ID Rocketeer: Flying Colors, Flight #8, "A Date with Kate"

Yesterday was our final launch opportunity of the spring season. We had a very good turn out with many launches. I shot quite a lot of video, capturing 15 launches in 13 segments. There were many more launches than that, but I wasn't always in position to take video. I was there to fly my own rocket after all.

We got to the site early so we could set up our own equipment and help with the launch equipment. I was still working on setting up the weather station when other people, including the person towing the club trailer, showed up. With a number of people working on it, the range was set up well in time for the opening of the launch window at 10:00.

Vern Knowles, "parent" of the ever-popular "Kate", is working on making a version of her available for sale. Kate is an automated flight data reporting system that receives GPS data transmitted from a rocket and announces the details of the flight in near-real-time. Vern had prototype transmitters, pre-installed in various size nose cones, available for test flights at this launch. For various reasons I was the only person to take Vern up on the chance to give Kate a ride at this launch. Having Kate on-board meant I would not be able to include my Walston Tracker, which is installed in my usual nose cone. I was still able to fly my AltimeterOne, which meant I'd have two sources of data regarding my maximum altitude. The Kate nose cone is also heavier than my usual nose cone, so I anticipated a lower than estimated flight. Based on RockSim v9.0 my expected altitude was 6830' AGL. According to my AltimeterOne I reached an altitude of 6210', while Kate reported 6449'. Kate did lose GPS during the ascent, but reacquired a fix before apogee and reported data for the rest of the flight. It is a good thing she did, as I never saw Flying Colors after it left the pad. There were people that spotted it, but I think they were able to due to Kate's reporting. Since Flying Colors landed 1.33 miles from the launch site I probably would not have received a signal from the tracker if I'd been flying it, particularly after Flying Colors landed. With Kate having provided landing coordinates it was a simple matter of punching them into a hand-held GPS unit and walking right to my rocket. Thank you Vern for letting me fly your transmitter for you.

Photo Album: 2011-06-04, Tripoli Idaho Launch