NC Rocketry

The weather on Saturday was typical for Bayboro rocketry with clear skies and a steady wind from the west that challenged recovery teams. Attendance was high and we had a variety of flights across the commercial and research motor spectrums. Special thanks to Josh Anderson who served as LCO for most of the day and set the pace for launching rockets.

Due to the high altitudes we are allowed to fly at the field, all teams and flyers will now be required to show evidence of tracking and recovery capability along with the estimated altitude and estimated landing zone given the current wind direction. All flyers and teams are responsible for recovering their rockets and parts from the field.

We had several certification flights with TRA and NAR.  Peter Toiman achieved his Tripoli L2 on flying his Adventurer 3 on a J270. Charles Ricks achieved his NAR Level 1 on Gertrude with a H100 and Rianna Madhinini under the mentorship of Dave Morey achieved her Jr Level 1 NAR certification flying a Loc 4 on a H123.  Congratulations to all!

The regular flyers were back with some great flights. Kurt Hesse was back with Butt Ugly flying an Alan Whitmore 38mm I motor. Kurt decided to upgrade to the featherweight GPS system and recovered his rocket with no issues. Brent Bierstedt returned to our field with a few flights. Red Max on a J450 EX, Spool on a G74 and a Honest John on a I287. Jim Livingston flew Carbon High on a L1200 EX for an awesome flight. Dennis Hill flew DRK-1 Dark Eye covered with an outboard camera and tracker to 4677 feet on a J415. Although the main did not deploy, all parts were recovered. Dan Fritsch flew his Madcow Tomach on a G80 and his DX3 on a I500.  Mike Nay flew Pink Lady on a K400 and was recovered by Carol Nay using a GPS for the first time. Alex Key from NC State group few Lil Frank on a J800 and attempted to fly Barbenheimer two-stage on a H550 to a I140. I believe the H550 boost was ok up to separation but no sustainer ignition due to flight angle.

Steven McConkey made the trip from Florida to fly Charlie’s Punisher on a L1000. Bayboro was the only place on the East coast where Steven was able to fly to 14K feet. The flight was perfect and the rocket was recovered about 1.5 miles away from the launch site. A lot of planning went into this flight. It was great to see everything go successfully including the recovery.

Sailor Koeplinger was up next with Changes in Altitude flying on a K1100. Mathew Willis flew Lance 52 on a K695. Anasha Atkins flew Houston on a L2200. Dan Crompton returned with his Cowabunga and flew on a H100 to repeat his flight from last launch. Morgan Willis flew Dream Canteen on a K480.

On the low power side, Joy Hoppert flew an Estes Patriot on a C6-5 and John Hoppert flew Big Bertha on also on a C6-5. Shri flew Sushi several times on a F51 and Momentus on a H220 with support from Dave Morey. Dave Moreno had a couple flights starting with 6-7 Yellow on a E16 and Initiator on a G80. Richard Powers was busy again with two flights on his Patriot with D16 and his BMS School Rocket on a E35 and G74.

Due to windy conditions and availability of ground support, Sunday’s flight schedule was cancelled.

Will see you all at the next planned launch weekend : December 13-14, 2025.

Weather and wind conditions were great for the first weekend in November for those that made the trip out to the Bayboro field.

Dan Crompton returned with Cowabunga and achieved his level 1 certification on a H100. Congratulations Dan!

NC State under the guidance of Jim Livingston, flew Government Work on a J520 for a successful flight and test of their airbrake system and custom flight computer for NASA SLI. Jim Livingston also flew Sea Hawk on a L930 EX blue motor for another great flight. Kurt Hesse also returned to the flight line with his Performer 98 on an Alan Whitmore 54mm five grain K EX motor with a perfect flight and short recovery. I continued the flight schedule with my two stage – Double Cyclotron –  consisting of a 4 inch LOC Cyclotron on a J580 smokey staging to a 3 inch LOC Cyclotron Sustainer on a l216.

Dave Morey had a busy day – starting with Darkstar DD on a K480 flying to 6725’. Dave followed this flight with seven motor cluster – Sinister 29 with a main I200 followed by two G53s, two F42s and two F15s – everything worked as planned for an awesome flight.  Dave was not done yet and brought his two stage Der Red Max back to the pads. This flight did not disappoint and was boosted with a J357 Blue and staged perfectly to a G84 Green. This happened to be the only flight where Dave did not have a GPS in the Sustainer and usually when that happens you pop the main at apogee.  The sustainer was recovered with no issues the next day after an extensive ground search.

Dan Fritsch was also busy with five flights. HiTech on a H238, White Shark on a H219, Skrectch on a I175, Madcow Avalanche on a I377 and a Estes Multiroc on a couple C6s that had more of a horizontal flight than vertical. Chad Holm flew his three inch go-devil on a J390 but unfortunately experienced a forward closure failure. David Chrostowski flew Anderious 1 on a H73. Ralph Redd had two perfect flights – Loc VII on a L585 and Big Nuke on a K400. Mark Hartmann also had two perfect flights as preparation for his level 3 work – Frenzy XL on a K513 and DX3 on a J401. Naveen Domadia flew N-1 twice on G80s for some nice flights.

