From the editor: Another out-of-order report from Alan, written just recently, long after the actual launch. Note that we will accept submissions from other attendees. Alan’s rocketry work load will increase this year as he is now in charge of Tripoli motor certification. If anyone is interested, speak up.
Immediately after the November launch I flew to Cedar City, Utah for 4 days and came back to a major problem at work that required my attention.? For this reason, I could not sit down and write a launch report until the event was completely out of my mind, all I had were the launch cards.? Therefore, this report is going to be a little sketchy and short on the sort of details I can remember in the 2 or 3 days after a launch.? But I?ll give it a shot, starting with the motor use table.
| Size | Sat | Sun | Both |
| C | 5 | 5 | |
| D | |||
| E | 4 | 4 | |
| F | 2 | 2 | |
| G | 7 | 7 | |
| H | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| I | 7 | 7 | |
| J | 9 | 9 | |
| K | 3 | 3 | |
| L | |||
| M | 2 | 2 | |
| Total | 43 | 1 | 44 |
As you can see, this was almost exclusively a high-power launch.? What I can recall of the weather was that it was OK as far as temperature went, but it was windy.? Most people, myself included, brought more rockets than they were willing to fly.? One of the reasons may have been that there were still soybeans in some of the neighboring fields.? There were no A, B or D motors flown this weekend, but Allen Harrell, Ed and Sonya Withers, and Eddie Haith all had at least one Estes C6 to fly.
It has been a while since I awarded the Best Rocket Name award, and in November it went to Allen Harrell?s Wiggle Wump which flew at least twice on the Aerotech E15.? Charles Long also had an E motor flight with his X-15 boosted glider on the Aerotech E6-RC.? I recall that it was trimmed a tiny bit nose-heavy but landed safely.
A lot of our regulars were there.? Charlie Moss and Jeff Goldstein came down from Virginia Beach and Charlie flew several rockets on Aerotech F and G motors.? Jeff flew his Red Stick on the Cesaroni K160, a long-burn motor that I had never seen before.? Mike Collier was very active, flying 4 different rockets on motors in the E through H range.? As I mentioned in one of my earlier (=later, chronologically) reports, one of these was lost, lay in the corn for a month, and was recovered in December by someone looking for their own rocket.
Ralph Malone was there also, flying his Quicksilver on an AT H123W, and the Sudden Rush on 2 different AT I motors.? I think Ralph is from the Charlotte area, but that is one of the details that get lost after too much time.? Steve Polk and his wife, from Oriental, NC, were in a nasty car accident back in the late summer, and are only now getting back into flying some rockets.? They flew the 6722 on the Aerotech H250, and it was recovered safely.
Even more regulars showed up and flew some rockets:? Joe Hill, Mike Nay, Charles Long, and Eddie Haith were occupied all day long.? Joe collaborated with his father Dennis to fly Dennis?s 7.5? diameter Honest John on an AT M1297W.? Dennis assembled the motor and the rocket and Joe wired and programmed the altimeters, and the flight was perfect.
Most of the NCSU teams were on-site Saturday getting the year started right.? The HPR team brought out their subscale model called Quicky and flew it on an AT I435T.? Team 2 flew a rocket called Moon on a J350W, and the other team flew another device called Hall?s Hiros on the same motor.? One of those rockets has some serious recovery problem, but I can?t remember which at this point.
The homemade propellant group was represented only by Alan Whitmore, who flew his first red-flame propellant in a 6-grain 38mm I motor configuration in the venerable Astro-Mollusk 7 (not very red, needs some work), and Jim Livingston, who flew the Sea Hawk on a 54mm K500 and his new Stability Challenged on a 76mm M1500.? In fact, it wasn?t.
I think Sunday must have been extremely windy, or maybe the rain moved in or something happened, but there was only one flight card on Sunday:? Joe Hill flew his new Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan on the new Aerotech H550ST single-use motor.? Trivia question:? Apollo was a god in? the Greek pantheon and Vulcan was one of the Roman gods.? Who was the greek god of fire and the forge?? The first person who brings a rocket with that name to a future launch at Bayboro wins a mention in a future launch report.? Hint:? a character in the old western TV series ?Gunsmoke? had a shortened version of that name.
My apologies for the brevity and inaccuracies, but this report spent too much time on the back burner.
Alan Whitmore
Prefect, Tripoli East NC
