June 7, 2026
June 7, 2026 Launch Report
Yet another breezy day! I don’t know what we have to do to have a calm, low wind day, but we’re clearly not doing it. And today we faced unexpected, brief rain and thunder clouds going by.
Engine totals:
6 – 1/2A Engines
6 – A Engines
19 – B Engines
8 – C Engines
8 – D Engines
5 – E Engines
8 – F Engines
3 – G Engines
Total of 64 engines on 56 flights.
For a not-too-many-flights kind of day, we had a lot going on. And honestly, I missed a bunch of good flights, so my reporting won’t be very complete. But… here is what I do know:
A bunch of boosters and clusters flew. No one was trying to get crazy altitude, just trying some new, fun concepts. There were little boosters, medium boosters, and clusters of 2 or 3 motors, all in the C range or smaller. From what I saw, most flew well enough, and some more than once. Diptanshu, fresh off his recent NASA SLI contest success, was flying a boosted rocket considerably smaller than what was needed for the SLI. An A10 to 1/2A3 2-stage that was cool.
It appears that a Team was getting a head start on this year’s ARC season. The new season’s requirements were published recently, and what looked to me like a few ARC-type rockets took to the air. There is some learning to be done, but it is good to see them coming out early and working out the kinks now.
Dan flew his “mini Astron Invader” glider a bunch of times. Dan also flew a Goddard “Nell” that came with some special effects that made the flight not only look more authentic, but it actually flew well too! Better than most of us have been able to do with it. Jo Ann flew her Red Flare with a coordinating yellow spinning parachute. Jo Ann also flew a flock of Flamingos that all flew, but a couple were a little hard on landing. There were a number of Doorknobs flying with a variety of colors. Neil had a couple of big G flights. The “Big Big Big Bertha” is still back in the woods if anyone happens to go walking back there. Likewise, Eric’s “Excalibur” also landed back in the deep stuff. A recovery expedition is in the offing later this week. Joe also spun up his Mega Upscale Quinstar on a G, which is always a fun flight. And Elsa started off her flying day with a nice big “Mean Machine” that flew just perfectly!
But a couple of hours into the flying a thunder cell came by the field. Just close enough to get a little rain on us for a few minutes. For anyone who stayed around, we got to reset and fly a little more before another quick rain cloud came by. By then, everyone called it quits for the day.
There was one unfortunate occurrence, which bares mentioning. An errant rocket landed in a neighbor’s yard. The flier/owner did the right thing and knocked on the door of the house before proceeding into their yard to look for it. Always respect the neighbors property and ask for permission before proceeding on their land. This one neighbor in particular is not happy with our flying there and we need to be as courteous as possible when in these situations. If anyone is not sure what to do, ask the Club leadership for help before proceeding.
A few pictures are in the Gallery. Feel free to post more if you have any good ones.
The next launch is scheduled for July 5th. Happy 250th birthday America! Bring out your Red, White, and Blue rockets! There will be at least one contest, and if the weather cooperates, hopefully a nice afternoon watching the rockets’ red glare!
Unfortunately the neighbor will not let this issue go. Any rockets landing in his yard will be lost. What he didn’t understand nor was it explained to him (Bill), the winds shift.
bottom line is he doesn’t want any rockets on his property and he doesn’t want us flying.
his request today was to move to the other side of the field or stop flying. The club stopped flying.
keep the motors low power in the future