GroverAerospace.com

Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) has one of the most awesome rocketry “playgrounds” you can ask for. It sits about a 1000′ south of the MTA which is equally awesome. I decided to leave LA late Friday evening and camp out under the stars to be ready for the festivities early in the morning. I arrived late and found the fearless leaders, Kevin and Mark, finishing up some work on their facility. We chatted for a while and admired the incredible amount of stars visible from our view in the Mojave Desert. Morning came quick, and so did the heat!

For this event I wanted to test several propellants for the upcoming Balls launch in September as well as one, um, “other” motor. I decided to bring my level one certification rocket out of retirement for the tests. I prepped the Public Enemy Bullpup with 38mm 5 grain loads and my blacksky altacc for recovery. All flights went perfectly reaching around 3,000′ in altitude. After my flights I helped the UC Irvine team prep a 12,500Ns Loki Research N3800 to fly in their all fiberglass rocket. The boost was great and ripped into sky on a huge white flame. There was an event at apogee and the rocket was coming down quickly with none of the chutes fully opened. Regardless it was still an awesome flight and the team put together a great rocket.