Once again, Mother Nature challenged us with some exceptionally bad flying conditions on both Saturday and Sunday. There was a massive storm that moved in from the southwest that only gave us about a half of a day’s worth of flying on Saturday and Sunday was partly cloudy, but super windy. Having said that, everyone that attended took advantage of last weekend of flying at Bayboro. Below is the motor summary.
| Motor?? Saturday 4/24 | Sunday 4/25????????? Both |
| A | |
| B | 1??????????????????? ?????????? 1 |
| C | 1??????????????????????????????? 1 |
| D | 2??????????????????????????????? 2 |
| E | 1??????????????????????????????? 1 |
| F???????????? 1 | ????????????????????????????????? 1 |
| G | 1??????????????????????????????? 1 |
| H??????????? 2 | 3??????????????????????????????? 5 |
| I????????????? 6 | 4??????????????????????????????? 10 |
| J????????????? 3 | ????????????????????????????????? 3 |
| K???????????? 1 | 1??????????????????????????????? 2 |
| L | 3??????????????????????????????? 3 |
| Total??????? 13 | 17?????????????? ???????????? 30 |
Allan Rose started things out Saturday with his SkyRaider rocket by putting it up on one of my personal favorite 38mm Aerotech reloads – an I-284W. Alan Whitmore flew his rocket that he calls Bertrand Brinley’s Beta on a homebrew 2 grain 54mm motor filled with Livingston White propellant. If I remember correctly, I believe the name of this rocket was inspired by Brinley’s book Rocket Manual for Amateurs, a nonfiction written in 1960. Jim Livingston threw his LZ899?up on a ‘back of the bench’ 38mm I motor. If you don’t know what that means, these types of motors are filled with leftover propellants from all sorts of separate casting sessions. This one turned out to have mostly Jim Scarpine Tribute Blue #4B, my favorite! Matt Willis joined us again and flew his Back 2 Basics?rocket on a CTI J-354WT. Brent Bierstedt sent his 54mm minimum diameter Mongoose for a 9 second trip on the classic Aerotech I-65W. Joe Hill put up his 4″ all fiberglass work-horse rocket, Iron Moon on an Aerotech K-1050W, Mike McKeon stayed busy and got in 3 perfectly successful flights, and Mark Peot got in two perfect flights.
Sunday started out cloudy with light rain, but by about 10AM, the clouds broke and the wind really started to pick up. Pete Vorenkamp came out for the first time, not only as a spectator, but as a brand new Tripoli member. Pete has basically never flown or built a rocket prior to joining us. Most people start out with an Estes rocket and black powder single use motors with motor ejection, etc… not Pete. His first rocket, a 54mm Mac Performance Scorpion, was built for dual deployment and even had onboard GPS. The Scorpion’s first flight was on an Aerotech G-64W reload. All electronics worked right on time, and Pete had a textbook dual-deploy flight. I’ve gotta say, that’s an incredibly ambitious dive into this hobby, and Pete had it all figured out first try. I’m sure we’ll be seeing him at another launch. Way to go, Pete!!
Joe Hill was back on Sunday and flew his Voodoo Ranger?on a Loki I-405W, Abhi Kondagunta launched his Stinger?on an Aerotech I-218R, Alex Thomas brought out his Zephyr?and put it up on an Aerotech I-245G, and Robbie Kirk flew his 2.6R3 on an Aerotech H-238T. Greg Hanson is a new Bayboro regular and he brought his Yellow Submarine out, stuffed it with an Aerotech K-805G, and it went out of sight very quickly. Robert Jennings joined us for the first time and flew a beautifully finished Saturn V?on an Aerotech E-30T.
We were joined by 4 universities on Sunday – NC State, NC A&T, UNC-Charlotte, and Duke. NC A&T have been working extremely hard on their project, Pizza Planet?and it definitely showed. They were the first to launch, and they chose an Aerotech L-1420R for their rocket. Pizza Planet?took off, and when the main parachute deployed, the students let out an eruption of cheers, rightfully so. They have really come a long way in a short period of time, and they deserve a lot of credit. UNC Charlotte brought back the same rocket that they’ve been flying over the last couple of months and flew it on a CTI L-935IMAX motor for a great flight. NC State flew their That’s Hot?rocket on an Aerotech I-435T, which I believe has flown several times before. The students from Duke decided to try a two stage rocket that was full of all sorts of electronics for various things with a CTI K-1440WT in the booster, staging to a CTI J-295C. All systems performed nominally and Duke brought back their entire project.
And just like that, another season at Bayboro is over.. While this season was undoubtedly different than any other season we’ve ever had, I think it’s safe to say we all took as much advantage as we possibly could to fly rockets. Thank you for following the COVID restrictions we have in place as well. I hope everyone has a great summer, and come join us in the fall if you can.
Joe Hill
Prefect, Tripoli East NC
