The last of the special low-power events at Butner Beef Cattle Research Facility was held this weekend under almost ideal conditions. The sky was clear and the winds were almost non-existent. There were five flights in the A range, 5 B?s, 8 C?s, 12 D?s, 10 E?s, 4 F?s, and 5 G?s ? for 49 total flights. As always, staged projects and clusters were listed under total installed impulse.
The only new flyer this weekend was Scott Harper, who stayed busy all day, flying a B, one C, 2D?s, and 3E motors. All were great flights!
Issaiah Harrell was back with William and Tommy Harrell and they managed to almost wear Issaiah?s rocket Hobbes out.?? Hobbes was launched (or launches were attempted) on 2 C?s, 5 D?s and one E. One motor blew the forward bulkhead, another one blew out the nozzle, but none of the damage put the rocket out of commission. He just kept on flying it. A very successful day for young Issaiah.
Dan Fritsch was back with a car full of rockets and he flew them in rapid-fire fashion all day, and, again, I recall no disasters or lost rockets. Dan had 1 B flight, a C, 2 D?s, one E, 4 F?s (Dan flew all of the F?s in the motor list!), and 2 G?s for a total of 11 flights. Chuck Hall also had 2 G motor flights, completing perfect missions of his Astrobee D on a G71R and a G64W.?? Don Hill was on hand with his small fleet of beautifully finished ?vintage? rockets, and he spent a lot of time fighting old motors and old igniters.
The saddest event of the whole weekend was the loss of Dave Morey?s Tilus Boost Glider. This little glider has been around for more than 40 years, and I first saw it fly at Whitakers, at least 10 years ago. This weekend, Dave made 4 flights on A8-3 motors getting the trim adjusted correctly, and then put in a B6 for one more flight.?? The trim was so perfectly adjusted that the little balsa-wood craft did not want to come back down, and drifted off over the woods to the South without ever losing any apparent altitude. It just kept going and circling until, gradually, younger and sharper eyes than mine lost sight of it.
I hope to see some of you at Orangeburg for the Labor Day Weekend, and we will try to convene the Eastern NC high power festivities at Bayboro on the weekend of September 27.
Alan Whitmore
Prefect, Tripoli East NC
