This will be an easy report to write, because only 5 rockets were flown all weekend. Those of you who stayed home, know why you stayed home, and you probably made the right choice! It was cold and raw.
Saturday was apparently NC State University Aeronautical Engineering Program day. The two flights that took place Saturday morning were both subscale model qualifying flights.
NCSU Aeronautical High Power Rocketry Club (HPRC) “Team 1 Subscale”
High Power Rocketry Club (HPRC) team 1 flew their Team 1 Subscale to get practice with 2-stage recovery, and the whole process went flawlessly, with the rocket recovered completely unmarked.?? HPRC Team 2 was also working on 2-stage recovery, and they flew their rocket, called Regihold or Reginald or something like that (you have to take your gloves off to do any sort of delicate rocket-prep work, and everybody?s fingers were so stiff and cold that good handwriting was just impossible. I can barely read my own flight cards this weekend!). Their recovery process fell just short of perfect, with the main parachute hanging up in the tube after the charge fired at the correct altitude. Fortunately, the drogue ?chute was so big that the rocket landed softy. Team 2 used the Aerotech I121R motor for their flight, and the flame color was vivid against the cloudy skies.
About 1:30pm, the drizzle turned to rain and we packed up and retired to the motel for the evening.
The temperature was right at 32?F when we arrived at the field on Sunday morning, but the rain had stopped and the winds were calm. Jim Livingston started the flying off with a flight of his I-Roc on a 38mm I400 made from the experimental propellant called ?Jim Scarpine Tribute Blue #4b?. Flight and recovery were perfect.
Alan Whitmore’s Iris rocket
Alan Whitmore followed this with a flight of Extended Iris on a 29mm H motor assembled from propellant grains and no motor liner. There were some casting liners that were spit during the flight, but everything worked perfectly. Thanks to Mark Lloyd for the tip.
Ray Bryant then flew his Newbie on a H100 black smoke formula for another great flight, and this was followed up by a flight of Alan Whitmore?s Generic Four Inch on a 4-grain 54mm K motor made with the latest version of the ?Jim Scarpine Tribute Blue #5?. The JSTB series has been an effort to clone the popular Aerotech Blue Thunder propellant, and the similarity is now very good.
Alan Whitmore’s Generic Four-Inch rocket
By this time we had had all of the damp cold we could take for one weekend, and we packed up and came home.
Alan Whitmore
Prefect, Tripoli East NC
