Thor's Candycane's Adventure

Okay, I was more under the weather than I wanted to admit. Gastrointestinal stuff, you don't want to know the details. Really. When you can't get the toilet lid up before the puke comes, things get ugly. And despite repeated doses of Imodium, I kept asking myself, 'What did I eat that was thin and green?'

More than enough said. Way more, but I'm only doing my duty for the Department of Too Much Information.

Anyway, my freelance weekend was slow coughing up the raw material, and I finally felt almost well, so I took the rockets out for a walk.



Flags lay against their poles. There was so little wind it was stuffy out. Perfect rocket launching weather.

Of course, the weather is smarter than to let me fly like that. So after I'd flown a couple, the wind came up to the point where kite flying was possible.

And I met the kite equivalent of me. Except he doesn't have a couple rockets in his car in case the wind dies out.

For real, this guy had a minivan full of kites. I asked where he buys his kites, because last time I asked that I found my second kite at a buck a foot at a coat outlet. His answer: he makes them.

Anyway, I flew hot. Stubby and Mr. Creosote on E9s. I even had an E30 bought for Floyd I considered flying Mr. Creosote on given the dead wind situation. But the wind situation changed.



The wind died, then picked up, then changed when I launched Kandy Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby, and I was certain I'd lost out to trees and power lines but she hit the ground and was recovered by two Indian (red dot, I'm pretty sure, not feather) girls who wanted to know 'Can I try it next?'



But before the wind change, I flew Thor's Candycane on a D10 Apogee Medalist motor. This is a rocket that barely throws out the laundry before impact on a C6 black powder motor. And with the 18mm mount, that motor is the max if you stick with black powder. But in composites, there's the D10 and the D21 (I've ordered the latter but not yet flown it) with roughly three times the thrust of a 'C'.

The meadow is huge, but I used the tree line to guide me, and went here I thought Thor's Candycane went down. This is a rocket I built when I was sick of losing rockets. Ridiculously big and heavy.

The grass was tall, but not that tall. The rocket stands over three feet tall. It came down on a 24" parachute, and that at least should be catching some wind. So I look on the other side of the tree line thinking maybe it had drifted further than I thought. There's a Frisbee golf course hole on the other side of the trees, but no Thor's Candycane.

This had to be the World Record for Bermuda Triangulation.

I visited the area three times, spreading out wider each time, but no dice. Even the kite fanatic tried to find my lost rocket, heading right where I thought it landed.



Thor's Candycane has been on a lot of missions, and I had wondered before this flight if I ought to retire him.

He's a fan favorite. With his last-minute deployments, his silly spiral paint job, the smiley face worn into that paint job... How the hell was I supposed to explain to my kids that I lost Thor's Candycane?



I've lost, what, twenty or more rockets, most of them with these stickers begging for their return. With my phone number, email address, the domain of this blog, and often with reward money promised. Me, if I find someone's property, and it's clear that it's return is desired, I'm going to try and get their shit back to them.

It's not like these are iPods or something like that. I seriously doubt the finders of my lost fleet are a bunch of rocket enthusiasts who don't make the call because they just gotta fly that bird themselves. And a lost rocket is not like a used condom, something an owner couldn't possibly want back.



A neighbor returned part of Big Bird when it finally came down from the tree it landed in, but he's a friend and would have probably found me anyway. But not counting that, this is the first time the phone has ever jingled to bring a rocket home.

But to my shock and awe, when I get home and find a message on my answering machine from a dude named Brandon who had found a rocket of mine. When I called back and told him I'd just gotten home from Shawnee Mission Park and that I'd been sick about losing that rocket in particular, he said, 'You were out there today?'

I estimated that I'd launched that model at about 1:00 or 1:30, and the silence on the other end, I think, may have translated to, That's about when I was playing through there... I don't know if he picked it up before my first foray over the hill to recovery it or not. The message on my answering machine was at 3:15, and I'm not sure he didn't call from his cell when he found it. Maybe if I'd listed my cell number on the decal (which I think I'll start doing), I'd have had my happy reunion right there in the meadow.



And in 20/20 hindsight, I can imagine that Thor's Candycane, with battle scars from fifty-ish flights, could have appeared something that had lain at the edge of the tree line for days or weeks instead of minutes.

We met at a gas station near Oak Park Mall and I couldn't remember whether I'd put a reward on the sticker on Thor's Candycane or not (turns out I'd put a $10 reward on it), but I forced a $20 bill on the guy because I was so relieved to get the rocket back.



Part of me feels like I shouldn't be impressed that someone would make that call, but I probably have more sentimental attachment to this one than any of the rest of the fleet. Frisbee golfers, they're good people.

On the flip side of this human kindness, I'd rolled down my windows when I parked to keep the solar gain under control, and I'm pretty sure the Amy Winehouse CD on the front seat I was aiming to return to the library got boosted.

I have my big freelance project still to accomplish this weekend, so I'll pay for this little outing to be sure.

I've decided to quit using Blogger's video upload feature. It's convenient, compared to posting to YouTube and then embedding the YouTube code, but they shrink the picture too far. I can live with 400 pixels wide, that's the width of my text column and consistent with my photos. It's not great for seeing detail: rockets are small and move fast, but as I say, I can live with 400. Vimeo gives you a ton of control over this part, and they'll let you do 500MB a month for free.

I have plenty of hosting myself, I just haven't figured out how to get my movies post-ready as far as being converted to flash files. I'll work on that. Ideally, I'd get it where when you click on the video, it opens in a new window and plays at 960 pixels wide or better. Editing the videos, that seems like a size that's still doable for streaming and gets, obviously a ton more detail conveyed. Actually, you can full-screen the Vimeo stuff, but it lacks resolution...


Hell's Bells from Chixulub on Vimeo.

Since I was too sick to go see Hayseed Dixie last night, I'm using them for soundtrack. Too bad I don't have them performing 'Reunited' by Peaches & Herb. A little out of their milieu, I guess, though it would be about as hilarious as their rendition of the Sex Pistol's 'Holidays in the Sun.' And as jarring as their hillbillification of Spinal Tap's 'Big Bottom.'