Coopers at LDRS-20, Lucerne, CA

Anthony Cooper, LUNAR #571

We started our plans to attend LDRS (Large and Dangerous Rocket Ships) 20 in March. We attended LDRS 17 at Bonneville UT in 1998. We knew that we were in for a weekend of the wildest and largest rockets you’ll ever see outside of NASA. I preregistered, booked a motel for our 5 night 6 day stay.

Wednesday, July 18: Our first day of travel went uneventfully. Grandma had agreed to attend the launch. She also attended LDRS 17 with us. I had the car and trailer packed and awaited her arrival to add her stuff to our stuff. She surprised us by traveling rather light. No extra pillows, only one suit case. And so with the Piñata rocket strapped to the roof of the car, off we started on our 420 mile drive to the Motel 6 in Victorville, CA.

We made it in about 7 and a half hours. After checking into the motel our room cards would not work the doors. We had to go get three of them reprogrammed. We then moved our bags into the room and the kids went wild. They had been cooped up in the car for nearly 8 hours. Sheryl and I took them to the pool and allowed grandma to take a nap. After the pool, our room cards would not work again. Off to the office to get them reprogrammed.

Denny’s was a short walk away, so we decided to eat supper there. Kevon decided he wanted breakfast. I could tell by the look on his face that he was surprised when I said sure. Denny’s serves breakfast around the clock. When supper was all done, we walked back to the motel where ... you guessed it. The room cards didn’t work again. Another trip to the office to get them reprogrammed. I noticed that Joe and Judy Heckenbach’s car was parked at the motel now. I called their room and chatted with Joe for a while. Joe said they had been at the site looking to buy motors. They had been driving all day and were very tired. Said they might make it out tomorrow by 9 or 10am.

Thursday, July 19: First day of LDRS. The launch times were set for 7am to 7pm all four days and 9pm to 11pm Thursday and Friday. We planned to get up at 5:30am to arrive when flying started at 7. My computer said we still had a 52 minute drive to the launch site. Kids didn’t sleep well. I expect that they were still restless from the drive yesterday. It took me till about 6 before we got up. We didn’t make Denny’s for breakfast until about 6:45. We finished breakfast about 7:30. Made the launch site about 8:30.

The launch site is a dry lake bed. No vegetation within about 2 miles of us. Even Estes Mosquitoes can be found at this launch site. The morning was pleasant. We have a EZ-up shade that we set up and nailed to the ground. After our site was set up Sheryl and I abandoned grandma with the kids and took a walk along vendor row. We like checking out all the wonderful rockets people plan to fly. The most notable were 1/3 scale V2, a 1/10 scale N1 and Nibbles the Space Cat <http://www.ldrs20.org/pics/nibbles/index.htm>.

Joe and Judy arrived later in the day as it started warming up. Joe warned us about the wind. He said it comes up about 4pm and lasts until about 8pm. David Miller arrived about 11am I went and spent money in vendor row. I bought a housing for my AltAcc2A Altimeter. I’d been concerned about ejection gases corroding it. I also bought a 29mm 360 case with two I200 reloads. I prep’d one reload and flew the Piñata rocket without candy for the first time. When I put my rocket on the launch pad at 2:30pm, it pulled the rod to the west slightly. I looked for an adjustment for the rod, but they were fixed straight up. Being the first day of LDRS, the wait was minimal. Shortly after I returned to the flight line, my rocket came up. As he started reading the flight card, the wind straightened my rocket up on the pad. By the time the 5 count was done, the rocket was bending the rod slightly to the east. I got 2453' on that flight. But my rocket landed about ½ mile away. David Miller and I started walking to my rocket. The wind started picking my rocket up off the ground and sending it down range farther to the east. Soon I was running because the rocket was getting farther way from me if I walked. David Miller guessed I ran nearly a mile to catch that rocket. I was near a mile and a half from the launch site now. The leading edges of the rocket were chewed up by the lake bed. Every inch of the paint job was damaged from being dragged. All the fins were filed down and rounded off. Man! When Joe said the wind comes up, he wasn’t kidding.

The wind got worse as David and I walked back. As we neared the launch site, it didn’t quite look the same anymore. Many awnings were destroyed. I hurried back to my own site to see how much damage had been done. Sheryl had put the awning down low and it was still intact. Joe and Judy’s however had been destroyed. We stuck it out in the wind and sun for another hour before giving up and going back to the motel. Day one over at about 4pm.

Upon returning to the motel room, yes our cards didn’t work again. We got them reprogrammed, let the kids swim in the pool and ate at Denny’s again. We started back to the launch site at 7:30 to see the night launch. Darkness seemed to come early and I missed a turn. It took until 9pm before we arrived. We got to see 3 night shots. The wind never did calm down and I could not believe that these folks were risking their rockets. They were drifting out of sight down range. We left again by 10pm. I learned the next day that the wind didn’t die down until 11:30.

Friday July 20: Tonight we didn’t get any more sleep. Krystal started throwing up during the night. So Sheryl and I were up three times cleaning her and the bedding. By 5:30 in the morning we were already up and only had to wake Kevon and Grandma. Kevon gets up and starts vomiting too. Swell, LDRS 20 and we’ve got 2 sick kids on our hands. We ate breakfast at Denny’s again and were on our way.

