Not all launches are successful...

when one fails to pay attention to the details of prepping a model rocket for flight! Despite this initial failure, it was another busy and fun day at the state line hurling projectiles into the sky.

Failure to properly retain the rocket engine in the motor mount allowed it to launch out the top of the rocket while sitting on the pad at ignition, displacing the nose cone and parachute and recovery wadding as it moved through the body tube. Oops.

No fires were started as the rocket engine departed the airframe leaving the rocket undamaged after the mishap on the pad. Exciting!

Second attempt: Nike Smoke Pro successfully lifting off the rail and piercing the La Sal Mountains in the distance.

Cherokee Pro heading up on a F engine.

Cherokee Mini seconds from touchdown after flying to 1,856 feet (566 meters) on a G engine.

Finally nearing completion...

with the road grade reestablished atop the new arch culvert on Castle Creek. Road paving and placement of rip-rap still remain as tasks to be completed before the main entrance to our community reopens to traffic.

It will be interesting to observe the backwater effects of the new structure and the rough, bouldery channel created by use of oversized rip-rap during future flood events. Upstream pooling of water, slower, less efficient passage of flood flow, increased deposition of fine sediments in the channel and increased bank erosion upstream are likely going to occur.

It didn't take long...

for this greedy varmint to enter the trap, having set it only 15 minutes earlier. The lure of the peanut butter was too great for the first deportee of 2026.

Rock squirrel (Otospermophilus variegatus).

UPDATE the following day! Two more volunteers for deportation.

Well behind schedule...

and over-engineered as well, the community is still patiently waiting for the new arch culvert over Castle Creek to be completed. The size of the rip-rap being used here is absolutely absurd for the size and energy and sediment load the stream possesses in this reach, even in flood.

Viewing pictographs under different wavelengths...

of light reveals hidden details not seen by the naked eye when observing rock art under the visible part of the spectrum. Here are three pairs of comparative images of several sections of the wonderful pictograph panel in Buckhorn Wash in the San Rafael Swell, a small portion of which is seen below.

The following pairs of images first show an unretouched raw image followed by an enhancement filter applied by DStretch software.

The software is available at DStretch.com.

The two day-long launch event...

this weekend at the state line was unfortunately cut short by high winds on the second day, but not before getting several high flyers off the pads early Saturday morning to a maximum apogee of 41,000 feet above ground level!

The high power launch pads and rails were set up shortly before sundown on Friday night. The FAA has granted the club a special waiver to fly to 50,000 feet this weekend where we are normally limited to flights no higher than 12,000 feet.

Ignition of the CTI L2375 rocket engine during an early morning launch.

The heavy metal pad collapses under the powerful thrust at liftoff! The CTI L2375 rocket motor produces 2,451 N-sec (551 lb-sec) of total impulse.

The new arch culvert...

being constructed on Castle Valley Drive is six weeks into the project, with formwork for the upstream and downstream wingwalls taking place today. The old culvert has been demolished and Castle Creek is in its new bed beneath the new corrugated steel structure, but considerable work still needs to be completed before the road reopens.