Launch Report, Bayboro, September 26-27, 2020

I had no idea how many people might show up for this weekend?s launch.?? I knew that there was a lot of pent-up desire to fly, because it has been many months since most people have been able to fly anything.? But I also knew that people are rightfully concerned about the SARS-2 virus, and have been taking unprecedented measures to protect their health.? I publicized a series of extra safety rules for this launch, and I thought some people might find them too restrictive.? I was pleased to see a very good turnout for Bayboro, and a gratifying number of old regulars, first-timers, people getting back into rockets after a long hiatus, and excellent compliance with the safety regs.

Saturday morning started off with dense fog and heavy cloud cover.? But, it wasn?t raining, so we set up the equipment and began to prep rockets.? The field was damp, but not soggy, so ?sparkies? were on the menu, and we could walk around without sinking in the mud.?? Somewhere around noon, we saw one of the strangest meteorological phenomena I have ever seen at Bayboro:?? The clouds broke up and dispersed, blue sky was seen from one horizon almost to the other side, and it began to rain.?? And, while the rain poured down for at least 20 to 25 minutes under a clear, blue, cloudless sky, it continued to rain.? Very strange.?? All the rockets went back into the vehicles, the clipboards with wet paper were put away, and the launch boxes got wet, causing us troubles for the rest of the day.

I?ll put the motor use summary in here, and then we?ll mention some individual accomplishments.

Keep in mind that we were trying to reduce the opportunities for people to touch objects that other people had touched, so we were trying to run the launch without flight cards, relying on people to tell the LCO about the rocket and recording the information on a clip-board.? We may have missed some flights and some important details.? Bear with us, we?re still trying to develop reliable, safe CoViD era procedures.

The certification flights are always the most important events at any launch.? On Saturday, Morgan Willis flew her LOC 4 on an Aerotech H100W for a successful TRA certification.?? She then took the L2 written exam and aced that!

We were delighted to see some new flyers at Bayboro this weekend.?? Dorsey and Teddy Delavigne both made flights on Saturday, and we hope to see them again over the winter.? Paul Kramer came over from Charlotte to fly with us, and although he is new to Bayboro, he has been in High Power for a long time.?? Paul?s specialty is clustering, and he showed us some dazzling examples.? Paul flew his Super Big Bertha on a Cesaroni I125. Paul also made flew his LOC 7 on a central AT K270 and six H180W?s.?? This flight is listed in the L range.

Regulars Jim Livingston, Robbie Kirk, Matt Willis, Mike Nay, Dennis and Joe Hill, and Kurt Hesse were busy all day.?? Mike Nay?s two-stage skills were on display this weekend.?? Anybody who has ever attempted a high power two-stage knows that the trick is not just getting the staging to work correctly, but actually finding the sustainer when the flight is over.?? Mike has a good GPS product, and knows how to use it.? He left no hardware in the fields.

Two-stage projects and clusters were going up all the time.?? Terry Delavigne, Sam Taylor, and Mike Nay all made staging flights, and Joe Hill, Dennis Hill, and Paul Kramer all pulled off successful cluster launches.?? Frank Schneider made the one successful M motor launch of the weekend with a flight of his 5 Minute Express.

I am giving this month?s best rocket name to Dennis Hill?s Tarre Viszla.? Not only do I not know what it means, I don?t even know how to pronounce it! (Editor: the first Mandalorian Jedi, according to Wikipedia).

On Sunday, we started in deep fog, just like Saturday, but it cleared in good time.?? We met Heath McPherson from Raleigh for the first time.?? Heath is an L3 flyer but has never been to Bayboro before.? I hope we see Heath a lot more in the future, because he has exactly the right mind-set for a Bayboro flyer.?? His second rocket, Tank Girl, got lost in the soybeans, and Heath made three different trips off into the foliage, refining his bearings and search techniques every time.?? Finally he found it and brought it home.? Bayboro presents special challenges for new flyers:?? the field is so big, and the waiver is so high, that people are tempted to fly as high as they possibly can, and then they realize that if you lose sight of a rocket, and don?t have some sort of electronic tracker in it, you have no idea where to look.?? Even if you see it come down, the land is so vast and so flat, that you cannot know how far away it landed.? Electronic tracking is really the only way to go with flights to altitude.?? The cut-off point for what is too high will be determined by how big your rocket is, and the atmospheric conditions.? Light haze can make small rockets disappear almost immediately, and for the large high-power flights, partly cloudy skies make for very difficult visual tracking.? Electronic tracking is almost essential for any flight a Bayboro that makes use of the resources we have.? The club owns a Walston receiver, so all you need to buy is a transmitter, and they are light and not very expensive.? We can advise you about frequencies and where to buy the transmitters.

Allen Rose flew three of his short, fat specialties, and Ralph Reda was up from Wilmington for a few flights in the J and K range.

The big Sunday news is that John Allman made a perfect score on the NAR L2 exam, and then flew his 4? Patriot on an Aerotech J425R for an exemplary Level 2 certification.? I think we can expect John to start spending even more money.? Regulars Mike Nay, Joe Hill, Robbie Kirk, and Alan Whitmore were back on Sunday and busy all day.

I want to extend a big thank-you to all who stayed to help with tear-down and trailer packing on Sunday afternoon.? Saturday was especially hard on your correspondent, and I was operating on a severe energy deficit on Sunday.? A lot of us were suffering from the effects on dehydration on Saturday night, and it?s hard to be active and lively on the day after a severe case of dehydration, especially if you have seen more than 70 winters.

I have a great idea for raising a few dollars for the club.? At almost every launch, someone leaves a folding chair somewhere on the field.?? I have been accumulating these chairs in my truck, and when that became too full to load my own rocket weekend stuff, I began to stow them in the club trailer.? We?re now up to five chairs in my truck and four or five in the club trailer.?? I?m going to put all these chairs (minus the best one, which I claim for myself) up for sale at the next well-attended launch, and collect whatever people are willing to pay.?? The latest acquisition is a real doozey:?? a folding chair lined with fake fur.?? Nothing says elegance like fake fur, and if the actual owner of this chair does not claim it, I think this gem is going fetch a pretty penny for the club.

Alan Whitmore

Prefect, Tripoli East NC