Joe and Judy never show up today. I know Joe wanted to fly some rockets. I wonder if they quit because their awning got destroyed? But I do find James Marino, Lee Teicheira, Ken Busse. and Bob Fortune today. We watch a lot of rockets fly. I looked over the damage to my rocket and try to decide if I can fly it again. I decide with some work it will fly again. I cut 4" off the booster and shave all the fins to match. The paint won’t stop it from flying. Today we feel the wind start at 2:30 and put everything away. I told James that we would return for the night launch. Then I start feeling pretty poorly. I’m getting bad diarrhea. We have supper at Peggy Sue’s and I only feel like having soup. I feel really hot and asked Sheryl to drive back to the launch site. We get there by 8:15 this time but the wind is still howling. I’m beginning to feel a little better but grandma isn’t getting out of the car. She’s not feeling so well now. No launches happen by 9 when we leave. The wind continued until 11pm I was told the next day. Seven launches did happen.

Saturday July 21: Today is the biggest day of LDRS. I spent much of the last evening on the toilet. This morning, grandma refuses to go to the launch. She just isn’t feeling well. We decide to eat somewhere else so, we grab McDonalds on the way to the launch site. Once arriving at the site, I keep briskly walking from the flight line to the porta-potties. It takes until noon before I can fart with confidence. Today we got to watch the N1 fly mostly successfully. <http://www.moonrace2001.org/n1_rocket.shtml> They played the Russian national anthem and counted down in Russian. It had a total of 43 motors. A ring of 24 G38’s around 6 K1050’s in the first stage. 8 H124’s with a gimbaled J in the second stage and 4 more H124’s in the upper stage. Shortly after the first stage lit. The N1 started leaning to my right. It thought it was going to destroy itself. But as I opened my mouth to make my claim, it went vertical and flew straight and true. Apparently there were some mistakes made in assuming how the light Styrofoam rocket parts would open the parachutes. Tape was stuck on the chutes to delay their deployment. It was suppose to tear under the weight of the rocket parts. But they were to light to open the chutes. The first stage came in hard and the nose cone came in ballistically. It was quite the spectacle though.

The absolutely best launch of LDRS was a Full Scale AQM-37C "Jayhawk" Navy Target Drone. http://www.gbrocketry.com/jayhawk.htm <http://www.ldrs20.org/pics/nike/index.htm> It flew on a cluster of 2 x M2500T’s. This rocket absolutely screamed all the way up to it’s 7000' apogee where it deployed it’s drogue chute. At 1500' it cut the drogue and nose cone loose while deploying it’s dual 26' main chutes.

Soon after the N1, there was a 1/3 scale V2 that crash badly. <http://www.woerner.net/v2/main.html> This one was a cluster of 5 motors, one M1939 and four K560s. I was told that only 3 motors lit on the pad. It veered so bad that it ripped off the upper section of launch rail. A fourth motor lit in flight. I think that is what prevented this launch from becoming a national incident. The V2 cruise missiled about 150 feet over our heads. On the way by it popped it’s nose cone and parachute, but the speed was too high and the parachute had no effect. It just stripped without any slowing of the rocket. While I was smarting off about the flight line beginning to feel like London during the second world war, Kevon got really scarred about the safety of his mother. I attempted to assure him that it went well over the cars and his mother. He wouldn’t have any of it and had to make sure by finding her. A second V2 auger in and two 8lbs bowling balls fall from near 5,000 feet. The wind picks up about 1:30 and we scooted on out of there. I saw Joe and Judy today. Joe was sick yesterday. He was afraid of getting to far away from a toilet and so they stayed at the motel.

Sheryl and I attended the banquet that evening. The meal was good and were heard talk about diminishing sites to fly. Tripoli expressed desire to buy the Lucerne Dry Lake bed and preserve it for the future. I think NAR needs to do the same thing. Maybe the two organizations need to cooperate and buy sites together. Tripoli thinks that getting sites on each coast and one central would be a good start. We also chatted about what the republic of California was doing to our hobby. Our organizations need to do something about this or we won’t be flying anywhere.

Sunday: Last day of LDRS. Up at 5:30, everyone is feeling fine. The last day of flying and we are on our way. Kevon fly’s his NCR Phantom 4000, on a G33 (he loves black jacks) and an F40. I got my Piñata rocket together and fly it to 2254'.

The big event of the day was a huge Nike Hercules. <http://nikeproject.com/index_ie.html> A 1/3 scale model of the Nike Hercules Missile. 2 Stage Cluster Rocket with 4 K700s in the booster, staging to a M1939. There were also four H73 outboards in the sustainer. It flew fine but it’s recovery was less than optimal. It’s booster came in ballistic and it’s drogue deployment seemed to be late. Because when it did deploy it’s drogue, it stripped the chute. This was not as bad as it might seem. At 1500 feet it successfully deployed the main chute. Problem is that it was designed to cut loose the nose cone with the drogue chute. With the drogue several thousand feet above it, the nose cone came in ballistic.

While waiting for the Nike to fly, I see Joe waiting for his rocket to fly. He doesn’t look so good again. He questions his ability to recover his rocket. I offer my assistance if he needs it. Fortunately it lands within 100' of where we stood. Winds start about 1pm. We pack and leave.

Monday: Drive back to the Bay Area. Again we wake up to sounds of Krystal vomiting. I am racked with diarrhea. It’s going to be no fun driving today. I stopped three times by 10am. Fortunately Krystal has no more episodes and my problem tapers off. We’re back home now and cleaning all the dust from our ears, rockets, car and clothes. Time to get the Piñata to fly in two weeks at the LUNAR launch.

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