Southern Thunder 2007

I was indeed fortunate to attend Southern Thunder this year. The weather Saturday started out with low clouds in the early morning but turned mostly sunny with dry air in the PM. The winds were light and blowing in a favorable direction. Sunday, the winds were blowing across the short side of the field and resulted in a few rockets ending up in the woods. But did turn in a better direction later in the day.

A number of things made ST2007 a special launch. My Dad came along which made it a nice road trip.



My oldest Daughter and my Mother-In-Law also came up for most of Saturday. So they all saw the Mighty Mo launch. Likewise, John and Celeste Hansel, Kendall Brent, Chris Short and family, Jon Ward and family, Chris Crews and his Dad attended. All these folks are from the SEARS club.

The Mighty Mo flight was the first M of the day.



I really liked the huge matching yellow launch pad. The Mo went perfect on the AMW 1480 Red Rhino motor.



All the events fired and the rocket recovered nicely on the field. The bonus was the on-board video. I mounted the ATC2K camera on the booster section.



The camera stayed on the rocket! The on-board video below includes ground video made by Kyle Cornelius.



My second launch on Saturday was the Applewhite Stealth Beta on a K550.



It gets some double-takes.



It was surely the lowest K flight of the day.

Kendall was the Hybrid King of ST2007.



He flew an L, J, I and H flights on hybrids. John Hansel had several great flights including the awesome 12 inch V2.



Note John hosted the young Tiger Shiree and his Mom from Panama City. They witnessed the V2 flight and Tiger launched his Mustang.

My third and last flight was the Giant Leap Firestorm 54 on a J570.



This was my most ambitious altitude attempt. It yielded 7315 feet, my personal best.



I have always been uncomfotable losing sight of my rockets. Kendall loaned me a tracking transmitter and it did help us catch sight of it just before it touched down. I was shocked that the drogue charge fired but the rocket did not split. The main came out at 900 feet and there was no damage. Now that is pretty lucky!

My impression was that a whole bunch of AP got burned on both days. Everyone took advantage of the weather. The K drag race and the M2200 Skidmark drag races were spectacular. Thanks to the MC2 and HARA clubs for a super event!