The weather forecast leading up to Fire & Ice was not good: lots of snow, too much wind, and much too cold. The original date was rescheduled to February 22, 2025. Hosted by the Edmonton Rocketry Club, this was the first high-power launch in Alberta for 2025, and you could not have asked for a better day!
First, the bad news: I didn’t fly my Journey 98. It was ready to go, but unassembled. Got it inspected and signed off. Assembled it and the GPS immediately died! A very helpful rocketeer removed the batteries from his own GPS receiver and loaned them to me, but that didn’t solve the problem. The actual GPS transmitter, that rides in the rocket, was not “field accessible” for repairs. I could have launched the rocket anyway, testing my L4 altimeter bay electronics and dual deployment system, but I might have lost the rocket. Also, motors are expensive and in very limited supply these days. Better to save it for Hanna 2025!
Now, the good news: “Plan B” was to fire my Romulus 2-stage model rocket, just for fun. This was its second flight and all went well. The 1st stage motor was an Estes C6-0, and the 2nd stage motor was an Estes C6-5. It reached an altitude of about 880 ft, and landed not too far away on the frozen lake. Even so, the snow cover on the ice was knee-deep, so after a few steps I gave up and let the “rocket rescue” team fetch it for me! I’m not getting any younger, you know…