ARGONIA, Kansas USA — Day One of the Tripoli Rocketry Association's 18th national launch, Large and Dangerous Rocket Ships (LDRS) opened with a bang in remote Argonia, Kansas, fielding one of the largest opening day crowds in event history.

Here in the heartland of America, one gets the feeling of being close to the soul of Mother Earth.

Driving south down I-35 appeared like a trip down any other stretch of interstate highway, but pulling off onto Kansas state road 160, an unusual feeling became evident.

All along both sides of the road, wheat fields spread for as far as the eye could see while a loaded freight train carried the fruits of Midwest labor to some unknown destination.

A farm house here, a windmill there. It all told a story about a hard lifestyle only those who were raised in the area can relate to.

It was an eerie feeling connecting to the country in that way.

It's an interesting lifestyle, getting used to the high temperatures and equally high winds.

Fortunately for the event, a high pressure area stalled over the Southwest had brought milder than normal weather to the area with an abnormal absence of the high winds normally associated with Kansas launches.

In the picture to the left, taken at 8:00 AM with no wind, this tree, as most trees in the state, looks like it's standing up to a gale force wind.

It's just that years of steady gusts from the south have conditioned all the flora in the state to have that northerly lean to them.

But let's talk rockets, ok? One of the feature flights of the event has to be the 24" diameter, 30 foot tall Mercury Redstone, a team project of the most grand style.

Scheduled to be launched during Monday's experimental launch day, it will fly on an Advanced Rocket Motors P-13,000, a six inch diameter motor standing close to six feet tall.

The size of this rocket is just about too much to conceive, but the detail that went into it is probably the most amazing thing.

A museum-quality piece, the next destination after its launch will be in some lucky launch display somewhere in the country.

In the photo to the left, you can all of the details that were so carefully molded into the fins. And the capsule is just a work of art.

For example, take a gander at the payload assembly for this behemoth. Every event of this flight is being controlled by remote control. Three Missile Works WRC2 remote control units will control the 38 ejection charges on this rocket. That's right, 38!

These 900Mhz spread spectrum devices are the perfect blend of technology with functionality. They provide encoded signal transmission for reliable and safe event control.

The top two control the 4 events of the flight — fire the tower, eject the capsule nose, eject the capsule assembly and separate the booster.

The third unit is a redundant backup. The smaller unit at the bottom of the picture is a converted Missle Works RRC2, turned into a backup timer should any of the R/C units fail.

This is a prototype of a production 3 event timer due next from Jim Amos and the Missile Works crew. Hookup of all of this is as simply as plugging in your home stereo speakers, just without the fun!

Other exciting large scale rockets include the super huge V2 of Tripoli Oklahoma.

Slated for a 98mm M motor and four 54mm motors, this rocket is always a crowd favorite. Those guys from Oklahoma sure know how to build large rockets but that's not where the ingenuity stops!

As I was snapping the pictures of the V2, a voice wafted up from behind it, stating how cool this was. At first, I really thought there was someone inside the V2.

As it turned out, this person was in the structure located immediately behind the V2.

What you are looking at is a large construction scaffold surrounded by tarps and inside, someone was taking a shower using melted ice water from a cooler poured into the shower bags hanging from the railings!

Ray Halm brought out the Team Aries project and is hell bent to finish it right on site.

When I say "finish it" I literally mean finish it! They brought all the materials to complete the paint work on it before it takes its maiden flight, a spectacle that's sure to get the adrenaline pumping when the button is pushed on FOUR AeroTech M1939 98mm motors!

This has to be one of the most enthusiastic flights to be attempted yet!

The remaining four days of the event promise to be some of the most spectacular witnessed in the hobby of high power rocketry if they go like this first day.

Lines were non-existent and the flights were many. The setup arranged by the Kloudbusters appears to be working like a champ.

One of the exciting flights had to be John Ritz' Tetrahedron, a three sided pyramid loaded with an AeroTech M1419.

Anyone who was at LDRS15 or saw the video has vivid memories of a good idea gone bad, but John showed everyone that doing your homework can produce excellent results from unusual shapes.

The flight was arrow-straight with ejection right at apogee.

As the weekend progresses, the flyer count is expected to continue to climb.

This event may turn out to be the best attended LDRS yet.

And, combined with Monday's experimental launch, the amount of AP burned should be equally as impressive as some of the past desert launches.

It is only fitting that kudos go out to the Kloudbuster crew for all their hard work in putting this event together, because their hard work certainly shows.

Even with the 100+ degree temperatures all day, the event ran like clockwork.

If you aren't here, you'll wish you were.