Millican, Oregon
Fall, 1998

Launches are held several times a year at this site about 1 hour East of Bend, Oregon. I belive this launch field has been retired in favor of a better one about 15 minutes away. See Oregon Rocketry's Web page for details. The picture above is looking north, in the bottom center is the LCO desk, vendors, etc. Click on any image for a larger view.

	The Big Ugly was my first launch of the day. Repaired since its last mishap in Monroe and 2 feet longer, I had high hopes. Launch here is on a Kosdon 54mm K-700 which later airstarted 2 AT I-211's and 2 AT H-180's. All but one I motor burned.
	The launch and flight were perfect, but recovery did not go so well. Drouge deployed at apogee, and the rocket was coming down where it would fire its main at '500. At 500, nothing happened. 400, 300, 200, 100, ouch. Impact under drouge parachute only. Damage was substancial. The altimiter battery was knocked loose, so no data was obtained, but the altimiter itself survived. The nosecone was knocked back into the main chute compartment, which was pretty much destroyed. The booster section hit hard, and as can be seen in the picture, the airframe was pulled away from the centering rings. A fin was also knocked loose. Once again, the Big Ugly is under repair. This time, the entire airframe is being stripped, and will be replaced with a flexible phenolic one. I am considering making the fin/motor mount unit removeable.
	Well, I couldn't let the Big Ugly's problems get me down. I got right back out there with a AT 54mm K185 in my USR Sonic. 7 second burn, fun motor!
	This time I had the presence of mind to get the picture before launch.
	The K185 takes forever to come up to pressure. I have about 3 pictures of the rocket smoking on the pad. This is the 4th, finally up to thrust and leaving the pad.
	Still going! This motor burned so long I could still see it going in the binoculars after I couldnt hear it anymore.
	Recovery was good, max altitude was 8436 feet. Successful flight, my highest altitude flight so far.