The most notable, or at least most talked about and most spectacular flights were made by Steve Seger and Fred Gruis. Steve Seger loaded up his Monolith with four K1000 motors. There was a slight mishap at launch when two of the motors blew their forward closures. Can you say boom! The rocket was blown apart, while at least one of the remaining motors proceeded to continue on its way with out the help of the rocket. Burning AP rained down on the pad. Also some unburned slugs, which Steve safely disposed of. From what I hear, it was mighty impressive.

Fred Gruis had a notable flight as well. At least he didn't blow up. He flew a scratch built level three attempt named "Oh My" on an Ellis M1000. From the emails running around, he hit about 13K feet and proceeded too drift toward the river. Following the beacon, he found himself standing on the bank of the Mississippi. The rocket had landed on an island in the middle of the river. Actually it was 65 feet up in a tree on an island in the middle of the river. Nice aim Fred! But why were you shooting for the island? To sum up a long story, he did finally retrieve the rocket with the help of some club members, a boat and a bow and arrow. The rest of the story is up to Fred to relate.

There were some new names and I assume faces at the launch as well. Stefan Mundt put in a couple of flights, Carol Rutherford successfully certified level one with a Minnie Magg which took off a "little squirrelly" on an H123. The Kenningtons made a few flights, I don't recall hearing their names before. Kevin Souers and Steve McAtee were the long distance fliers.

Chris Gillham has graduated to higher power. He flew his Boomerang on a K185 for a good flight. He then brought out another scratch-built he calls Home Grown. He stepped up the total impulse a bit, but blasted off the pad on a K1100 for an excellent flight. Looks like the dual-stage deployment worked this time.

Jeff McCoy flew many rockets, the most notable being his scratch-built Twist on an F25. Jeff Brundt had assistance with many of his flights; Amanda was in attendance to help with preparation and recovery. James Hollister had a core sample. Unfortunately, there was no information on the flight card other than the motor, a D13. I guess he didn't really want the rocket after all.

Bill Souers had an Aerotech Cheetah that just didn't want to go. But it finally lit and took off on an F12. Steven Wheeler brought a 20-year-old rocket. He flew on a 20-year-old motor. Unfortunately it suffered a tangled chute. Steve Mizerany brought out his Changeling version 3A. He powered up four D12 motors for a good boost. However, I'm not sure whether the rocket was supposed to come back via tumble recovery. Need to check in with Steve on that one.

I see that Mike Hill brought out a Rocketflite Silver Streak motor. He put up a scratch-built called the PC-2 on an H220 (actually an H330). These are very pretty motors. A black powder full H motor that burns in just under one second. With lots of sparks, it looked great against the blue sky. Now, if they only still made them…