Another weekend to fly rockets and once again we were ill prepared. We attended Anthony and Casey’s wedding on Saturday which was quite nice. It was a perfect country wedding. Many a congratulation toast during the wedding made it difficult for Toni and I to drag ourselves from bed early Sunday morning and make our way to Maryland’s Eastern Shore to fly some rockets. After a quick breakfast at Hollys, we headed to the already prepared field and connected the equipment.

The weather was unusually cool with only a slight breeze and cloudy skies. The soy bean field towered even higher than last month and we heard many search and rescue stories for lost rockets from the previous day. Most of these search and rescues ended in failure. The rockets lost in action will only be found by the farm combines in the fall.

I purchased a screamer from Animal Motor Works as I did not want Shaken, Not Stirred to be part of the soy bean statistics. I rigged it to the main parachute in such a fashion as when the main parachute ejected and inflated, the small pin in the screamer will be pulled free, thus activating the screamer. I could follow the loud noise in the soy bean field and easily locate my rocket.

Confident that the screamer would defeat the hungry soy bean field, I installed a CTI H143 Smokey Sam into Shaken, Not Stirred for propulsion and completed my preparations. Shaken, Not Stirred was installed on the pad after a quick RSO inspection. Shaken, Not Stirred quickly ascended to 1,356 feet on the H143’s thick black smoke before slowly arcing over and deploying its drogue. Shaken, Not Stirred descended to 400 feet where the main parachute was deployed, pulling the pin from the screamer and activating the loud noise. As expected, Shaken, Not Stirred came to a soft landing in the soy bean field.

After the pads were declared safe, I cockily followed the noise into the soy only to find the screamer by itself, Shaken, Not Stirred was nowhere to be found. The cheap chain on the screamer had separated freeing the screamer from the binds of the rocket and sending it on a separate descent trajectory. The ear piercing noise was deafening but I could not deactivate the screamer as the pin was still attached to Shaken, Not Stirred. I searched frantically in the tall thick soy looking for a hint of orange from the parachute. The soy beans were very thick and the beans were very difficult to traverse. The soy bean field swallowed everything and there was no orange parachute sitting on top as hoped. I feared the worst until I tripped over the 15 foot shock cord. I quickly rescued Shaken, Not Stirred from the field and deactivated the screamer much to the applause of other rocketeers. There is nothing more aggravating then a loud screamer. Closer inspection revealed no damage and Shaken, Not Stirred lives to fly another day. See Shaken, Not Stirred fly here. If you look closely, you will see the screamer separate and descend on its own.

That was the only flight for me. I filmed other flights and gossiped rocket news. It threaten rain most of the day with sprinkles here and there until finally the local radar showed a large rain front coming through. We quickly packed up and stored the gear for the day. Toni and I return home much earlier than normal and content with the weekends activities. Until the next launch . . .