The clouds were hugging the ground as Ben and I left with only one rocket in tow. We stopped and ate a nice breakfast at Holly’s before moving on to Higgs Farm where we repaired one of the away cell towers. We hoped that the fog would clear as we headed to a late November launch at the Sod Farm. We set up the field but the cloud ceiling remained at about 1,200 feet. The sun never broke through giving the air a chilly wet feel throughout the day. There was not a single breeze and the low clouds hung over our heads throughout the day.

I kept Shaken, Not Stirred grounded for the day and assisted where I could while Ben performed LCO duties. Despite the low clouds, the field was crowded and there were many low powered flights throughout the day. We packed the field and headed to dinner on Kent Island at a sushi place where we got our fill of all that swims in the sea, raw.

The next morning, Toni and I headed back to the sod farm. The fog was extremely thick the entire trip to the Eastern Shore. The west bound span of the bay bridge was not even visible and I felt this was to be another wasted trip. We crossed Kent Island and as we made our way past Kent Narrows, the fog was no more and the skies were gleaming blue with plenty of sunshine. It was as if we burst through a Brigadoon bubble into another world. We arrived at the field with the same clear weather. There was only a slight breeze.

I waited for other to test the winds as usual and noticed that the winds were blowing west on the ground but was blower harder east at about 1,200 feet up. I prepped Shaken, Not Stirred appropriately and had her on the pad with an H120 Red Propellant in the aft end. Shaken, Not Stirred jumped off the pad riding the red plume to apogee at 1,295 feet before deploying her drogue and starting her descent. The upper winds became evident as Shaken, Not Stirred drifted to the east. At 300 feet the main parachute successfully deployed and Shaken, Not Stirred came to a gentle rest on the edge of the corn stubble. See Shaken, Not Stirred’s 61st flight here.

Toni chose not to fly. The weather was warm so we relaxed in the sunshine while watching the other flights being blown into the trees to the east. At one point I climbed a tree to assist in the recovery of a rocket but in the end the recovery failed causing a damaged sustainer and leaving the 500 dollars’ worth of electronics suspended high in the tree top canopy.

The temperatures chilled in the setting sun. We packed up the field one last time for 2013. We return to Higgs Farm in December for Red Glare 15. Until the next launch . . .