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Rocket Launching of May
4, 2014 |
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PARA520
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May 4th, 2014 was a windy, drizzly,
chilly day. There was a rocket launch scheduled by
PARA520
at Hallowell farm. We were set to go.
The PARA
guys were at the farm at 10:30 AM. Andrea, Joe and I met up
with Chrissy and Matt at the CVS in Towamencin. Standing in
the drizzle, we were undecided about driving for an hour to
get to the farm in the lousy weather. We took the easy way out and asked Matt
what we should do. He said he was up for a ride. Joe bailed,
but the other four of us headed for the farm. It drizzled
the whole way there.
Once there, the car got stuck in the mud and had to
be pushed out. Later I got
zapped on an electric fence, got caught in barbed
wire and sticker bushes, fell in the mud, found the remains of three
dead cows and walked around for an hour with a tick
on my forehead. Andrea didn't laugh at me once,
though she managed to remain unscathed. We also met
bunch of great people who like to fly rockets in the
rain!
Among the rockets in the above picture are the silver and blue "Silverfish"
and Matt's orange and blue "Big Daddy." A camera is
taped to the Silverfish. |
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Ken, Barry and John of PARA 520. Ken and
John have a knack
for finding lost rockets. They found mine three times. |
At first we couldn't bring the
rockets out because of the rain.
This is the back seat of the
car. |
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The Guardian
and the Executioner blast off while we get our stuff together
back at the car. |
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Matt Prepares the Big Daddy. |
Mike sets up the Silverfish. |
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Chrissy checks Big Daddy's
ignitor. |
The Silverfish (with camera) is ready
to go. |
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This is a Big Bertha with its fins on
upside-down! |
The Silverfish blasts off on an E20-7 |
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Andrea snaps Big Daddy blasting off.
Meanwhile, the Silverfish has vanished in the wind.
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The Big Daddy landed relatively
close to the pad. The Silverfish however was searched for in
vain by Andrea and yours truly for
over 1/2 hour. Finally Ken came over to see how we were making out.
He found it in five minutes flat!
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Ken on the left. Me coming out from
under the electric fence. We both got zapped!
I got zapped again later at the same
spot. Some people just don't learn.
It was a mooooving experience.
I guess I'm dumber than a cow. |
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