Ian's pictures from Aeronaut 2003

These are the pictures from my trip to AeroPAC's Aeronaut 2003 launch at the Black Rock Desert.

I went there for the rocket launch. And while I did get there and help out with a volunteer shift as assistant LCO (launch control officer), much of the trip was affected by bad weather. I ended up leaving Saturday evening, though not unhappy about the trip - I learned a lot and had an adventure. But it wasn't what I expected - I didn't get to fly any of my own rockets, and didn't even get any pictures of anyone else's.

Interestingly, this trip occurred 5 years to the day since my first visit to Black Rock.

(1536x1024 1703K) (500x333 22K)	6:30AM Saturday... I've been waiting since midnight to enter the playa. Scattered showers turned to steady rain at 3:30AM. Now at 6:30AM the front has finally passed. My truck is tarped like a covered wagon. Behind it, the 12-mile entrance at the Black Rock Desert is all muddy.
(1536x1024 1904K) (500x333 25K)	6:30AM Saturday... The 12-mile entrance at Black Rock is too muddy to enter.
(1536x1024 2037K) (500x333 24K)	6:30AM Saturday... The 12-mile entrance at Black Rock is too muddy to enter.
(1536x1024 2033K) (500x333 23K)	6:30AM Saturday... The 12-mile entrance at Black Rock is too muddy to enter. Rain continues to fall at Elephant Peak (a.k.a. The Elephant Back) but it's pretty much just scattered showers now that the front has passed by.
(1536x1024 2059K) (500x333 21K)	6:30AM Saturday... The 12-mile entrance at Black Rock is too muddy to enter. The pools of water are in the ruts which should be the vehicle paths. Tracks show someone did successfully exit the playa recently. (I saw them but didn't take a picture.)
(1536x1024 1974K) (500x333 18K)	6:45AM Saturday... from the overlook on the bend in Hwy 34 between the 8-mile and 12-mile entrances, this is a view of the lower playa. It has a lot of standing water.
(1536x1024 2065K) (500x333 18K)	6:45AM Saturday... from the overlook on the bend in Hwy 34 between the 8-mile and 12-mile entrances, this is a view of the area north of the 12-mile entrance. It's wet. There's some stanting water. But the road is visible.
(1536x1024 2189K) (500x333 24K)	6:45AM Saturday... from the overlook on the bend in Hwy 34 between the 8-mile and 12-mile entrances, this is a view of Elephant Peak. Rain continues on the east side of the playa as scattered showers cover the area.
(1536x1024 2074K) (500x333 21K)	6:45AM Saturday... from the overlook on the bend in Hwy 34 between the 8-mile and 12-mile entrances, this is a view to the east. The standing water on the lower playa is large enough to be called a lake in its own right.
(1536x1024 2150K) (500x333 31K)	7AM Saturday.... I moved the tarp to a drivable configuration. At this point I was preparing to take a look around. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to the AeroPAC launch site in time for my 8-10AM shift as assistant LCO (launch control officer). But they're probably not launching during that time anyway.
(1536x1024 2063K) (500x333 35K)	7AM Saturday.... I moved the tarp to a drivable configuration.
(1536x1024 1970K) (500x333 26K)	8:30AM Saturday... This is on Soldier Meadows Rd west of the playa. I could see the AeroPAC launch site from places along the road here. But I also could see the west side of the playa was still very wet. There would be no access to AeroPAC from here...
(1536x1024 1882K) (500x333 25K)	10AM Saturday... Owen and I got in touch by radio and met at an overlook on Soldier Meadows Rd near the 12-mile entrance. Once we saw people who attempted to drive on the playa were making it to AeroPAC, we went too. In this picture, I'm following Owen who is following Karl, a well-known rocket motor vendor whom we're sure is familiar with driving in muddy conditions. Karl led us straight there and we learned a lot when he gave us some pointers for driving in these conditions. (Note: "don't try this at home", errr... well, don't try this unless you have a good picture of the playa conditions. This may work for 4WD vehicles hours after rain ends, but only if the lake's water table is well below the surface. If you have 2WD you may not be able to steer at all at high speeds. If you drive into worse conditions than we had, your vehicle might not be retrievable for months. All readers have been warned.)
(1536x1024 2009K) (500x333 30K)	The AeroPAC flight line is visible just ahead - we've made it. We crossed 9.25 miles of mud to get here. This was my first attempt at deliberately driving on mud at Black Rock. We kept our speed usually above 70mph to keep from sinking into the mud. My truck was throwing a lot of mud high into the air.
(1536x1024 2228K) (500x333 38K)	After arriving at AeroPAC, I took some pictures of the mud that accumulated on my vehicle.
