Launch Report, Bayboro, April 22, 2017

This weekend marked the end of the flying season at Bayboro, when the land becomes a working farm again, and we shift our operations to the Butner Beef Cattle Research Facility for the summer.? Because it was the last high-power launch until September, I was expecting a big crowd, and that is exactly what we got.? Motor use summary:

As usual, this is a tally of total number of flights; clusters and staged projects are listed as total installed impulse.? For example, Joe Hill brought out a new project, called FrankenRocket which had a central I161W and in the side-pods, 2 G53FJ motors lit ?old-school?, with flash bulbs and thermalite.? The plan was to light the I161 on the pad, and then after the thermalite burned up into the G?s, they would light in the air.? It actually occurred the other way around.? The total installed impulse on this combination is 510.3 N.s, so it is listed among the I?s.

I will attempt to mention every flyer and each flight, alphabetically by name or academic affiliation.? Brent Bierstedt flew his Intimidator 5 on a sparky L1040.? This month we had a complete field of bare earth, so the flight was made without drama.? Cade Brinkley flew his small diameter, still unnamed rocket on a CTI I800 Vmax motor, and it simply disappeared off of the pad in a flash of light and sound.? Mike Collier had 3 successful flights in the low-power range. Stratus 1 flew on a pair of C6?s, the Thunderstrike on a D12, and then Grave Danger on an F24.

Jeff Goldstein had a great flight of his Swamp Thang on a K900 made from his version of the ?Stinger? recipe.? Kurt Hesse also brought a homemade motor to fly in the Shiny Diner.? The 38mm I300 made with the CP4 formula worked extremely well.? In addition to the flight of FrankenRocket described above, Joe Hill also flew his Primus Frenzy on an Aerotech J570W which tore the case open at the forward bulkhead, messing up the back end of the rocket.

Thomas Keith was fairly busy with 3 flights on Saturday (because of the unusually high winds, every flight involved a long walk to recover the rockets).? Thomas flew his Formula 38 on a F31, his Optima kit on an H163 [to about 1900 feet], and his Tomach on an H123R to about 1546 feet.? Thomas must have socked away a good cache of Cesaroni motors, because that is basically all he flies, and he?s still got a pile of them.? Robbie Kirk had 2 flights:? The Tan Sam on F15 power with the Jolly Logic cute release device on board, and his Red Checkers on a G7.

C.J. Lucas had two successful flights; his Nike Smoke flew on a Loki I405, and his Eagle Claw 4 made a fine flight on a K850 Everclear motor that he made in my basement, both the casing, nozzle and forward bulkhead, but also the propellant. The records show 2 flights by Charlie Moss.? His Sahara flew on the F44, and his Leviathan flew on a G88.? Both successful, as I recall.? Anybody who could fly and recover?four rockets in that kind of wind must have been working their butt off, they were certainly getting their exercise.? Mike Nay was the only flyer to accomplish that on Saturday.? Mike made the F15 to F15 combination work in a 2-stage flight with his Ascender, tried a G80 single-use in his Sahara, and also took advantage of the bare dirt to fly a I280 Metalstorm in his Torrent.? Mike also brought out a fascinating motor that I had never seen before, the Aerotech I49N end burner which uses the amazing Warp-9 propellant and has a listed 7.7 second burn time.? The Torrent just crept off the pad and assumed a 45 degree flight path and then just burned until it was long out of site.

We have two NCSU Senior Design teams who have been working with us this year, and this weekend was ?final exams? time for both teams. ?This years mission was a ?cube-sat? project: 3 cubes about 6? on a side that contained various engineering projects.? They were designed to deploy separately at apogee.? This year the motor of choice was an Aerotech L1390G.? Team 2 brought a rocket called 200 Proof and Team 3?s rocket was called Hall?s Hiros.? One of the payloads got tangled with the main package shock cord and the other one fell free, but in both cases all parts were recovered undamaged, for a very good result.

Tyler Perkins was one of the group of flyers from Southeast Virginia who have coming to Bayboro lately, after the loss of their field in Fentress.? Tyler had 2 good flights ? the rocket called Allison flew on a G180 (which I cannot find listed among the certified motors, so I am probably not reading the letters right) and then aced the Tripoli L1 flight with an H195T in The Flash.? It certainly did.? Randy Regan is another SEVRA flyer who comes to East NC to fly and this month he was working with a GPS unit in his Pit Bull which flew on an H268R motor.? Allan Rose had a fine flight with his Minie-Mag on an AT H123W.? A pair of Ryans were on hand flying some small motors.? Makaylu flew her Alpha on a C6, and Steve made a flight of his Honest John with a D12.? Long walks for both, which may have shortened their day at the field a little.

Jim Scarpine was on-site this weekend and flew a rocket called OCF (Our Childrens Future) on a homemade N2961.? A shock cord snapped and a fin got broken, but all the parts came home and it is definitely fixable.? Fred Schaffer is another guy with a stash of CTI motors.? Fred flew his Punisher 3? on a 38mm J381, and then flew his Rogue with a 54mm K635.? Tanner Stroup passed the NAR L2 written exam and then flew his Fast Mess on a CTI K740, which uses the C-star propellant formula.? Everything was present and undamaged when he brought it back!

The last flight of the day, and the last alphabetically, was a project from group of engineering students from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, who are working towards participation in this years IREC competition in New Mexico.? This was a 10 foot long, 6? diameter, 53 lb unpainted rocket that flew on an Aerotech M1850W.? Even though the flight card lists the recovery electronics as ?triple redundancy?, the rocket did not deploy a parachute and is probably in the woods near 306, south of Paul Farm Road.? One of our neighbors may bring us a report of that one, or you might see it if you are walking through the woods for some reason.

I?ll see some of you in Butner, and we will gather at Bayboro again in September.

Alan Whitmore

Prefect, Tripoli East NC

Postscript from May 6, 2017 ? Heartfelt thanks to Tommy Harrell, who helped me repair the club trailer, clean the launch rods and rails, and load up the equipment that needs fixing, during a session in Lionel?s back yard today.