After a summer of drought related fire restrictions, and a flooded road in November, December's Agua Blanca launch squeaked in under 5000 ft clouds to see several dozen good flights in front of 20 attendees. While this can't be an exhaustive launch report, it shares some perspective on some of Saturday's flying.
Wind built throughout the morning to around 10 - 12 mph, but as the wind came up, the clouds lifted and thinned, allowing for some higher flights, including Brandon's L2 certification flight and a James' GoPro 360 camera rocket flight to 4,900 ft on a Cesaroni K454 Skidmark motor. The 360 degree footage produced this still shot near apogee, though the interactive video turned out to have issues; a future flight should yield better results for a fully immersive view at higher altitudes under clearer skies.
The Agua Blanca Launch Site is just below and right of the rocket body, which appears distorted due to the lens positions on the camera. The hill north of the launch site, known on the map as The Hill of Repression, is the dark cone just above and left of the rocket body. It's best to avoid the mesquite bosques you can see as the dense green areas in washes. Recovery is difficult there. Mack had a close call in that regard, recovering just on the edge of a thicket:
Above: Mack's Initiator landed at the edge of a thicket half a mile from the launch site.
The day was not without excitement, with Taylor challenging James' claim to the dubious "Closest to the Summit" crown. Back in April 2025, James landed his GoPro 360 camera rocket 803 ft from the summit of the hill north of the launch site. That mark beat out the 2023 contenders from CU boulder at 1014 ft, and Taylor's mark made a good showing at 870 ft, but later in the day, James flew his 4 inch Squat on a Cesaroni J335 Red Lightning motor to 3,995 ft, reaching Mach 0.85 along the way. That flight landed higher up the mountain, 510 ft from the summit. To be clear, you don't really want to recover up on the hill; it's very rocky and has dense brush in places. So it's a tongue-in-cheek award. But if you happen to land high up on the hill, make sure to note your landing coordinates, to see if you can stake your claim!
Above: The Summit of the Hill of Repression, with the locations of 4 contenders for the dubious Closest to the Summit award.
Above: James' 4 inch diameter 30 inch tall red and white Squat rocket launching on a bright red exhaust from its 38mm Cesaroni J335 Red Lightning motor.
Above: James' 4 inch diameter 30 inch tall Squat rocket landed safely on the brushy and rocky terrain part way up the nearby Hill of Repression overlooking the flats that constitute most of the launch range. Rather unexpected, this stubby and not particularly aerodynamic rocket reached Mach 0.85 on the way up to its 3,995 ft apogee on a J335 motor.
SARA's next Agua Blanca launch is scheduled for January 24, 2026 from 9 am - 3 pm. Registration and event information is available on SARA's website.
