southwest fields for recovery. Mike and Jen searched with determination, but their quest was cut short by concerns of the land owner. TSM later contacted the land owner and agreed to rectify any identified damages, we hope a positive relationship resulted and we might see NextJen at one of our future launches.

Last in our quest for level 2 certifications, was Mario with his Velociraptor and a J230 Skidmark motor, as captured in an awesome picture, this rocket sped to the skies and experienced troubles with deployment and came in hot. I hope to see both Mike and Mario back on the certification saddle soon, so lets get back to the drawing board and regroup for another attempt!

Joining our firsts was a bowling ball loft on a J570, Andy's Nikita was expected to reach about 1100 feet, but the deployment fired too quickly - luckily Nikita and the bowling ball were resilient and survived. It’s somewhat surreal to see a bowling ball attached to a parachute sauntering down into a potato field. Andy also flew Got Pink which was his daugther Nicole's science fair project.

Warren had an awesome looking Saturn V based on the Skylab configuration. It flew on a H123W to an expected altitude of 950 feet. It was an awesome flight and a testament to scale rocketry - Just Awesome.

Ron had his Altitude Junkie out for a flight on an I435 to 3159 feet; in addition he flew his Titan II on 2 K1100 motors. The Titan raced off the pad and the stress of the equivalent 'L' motor caused 2 of the fins to shear. Sadly, Ron will have his hands full to try to get the Titan back to the pad - good luck and don’t throw the towel in on the Titan!

There were quite a few flights on G motors at the launch. Dennis had an Arreaux, Larry and Cole had the Black Brant, Scott had his 'No Longer' Expendable and Abbey had her scratch built 'Over the Rainbow'. Abbey's rocket gave us our final 'first' for the July launch with a great flight with a first for longest time airborne or most creative recovery. TSM will praise Craig for the ‘safe’ recovery and a fine flight for Abbey.

Representing some of the lower power flights were a Deuces Wild flow with a cluster of two 'B' motors, a Super Sprite from Hawks Hobby, and a Lil' Blue Nuke all flown by Dennis.

The July launch was a lot of fun, we had a couple set backs with one rocket missing, and some others needing repairs - but such is the peril of the rocketeer, we live for this and embrace the time in the shop spent to get us out to the next launch. So keep that epoxy flowin' and lets look forward to the August launch!