Having hardly though about rockets for months the new flying season sprung out of no where and it was finally time to recharge the launch controller batteries for another season. Last year was a major disappointment for me as I didn't launch a single high power rocket due to insufficient funds. I‘m hoping that this year will be different, but I didn't have anything to launch at this event, so we'll just have to wait and see.

The weather leading up to the launch was pretty grotty and didn't bode well for the actual day. In the end it turned out to be an okay day in the end, if a little on the windy side. There were a couple of slight downpours during the day, but nothing major. A few cars needed a push out of the car park at the end of the day, which is normal for the EARS site if it's slightly wet underfoot.

Since I didn't have anything to fly I decided to do a spot of RSO'ing as I'd remembered to bring all the requisite UKRA documents with me. So for the majority of the day I stood up at the flight line and did all the requisite RSO duties. This was the longest that I've ever RSO'd for and it reminded me that being an RSO is a pretty thankless task. I'll have to remember to take my documents with me to the UKRA event in June and do a couple of sessions there.

I can't remember all the flights that were made, so I'll just mention the few that I do remember. Firstly this EARS launch saw the return of Ben Jarvis after a bit of a break from attending EARS events. Not to disappoint Ben turned up with this really evil looking cone rockets that he flew twice. The first flight was quite impressive, but it really needed a bigger motor. The second flight had the bigger motor and was a much more impressive flight.

Unlike previous EARS launches, I decided that since I was RSO'ing I wouldn't take photos of all the flights. This meant that I only took one roll of film where as in the past it would have been more like three rolls. So if you look at the photos in my image bank, you'll notice that most of the flights I'm muttering about don't have photos.

Darren Longhorn made the trip down to EARS all the way from Yorkshire and brought his scratch built Thunderbird 3 with him. Just like Ben, Darren flew his rocket twice with the second flight being on a larger motor. It's quite a bulky rocket, so it suited the larger motor and as it was a Pro38 Smokey Sam, it left a nice smoke trail on its ascent.

Other flights included Gary Sinclair flying his upscale 6” Big Daddy on a large Pro54 motor for a nice flight. A few of the Crock flyers turned out and flew a range of rockets through the afternoon. Late in the day Damien Hall brought out his remote controller parafoil recovery rocket for a nice flight. However, and electronic glitch meant the parafoil didn't deploy, which was a shame.

All in all it was a good days flying despite the weather, with quite a few model and high power flights made. Now the challenge for me is to have something ready to fly for the next launch...

• View all the photos here.

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Last update: Tuesday, 30-Mar-2004 03:43:20 EST