NC Rocketry

The weather for this launch was not promising looking and very few folks showed up.  Saturday had four launches and Sunday subsequently got cancelled.

Summary of the motors flown:

Motor	Saturday	Sunday
A
B
C
D
E
F	2
G
H
I
J	1
K	1
L
M
Total	4

Shriyans Dwivedi had two flights of Mercury on F51 motors for TARC data.  These drifted a long way in the winds we were having.  Mike Nay flew Pink Lady on a J430 and Mike McKeon flew Ugly on a K100.  That was it for the weekend. 

Looking back, I noticed I never did a report for the middle of November launch.  So, belatedly, here it is.

Motor summary:

Motor	Saturday	Sunday
A		1
B		3
C		4
D		6
E		2
F	1	3
G
H	5	1
I	3	1
J	8	1
K		1
L	1	3
M		1
N	1
Total	19	27

On Saturday the 16^th, there were a lot of certifications.  Nate Orlowski flew Tempest on a J800 for his L2.   Ethan Sites flew MCRN Cydonia on a J270 for his L2.  James Garmon flew Cosmic Rider on a J305 for a successful L2. Jake Miskow flew Pit Bull for a successful NAR L1.  Emily Cates flew Bue Jay on a I175 for her L1.  Ben Radspinner flew The 4^th Journal on an I175 for a successful L1.  Gabriela Santiago flew Kerbal Space Program on an I80 for an L1.  Congratulations to all.

A couple of college teams were out with NC State High Power Rocketry Club flying Genesis twice on a J500’s for successful flights.  Sage Cooley with the Duke team (Mike Nay as responsible flyer) flew Pitchfork on a 4 grain 115mm N motor, made by Alan Whitmore.  That flight went up well, but the down part was a little “exciting”.  We want to avoid those…

Mark Hartmann flew Frenzy on a L1080. Sailor Koeplinger flew Quicksilver on a I229 and Mark Peot flew Cheerwine on a J415.  Matt Willis had a couple of flights with Where’s Waldo on a J800 and Punisher 3 on a J420.  Shriyans Dwivedi (w/Dave Morey) flew Iris V2 twice, both times on an H130.  Mike Nay flew Tree Hugger on a H550.  That rocket has an interesting back story – ask Mike.  Finally, Dave Morey flew Sinister 24 on a G107 with a pair of F51’s and then a pair of D12’s air started in succession.  He also flew Two Stage Crayon on a F51 staging to a D12.

On Sunday the 17^th, Chad Holm came for a visit and certified L3 with Go Devil on a M1297.  David Stack got his L1 certification with his Hyperloc 300 on an I377.  Congratulations.

Robbie Kirk was a little busy with Olympus on an E18, 2.0 R2 on an experimental motor in BV3 formula estimated to be an F25, Cherokee E on a D16, Blue Thunder on a D13 and Astra on a C6.    John and Connie Tolppi were quite busy as well.  Connie flew Shuttle Express on a C6, Guardian on a B6, Sky Writer on a B6, Predator twice on an A8 and a C6 and Baby Bertha on a C6.  John flew Delta Flyer on a B6, D-Region Tomahawk on a D12,  on a D12, and Super Sprite twice, both times on a D12.  Mike McKeon flew Stan on an I405 and Bob on a J1799.

Jim Livingston flew Sea Hawk on a L850 experimental motor in white smoke formula.  David Cox flew Black Brandt VB on a H128, Copper Top on an F12 and D Tomahawk on an I161.  Richard Powers flew Stargazer on a F15, Falcon Heavy on an E12 (which did some interesting, low level skywriting) and Vapor on an E12.  Mike Nay flew his Double Shot on a K1100 staging to a J140.  Nick Pyrtle flew Fever Pitch on a L1256 and Kurt Hesse flew Performer 98 on a two grain 75mm motor in BV5 made by Alan Whitmore.  There are still quite a number of motors remaining that Alan made that will be making an appearance at the field.

Regards,

Kurt Hesse

Prefect

We had very good weather for this launch, but attendance was down again.  The winds were about normal for us but primarily out of the Northeast so that really put a damper on anything high.

Summary of the motors flown:

Motor	Saturday	Sunday
A	2
B	3	2
C	5	1
D	2
E	4
F	1
G		1
H	4
I	2
J	3
K	1
L	1
M
Total	28	4

There were some certifications this weekend.  On Saturday, Todd Bowman flew his Competitor 3 on a J425 for a Tripoli level 2 certification.  Cory Campbell flew Night Fury on a H100 for a Tripoli level 1.  Paxton Lammey, after a time away, completed the level 2 exam to re-instate his Tripoli level 2 certification.  Congratulations all of you.

For Saturday, we had one flyer who was extraordinarily busy.  Wes Shipley flew Alpha on a A8 and again on a B4, Bid Daddy on a D12 and twice more on E12’s, Amazon on a C6, Baby Bertha on a C6, Crossfire on a C6, Viking on a B6, Hi Jinks on a A8, Code Red on a B4, and Rascal on a A8.  That’s a lot of flights, some of which were a decent recovery hike for low power.  Richard Powers flew Patriot on a C5, Big Bertha on a C5, and 3 Inch School Rocket twice on E35’s.  Dave Morey flew Two Stage Crayon on a F63 in the booster to a D12 sustainer,  Stretched Mega Der Red Max on a I211, and Sinister 24 #2 on a G150 with two pairs of D12’s air started in succession, all of which worked perfectly.

