Flat Pam Sighting

After her flight on Prairie Flyer's rocket, we all she was lost somewhere in Colorado but no...

Here she is in the wheel of a 747 in a Florida airport. She must have caught on as it was passing on her rocket flight. Funny, she lost her spacesuit and really flattened out to the point of looking like a sheet of paper.Once the plane landed, she made her way up from the wheel to the engine of the plane. Thank goodness the engine wasn't on. She would be shredded Pam.She made it from the engine to the ramp. Apparently she has designs to get into the plane. Our similarities ended at resemblance because I avoid going in a plane at all costs. Not so Flat Pam. She fancies herself as a pilot. What is she thinking. The altitude from the rocket ride must have effected her. Obviously that is impossible. She has only been on this earth for a couple of months. There is no way she could possibly have the require flight hours to get her pilot license.

Finally, someone convinced her to fly in the passenger area where she belongs and leave the flying to the professionals.

Flat Pam Has Her Own Adventure Courtesy of Prairie Flyer

After Flat Tony experience his rocket ride in Colorado, courtesy of Dale. His blog is at the following address http://prairieflounder.wordpress.com/. Since he was orchestrating the thrill ride, I will let him tell the story.

Well Pam, your ride into the sunny Sky's of Northern Colorado didn't go so well.

First problem I encountered was an issue with Capt Danger; he just didn't want to share his rocket or capsule. I even tried to appeal to his vanity and tell him that if Flat Pam the Stunt Woman didn't fly in the stunt monkey rocket she would go up in a larger more power full rocket, and test a altimeter! This appeal didn't work. He took his capsule and left to visit some relatives in Florida, I think he is secretly volunteering to work for the Obama campaign, but I won't hold it against him, he is a good monkey just a bit willful at times.

Anyway I happen to have an extra I 366 Cessoroni motor that would work just fine in my Yin/Yang rocket that I build for Mile High Mayhem. I also had an altimeter to test, so it was off to the prairie to test out the new configuration. I debated whether or not to put Pam inside the vehicle or taped to the outside. I created a suit for her with a helmet, and even a parachute for protection in case the tape didn't work (Flat Tony can attest to this) The reason she didn't ride inside is that there is no capsule, and she would have to ride with the ejection charges (Black powder) so friction from wind won out over exploding flaming death. She is after all made of paper.
Yin Yang is an excellent test bed for altimeters; it's fast, tough, and can easily handle any 38mm motor. So out to the pad we went, I had everything set up and ready to launch, the altimeter was armed, and Pam was securely taped to the side of the rocket. I went back to a safe distance and the launch control officer counted down from five. Whoosh, up she went into the sky, a very impressive launch. It was when the rocket disappeared from sight that it occurred to me that the paper and tape on the outside of the rocket probably won't be able to withstand the aerodynamic forces. I run computer simulations on all my rockets to ensure they are stable and safe to fly. This rocket, with the motor I installed, was simulated to exceed 400mph and achieve approximately a mile in altitude above ground level. Hope Pam packed her own parachute! The search for Yin/Yang while short was quite a walk. It was a long way away but visible due to the brightly colored parachute. When I came upon the rocket the altimeter showed a peak altitude of 5438'AGL which was right on with the simulation. Now the bad news, apparently Flat Pam didn't make it back to the ground with the rocket. The only thing still attached to the rocket was her glove. No, I checked, and there was not a hand inside. So the search was on, here is a photo of the recovery area. The search was eventually abandoned at dusk due to a lack of visibility and a lack of volunteers. Also due to a large and angry population of rattlesnakes that seem to be everywhere, people were just not willing to risk their lives in search of a paper figure with a missing glove. (Go figure)
I am sure flat Pam will be just fine, we will be back next week for an EX launch. I bet it was a wild ride, and I bet her parachute worked just fine, otherwise we would have found her close to the launch pad.
Way to go Pam no guts no glory!
-PF

Thanks for a fabulous trip! I am sure Flat Pam (wherever she is) is still grinning ear to ear (unless she's dead) from the thrill of going a mile in the air at 400mph. WOW! That is fast.

Bay Area Road Trip

Today I decided I was going to take a trip around the San Francisco and North Bay Coast. I haven't been around the North Bay coast for years and thought it might be fun to play tourist today. I started out the day (left the house at 6am) taking the dogs to Fort Funston. Boy was it foggy. The tide was low so we had lots of beach to walk on. I walked (dogs ran and ran) for a couple of hours. Once back to the car, I headed out to the north bay. The first stop was at the vista point over the Golden Gate Bridge. You wouldn't believe the difference. There was no fog once I was on the Marin side of the bridge. I was there for about 25 minutes, taking in the sights, taking a few pictures for myself, and taking pictures of the tourists with their cameras. It was really beautiful. There were a lot of people there. But there always are. The next destination was Muir Beach overlook. It is an area hundreds of feet above the coastline. It is beautiful on clear day but equally beautiful when the cloud bank is in. That's what we had today. It looks the same as when you are in an airplane above the clouds. Pretty cool really. There were some open areas where you could see the water. Quite stunning really. Next, I had lunch in Olema. It is a little town along the coast right before you get to Point Reyes National Shoreline. It's claim to fame is that is was at the epicenter of one of the earthquakes (I should know this but don't). I then headed up to Point Reyes. There is a lighthouse at the very tip of lands end. I was hoping to see the whales migrating. When I arrived there were so many folks there I couldn't find a place to park. Even though I didn't make it to the lighthouse, I was still able to overlook the shoreline. I am always amazed at how beautiful this area is. On my way out of the park, I stopped at South Beach (not the Miami one) and took a few more pictures. I really enjoyed the mini road trip. I forget how much there is to see around here.

Above is a little photoshow of some of the things I saw today.

Off to Kentucky Tomorrow

So I am off to Kentucky to celebrate my grandparent's 70th wedding anniversary. That's right, 70 years of marriage. That, to me, is amazing. Now I must tell you, I am terrified of flying. So afraid that I stay awake at night thinking about making a reservation. I have not gone to visit my grandparents as much as I would like because of this. But how do I not go visit them for such an event. My grandparents are two very special people. They were and still are very influential in my life. Truly, I don't know that I would be were I am today without their love and support. They have NO idea we are all going out to surprise them. I cannot wait to see the look on their faces. It will be cool! I plan on taking lots of pictures and some video of the weekend. There will be no entries for the next few days but be prepared for pictures and tales once I am back.