NC Rocketry

We had one very good day for rocket weather on Saturday the 26^th, before the rain moved in on Sunday, and I found the flight cards for Saturday the 12^th, so I will be delivering two half-reports this time.? Let?s start with the motor use summary table, and then go on to hit some of the high (and low) spots.

I mentioned the Columbus Day weather in the last report.? Not nearly as hot as the September launch, but still unusually warm for October.? The wind was extremely calm and this brought out a lot of altitude attempts and big motors.

Craig Anfinsen from Goldsboro returned after a longish layoff, and was busy with some rockets and motors in the G range.? Dennis Hill apparently has a huge stash of David Rushing?s old rockets, and he flew two of them on Saturday.?? One flew on an Aerotech I175J for a perfect recovery, and the other one didn?t manage to get motor ejection and crashed hard.?? Sam DeLong flew one of his own creations: a scratch-built Bullpup on a CTI I170 for a fine flight

Alan Whitmore?s Red Flag of Mortal Peril flew on a 6-grain 38mm Research motor for a strange, corkscrew flight and a ballistic recovery about 1 ? miles away.? The part of the rocket containing the tracking transmitter was underground, but the old reliable Walston system was able to bring home some of the more important parts of this rocket.?? It was the 40^th flight for this version of that rocket.? It will return in some form.

The fine Carolina weather brought a bunch of visitors from the North.? Carlos Zapata and Bob Shoner made the trip from the Blacksburg, VA area with their wives for a weekend of rockets and camping.?? Carlos flew his MAC Hyper 54 and his beautifully finished SA14 Archer, both flights using the Aerotech J415W.? Bob also had two very fine flights, a rocket called We Will Prevail used the CTI K711 for a very successful flight, and his version of the Standard Arm used Loki M3000 for another perfect effort.? Mike Crupe and his wife made the trip from Altamont, NY to join us this weekend and managed an accomplishment that we have never seen at Bayboro before, and I hope we never see again.?? The tree lines around our launch site are so far away that we usually go for years between fliers losing rockets in the trees, but Mike managed it twice in one day, in trees at the opposite ends of the field!?? ?I only have one flight card for Mike, and I don?t know which particular flight this belongs to, but it reports that the Super Blackfly, a kit produced by his company MAC performance, used the CTI M2020 to find the trees down at the south end of the field in the town of Alliance, or the bear-infested woods to the north of our launch site.? The one that landed near Alliance was recovered, but the one to the north is still up in the trees.? Another unlucky visitor from the Old Dominion was Chris Aubright from Virginia Beach.?? His immense 2-stage project, featuring an M2000 in the booster to a K300 in the sustainer, angled over to the northeastern sector of the field, and as of Sunday night I had no information about where it was recovered or what condition it was in.? No parachutes were observed.

As usual, a bunch of the local veterans were on hand to fill out spaces at the bottom of the motor use summary.? Mike Nay had a nice flight called Door Knob Cluster on a central K780 and air starting two Aerotech smoky Aerotech H112J?s.? Alan Whitmore let the Stealth Blue loose on a small 76mm Research M motor for some big altitude, and Jim Livingston flew the Carbon High on a 3-grain 115mm Research full M for another flight in the two mile up region.? My favorite rocket names of the weekend will be shared between Bob Shoner?s We Will Prevail and Mike Nay?s Door Knob Cluster.

Two weeks later we were back in Clifton?s corn fields for our second launch of October.?? The weather was just about perfect.?? Temperatures had moderated to a more October-like region, and a few high clouds interrupted the sun exposure.?? The problem was the wind direction, pushing rockets over to the northwest, where lives the closest tree line and some dense, soggy woodsies.?? Nobody was interested in flying very high, so some of the smaller motors in the box were pulled out and put to good use.

The big news is always the certification attempts.? After passing the written test in September, Dwight Respess returned with his Zephyr Block 3 to attempt a TRA L2 flight with an Aerotech single-use J270W.?? The rocket was recovered in mint shape and Dwight is cleared to spend even more money!

Kim Davis made the long haul from the Winston-Salem area to fly with us this weekend and sent the Maverick up on an Aerotech G53J, and the D-9.2 on an I180W, also from AT.

