Field of Dreams

Okay, this is a soccer complex not far from where I live. It's huge, and devoid of annoying trees. It's always frustrating when, say, they raze a school and create what would be a perfect park for rocket launches, but then plant it with tons of rocket-hungry trees.



What's more, little of it is paved, so streamer recovery is more viable. I use a lot of parachutes because they land the rocket gently. But with a little breeze, it's easy for them to land the rocket in another zip code, lost forever.



Streamers keep a rocket unstable, which is enough to keep terminal velocity under control unless the rocket is very heavy or it lands on pavement.

Of course, even though 95% or more of this rocket field is grass, one of my streamer recoveries found asphalt. He'd have found a tree if there was one available, so I guess it was any port in a storm.



Mo loved the park because she could run a long ways away before I got antsy and started calling her back or pursuing her.

Em declined to come along. Then, when we got back, she was made that I'd launched without her. Hello? Eleven years old much?



Mo helped recover rockets this time, which surprised me. She never has before. Of course, the one that is made to look like a crayon, she bit its nose cone. She likes to eat crayons, so I guess I should have seen that one coming.



That, and she likes to push the button for launch, but can't bear the excitement of watching. So she pushes the button while hiding her face in her armpit.



Then she decided to just lay on the grass. When I asked if she wanted Daddy or Mo to push the button, she said she wanted to, but she wouldn't come do it.





I was disappointed that I couldn't launch Thor's Candycane. I had C6-5s, but no C6-3s, and he doesn't go very high on a C engine, the biggest he can hold. I'm pretty sure a five second drop would be enough for him to eat high speed dirt before his parachute came out. I might build a booster stage for him, now that I know how. I've got another two stager, a kit I was given for Father's Day, that I'm building. It's remarkably simple. Debating between building a booster stage that would support a C6-0 and building a larger booster stage, maybe one that could support D and E engines. Need to do some ciphering to make sure he'll still be stable, too.




The amazing thing was the wind. It was mild when we got there, but it just vanished. Nothing. Zero miles per hour, you couldn't feel the air move unless it was you moving. The smoke from the rockets hung suspended, forming a lace over the grass, a cloud over the car, a column behind Mo.

It was so fargon cool.