It was that time of the month to fly some rockets. Toni was starring in the local production of Drinking Habits and had an early Saturday performance. That left me to pack the Highlander with some rockets and head to Maryland’s Eastern Shore in solitude. I stopped for breakfast at the new restaurant in Price called Batter’s Up and could not finish my large 4-dollar breakfast.

There were already a few flyers at the field by the time I arrived. We hitched up the club’s trailer and hauled the equipment out to the field. Field setup took slightly longer as we had to organize some of the equipment from the Red Glare launch last month. By 11:00 AM we were ready to send some rockets into the air. The skies were blue, the temperatures were warm, and the winds were increasing.

After observing a few flyers ahead of me, I tempted fate with the rocket gods and took Shaken, Not Stirred out to the pads with a Loki H144 to push it into the heavens. Shaken Not Stirred  cleared the launch pad and slightly arced into the strong breeze while the video camera hunted for some focus. Shaken Not Stirred struggled for some altitude in the strong winds and arced over at a paltry 1,134 feet before ejecting the drogue. The winds grabbed the drogue and sent Shaken Not Stirred across the sky before the main parachute finally inflated at 400 feet. Shaken Not Stirred's upper section landed in a tree while the lower half settled into a ditch, among the thick briars. Inspection after a prickly retrieval showed some chipped paint, but Shaken Not Stirred will live to fly again. See the bad video and enjoy the Q-Cam here.

The winds finally calmed down later in the day and I took my Mini Sweet Vengeance to the pads with a mighty D12. The black powder D12 provided a nice, slow, realistic take off for Mini Sweet Vengeance. The rocket arced over at slightly above 500 feet where the parachute successfully deployed. Mini Sweet Vengeance came to a nice rest close by without any damage. See the slow realistic takeoff on a black powder motor here.

Mini Sweet Vengeance was my last flight for the day. I ate lunch at the Road Kill Cafe and enjoyed the beautiful November day while visiting others along the flight line. We discussed all things rocketry. One of the members is working on a full scale Sand Hawk that will stand at 28 feet. He is planning to fly it at Red Glare XI in the fall of 2011. I filmed some other flights throughout the day but was having focus lock problems for some reason. See all the day's action here. The setting sun and dropping temperatures signaled the end of the launch. I made my solitude journey home in the dark thinking about what was causing my focus lock problems. Until next launch . . .