We always have a lot of our North Carolina regulars on hand doing their things, and I often leave them out of our launch reports because they are always there and, therefore, not ?remarkable?.?? This month I have decided to go encyclopedic on you and mention all the old regulars, in alphabetical order.?? Fasten your belts and hang on!

John Allman and his wife were on hand celebrating their 28^th wedding anniversary and he flew his CC Express on two D12?s, and later put up his Arcas on an Aerotech H195NT.? Brent Bierstedt was in a ?K? mood, flying the Dominator 4 on a CTI K670, and his medium-sized V2 on an Aerotech K695R.?? Both flights were near perfect.? Jimmy Blackley flew a rocket called Great Father on a somewhat confused motor called an F37W56?.?? Whatever it was, it flew well.

Mike Collier was as busy as he usually is when he can join us.? The Slo-Mo loaded with a D13, the Nike Smoke with an Aerotech F67W, a scratch-built rocket called Childs Play on an AT G40, and the Nike Smoke again using an AT G53FJ.? Sam Delong flew his 4? Patriot twice, once with an Aerotech J350W, and again with a CTI J244 white.? Eddie Haith exercised his Big Bertha on a Quest D16, the Long Shot on an Aerotech G125, and the 4? diameter Fat Boy on the AT H128W.

The Hill boys were also pulling out the old reliable birds this weekend.? Dennis Hill flew Cheap Trick on a CTI J530, and Joe Hill was going for max altitude with Apollo, in the Forge of Vulcan on the Aerotech J350W.? Both of those rockets came home in good shape.?? Jim Livingston flew the Sea Hawk on a Research 54mm K600.? Dave Morey made two flights of his smallest Starfire with the Quest D16, followed by a flight of his Defender using three D16?s, and topping of his performance with a flight of the Cluster 10 on ten motors!?? This flight is a great way to illustrate how I classify clusters and staged motor flights for the motor use summary.?? Dave had this monster rigged up to fire four AT F51NT motors and two F39T?s on the pad, air start two AT E16?s at two seconds into the flight, and two Estes C6?s at four seconds.?? All the motors lit, and the Cluster 10 rose to 2441 feet.??? The total installed impulse on this flight was 413.04 Ns, so this flight is listed among the I motors in the table above. ? Sixof the 10 motors were reload kits, so Dave is probably still cleaning motors!

Mike Nay flew his Estes Sahara on an H135 [could be either AT or CTI, help me out people!? How am I going to learn all the commercial motors if you don?t specify the manufacturer on the flight cards?] and then another of his great two-stage projects in the Double Shot with a Aerotech K535 in the booster and an AT J94 in the sustainer.?? All of these parts came home safely.? Allan Rose flew the Big Cletus on an Aerotech I284W, and the big Condor on a J500G.? Alan Whitmore flew his veteran Astro*Mollusk 7 on a Research 8-grain 38mm J motor made from propellants with a ?diverse? pedigree.?? This one set a personal max acceleration record of 78.45 G!? It took off in a hurry!

The 2020 schedule should be posted on the website soon.? I hope to see you all in November!

Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC

Tripoli East NC kicked off the 2019-2020 season with a big crowd, lots of welcome new faces, and a lot of action on both days.?? The heat was absolutely punishing, with many folks getting semi- heat-shocked and dizzy after just one or two long walks for recovery, depending on the size of the rocket and how far they had to walk.? A glimpse into our future.

I?ll insert the motor use summary, and then we?ll get down to some details.

As you can see, this was mainly a high-power event, but there were a few very interesting low-power launches.

The most important events at any launch are the certification flights, which I will address in alphabetical order.? John Allman had a successful NAR L1 certification flight with his Arcas flown on the Aerotech H195NT.?? Abhi Kondagunta had a fine flight with his new Stinger on an Aerotech H220T, and Meredith Patterson then used the same hardware to make a perfect L1 flight in her Shockwave using the Aerotech H180W.? Matt Willis then made a very successful flight in his Zephyr using the Aerotech H100W.? Congratulations to all of you and welcome to High Power!

