The 2014-2015 season at Bayboro got off to a great start this weekend. The turnout was excellent on both days, with a good balance of old friends and new flyers. The weather was just about perfect, with temperatures in the 70?s most of the time, mostly sunny, and calm winds. The only problem with the weather was the wind direction, which was pushing rockets over in the soybeans on both days. Here is the motor use summary, and then we?ll get down to cases.
|
Size |
Sat |
Sun |
Total |
|
B |
4 |
4 |
|
|
C |
7 |
7 |
|
|
D |
1 |
1 |
|
|
E |
3 |
1 |
4 |
|
F |
3 |
2 |
5 |
|
G |
8 |
2 |
10 |
|
H |
1 |
4 |
5 |
|
I |
3 |
3 |
6 |
|
J |
1 |
1 |
|
|
K |
3 |
1 |
4 |
|
L |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
M |
1 |
1 |
|
|
35 |
15 |
50 |
The most enjoyable aspect of running a launch is welcoming new flyers to the club. This weekend we had two new flyers and two ?almost new flyers?. In the first category are Eddie Gochenour, who joined us on Saturday and flew a variety of well-built kits in the C motor range. Then, on Sunday Kevin Hill brought his Mad Dog, a 4? diameter rocket, and flew it on a 3-grain 54mm homemade motor in the CTI case. The ?up? part of this flight was perfect, but the down part landed the rocket in the soybeans, where it remains as of this writing. The ?almost new? group includes Dan Fritsch, who flew with us this summer at Butner, but who had never vistited Bayboro before, and Fritz Sprecher, who had flown here several years ago and disappeared for a while. Both Dan and Fritz attended both Saturday and Sunday, and made a LOT of flights. Dan Fritsch continued the sort of non-stop flying he began at Butner, and had 6 flights in the E-G range on Saturday and 6 more on Sunday in the F-H range.
Three generations of Harrells were present on Saturday, and Issaiah, Natalie and Tommy all had successful flights. Tommy had his 2-stage Crazed Pink loaded with two H motors, but the second stage failed to light, resulting in perfect recovery of all pieces but disappointing altitude. Many thanks to Natalie for the chocolate chip cookies!
Lots of the old reliable flyers attended and put up a lot of successful flights: Joe Hill, Dave Morey, Jim Livingston, Steve Polk, and Eddie Haith all had fine flights. Eddie Haith gets the ?best rocket name? honors for this month with Chicken Disco, which he flew on an F22 or perhaps an F52.
Alan Whitmore and Larry Mayberry held a friendly competition to determine who could find Alan?s Stealth Blue first, after a flight that neither watched and nobody gave them any clues as to where it came down. Alan went after the ?lost? rocket with a Walston receiver, and Larry tracked it down with a GPS system that he designed and built and installed in the nose cone of Stealth Blue. The rocket only flew to 5900 feet and fell fairly close, so the radio won this round, but the GPS system has promise for being a much better system for rockets that come down a long way away, perhaps several miles away. Development will continue.
There was one spectacular failure on Saturday:? Dennis Hll?s flight of his Tiberius using an L motor made by Alan Whitmore. The motor CATO?d about 150 feet up with a prodigious bang, destroying the fin section. Luckily the electronics bay, the noze section and all the other parts were recovered intact, so we will probably see that rocket again, with a new set of fins.
Sunday was a little calmer that Saturday, the temperature was slightly higher, and mosquitoes just a little more aggressive. Andrew Billen showed up to make several flights that experienced a little trouble getting parachutes to come all the way out. As mentioned above, Fritz Sprecher and Dan Fritsch were back with more motors.
Jim Livingston brought back the recently rebuilt Carbon Hi and flew it on a homemade L motor for a perfect flight.
The big event for the day was carried off by the High Power Rocketry Club from NC State University. They pulled out a rocket left by the 2012-2013 club and flew it on a homemade M motor made by Alan Whitmore. The rocket fairly screamed off the pad, flew to 9,300 feet and was recovered completely undamaged even though the main parachute failed to open fully. Sometimes a large patch of soft mud is your best friend!
Remember that we have two launches at Bayboro in October, the historical Fall WELD on Oct 11-12 and the regular launch on Oct 25-26. Join us if you can.
Alan Whitmore
Prefect, Tripoli East NC
