Saturday, Christy announced that it was a good day to launch some rockets.  As it turns out, I had 4 engines left and the same number of flyable rockets, so we headed out to our favorite launch site.

I decided to give my Courier "Egg Lofter" rocket another shot, and I scavenged some parachutes to replace the ones that it had ripped/melted through last time I launched it.  The Icarus (which is sort of a "sister rocket" in design) wasn't using its 'chutes, so I snagged those and loaded an egg into the capsule, along with plenty of paper towels packing material.

I also grabbed my trusty Maxx Traxx, the Chrome Dome and the now legendary Sky Writer, packed and loaded them up, and off we went.

Well, it was a little windier than I was comfortable with, but we decided to launch the Chrome Dome just to see if we could do any rocketry at all.  The Chrome dome is a solid rocket, but not very exciting so if something bad were to happen, it wouldn't be a big deal.  Luckily the flight went pretty well, and aside from the 'chute not quite opening all the way, everything went well.  I angled the launch rod into the wind to try to compensate for drift during recovery, and it worked reasonably well.

So next up was the Sky Writer.  Penelope had stepped on it earlier during launch pad setup, though oddly enough the body tube didn't seem too damaged.  We decided to fly it anyway, reasoning that if it wasn't flyable, then at least we'd get a spectacular failure.  Well, the good ol' writer went right up and came down for a perfect landing.  I had used my weakest engine in this one since it's a real climber, and it still went as high as any of the other launches.  The sky writer really is a fantastic rocket, and I highly recommend it to anyone as an easy to build, good looking and high flying bird.

By this time, Jake was convinced that it was safe to launch "his" Maxx Traxx.  The Traxx was a birthday gift to me from him, and he's very protective of it.  Fortuntely, it's one of my best rockets from a stability and reliability perspective, and since he picked it out, it makes him proud every time it flies.  This flight was pretty typical for a B engine launch - up nice and straight, perfect recovery.  The altimeter capsule actually appeared to work correctly this time, and we got a reading of around 290 feet, which is about what I had predicted it would be.  So #3 launch - successful.

Lastly, we set up the egg lofter.  Now I haven't had much luck launching rockets with heavy payloads.  I have the "sport" shots down to a science, but when you have a payload, you really have to get the rocket to arc up and eject at apogee, or you'll put undo stress on the parachute lines.  Did I mention that it was windy? :-)  So the courier goes up, weathervanes completely horizontal into the wind, and streaks towards the road.  I had used my most powerful engine to give it a fighting chance of lifting that egg, so it gained quite a lot of horiontal velocity before ejecting.  Miraculously, the booster and its 'chute had landed safely without even a body tube wrinkle.  That's one tough booster.  The capsule's parachute however, was blowing along the ground towards us as we approached the "landing" site.  It had ripped completely away from the capsule.  It took a minute or two to find the capsule, but it had finally skidded to a halt in a drainage ditch a few yards further down field.  The capsule is styrene plastic, so it's pretty tough.  The egg inside however did not fair so well. :-)  The capsule had actually buried itself about an inch down in some mud.  We all had a really good laugh. 

So I still haven't gotten a successful "loaded" flight out of the Courier.  It flies very well without an egg, and the rocket itself is quite resilient, but I haven't cracked the egg flying code yet.  My guess is that I'll need to wait for a nearly windless day, use a C6-3 instead of a C6-5, and aim straight up.

In the final tally, I need one new parachute to replace the egg capsule's stripped one, but otherwise the "fleet" is in perfect shape.  I suspect Christy will get me some new engines (and maybe even a new rocket) for Christmas, so here's hoping for some good flying in the new year!