This page documents a beautiful day, the last Sunday in January, at Barber Park in Orlando Florida. With Donna and me were Ray, his baby son Ryan, my niece, sister-in-law, her boyfriend, his daughter...and a couple of strangers who stopped by to watch.

Barber Park is a large area near the airport, so we have to take seriously that part of the NAR Model Rocket Safety Code about watching out for low-flying airplanes. It was an absolutely perfect day for flying; high cloud cover, feeble little wind gusts that couldn't decide which direction to come from, bright. These kinds of days are rare and precious!

When we got there, we saw a guy flying a cool RC Delta Wing airplane. I went over to talk to him, and found out that he's licensed for HP rocketry, and has launched them right in this park! I didn't know anybody else flew here. 

WE ARE NOT ALONE!

The rockets above were all flown successfully that day. They are (left to right): Gyroc, Hornet, Blue Streak, Hammer of Thor Agena-B, Gemini Titan-D, Flaming Carrot, Chevron and Skywinder.

Here's the archetypical  "before" shot of me setting up my venerable "Blue Streak." This is the first rocket I built as a grown up. It has a boat-tail section with the fins inserted into slots that I'm pretty proud of. It's flown about a dozen times, and it always is fun, flies great. I keep pressing my luck, though. If this one ever cato's, you'd better hide the whisky and sleeping pills.

And here's my niece and me trying to catch the Blue Streak before it lands, breaking those delicate fins. I caught it by the shock cord, and everything was fine. Notice that though my dopey hat does cover my expansive bald spot, it does an imperfect job of distracting attention from my awkward running gate.

This is a pretty good "after" shot of the second-best part of launching rockets, the part where a bunch of folks all run after it, and somebody actually catches it! The flight was the first successful launch of my 
"Hammer of Thor Agena-B". Earlier attempts with underpowered engines had resulted in embarrassment for everyone.

And here's a "before" shot of me and my niece standing by my tallest rocket, the "Flaming Carrot." This rocket is over 6' tall, and this was it's maiden launch on a D12-3. If flew beautifully, but unfortunately the engine hook blew out! What to do?

I'll tell you what I did. I "joined the dark side" as my friend Ray put it. I've always been such a stickler for only putting rockets in the air when I've taken every precaution that they'll come back down safely.

In this case, thinking that I may never get another chance to launch the Carrot, I fished an old Aerotech E30-2T engine out of my box, taped it into place and bid it goodbye.

In a flash/bang it was GONE! Up so high we could hardly see it. At separation, a swivel snapped, and the tail part plummeted to earth (undamaged!) while the top part sailed miles away on it's parachute. 
Goodbye Carrot!

Or so I thought! Greg's a marathon runner, and as tenacious as a bulldog! I don't recommend ever going flying without a marathon runner. They are as necessary as a igniters and extra batteries.

Here I am prepping the Gemini Titan-D for launch. This is my wife's favorite rocket, because it's named after her (the 'D' part, that is). You can't see it well in this picture, but it has two side pods which will hold booster engines. One day I'll get the courage to fly it the way God intended: a central D engine, and two C boosters. It has clear Plexiglas fins. Cool!

Gemini Titan-D high in the sky. That red parachute really makes it 
easier to spot. Notice how I'm just watching it drift out of site! 

My niece Marysue ran all the way and brought it back, over her shoulder like a soldier carrying a flag. Thanks Missy! 

While we launched all the rockets shown at the top of the page that day, we only got publishable pictures of a few of them. Ray had a very successful day with his Chevron (his first scratch-built effort, and very cool), but I think his favorite rocket is the Estes Sidewinder. It's a real crowd pleaser with its helicopter recovery.  In this picture, Ray spins around and around, making the blades rotate in his wake. He then grew dizzy and pitched over, hitting the ground with a thud that knocked over the launch pad.