We held one of our low power launches at the Butner Beef Cattle Research Facility this weekend after dropping the May and June events from the calender because of a big NAR launch in Orangeburg, and LDRS in Potter, NY, in those months. The weather in Butner was perfect this Saturday: warm but not dangerously hot, relatively low humidity (for July), and extremely calm winds. Just a great day to be outdoors.
The Warner family was well-represented, Mason, Alden, and Jeff all made flights. A youngster named Mansour (sorry I did not catch the last name) showed up with an Estes Flash in pieces, and with a lot of help from Natalie Harrell and Dave Morey, we finally got the thing in flying condition, and Mansour had four flights on C6?s. Tommy Harrell made a couple of flights with his Twisted on G motors, and everything worked perfectly.
Ed and Sonya Withers were in the show and making big effort. Ed flew three different Der Red Max?s on motors ranging from an A3 to a G64W. Sonya flew her Starfire on a B6. Ed flew the most interesting new rocket of the weekend, an ?odd-roc? assembled from parts that usually end up in the recycle bins. The front half of the rocket was one of those aluminum soda bottles, and the back half was a paper cup from Starbucks or one of those national coffee franchises, and the motor was a C6-5. The parachute recovery worked great, but the stability left something to be desired. A soda bottle and a paper cup are not shapes that can be entered into the standard Barrowman stability calculations, so this was an informed guess, at best. This project is called Caffeine Power.
Don Carson has recently moved to the area from Maryland, and he made four flights with his rocket-boosted radio-controlled glider, a scratch-built design he calls the Decoy. The boost, the flying and the landing was perfect on all of the flights! Jimmy Blackley made 2 fine flights this weekend; one with his Arcas on a G38FJ motor, and the next one with his Big Daddy Clone on an F26R. Both were recovered in good flying shape.
Dan Fritsch showed up early and stayed late. My tally shows him making eight flights, on an A8, B6, four different C6 motors, an F39T and an F44. Dan was busy. Another flyer who was also very busy this weekend was Scott Harper. Scott started the day off with a pair of flights on his Firehawk on, first, a 1/4A4, and then a 1/2A3. The Firehawk was clearly underpowered with the 1/4A, but flew nicely on the 1/2A. I had never pushed the launch buttons on a 1/4A before, so this was a new experience for me. Scott had another flight with his Black Star Voyager on an E9, and then things got really interesting. Scott brought out a kit from Sunward, called the Eruption.?? This rocket has four small motor mount tubes canted towards the center of the rocket, which Scott loaded with four B6-4?s and attempted to light them all at once. The Eruption flew twice, and neither flight was what you would call ?stable?, because all of the motors did not light up on schedule.
We will be flying at the same location again in August, I hope to see you there.
Alan Whitmore, Prefect
Tripoli East NC
