We had very good weather for this launch, but attendance was down a bit. Saturday was a little breezy, but not bad, but Sunday was fabulous.
Summary of the motors flown:
| Motor | Saturday | Sunday |
| A | ||
| B | ||
| C | ||
| D | 1 | 1 |
| E | 4 | |
| F | ||
| G | 3 | 1 |
| H | 1 | 4 |
| I | 1 | 2 |
| J | 3 | 4 |
| K | 1 | 1 |
| L | 1 | 1 |
| M | 2 | |
| Total | 17 | 14 |
There were some certifications this weekend. On Saturday, Nick Pyrtle flew Aurora on a M1340 for a successful Tripoli level 3, and a fair amount of good natured heckling from the regulars. Josh Elkerson flew PK-56 Hi-Tech on a H219 for a successful Tripoli Level 1. On Sunday, Thomas Owens flew his Madcow Torrent on a J270 for a successful Tripoli Level 2. There were some NARJjunior Level 1 certifications as well with Erin Bienstock flying Green Bean on a H130, Spencer Thomas with his Jack on a H165 and Michael Chen flying Space Z on a H130. Congratulations to all of you for your accomplishments.
Other Saturday flights included Robbie Kirk flying 2.0 R2 on an experimental motor, his first (and I’ll leave that there), a G30 made with BV-3 propellant. Brent Bierstedt had three nice flights, Nike Smoke on an I366, Black Brant on a M1297 and V2 on a J712. Richard Powers was out again and flew Show Stopper on a D16, Top Shot on a E12 and 3 Inch School Rocket on a E35. Conner Beaufait (I think – pretty hard to make out) flew his Mean Machine twice, both times on E16’s for nice flights of that long, tall, skinny rocket.
Jim Livingston was flying his usual experimental motors with Seahawk on a K560 white smoke formula, and as a tribute to Alan Whitmore, a rocket named Alan on a 54mm J motor that was made by Alan Whitmore with the BV-5 formula. We will be seeing the occasional flight of motors made by Alan as we work through the “rather large” stock of motors he had on hand. Dave Morey flew his Two Stage Crayon on a F63 to a D12, Big Daddy on a F79, and tried Sinister 29 #3 H250 with four air start F15’s. That one didn’t exactly go as planned as the H250 was cantankerous and just did a slow burn on the pad, blowtorching the blast plate. It’s probably a good thing though as afterwards, he tried ground testing the F15’s and all four of them did their best impression of a single shot roman candle – might have been worse for the rocket than what did happen. Old Estes black powder motors – gotta love them. (Dave here- I think the H250G road flare toasted the nozzles/grains of the F15s and caused them to fail when ground tested.) Mike Nay flew Double Shot on a K1200 to a K260. That one did OK until that long burn K260 lit with a significant horizontal component to the trajectory, resulting in a long trek but successful recovery. Finally, Todd Bowman flew Cumulus on a J316. This is not meant to reflect badly on Todd, but this was a light rocket on a day with a little wind, flying on a J motor with motor ejection only at apogee and no tracker on board. That rocket came down a fair distance away and was not recovered. It was observed to be under chute during descent so that part worked. The lesson here is that high flights with a main deployed at apogee can be difficult to get back – especially with no tracker. I would strongly encourage anyone attempting such a flight to use a tracker – either one of the GPS units or a RF beacon type that we can use the club receiver with. Personally, I don’t fly anything without one, regardless of how high I expect it to go. That is a big field and rockets mysteriously seem to just disappear into it.
On Sunday, Mike Nay flew Blue Iguana on a J380. Kurt Hesse flew Butt Ugly, a rocket that has seen better days but still works, on a four grain 38mm experimental motor made from Everclear. Nick Pyrtle flew Cloud Maiden on a K400. Robbie Kirk was back out with his son Samuel and they flew Camo Monster on a D16. Robbie also flew Red & White on a G64. Jeff Register flew Miffed Cow on a J460. Jim Livingston flew Carbon High on an experimental L1200. The NC School od Science and Math flew Cardinal on a J500. Josh Elbertson flew Dumpster Juice on a H219 and Gabe V (something, sorry the flight card is illegible here) flew Splater Bug on a I140.
All in all, a good weekend and I am looking forward to the next launch.
Regards,
Kurt Hesse
Prefect