(1536x1024 2107K) (500x333 38K)	After arriving at AeroPAC, I took some pictures of the mud that accumulated on my vehicle.
(1536x1024 2296K) (500x333 38K)	After arriving at AeroPAC, I took some pictures of the mud that accumulated on my vehicle.
(1536x1024 2066K) (500x333 33K)	Owen got a flat as he arrived at the launch site. I never heard if he found out what caused it. He had LCO duty from 10AM to noon so things had dried out a lot more than shown here before he replaced the tire with the spare.
(1536x1024 1841K) (500x333 23K)	Here's the normal AeroPAC launch site configuration. Multiple rows of launch pads are placed at 100, 200 and 500 feet from the flight line to accomodate safety rules requiring those distances for various sizes of motors.
(1536x1024 1958K) (500x333 28K)	John Coker volunteers as LCO from noon to 2PM Saturday. I'm assistant LCO and pad manager during the shift. In this picture John is reading info from a rocket's flight card over the PA before pressing the button to launch it.
(1536x1024 1985K) (500x333 27K)	The weather remained mostly cloudy all morning. Some spots of blue sky appeared in the early afternoon. As can be seen in this picture, most of the canopies have not had their tops put back on since they were taken off before yesterday's storm.
(1536x1024 2154K) (500x333 28K)	4PM Saturday, a squall line of thunderstorms with very heavy rain and frequent lightning approaches the flight line. My tent has nearly collapsed in the wind already, and is the only one that hasn't been taken down yet. (I was in Gerlach making sure Owen got back safely to get his spare tire repaired. We were having lunch in Gerlach when this monster storm hit, but we got ahead of it on the way to AeroPAC.) It was the lightning that led me to pack up and get off the playa.
(1536x1024 1680K) (500x333 13K)	We've packed my camp and now we're making the mad dash escape from the playa in the pouring rain. Owen is just a little ahead of me in this picture.
(1536x1024 1742K) (500x333 13K)	We've packed my camp and now we're making the mad dash escape from the playa in the pouring rain. This view out the windshield didn't work well because of the rain. But it shows we still have miles to go - the leftmost mountain ahead is just behind the 12-mile entrance, and still 6 miles away.
(1536x1024 1962K) (500x333 17K)	We've packed my camp and now we're making the mad dash escape from the playa in the pouring rain. In this picture, Elephant Peak has an interesting cloud formation on it.
(1536x1024 2518K) (500x333 49K)	We've made it off the playa successfully. We're now parked at the 8-mile entrance where I'm looking at the mud on my vehicle. This is just before I removed the tarp - at high speeds it kept inflating like a parachute.
(1536x1024 2348K) (500x333 40K)	We've made it off the playa successfully. We're now parked at the 8-mile entrance where Owen smiles while I take a picture of all the mud on his vehicle.
(1536x1024 2144K) (500x333 38K)	Another view of the mud on my vehicle.
(1536x1024 2298K) (500x333 38K)	One of the hazards of the mud at Black Rock is that it'll eventually fill your wheel wells. If that happens, you're going to slow down and bog down very soon. Fortunately, no such thing happenned to us today.
(1536x1024 2010K) (500x333 29K)	Another view of the mud while filling up the tank in Empire. Some newer darker mud has splashed on too - a flash flood had inundated Hwy 447 for hundreds of yards on the north side of Empire, covering the road with mud and debris.
(1536x1024 1943K) (500x333 20K)	Now the rains have turned the playa into a big lake... No, just kidding! This is Pyramid Lake, about an hour south of Black Rock, where I stopped for dinner on the way home. So much of my supplies had gotten wet or muddy that I decided not to brave another night at Black Rock on this trip.
(1536x1024 2028K) (500x333 23K)	Rain clouds continue to threaten the area at Pyramid Lake. Just before the wet weather ended 2 days later, a thunderstorm spawned a tornado on Monday afternoon in the direction this photo was taken, NNW from Pyramid Lake and into the Smoke Creek Desert.
(1536x1024 2343K) (500x333 39K)	Back in the Bay Area on Sunday afternoon... I like to leave the mud on my vehicle for a little while after a trip to show that I actually do use it off-road. :-) But this was too much - I washed it thoroughly just after this.
(1536x1024 2099K) (500x333 33K)	Back in the Bay Area on Sunday afternoon...
(1536x1024 1892K) (500x333 29K)	Back in the Bay Area on Sunday afternoon...
(1536x1024 2218K) (500x333 36K)	Back in the Bay Area on Sunday afternoon... One interesting thing in this picture is that it shows how high on the rear of the rack that mud got thrown.

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