We had a good start to the 2024-2025 flying season. The weather, while warm, was very good for flying, with moderate winds and decently clear skies. The only down side to the weekend was the failure of out low power launch controller, which made us launch those rockets using the near high power control box. That coupled with a lot of flights, resulted in a line for the pads for a while on Saturday – something we just don’t see often at Bayboro.
Summary of the motors flown:
| Motor | Saturday | Sunday |
| A | ||
| B | 1 | 1 |
| C | 5 | 2 |
| D | 2 | 1 |
| E | 3 | |
| F | 3 | |
| G | 2 | 1 |
| H | 5 | 1 |
| I | 5 | 2 |
| J | 5 | |
| K | 2 | 1 |
| L | 2 | 1 |
| M | ||
| Total | 35 | 10 |
There were several certifications this weekend, all on Saturday with several of them for level 2 – always good to see. Alex Key flew Starcatcher on a J435 for a successful level 2 certification. Katelyn Yount flew ACME on a J270 for her level 2 certification and Trent Couse flew Madcow Torrent on an I140 and again on a J425 for successful level 1 and 2 certifications. Nate Orlowski flew LOC Forte on a H100 for a level 1. Ethan Sites flew Rocket in Progress on a H100 for a successful level 1 and Lauren Wilkie flew Pepto Bismol on an I180 for a successful level 1 certification. Congratulations to all of you.
Also on Saturday, NC State was out in force and flew a couple of rocket. First was SQUAKIT, a 3D printed/Duct Tape rocket with a square cross section (why not…) on an I366. They also flew the more conventional Shake & Bake on a L1940. Zane Anders flew a couple of rockets, Styx on a H128 and 20/20 on an I200. Matthew Polanski had four flights, Corkscrew on a B6, Silver Comet on a D12, Double Portion on a C6 to a B6 staged and R2D2 on a C6. Shriyans Dwivedi flew Send It! On a F35 and H1, a TARC rocket, on a F35. Neveel Chheda flew Why so Feinious, another TARC rocket on what I believe was an F35, but that information was not specifically listed on the flight card.
Dan Fritsch came back after a long absence and was busy. He flew LOC EZI on an I305, Big Dog on a F23, LOC HiTech on a H73 and Discovery on a H54. Mike Nay flew Pink Lady on a K650 that suffered a motor casing burn through and a subsequent “non-optimal” flight. Richard Powers flew Big Bertha on a C5 and Top Shot on an E12. Mark Hartmann flew Frenzy on a K805 and DX3 on a J575. James Holley flew Rocinmtc on a J270. David Moreno flew Mustang II on a G76 and Kevin Vaughn flew LOC Precision on a H175. Shyanne Large flew Miss Fortune on a C6 and Cameron Brown flew Mr. Rious on an E12. Jim Livingston was flying research for the weekend, as usual. He flew his Carbon High on a L1000 made from the reliable BV5 formula. Phill Ash flew Pershing 1 on a G74. Allen Harrel flew Hustler on an E12 and Audry Miskow flew E2X on a C6. Ceila Smith flew another E2X, also on a C6.
On Sunday things were a little quieter as they usually are. Just a reminder, on Sunday we generally fly until the people that are there and ready to fly are done and then pack up the field. We don’t necessarily stay until the waiver expires.
Robbie and Samuel Kirk flew Shark Claw on a G77 and The Orca on a C6. Kiatlny Holm flew Hakeln twice, once on an H268 and again on a I218. Chad Holm flew PML Ariel on an I245. Mike Nay flew his Double Shot, a two stage on a J760 to a K360 with much better success than the previous day. John Tolppi flew Estes Executioner on a D12, while Connie Tolppi flew Screaming Eagle on a B6 and X-15 on a C6. Jim Livingston flew Seahawk on a K500 white formula research motor.
We had a good start to the season, and I hope to see everyone at the next launch,
Regards,
Kurt Hesse
Prefect