Sam Taylor brought one of the new Estes Multi-Rok kits, which can be flown in a variety of configurations.? He made one flight as a single-stage with glider using the Estes B6, and then later on as a 2-stage with a C6 staging to a B6.?? Since the total installed impulse of these 2 motors adds up to the D range, this launch is listed in the ?D? category for Saturday.?? Allen Harrell was perfecting his 2-stage skills with his veteran Cow-Cow, in one instance a B6 staged to an A8, and later with a B6 staged to C6

Charlie Moss and Randy Regan traveled south from SEVRA-country to fly with us on Saturday.? Randy flew his 32mmDD on an E20 with some interesting deployment and GPS electronics.? Charlie had a few flights, topped by a small explosion in his Vulcanite 2 using the CTI G250 V max motor.?? This little motor produces almost incomprehensible acceleration. ?Chris Gillham had a few flights with his Purple Hoser rocket on the F15 and F18 motors.? Dennis Hill flew the Unimatrix Zero on an AT K550W for a superb flight.

Jim Livingston?s Carbon Hi is back from a lengthy repair session and flew on a homemade L850.? Except for a broken nose cone tip, that flight was perfect.? Both Joe Hill and Brent Bierstedt chose the reliable M1297W for flights on Saturday.? Brent had one installed in his Patriot, and Joe had one in his L3 cert rocket, Short Spoon.

The North Carolina State University High Power Rocketry Club has used the September launch to hold an interest-raising field trip for potential new members, and this years event was especially well-attended:? There were about 40 State students on hand, working on an attempt to take the rocket that the club built 3 or 4 years ago, the Vesuvius, and fly it on a homemade M motor, made by the students under the supervision of Alan Whitmore.? The flight was absolutely perfect and recovered very close to the flight line.? The rocket weighed 53.2 lbs on the pad, and flew to 5341 feet.

Sunday was a little hotter, and we all had to take special precautions to stay hydrated and seek shade whenever possible.? It was also even calmer, so with no wind at all, the biting flies came out of the woods and started chomping on bare flesh.? Shades of Whitakers.? The lack of wind also meant that those folks who were going for altitude saw their rockets fall straight down, very close to the launch pads.? ?I?ll try to address all of the flights on Sunday.

The Hash family was on-site again, helping young Phillip get introduced to rocketry.?? Phillip flew his Bandito on an Extes 1/4A3.? This flight was noteworthy for one reason:? this is the first 1/4A motor flown at Bayboro since we began flying here in September of 2007.? We have seen 1/8A?s and 1/2A?s through O motors, but this is the first 1/4A!

Robbie Kirk was back again on Sunday, flying the Wizard on an A8, the Cherokee E on A D12, and the Star Orbiter on an F12.? All came home intact.? Jim Livingston flew his venerable I-Roc on a homemade 38mm I motor.? Joe Hill had 2 fine flights before the heat got to him:? The Voodoo Ranger flew on a homemade I motor, and then Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan on an Aerotech I1299N.?? Both were extremely fast burning motors.

Mike Nay flew the 2-stage Double Shot, staging a J290 (?) to an Aerotech I327.? Sam DeLong had two very fine flights, one in an Extreme Wildman using the CTI K490Green, and then his Vulcan on a L1395 blue.

Two EX motors wrapped up the weekend.? Kurt Hesse flew his Performer 98 on a 4-grain 54mm K motor made from the CP4 blue-flame formula and Alan Whitmore flew his Spork II on a homemade 115mm M motor mixed up from Jim Livingston?s white-smoke formula.?? Both of these flights were very successful.

Join us again in October if you can.? We are flying on 2 weekends in October, 12-13 and 26-27.

Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC

Saturday dawned cloudy with a significant probability of rain in the forecast.? But it wasn?t actually raining at that time, so we loaded up and headed to Butner.?? Scattered drizzle all the way and some actual rain drops as I turned onto Range Road, but when we finally arrived at the BBCRF, we realized that the day’s main problem was not going to be the weather.?? As we crossed the last hill before arriving at Perkins field, we spotted about 200 frisky young Black Angus steers milling around in the space between the last two gates between us and the launch site.?? Hmmmmm.?? What to do?

