After a 1 year hiatus the video bay flies once more.  First let me explain the name change, my trusty Eclipse has had a rough start this season (2004).  It's first flight was at METRA's EX launch on a freshly made J600 made during Jeff Taylor's motor making class.  An absolutely beautiful leap off the pad with Jeff's "Ironman" formula, followed by a picture perfect dual deploy with the main coming out at 400 feet.  It was drifting right back to my truck, then as I opened my big mouth to say it looks like a short walk the rocket made a sudden 90 degree turn and accelerated (horizontally) for a perfect splash down in the river.  Thanks to quick work with the linesman pole (Thanks Chris!) it was plucked out quickly.  Since it floated so well (someone else's Eclipse landed in the same spot and sank 20 minutes earlier) I renamed it the S.S. Eclipse.  The following launch was at CTRA's new Hurley field where I descended some 70 feet less than ascended (read, hung it in a tree).  Thanks to the good folks at Dave's Tree Service it came home a few days later.  It was a great flight on a Aerotech J570 for those with inquiring minds.  It later redeemed itself with two perfect flights (Aerotech J350 and a Pro38 J330), so since it seemed to have relearned how to land properly I decided it was time to dust off the video bay.

PinePlains 5-16-04

Loaded up the SS Eclipse with an Animal Motor Works J400 Red Rhino, beefed up the ejection charge to avoid a repeat of last years core sample, added an extra chute, and the ugly yellow beast was ready for another flight.  Here is just a quick edit of the footage, in the near future I'll clean it up and include some stills.  I can't spot it in the video, but a hawk that was circling nearby went into major evasive action when the SS Eclipse went roaring past.

  [in WMV format] 

  [in WMV format] most of the video drop outs are now edited out