2021 Launch Reports
2020 and most of 2021 were a launch hiatus for me, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Airfest and Midwest Power were not cancelled, but I didn't feel comfortable traveling, so I skipped them. In the fall of 2021, we seemed to get a respite between the delta and omicron variants where it looked like things might be getting back to normal, so I went to a couple of local launches with projects I'd been working on while housebound.
SLRA Halloween Spooktacular, October 30, 2021, Valley Park MO
Swamp Gas, F23
I got Swamp Gas finished in time for the St. Louis Rocketry Association "Halloween Spooktacular" night launch, first in a hopefully annual tradition. Having been unable to fit even a small parachute as I originally planned, I rigged the rocket up with a rear-ejection setup that I thought might make it descend nose-up. This didn't work (even a 4-second delay was too long to eject the motor before the rocket came back down) but fortunately it was not necessary as the saucer was quite stable coming down nose-first after flipping over at apogee.
| Launch time: | Saturday, October 30, 2021, dusk |
| Weather conditions: | fair, wind N @ 3 mph, 54 F, 72% RH |
| Motor: | Cesaroni Pro38 548I242-15A White |
| Max altitude: | Maybe 150 feet AGL (guessing) |
Swamp Gas landed on its top, not far from the launch pad. The ejection charge shot the motor straight up after the rocket was back on the ground, which snapped the 60-pound test kevlar thread I was using as a shock cord, but there was no damage to the rocket and the spent motor was found. The posterboard top skin of the rocket got quite wrinkled up just from being outside in the humidity.