This was the first summer launch at the Central Sod Farm for 2013. The spring weather and gardening schedules kept Toni and I quite busy and we were not prepared for this launch as we should have been. The Ocean City traffic was not yet upon us so we slept in until 09:00 AM before making our journey to Maryland’s Eastern shore with only one rocket in tow. A 7/11 biscuit would suffice for breakfast along the way. We kill some time as the launch does not start until 12:00 noon on Saturdays during the summer. We visited some antique shops but found nothing of interest. We headed to the field around 11:00 to set up.

The weather was cool with variable overhead clouds and a slight breeze. We had much help and made quick work setting up the field in the hard dirt from the freshly harvested sod. As usual, I waited for others to fly before me in order to judge the winds at the various altitudes. Once I was satisfied, I started my preparations.

I prepared Shaken, Not Stirred with a CTI H152 Blue propellant. Blue propellant provides more of an aggressive burn than I was accustom to but I was not worried as I was confident with the integrity of the rocket. With assistance from Toni we had Shaken, Not Stirred on the pad waiting for the button to be pushed.

When the button was pushed, Shaken, Not Stirred aggressively shot off the pad riding its blue plume until reaching an altitude of 1,347 feet and slowly arcing over and ejecting its drogue chute on queue. Shaken, Not Stirred danced during its descent until the main parachute was ejected at 300 feet. Shaken, Not Stirred came to a soft rest in the lush sod a close distance from its launch pad. See Shaken, Not Stirred’s flight here.

This was our only flight of the day. Toni continued to assist at the registration desk and I lent a hand where I could. We would not attend the launch on Sunday due to Ben’s graduation. Ben is graduating from the Clark School of Engineering at University of Maryland with a Bachelors Degree of Science in Aerospace Engineering. His interest in rocketry started with MDRA in 2007 and Ben now leaves the rank of college student and moves to unemployed college graduate. Hopefully it will not last long. Until the next launch . . .