March Briner sends us his report on Southern Thunder last weekend in Manchester, TN:

“If you weren’t there, you missed a good one. Both days saw mostly sunny skies, temperatures in the upper 80s, and light morning winds blowing ever so slightly into the woods. Hard to say exactly how many flyers showed up; I got there early Saturday to claim a prime spot on the flight line close to the rangehead.

Saturday, I flew my first K motor: a K456 sparky in my 4″ IQSY Tomahawk. Very tricky getting the main chute to do that. Projected altitude I put on the flightcard was 5000. The on-board RRC2X beeped out 4994 feet. My one other flight on Saturday was my Black Brant 3 on an H97. Old motor, took a while to get going up and off the pad.

I also assisted Tom Binford in putting his Deuce 98 on the pad for its ill-fated flight on what was supposed to be two M1419s.  The lower section was totaled.

Sunday, I flew a scratch-built 1.6″ dual-deploy rocket on an H128. Never saw it after motor burnout until it was on the ground again. I also flew Halo Eight, a 3″ scratch-built dual-deploy rocket on an H178 sparky motor. Beautiful flight, though it was well below the altitude Open Rocket said.”