If this is day four of LDRS 22 then it is time for a level 3 attempt. All of the paperwork has been signed and Dave Schaefer has finally gotten the X-30 flight behind him so it is time. The M1850 goes together much like the L1060 except that there are 5 grains instead of 3 and order matters. Here I am sorting through them all getting to stuff the liner tube. Thanks to Tim Sapp for sneaking up on me and taking this picture.
After I finished getting the rocket ready to fly, it had to wait because of the low cloud ceiling Sunday morning. That was not a problem because both altimeters were powered off and could wait forever. The GPS system was good for about six hours so I wasn't worried about it and the Walston transmitters run a long time on their batteries.
Arming of the electronics is first on the agenda after getting it on the rail. Here I am checking the AltAcc to make sure that it is blinking its LED like it should. I find the new AltAcc2C's feature of blinking out the last flight's altitude a little annoying. It will not start into its continuity checks until it is done. So you wait.
Then I insert my trusting arming tool (a small screwdriver) into another hole to flip yet another switch. (four total)
Followed by yet another rocketeer by their level 3 rocket photo. Notice the nifty Dr. Demento T-shirt? I wore this because a local radio station would be airing The Dr. Demento Show in Wichita that evening. Dallas is a vast radio wasteland and not a single station carries it.
Quite a crowd at the sixties pads today.
A good rack of rockets on the M pads. Because I am on the lowest numbered pad, I get to go first!
The color registration on this scan is a bit off. This happens to my scanner ocasionally when it gets too warm. So I will have to let it cool off for a while and try again. But until then, here is the liftoff.
The visible motor flame is about as long as the rocket: six feet! Great motor. Fast boost. And with the slight overcast still present, it vanished even with the big smoke grain. Just not enough contrast with the clouds above. But after the main parachutes deployed early, it was easily spotted.