Sunday
March 16, 2008 at 6:24pm on a windy day in
Midland, North Carolina I successfully achieved
my NAR Level 1 Certification on the first attempt
at the Rocketry of Central Carolina's monthly
launch. I originally purchased a LOC Precision
V-2 Kit to make the cert. flight, but opted to do
it on a Public Missiles Intruder. The wind
was steady and blowing from the launch pad
towards the treeline most of the day, but shifted
towards the longest available area of the field
as evening approached. I had lost a rocket
earlier in the day when on the second flight of a
new Estes
Executioner it was lost in the trees
flying on an Aerotech F-21 motor. Despite hours
of searching it was nowhere to be found. The
Intruder had better luck and the rocket flew
perfectly as it roared off the launch pad on an
Aerotech H-123W motor with a 10 second delay. The
rocket flew straight and true, the chute deployed
perfectly and it drifted gently down to a soft
landing in a patch of thick grass.
