It’s been a long couple of years, but I am finally gearing up to do some high-power launches and get moving on my next winter project.
- St. Louis Rocketry Association fall launch, October 21 in Elsberry MO:
- Black Widow shakedown flight on a J760 (4500′)
- Kerbal 5 shakedown flight on a J360 (2600′)
- Midwest Power 21, October 27-29 in Princeton IL:
- Black Widow on an L1000 (10,000′)
- Kerbal 5 on a J430 (2100′)
- Berthimus Prime on a J420 (2250′)
- St. Louis Rocketry Association winter launch, December 16 in Elsberry MO (tentative):
- Gravity’s Just a Habit on an I470 staging to an I175 (7200′)
- Homer on a G78 (pending completion)
I decided to make the trip to Midwest Power this year, after not having been up there since 2016 (egad, 7 years). This is a good opportunity to fly Black Widow with its new electronics setup, and Kerbal 5 which I finished in January ’21 but have still never flown. It looks like we might have a launch opportunity in Elsberry the weekend before, so I will do shakedown launches with those same two rockets if possible.
I’m ready for another try with Gravity’s Just a Habit, but I really want to get that working in front of a smaller audience. We have another Elsberry launch tentatively scheduled for December 16, so hopefully that attempt will still happen this year. There’s also Homer – the rocket is done (and painted, even) but the gliding parachute system is still in the package. So my November projects will be prepping GJaH and finishing Homer.
After that, I’m planning to finally start on my 75mm minimum diameter project, Peregrine, over the winter. I will be picking up my Wildman Black Saturday order from last year when I go up to MWP, which includes the epoxy, motor retainer and motor for that rocket.