Morgan Willis flew The Dream Machine on a J540.  Matt Willis flew Punisher III on a J315 that unfortunately started blowing gas out of the forward closure on the way up, popping off the nose cone and doing a little sky writing.  I am not sure, but I think the rocket escaped without major damage from the motor failure.  Cory Campbell flew Night Fury again after his certification on a H550. Paxton Lammey flew 4” Ugly Phoenix on a H220, Transonic II on a I180 and Estes Phoenix on a D22.  Jim Livingston flew Seahawk on a K560 research motor made from white smoke and Carbon High on a L1200 made from JSTB II 4b that didn’t quite go as expected.  Liftoff was good but somewhere between about 100 and 200 feet up, the motor casing let go.  Examination of the casing revealed that it apparently had a seam in it as it was split from one end to the other along a straight line with a nice shiny stripe down what looked like a step midway through the tubing wall.  It certainly looked like a defect in the extrusion.  The bottom of the rocket was a total loss and needs rebuilt.

Sunday was a very low activity day.  Dennis Hill flew WAC Corporal on a B6 and Big Dawg on a B6.  Samuel Kirk flew Shark on a G64 and with his father Robbie, Blue Star on a C6

Hope to see you all at the next launch.

Regards,

Kurt Hesse

Prefect

We had very good weather for this launch, but attendance was down a bit.  Saturday was a little breezy, but not bad, but Sunday was fabulous.

Summary of the motors flown:

Motor	Saturday	Sunday
A
B
C
D	1	1
E	4
F
G	3	1
H	1	4
I	1	2
J	3	4
K	1	1
L	1	1
M	2
Total	17	14

There were some certifications this weekend.  On Saturday, Nick Pyrtle flew Aurora on a M1340 for a successful Tripoli level 3, and a fair amount of good natured heckling from the regulars.  Josh Elkerson flew PK-56 Hi-Tech on a H219 for a successful Tripoli Level 1.   On Sunday, Thomas Owens flew his Madcow Torrent on a J270 for a successful Tripoli Level 2.  There were some NARJjunior Level 1 certifications as well with Erin Bienstock flying Green Bean on a H130, Spencer Thomas with his Jack on a H165 and Michael Chen flying Space Z on a H130.  Congratulations to all of you for your accomplishments.

Other Saturday flights included Robbie Kirk flying 2.0 R2 on an experimental motor, his first (and I’ll leave that there), a G30 made with BV-3 propellant.  Brent Bierstedt had three nice flights, Nike Smoke on an I366, Black Brant on a M1297 and V2 on a J712.  Richard Powers was out again and flew Show Stopper on a D16, Top Shot on a E12 and 3 Inch School Rocket on a E35.  Conner Beaufait (I think – pretty hard to make out) flew his Mean Machine twice, both times on E16’s for nice flights of that long, tall, skinny rocket. 

Jim Livingston was flying his usual experimental motors with Seahawk on a K560 white smoke formula, and as a tribute to Alan Whitmore, a rocket named Alan on a 54mm J motor that was made by Alan Whitmore with the BV-5 formula.  We will be seeing the occasional flight of motors made by Alan as we work through the “rather large” stock of motors he had on hand.  Dave Morey flew  his Two Stage Crayon on a F63 to a D12, Big Daddy on a  F79, and tried Sinister 29 #3 H250 with four air start F15’s.  That one didn’t exactly go as planned as the H250 was cantankerous and just did a slow burn on the pad, blowtorching the blast plate.  It’s probably a good thing though as afterwards, he tried ground testing the F15’s and all four of them did their best impression of a single shot roman candle – might have been worse for the rocket than what did happen.  Old Estes black powder motors – gotta love them.  (Dave here- I think the H250G road flare toasted the nozzles/grains of the F15s and caused them to fail when ground tested.) Mike Nay flew Double Shot on a K1200 to a K260.  That one did OK until that long burn K260 lit with a significant horizontal component to the trajectory, resulting in a long trek but successful recovery.  Finally, Todd Bowman flew Cumulus on a J316.  This is not meant to reflect badly on Todd, but this was a light rocket on a day with a little wind, flying on a J motor with motor ejection only at apogee and no tracker on board.  That rocket came down a fair distance away and was not recovered.  It was observed to be under chute during descent so that part worked.  The lesson here is that high flights with a main deployed at apogee can be difficult to get back – especially with no tracker.  I would strongly encourage anyone attempting such a flight to use a tracker – either one of the GPS units or a RF beacon type that we can use the club receiver with.  Personally, I don’t fly anything without one, regardless of how high I expect it to go.  That is a big field and rockets mysteriously seem to just disappear into it.

On Sunday, Mike Nay flew Blue Iguana on a J380.  Kurt Hesse flew Butt Ugly, a rocket that has seen better days but still works, on a four grain 38mm  experimental motor made from Everclear.  Nick Pyrtle flew Cloud Maiden on a K400.  Robbie Kirk was back out with his son Samuel and they flew Camo Monster on a D16.  Robbie also flew Red & White on a G64.  Jeff Register flew Miffed Cow on a J460.  Jim Livingston flew Carbon High on an experimental L1200.  The NC School od Science and Math flew Cardinal on a J500.  Josh Elbertson flew Dumpster Juice on a H219 and Gabe V (something, sorry the flight card is illegible here) flew Splater Bug on a I140.

All in all, a good weekend and I am looking forward to the next launch.

Regards,

Kurt Hesse

Prefect