Red Glare is becoming a tradition every fall and spring; it’s really convenient, as away launches go, and it’s a well run event with lots of cool rockets and, more importantly, lots of cool people. I managed to ship two rockets back to Todd before the launch, and put up both on Todd’s propellant. Ryan also got into the action this time with his Infinity. And we had Darren in such good spirits that he almost flew a rocket, too. (Almost being the key word here.) Once again, special thanks to the Wrights for their great hospitality, and to Todd for picking me up from the airport (even if he was just a hair over 2 hours late) and taking me back (and shipping my stuff back!).

Gallery below, after the jump. Read on »

Balls 2010 was a great time — nice weather all weekend, great crowd, and lots of cool flights with a fairly high success ratio. It was great to meet tons of new people and see all the creative projects out there. USC flew a terrific minimum diameter O motor flight with a carbon fiber casing, TSM had a spectacular P to P two stage flight, James Grover totally bent up one of AHPRA’s rails (sorry bout that man!), Jerry McKinlay put up a 4″ airframe to 55kft+ with full recovery, and Al Goncalves burned the paint off of Ed Enyart’s rocket.

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One of my friends here has been having some issues getting a clean, reliable start on a motor, so I suggested using a thermite igniter to get things moving quickly. Seeking some evidence to use for convincing the higher-ups, we did some high speed videos of a couple thermite igniters to see what goes on. We fired a standard copper thermite compound, as well as one based on manganese dioxide and aluminum. Each shot was 5 grams of material. The CuO igniter was filmed at 2000 frames per second, and the MnO₂ at 10,000 frames per second. I also sped up the MnO₂ video and stuck the shots next to each other, to allow easier comparison between the two types.
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Chris LaPanse (cjl) was kind enough to pass along this sequence of photos taken by his dad, Ray, from the Talon P flight. I’ve never seen this motor in person in anything other than a minimum diameter rocket, so it’s great to have such awesome photo coverage of one of its more “dramatic” flights. Thanks Ray & Chris!

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I’m finally getting around to posting my Red Glare photos. I found a cheap flight, and Todd volunteered to pick me up at the airport, so things all worked out really well, and I had a great time. Special thanks to Darren Wright and family for the awesome hospitality, the MDRA BOD for putting on a great launch, Todd for driving me everywhere, and Ryan/Caity/Cancel/Jeff/Scott for putting up with me! Can’t wait to go back for October. I might even bring a rocket…

Photos after the jump.
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