In August of 1995, I attended LDRS 10, which stands for Large and Dangerous Rocket Ships, in the Black Rocket Desert of Nevada near Reno put on by the Tripoli Rocketry Association. At this annual launch, high power rocket enthusiasts from all over the world gather to launch some of the highest, biggest, and loudest amateur rockets ever produced.
I attended the launch with Mike Davis, a friend from the Tampa FL Tripoli prefecture. We made the journey out to Reno Nevada from Tampa Florida by air and then drove to Gerlach Nevada, the closest thing to a town near Black Rock. The lake bed is 80 miles by 100 miles and is perfectly flat. It is the perfect place for launching rockets, racing cars, and landing airplanes.
Some of the biggest events of LDRS 10 came from my home prefecture in Tampa. Down Right Ignorant, a 34' tall and 24"diameter creation by Chuck Sackett and company (I played a small part too) as well as some of my own large rockets were some of the biggest rockets out there. However, they won't take 34' long rockets or rocket motors on airplanes so Chuck offered to drive all of the Tampa Tripoli's rockets out to NV in his cargo trailer.
Below are some of the photos from the launch. There were literally thousands of launches. However, here are what I believed to be a few of the best. Click on any of the photos below for a larger version. Press your browser's back button to return.
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This is the Down Right Ignorant, hopefully going only one way. |
Here is DRI being erected via hand power and winch. | ||
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| This the the launch of DRI. Picture perfect with a perfect recovery too! | |||
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| This little rocket gave us quite a show. | Here is the before picture. | Here is the after picture. Notice the rails, 1" steel rods bent from a spectacular explosion. | |
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| Here is a great full scale patriot missile | Here is the patriot recovering. Unfortunately, about 1/2 a second after this picture was taken, the parachutes released the body of the rockets causing it to fall to it's destruction. | ||
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| Here is a picture of my Rockets that made the trek to Black Rock | Do you have Protection? High Power shock absorbers on one of my rockets. | ||
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| Here is a great Sunset in Gerlach | |||
For more recent LDRS 20 photos (July 2001) follow this link: http://www.rocstock.org/ldrs20/photomain.html
Here are some helpful rocket How to's: http://www.rocstock.org/wizards.html
