Well, we have had a rocky – or rather a wet – start to the season, but at least it got started. The September launch was totally scrubbed due to the aftermath of a tropical storm and the Saturday launch for this weekend was rained out. Sunday proved a little more acceptable with low ceilings for most of the day, only breaking late in the day for a couple of higher altitude attempts.
For a summary of the motors flown:
| Motor | Saturday | Sunday |
| A | ||
| B | 1 | |
| C | 2 | |
| D | ||
| E | ||
| F | 1 | |
| G | 1 | |
| H | 1 | |
| I | 5 | |
| J | 2 | |
| K | ||
| L | 2 | |
| Total | 15 |
To start the season, we had the annual “burning of the scraps” where the EX crowd brings in all the off cuts, drillings, questionable propellant, etc. from the past year and it gets burned in a pile. The pile this year was about average size and was an impressive show.
Mark Peot had the first flight of the season with Eric the Rocket flying on an I140. Robbie Kirk had three flights, Baby Bertha on a C6-5, Silver Rocket on a C6-3 and Red and White on a B4-4. Cameron Brown flew his Bell X1 on a H550 which resulted in an impressive and loud vertical. Nathan Patvin had two flights of his rocket Carrot on a I161 and a J510. Sailor Koeplinger flew Changes in Altitude on a J800 later in the day after things opened up a bit for an impressive flight. Sam Anderson flew Tempting Fate on a J250. This was a nice flight until the main chute failed to deploy, but resulted in no real damage to the rocket. Mike Nay flew Rocket (inventive name there Mike) twice, once on a F67 and again on a G77.
The EX flights for the day were done by Jim Livingston and Alan Whitmore. Jim flew LZ on a JSTB #4b formula, a fast burning blue, configured as an I400. Alan flew Astro Mollusk 7 on a six grain I class motor made from a tri-modal variant of Ferric Fudge, a fast burning low metals propellant that is not for beginners…
For the larger motor flights, Karl Robinson flew his Mac Performance Hyper 54 on a 54mm L805. This was a minimum diameter rocket that was supposed to go to about 16,00 feet. There was an issue on the ascent with some corkscrewing and I doubt it went that high. It came down in the far South East corner of the field. NC State had their Frankenrocket out for a flight that was a test of some of the upcoming SLI concepts and an interest launch for new members of the team. It flew on an L1520 and was for the most part successful. The only issue I observed was a dropped payload rover with no recovery system.
The next launch weather is looking much more favorable as this is being written and I hope to see every one on the 28th.
Kurt Hesse
