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Expediter

Flight #1, ROCStock 7, June 1998

The first flight of this rocket was the first HPR flight I had made since my Bruiser lake staked.  To say I was nervous was an understatement.  Thankfully, the rocket rose straight up from the pad and made a perfect flight into the Lucerne air.  Recovery was nominal, and after a short walk, my confidence in high power was once again restored.

Flight #2, ROCStock 7, June 1998

Well, the H242 flew so well we figured we'd stuff a bigger motor in it.  The I284 was too much, we decided, so we put a nice little I211 in instead.  It was sitting out on the pad after having igniter problems when the rocket next to it (some weird transformer thingy by the infamous guy from Kelly's hobbies) decided to go unstable and loop about 5 times over our rocket.  Oh boy.  After replacing the igniter two more times, we felt like we had it.  The LCO was on the same row launching John Coker's Praying Mantis on a K1100, and accidentally drag raced all of the pads out there, including ours.  Oh well, the Praying Mantis shredded, the V2 on the other side of our rocket went unstable, but the Expediter came out of the madness flying straight and true.  It disappeared into the sky.  It was waaay up there.  We walked out to it and listened to the altitude.  3279 isn't much but it is after you haven't flown over 2500 feet before!  I was so jazzed that I couldn't get the altitude out right.  That was really cool. (photo by Steve Roberson)

Flight #3, LDRS XVII, Bonneville Salt Flats

This was our first 'big' flight at LDRS, and my dad's Tripoli Level 1 cert.  We had been certified in NAR, and we could have "grandfathered" in, but then we don't have an excuse to fly another rocket!  It flew as planned, and page 1 of the cert form was signed and gone.

Flight #4, LDRS XVII, Bonneville Salt Flats

Since the Level 2 cert didn't go too well with the Bruiser, we decided to take our remaining 54mm motor rocket and go for broke with a J180.  Setting up next to Ron McGough and his I-ROC with a J800 was somewhat reassuring, but the long delay for a raffle beforehand wasn't.  I'm wearing out my shoes pacing- hurry up and launch the darned thing!  Finally, our name was called and the rocket SCREAMED off the pad and was gone.  Just vanished.  Finally, a little orange speck appeared and I remembered to breathe again.  We walked way out to retrieve it (onto the thin part of the salt) and picked it up without any damage.  It came straight down and left the nozzle print in the salt.  That was too cool.

Flight #6, ROC October 1998

Wind... wind... wind... until about 10 in the morning.  Most had given up hope for this launch, but all of a sudden, the typical Lucerne day turned into the not-so-typical Lucerne day and the wind dead stopped.  Cool.  No lines, open pads.  So we pulled out an I300 and stuck it in the Expediter.  It was on the pad, altimeter armed, and then all I remember was flipping the switch and the rocket absolutely ROARING out of here on a nice blue flame.  Schweeet.  It even got comments from the big flyers.  This is a cool combo- should try it again sometime.

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