Flight

First flight was on a vacation day tailor made for a trip to B6-4 Field.  Full sun, moderate temps, and a complete lack of wind made it a day I would never forgive myself for wasting, so I packed up a box of newly finished or seldom flown birds and spent over an hour padding my flight stats.  The Firefighter flew on an A8-3, normally perfect for the field, but as it turned out, iffy in a minimum diameter rocket.  I needn't have worried, as the day passed without as much as a light breeze.  The A8-3 flight topped out around 300 feet and drifted to the edge of the field in deep center.  On a day with even the slightest of breezes the Firefighter would be an early Christmas ornament in one of the trees, but as it turned out, the streamer recovery was perfect.  Landed facing down, so a light core sample, but the mud blew out easily and if not for running out of time, it was ready to go again.

Flight #2 was another A8-3 at B6-4 Field on a breezier day in early 2021.  As before, the A8-3 was more than enough motor for the field, and this time there even seemed to be an extra oomph.  The flight was high and mostly straight with only light windcocking toward the back of the field.  It honestly could have used a little more windcock as the Firefighter began racing toward US 27 at ejection.  Trees that once lined the edge of the field by the road would have eaten it alive in the old days, but without them the rocket rapidly drifted toward the road and dropped like a stone.  Once across US 27, the choices are grim, an asphalt parking lot or the building, with only the thinnest strips of grass/landscaping as safe zones.  I anticipated a crushed fin at the very least, but somehow the Firefighter found a way to land on one of the thin strips of grass.  It was a lucky side of the coin that I wasn't familiar with.