It was a partly cloudy day, cool, but very windy. The first six launched were in wind around 15 mi/hr with gusts to 20 mi/hr. By1:30 pm the wind had died down to about 10 mi/hr, and shifted almost 180 degrees. We got three great shots off in the better weather conditions.

Objectives:

• Get some good altimeter scores for TARC qualification.
• Initial flight of rear ejection Big Daddy version 3 and Executioner version 2 (with film on fins).
• Testing of the NOVAAR launch site launch rods.
• Fly composites (reloadable and single use) to compare results.

Lessons:

• We had problems with the wind, but were able to compensate to get straight launches. We reconfirmed that the launch rods need to point with the wind at an angle about equal to the wind speed (that is 15 mi/hr wind should have a launch angle of 15 degrees).
• The biggest variable in altitude appears to be the wind, especially wind gusts. The wind reduces altitude, even in a launch rod angle compensated straight flight. The wind knocks off about 10 feet for every mi/hr that hits the rocket.  On a windy day, we will need to step up the engine size -- a lot of guess work and luck.
• The rear deployment worked well three time in a row.
• The Ogive nose cone on the Executioner version 2 may have been an important improvement.
• We could not get a composite single use engine into the Fat Boy design version 2 rocket because the engine tube had too much paint.
• There was no noticeable difference between our launch rod and the NOVAAR supplied rod. But we need to add a string to our launch clip for the composite motors.
• An egg broke on the last Fat Boy design launch.  We need to pack the egg better and make sure it doesn't move around at all in the nose cone.
• We need to check around the cars before we leave any site.  And a travel check list would be very helpful.
• We were not able to get accurate duration times from the videos because the rockets landed so far away.  The wind carried some of the rockets well over a thousand feet away.  When recording the video, the operator should say launch, ejection, and touchdown so the audio recording has duration times.  The operator should not use foul language.
• When putting a rocket together, we need two people working it.  One to hold and advise, and one to put it together.
• The launch tower loading teams and recovery teams did great.

We had nine launches with relatively good results.  We flew real eggs and an altimeter on six launches with one broken egg, and no damaged altimeters. We downloaded altimeter data on only the last three launches because Mr. Ekman left the computer back at Lockheed Martin.