First Flights of Bullet and Rainbow Machine

We finally flew my Bullet and Isaac's Rainbow Machine. I've had the Bullet for about a year but just now finally got the first flight off. The Bullet has an avionics bay and payload bay, but I flew it with just the booster to keep my certification attempt simple. We took a rough landing causing some damage to one of the fins; since the damage requires repairs before another flight can be made I failed to certify on the flight.

The launch site is pretty remote. This herd of creatures was crossing the road a few miles from the launch site. We think that they are antelope, but that just seems weird.


Our first launch of the day turned into a drag-race: Isaac's Rainbow Machine against someone else's Mean Machine (the actual name of the Estes kit). I was pretty worried that the Rainbow Machine wouldn't fly straight because it is an extremely long and skinny rocket. It took our motor a second to come up to pressure so the opponent left us in the dust, but we ended up going quite a bit higher. The Rainbow Machine ended up flying straight so it was a great flight.


Finally hooking up the Bullet for first flight.


Ignition and then the Bullet leaps from the launch pad.

We had a good time on our walks to retrieve the rockets. Isaac liked looking at the various plants, rocks, and soil and would get excited about every single cactus (of which we saw probably 40) so we really had a great day. Spencer, Samuel, and Asher spent most of the day in the truck but they came out occasionally to watch a rocket or fly a kite.


We decided to take one last picture while unpacking the truck. We don't look so happy but it really was a good time :)