Fire In The Sky 2003

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Email Vern

The third annual "Fire in the Sky" (FITS) launch was held May 23-26, 2003 at Scott Binder's farm near Lowden Washington. It was run by Washington High Power. There were 352 flights, using 414 motors, including clusters and staged flights.

I had an absolutely wonderful time at this launch and everyone there seemed to feel the same way. The weather was great, there were lots of new people to meet, and lots of rockets launched. Unfortunately, I only took a few photographs at the launch. They can be seen below along with a few that other people have sent me.

This first photograph is a panorama shot of the launch area, camping area and surrounding land. Click on the photo to see a larger version of it and then scroll across it. You can just barely make out the hundreds of wind powered generators off in the distance on the left side of the photo. You will also be able to more clearly see the launch area and camping area in the center of the photograph. This was early Saturday morning on May 24.

Small rocket launched at Fire in the Sky 2003

Here's a view of the launch area looking from the camping and observation area.

A closer view of Scott Binder's "front yard" where everyone set up camp. This is only a small section of the overall yard area.

It sure was nice to have such a lush lawn and huge shade trees for both camping and for working under when getting rockets ready to fly. This was heaven compared to the usual desert locations where I am used to flying rockets.

My base of operations at FITS.

Photo by Rick Clapp

Connecting the upper and lower body sections of Wildfire.

Photo by Richie Boltizar

Vern with Wildfire at FITS 2003.

Wildfire is 9 feet tall, 5.5 inches in diameter and weighed 39 pounds on the pad with the L850 motor installed. Six pounds of that weight is a TV transmitter payload module that transmits live TV pictures back to the ground during flight. The TV image is also overlaid with GPS information showing altitude, speed and location. A small external mirror can be seen mounted just below the nosecone. This mirror allows the TV camera to look down the side of the rocket during lift off.

View more details about Wildfire.

The on-board video and the ground view video of this flight can be seen right here.

View all videos of this flight.

Photo by Rick Clapp

Installing the igniter.

Wildfire lifts off on an L850 white lightening motor. The boost was perfectly vertical and with virtually no roll. This was the third flight for Wildfire. The previous two were on M1315 motors.

Wildfire carries two RRC² Missile works altimeters for deployment of the parachutes at apogee. One altimeter reported apogee at 4325 feet above the ground. The other reported 4316 feet. This is very good matching between the two units!

Everything about this flight went absolutely perfect. It even landed only about 150 yards from the launch pad. Is this fun or what!

Photo by

Richie Boltizar

Photo by Rick Clapp

Close up shots of Wildfire in flight at FITS 2003 on the L850 motor.

Photo by Craig Christenson

The Wildfire airframe comes back down on a Rocketman R14 parachute. A nice long length of tubular nylon connects the two sections of the rocket. The parachute attaches directly to the U-bolt at the top of the motor section.

Photo by Richie Boltizar

The nose cone and TV transmitter payload module separates at apogee and comes down under its own Rocketman R12 parachute. (The TV transmitter antenna is inside the plastic nose cone.) A small (pink) parachute is also attached to help prevent the camera module from spinning.

Video from the transmitter on this flight can be seen right here!

View all videos of this flight.

"Mad Missile Mike" (Mike Watkins) served as LCO all day on Sunday. That's him under the canopy announcing the next rocket to be launched to the crowd while Roger Ressmeyer takes photographs. Roger is a professional photographer and his web site has photographs of the "real stuff" (NASA). C lick here to check it out.

I launched a total of four rockets at FITS 2003. My Wildfire, Vulcan, Scorpion and Nike Dart.

This shows my Vulcan launch on a K700 motor. Vulcan is about 8 feet tall, 5.5 inches in diameter and weighed 26 pounds at lift off. It also carries two RRC² Missile works altimeters for parachute deployment. One reported 3567 feet and the other reported 3467 feet.

View more details about Vulcan.

Scorpion lift off at FITS 2003 on a K550 motor.

Scorpion is a Dynacom kit that is an all fiberglass rocket. This version is about 6.5 feet long and 4 inches in diameter. It weighed 21.8 pounds at lift-off and according to one altimeter it reached 2889 feet. The other one reported 2881 feet.

View more details about Scorpion.

Pink flame? Yep!

This is my Nike Dart leaving the launch pad on an Aerotech J420 redline motor. The exhaust flame becomes a bright pinkish/red during the main part of the motor burn.

Nike Dart is a custom rocket that is about 4.5 feet long and 2.7 inches in diameter. It weighed 6.75 pounds at lift off and reached 4515 feet. It was a very nice flight that was straight up, and since there was no wind, it landed only about 300 yards away.

View more details about Nike Dart.

Our gracious host, Scott Binder, installs an igniter into his Honest John.

I would really like to thank Scott for hosting such a wonderful launch event. The atmosphere, the rockets, the organization, the fun, the band, the weather, the people, the food, the raffle, the vendors, .....everything was really great! What an outstanding launch!

Jane Fossen has her PML Cirrus Dart ready for flight on a Cesaroni Pro-38 motor. There were quite a large number of Cesaroni motors flown at FITS. It is becoming a very popular motor system in the Northwest.

Jane and Chris from Acme Rocketry helped support the event by selling Pro-38 motors and lots of other rocketry related items. Be sure to visit the Acme Rocketry web site and put in your order for motors today!

Rich and Richie Boltizar of "Team Boltizar" fame are also from Boise Idaho. These are pictures of three rockets they flew at FITS 2003. The first two rockets went out of sight on Pro-38 motors. Rich's home made radio finder came in real handy! They recovered all three safe and sound. Good flights guys!

The photo below is of Jim Wilkerson working hard to get his beautiful PML Bulldog ready to fly. The maiden flight was on a J800 and then Jim flew it again on a K700. His K700 launch is shown below. It was an awesome flight!!! Well done Jim!

Bulldog on a K700!

As usual Dave Bradley was also flying a lot of rockets at FITS.

Dave and Gabe Deupree carry "Tangerine Dream" to the launch pads. It also flew on a K700 and was a spectacular launch.

Of course Ursula was at FITS 2003 with her ALL HOBBIES store all set up on site and selling motors, kits and other rocket supplies. Ursula travels to a great many launches all across the Northwest. Without her support and dedication most of these launches would not have an on-site vendor.

Thank you Ursula!

Despite what the sign says, FITS 2003 was a safe and well organized and well run event.

There were only a few of the smaller rockets that were unlucky enough to land in a tree or on the power lines.

Bill Clugston explains some of the finer points of his successful Pro-38 powered flight.

Robert Nech passed his written test for Tripoli level-2 certification with flying colors. Good job Robert!

For lots more photos from FITS 2003, check out the Washington High Power web site.

View more FITS photos here!

View FITS launch report here!

And so FITS 2003 is now history. What a fun time it was! We are all looking forward to next year. We'll see you there!