South Bay tracking team already had vacation time arranged and needed time away from the city. We decided to go anyway as a familiarization and recreational camping trip. The new name for this trip became StratoFox 1, even though the balloon-based stratospheric radio foxhunting practice we intended to do (and named it for) couldn't be arranged on such short notice.
StratoFox 1 trip
When I arrived at home, my Firestorm 54 rocket kit had arrived.
Another complication... my HPR certification rocket had to be done before leaving on the 16th for CSXT, even though it wouldn't fly until the 28th.
Civilian Space eXploration Team (CSXT) Space Shot 2002
8AM, Gary arrives with his moving truck.
I load up my luggage and off we went.
(I could only carry with me as much as I could bring back
on the airline flight.)
Our goal for the day (unsure if the truck would be up to the task)
was to reach Elko, NV.
Gary drove to Sacramento. (~10AM)
I drove to Lovelock, NV. (~2PM + lunch)
Gary drove to Elko, NV. (~5PM)
Our goal for the second day of driving was to get to Rawlins, WY.
We left at 7:30AM PDT.
Gary drove to Salt Lake City, UT. (~noon MDT + lunch)
I drove to Rawlins, WY. (~4PM MDT)
Gary drove to Laramie, WY. (~6PM MDT)
So we exceeded our goal for the day.
With the advantage of getting ahead of the previous day's goal, we'd
arrive in Denver earlier in the day than planned.
I drove to Ft Collins, CO.
Then Gary drove the rest of the way into Denver.
We arrived in Denver around 11AM. Gary's father had met with us and
helped unload the truck to storage.
The rest of the day was spent socializing with Gary's family in Denver
and friends of mine in Boulder.
I was there early and things went smoothly at security. (I wasn't sure what to expect since it was my first experience with airport security since 2001.) So I had extra time and did use it to study for the L2 exam.
The flight was on-time all the way to Reno. Taking off from Denver, I could see the Rockies had their first dusting of snow in the higher elevations, which had not been there on Wednesday's hike. Then we were above solid clouds all the way to Nevada. As the clouds started to break, I recognized Battle Mountain by the weather radar antennas on it that I had seen on the drive out. The clouds quickly cleared from there and I started looking for more landmarks. I saw the JP Aerospace DSS1 landing site almost below the plane as we approached Lovelock. I didn't have any aviation charts with me but I figured correctly that there must be a VOR navigational aid (radio station) at the Lovelock Airport since we flew just about over it. From there, we began the turn over Pyramid Lake to line up with the runway at Reno. It was odd flying over Pyramid Lake, because we'd be driving past it again within a few hours after I landed.
Owen picked me up at the airport as planned.
He told me everyone at the JP Aerospace shop had wished me luck with
my certification flights.
We got to Black Rock a little after dark,
where I set up camp at the
AeroPAC XPRS
flight line.
It seemed a bizzare contrast to go from a day of air travel to camping.
There was some unresolved concern that evening about finding anyone who
had brought a L2 exam with them.
My plans would not come together the next day unless we could find someone
who had the exam, since it's a prerequisite for the L2 flight.
The morning was spent prepping the rocket and studying.
I did my Level 1 flight just after 2PM with an H123 motor and recovered the
rocket intact, which met the requirements for the certification.
After that, it was a final check that I was ready for the L2 written exam, while I waited for the Tripoli Idaho guys to launch one of their own rockets. (Hey, they're volunteers. No problem accomodating their schedules - as far as I'm concerned, they were helping me since they were the only ones there who remembered to even bring an L2 exam. So I appreciated it.) I passed the L2 exam around 4PM.
From there, it was time to buy a motor and prep the rocket for the L2 flight.
I used a J350 motor.
The launch pads were pretty full and we were running out of time for the FAA
airspace waiver.
(We could only launch while airplanes were to be kept out of the airspace.)
But fortunately, the Launch Control Officer got to my L2 cert flight before
the waiver expired.
As he announced it on the loudspeaker, he mentioned to everyone that I had
done my L1 cert earlier in the afternoon, "Oh, and with the same rocket.
That's cool!."
Even as nervous/anxious as I was, that made me smile.
It flew straight and we heard the expected sonic "pop"
at the flight line as the rocket briefly went supersonic.
When the parachute deployed, the announcer told me, "Welcome to Level 2."
My rocket landed under parachute nearly a mile from the flight line.
The last day of the trip was going to present a few challenges.
At 8:30AM, the calm air suddenly changed to a strong wind. It kept getting
worse for hours throwing more and more dust into the air.
Owen had stayed at Bruno's in Gerlach and took 2 hours to get to the launch
site in the near-zero visibility.
Then we broke down my tent with some difficulty and put everything in his
vehicle before we left.
Owen was curious to see the Smoke Creek Desert route that we had taken
back from StratoFox.
Though we should have been able to get through much faster with his SUV
and no passenger cars following, a blown-out tire took away all our time
advantage. We changed the tire and were back on our way in 35 minutes.
(Not bad for two engineers and a vehicle that weighs 3 tons.)
We had lunch in Susanville.
I didn't know until that evening that my parents were passing through
Susanville at the same time and were also having lunch about
a block away from us.
Oh well...
Owen drove until Chico. He was feeling a bit tired so I drove his
vehicle the rest of the way to San Jose.
It was the first time I'd been driving in 5 days, since the moving truck.