Launch Report for November 12th, 1986
(Written on Friday, December 11th, 1998, based on flight logs from that time.)

On this day, my friend Andre & I headed out to the Howard S. Billings Regional High School schoolyard here in Chateauguay, Quebec, Canada to film a few rocket launches for a short documentary about model rocketry called "Into the Blue Frontier" that we were producing for our film class at Dawson College in Montreal.  The film was shot on Super 8 film using a Canon Super 8 camera.  It was a cloudy day and the temperature was quite cold to say the least.  I used my Estes Bigfoot launch pad for these launches.

Flight 87, 11th flight this year
Estes Big Bertha on an Estes B6-4 for its 11th flight
The first rocket to go up was Big Bertha on an Estes B6-4.  As usual, it was an impressive flight.

Flight 88, 12th flight this year
Scratch built Jupiter 1/X-30 on an Estes A3-4T for its 3rd flight
Next to go up was my own scratch built rocket which I called Jupiter 1 (no relation to the Lost in Space ship).  Jupiter 1 carried a small parasite glider which I called the X-30 at the time (again, no relation to the X-30 SSTO).  I'll probably change the names to avoid any confusion.  The glider's elevons were at quite an angle since this glider tended to be pretty nose heavy and when the rocket took off, it arced over and nearly tried to core sample.  Interestingly, the glider never separated from the rocket... and we have it all on film too!  I'll try to get the footage of this launch added to this web site.

Flight 89, 13th flight this year
Estes Maxi Alpha 3 01 on an Estes D12-3 for its 2nd flight
Maxi Alpha 3 was next up on an Estes D12-3.  The flight was impressive as usual although the rocket spun rapidly because of the warped fins.

Flight 90, 14th flight this year
Estes X-Ray (Original) on an Estes B6-4 for its 4th flight
My old Estes X-Ray was sent up next on an Estes B6-4 which is the highest powered motor I've used on this rocket to date.

Flight 91, 15th flight this year
Estes Space Shuttle on an Estes C6-3 for its 5th flight
Finally, it was the Space Shuttle that went up on an Estes C6-3.  We sent this one up because when we filmed the previous Space Shuttle flight, the glider's elevons weren't trimmed properly so we sent it up again to get a decent glide.  It was a near perfect flight although the rocket veered off course a bit because the fin that I repaired from the previous flight wasn't completely straight.   Both recovery systems worked properly this time though.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Just to say Hi?

E-mail: kbedard@rocketryonline.com

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