The First meeting back at the Airfield Site was on a cold and slightly wet day.
Laurie and myself were the first to arrive and while we were setting up the rocket pads, Laurie's friend Pete arrived to see what this rocketry hobby was all about.
Laurie and myself had already armed a rocket each with a A8-3 engine and so we decided to have a drag race for the first launch.
At the end of the countdown both rockets launched simultaneity, my Hijax rocket only reached about 80 feet before firing the ejection charge but the streamer did not deploy and the rocket tumbled back to earth. Laurie's Shockwave went a bit higher and drifted a short distance before landing in some long grass.
Laurie then launched his "Nova" rocket as a two stager using a B6-0 and a B6-4 engine.
The rocket took off slowly and then after a split second the second engine was fired and the rocket climbed nearly out sight, but the recovery system failed to deploy and the rocket nose dived back to ground. Luckily the rocket landed in some long grass and no damage was done.
David arrived a short while later and quickly armed his Thunder Rocket on a C6-7 engine. When the rocket was launched we all knew something was wrong as the engine made a low roar and produced a large flame.
The rocket only gained around 60 feet in height before travelling horizontally for a short distance and then nose dived into the ground. Then a second later the ejection charge fired and we all watched as the now dead engine was launched to around 50 feet. On recovery of the rocket, we saw that the whole end of the rocket had been melted away.
The next to launch was my Broadsword on a D12-3 engine and even with the slight damage on the body tube the rocket still did a nice flight and deployed its parachute and landed a short walk from the pad.
Michael then launched his "Free Fall" rocket on a A8-3 engine and this did it's normal nice flight.
After wondering what caused the strange roar from David's rocket, Laurie enlarged the nozzle of a B6-2 engine and launched his Nova Rocket. We had hoped to reproduce the same roar but the rocket engine worked and sounded normal.
The last rocket to launch was my Broadsword for its third launch of the day and after a short wait for people to pass by and for Robert to arrive on his bike the rocket launched and landed in almost the same place as on its first flight.
On the whole we had a good but short day with 10 rockets being launched and 6 members turning up, we would have stayed longer but the heavens opened and so we all left in search for a place warm and dry.