Lucky for us Chuck Hall was there, and he drew on his innate knowledge of things agricultural and technical to show us how to shoo cows.? With the help of several of our undergraduate helpers, he kept them herded over around the Northwest corner of their field so that we could open gate one when somebody drove in or out and let the rocket people slip by the bovines into low-power promised land.? We?ll have to buy Chuck supper at a launch soon, to reward him for sacrificing his rocket flying for a morning of cattle wrangling.

Here is a little motor use summary, which provides a good outline for mentioning all of the flyers and participants.

All five 1/2A motors were flown by Phillip Burnett, who was attending his very first rocket launch.? He was accompanied by his grandfather, Dave Hash, and his uncle, David Hash, who is well known for his knowledge and enthusiasm by all of us who were around during the Whitakers era.? It was a treat to catch up with David and hear about what he has been doing lately.?? All four of the A motors (A8-3?s) were flown by the Fothergill brothers, Jack and Sam, in two almost identical Estes E2X kits.

The B range is occupied by Alex Guarascio who flew his Shuttle Express on an Estes B4, and Gage Ancarrow, who flew his Astro Jr. on a B6.?? Some handwriting is so distinct that I can tell who filled out the flight card without any prior knowledge.? The impeccable printing on Gage?s card leads me to think that Mike Collier filled out this one!

When we get to the C range of the table things get a little busier, but all motors were the old reliable Estes C6.? ?Joseph Guarascio flew his 1:200 scale Estes Saturn V for a good flight, John Allman gave his Tomahawk a little workout, Joe Lobuglio flew his Interceptor, and Mike Nay flew an odd little device called the Twister which brought the nose cone down as a little helicopter and the rest of the body under parachute.?? Gage Ancarrow had two successful C motor flights in the Delta 5 and the Amazon.

Reporting gets a little complicated in the D range, because I always classify individual rockets for the ?motor use summary? by the total installed impulse.? For example, John Allman flew his CC Express twice with a C11 staging to another C11.?? John also flew his Defender on 3 B6?s, which also add up to the D range.? Landon Casstevens also went the ?2 C?s make a D? route when he flew his Maverick on another C11 to C11 staging arrangement.??? This is a good time to mention that in spite of the rather brisk wind (by Butner standards, by Bayboro standards it was dead calm all day long) only one rocket was lost to the trees (DRM -I believe it as one of MikeCollier’s).?? Congrats to all for intelligent motor/parachute size choices!?? To continue with the actual D motor flights:? Joe Lobuglio flew his Estes V-2 on a D12, Mike Collier flew two veterans, Stonebreaker and Diamondback on D12?s, Mike Nay aired out his modified Saturn V kit on a D12, and John Freed flew his neat Mean Machine on yet another D12.

In the E range, Mike Nay flew a rocket called Savage with a D12 staging to a C6, Landon Casstevens flew his Maxi Alpha 3 on an Estes E9, and John Allman gave the QCC Explorer a good ride on another E9.? Mike Nay gets the nod for biggest motor used with a flight of his Blue on an Estes F15.

Dave Morey had originally planned to close down Saturday?s launch at 1:00 because of the anticipated summer heat, but by 12:45 the weather radar stations were showing a lot of rain heading our way, and the 1:00 closing time was beginning to look like a VERY good idea.?? We closed the range, packed up the equipment, and by the time we were driving back through Butner the cold front appeared for real.?? The drive home, and indeed the rest of Saturday, were very rainy.?? Many thanks to all who attended, helped with various aspects of equipment set-up or tear-down, and cow control.? I?ll call Clifton Paul in about 2 weeks and find out how harvest is proceeding in Bayboro, and let everybody know where we will be setting up for the September launch.?? Remember that the first launch of the season always includes the ceremonial EX Scraps, Shavings and Poorly Cured Propellant Burn to officially kick off the Bayboro flying season.? Bring your mistakes, your leftovers, and any propellant (EX or commercial) that you would like to see disappear, and we?ll do it in one big fireball at a safe distance from everything except your camera lenses.

Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC