TRF 2004 - April 24-25, Whitakers, North Carolina
Album 1 of 2

Whitakers, North Carolina.  A very busy weekend in a small farm community.  One where cows, farms, insects and rockets seem to be the norm.  At least on the weekend of April 24th.

This April 2-day launch in Whitakers has become a tradition with the folks from The Rocketry Forum (TRF).  Each year they invite all TRF members to attend and as many as can do.  This year I would guess that we had 12-15.  But we had even MORE going on this weekend.  This weekend was going to mark the maiden flight of Carl Tulanko's 38mm upscale of the popular FlisKits Tres (prounounced "Tray").  Carl's upscale is a multi-stage beast standing nearly 12 feet tall and using a triplet of canted 38mm motors in the booster and a 38mm in the sustainer (which is capable of holding a 54mm monster of a motor!).

In addition to this excitement, the Tour de Deuce is performing its North Carolina leg of its tour under the watchful eyes of Ken and Kent Parker.

We had a ball.  FlisKits was very well received and we enjoyed spending some time with the folks from TRF as well as the folks from TRA #40, #65 & #82, many of whom were in attendance.

Well, as will happen when you are having fun and you have a digital camera, lots of pictures were taken.  So many, in fact, that it became impractical to put them all into one album.  So we split it up.  The main sport fly album is provided here in two parts while the Tour de Deuce launch is provided in a separate album in the Tour de Deuce section.

So, grab a cup of coffee, sit back and relax.   You're going to be here for a bit.  All of the photo's are great, so I encourage you to look at them all.  If you see one without a caption, but know what it is, send me email and I will update these pages.

If you have any special photo's from this weekend that  you would like added to this album or the TdD album, send them to me in highest resolution possible along with a caption and who took the picture and I will get them added.

My trip report, such as it is, can really be found in the picture captions.  Needless to say, I was thrilled to be able to attend another TdD launch, I was thrilled to be able to see Carl Tulanko's upscale of the Deuce's Wild! kit (the '38-Special) fly again and stunned at the majestic beauty of the upscale of the FlisKits Tres that Carl did.  To see that bird fly was a sight to behold.   Look at the pictures then tell me you aren't itchin' to go to NARAM in August to see this beast fly in person!

Meeting up with the TRF folks again was just *wonderful*.  If you haven't checked out "The Rocketry Forum", go there and look it over.  You will not find a friendlier, more welcoming place for rocketry on the internet.  Bar none, this is where YOU want to be, this is where you want your KIDS to be, if you are learning, teaching, reading and doing rocketry.

It was also a pleasure to meet up with Carl and Bruce of SEMROC and to meet their lovely wives.  Knowing what goes into starting and running a rocket company, I have a great deal of respect for them, but all of that aside, they are simply *wonderful* people and very easy to get to know.

All in all, a wonderful weekend.  Check out the pictures, enjoy the weekend all over again or for the first time. 

jim