Belle Glade. Florida USA

Let's see...
Perth to Sydney
Sydney to Los Angeles
Los Angeles to Orlando
Orlando to West Palm
19400km

Meh.

Once again CGN members have made the pilgrimage to the USA. CGN's Scoop used the 2008 Florida Winternationals event Smoke Rise II put on by the guys of the Florida Space Modelling Association and Tripoli West Palm to attempt his L3 certification.

The sod fields at Roth Farms are, to say the least, expansive. But not just expansive: they're flat, they're green, they're soft, they're surrounded by gators and they often get populated by those that love their rockets.

Flying his BSD Thor-X rocket from the 500' pads on an Aerotech M1297W, Scoop sent the M powered model aircraft to an eye straining altitude of around 11,650ft AGL. The dual deploy cert attempt was deemed successfull after deploying the main at around 1100' AGL and landing softly about 2 kays from the pad.

Fridge used a Norad Pro-Maxx Plus for his certification attempts. The Plus designation because we took the standard Loc kit and extended the MMT, included a GLR hardpoint anchor and slimline Tailcone retainer, tip to tip carbon fibre over the fins and a kick arse paint job. Hindsight says we should have used descent nosecone hardware too.

Starting with an Aerotech I357, the first launch started well but suffered from premature separation of the nosecone, zippered the forward sustainer and broke the standard connection point on the nosecone. Whilst having vent holes in the body tube and a firm fit on the nosecone, it still wasn't tight enough.

With a new upper sustainer section, a repaired nosecone attachment (we had plenty of zipties with us) and a very tight fit, the second L1 attempt went up on an Aerotech I245G. Following a successful launch and ejection close to apogee at around 2500', the nosecone came free once again resultng in a failed attempt.

Damn zip ties. Can't say enough about good attachment points. Off to Lowes we go (Bunnings on steroids)...

The third L1 attempt was on an Areotech H112J. The nosecone attachement was upgraded to steel eyebolt hardware and the ejection charge was reduced to about 70%. The little darling went to around 1700', deployed and landed about 30m from the pad. L1 attempt finally successful.

The L2 attempt began with the successfull passing of the Level 2 Test followed by a flight on a Cesaroni J285. On its way up to 3000', premature separation happened again and zippered the airframe down to the midsection and snapped a fin too leaving it held on by only one layer of CF.

All in all, what a fantastic weekend it was and all the people we met were really nice with some wonderful stories to tell, and not to mention, some really big rockets.

The three day event included a research day for the brave and enthusiastic. We were fortunate enough to witness a flight of a P11000 impulse rocket named Black Dragon by TRA stalwart Derek Deville and team, along with various luminaries whom had traveled from South Carolina to fly their M impulse sugar motors.

...very cool.