The second low-power launch for the summer of 2018 was held at the Butner Beef Cattle Research Facility last weekend, and the event was a complete success.? The primary purpose of these summer launches is to get children and their whole families involved in rocketry, and this Saturday certainly filled that order!? I?ll put in the usual motor use summary table, and then list some particulars that stuck in my mind.
| Size | No. |
| 1/2A | 1 |
| A | 12 |
| B | 28 |
| C | 11 |
| D | 2 |
| E | 2 |
| F | 3 |
| G | 2 |
| Total | 61 |
Very clearly a ?low-power? event, but that?s why we were there.? Boy Scout Troop 399, from the Creedmoor Road section of Raleigh, was on hand this weekend, and some of the people I will list here are members of that troop, but a lot of families showed up all morning long, and Dave Morey and I were busy all day with helping kids get rockets put together and loaded on the pads, so I don?t actually know who was with what group.
Kohen Smith was on some kind of mission this weekend, flying his rocket Dragonite a total of nine times on A and B motors.? His dad told me that they just flew every motor they had in the box!? Family members are in evidence:? Brenner, Conlan, and Dempsey Lewis were active all morning, as were Connor and Tucker Pernell.? Edison and Huxley Sava were very active in the A and B range all morning, as were Riley Barnes, Dominic Higgins, Ethan Braun, Colten and Caden Pendergrass, and Mark Shephard.?? Allen Harrell came with his Granddad Tommy and Aunt Natalie, and flew two rockets with C motors, a C to C staging attempt that suffered a booster CATO, and two very fine F motor flights.
Several adults were there with some very creative rockets and flights to the limits of what the field will hold.? Albert Oldenburg flew his Cirrus Dart on an F25 for a very nice flight and recovery.? Mark Hartmann has become a Butner regular, and this Saturday he flew his Barracuda on an E23, the Mustang on an E16, and his Screaming Mimi on an Estes D12.? All recovered intact.? Paul Short came with a few old veterans.? He flew his Hyperloc Mini on an A8, and a very old Estes Twizter on a B4.
Dan Fritsch filled out the bottom row of the motor use summary with a flight of his Highjacker on an Aerotech G64W, and finished up the day with a flight of his Madcow Sport-X on a G138T.?? Both flights used to Jolly Logic chute release device to good effect.
Eric Noguchi had three very entertaining low power flights this weekend.? The one with the smallest motor (1/2A)? was the Fliplock, a boosted glider with folded wings that unfolded at apogee.? Unfortunately, one of the wings came off under boost, and the glider came in hard.? The Slipstream is a very thin rocket with big fins that flew on an A8.? The mode of recovery is interesting:? when the motor burns out, the rocket glides backwards and lands horizontally.? Eric also brought his Vortex,? which uses helicopter recovery, and this one flew beautifully on a C6.
Join us again in Butner on August 25, for the last official summer launch, and then we return to the wide-open windy spaces of Bayboro on the weekend of September 22-23.
Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East