Keeping the low power pads busy was Dennis Hill and Richard Powers. Dennis Flew Wac Corporal on a B6 to 322’ and again on a C6 to 604’. Richard Powers flew Modulus on a E35, Arc Stratus on a C11-0 to C11-5 to 658’ and a Boosted Bertha on a C6-0 to a C6-5 to 661’ .

There were no flights on Sunday.

Will see you all at the next planned launch weekend : November 15-16.

Summary of the motors flown:

Motor	Saturday	Sunday
A
B	1
C	7
D
E	1
F	4
G	5
H	4
I	4
J	5
K	4
L	2
M
Total	37

Regards,

Mike Nay

Prefect, NC East Tripoli

Our first launch of the fall season got off to a great start. Our rocket trailer fell off the hitch just before arriving at the field. But thanks to a few early launch attendees, we were able to lift the trailer back onto the truck hitch and make it the rest of the way to the field. The sky was clear, and the wind was almost non-existent, which made for a perfect day of flying rockets. This launch also marked our first day using the new Wilson F/X Digital Control Systems – Wireless system.  A huge improvement over the hundreds of feet of cable we used to roll out for each launch.

We had over 50 amazing flights Saturday and Sunday and included some visitors from up north, large rockets with big motors, high altitudes and certification flights from NAR Jr Level 1 through to Tripoli Level 2 and 3.

Starting with certifications, Cameron Brown achieved his Triploi level 3 with his rocket Pure Imagination on a M1350 White. Emily Cates achieved her level 2 flying Blue Jay on a J180. Timothy Cherry, Aidan Pardo, Prarit Lokinen and Anasha Atkins all completed their level 1.  On Sunday, NCSSM Rocketry arrived, under the supervision of Dave Morey and six successfully completed their NAR Jr Level 1 : Amarchi Uwakwe, Shivani Rankumar, Casey Foeller, Alexander Caza, Nikhil Nanduri and Alissa Kurtzvic.  Congratulations to all!

Saturday had some amazing flights.  Steve Gregorski decided to make the trip down to Bayboro, NC to showcase his Vertical Control System which essentially makes all his rockets stay vertical through the entire flight.

https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/a-new-spin-on-vertical-orientation-control.174525

Steve’s two stage – Full Tilt – was launched with a K1103 in the booster to what seemed like an uncomfortably seven second long delay before lighting a K480 in the sustainer for a perfectly straight-up flight to 15K. Check-out the video Steve posted in the NC Rockets mail list. 

I also had an opportunity to launch my two stage – Double Shot – on a K1200 staging to a smokey J380. I only used a two second delay before lighting the sustainer to reach 10K in altitude. Dave Morey also had an exciting two stage Der Red Max flying a 38mm IJ335 to a 24 mm G65 motor. Richard Powers was also getting into the two stage show on the low power pad with his Boosted Bertha on a C6-0 to C6-5 and Arc Stratus on a C11-0 to C11-6.   I appreciate the challenges of multi-stage flights, and is good to see more of these flights each launch.

Moving on to the bigger rockets, Todd Harrison flew his massive 8 inch diameter, 13 foot Tarantula on a EX Blue N3800 for a perfectly smooth liftoff and straight flight with a recovery just a short distance away from the away cell. Steve Gregorski was at it again with Stellar on a K1000 Jim Livingston EX and Sugar High on a J450 Sugar motor all showcasing the vertical control system.  Zeno Dancanet also made the trip down from the Philly area to prove his avionics he will use on his L3 attempt. Zeno flew Keystone on a K535 and a K1100 both successful. Will look forward to Zeno making the trip back to Bayboro again.

Jim Livingston flew his famous Carbon High on a L950 blue and also tested the low power rack with his L’Nuke on a F25 white. Dave Morey likes his clusters and showed the crowd how to do it perfectly with his Enerjet 4004 with two G138T and two air started G53. Dave also flew Goose with the NCSSM team with a J500 center ground start followed by air starting two H180s and then air starting two H128 (one did not light). Mark Hartmann started off with his DX3 on a J420 then followed that up with his Frenzy XL on a K805 green . Zane Anderson also made an appearance on Saturday and flew his Direction and Magnitude on a L1030 to just within the waiver.

Sasha Matheson flew Andromeda on a K1100 and Anaconda on a L1090. I believe all parts were recovered and will make some good post flight analysis.  Dan Fritsch was also busy flying a Goblin on a J250, a Loc EZI on a I140, a Sport X on a H238, Liberty II on a H180 and Big Dog on a F23.  Chad Holm also had some fun recovery some pieces from his CATO of I235 EX motor on Ariel. Chad also flew his Go Devel on a J390 for a nice flight.

Tommy and Allen Harrell flew Road Rash on a H90 and G57. Danielle Stacy flew Darkwing on a I200.  The low power pads were busy with Richard Powers flying Patriot on a C5-3 and BMS on a E35. James Zechman had two flights with a B6-4 in his Bull Pup and a D12-3 on his Estes D Region 1^st. Johnathan Grose flew Patriot on a C6-7, Erie Vinson flew MoM on a C6-5 and Cambria Holley flew the Ster on a A8-3.

Thank you all for your support and assistance in pad set-up and take down and recoveries by foot.

Will see you all at the next planned launch weekend : November 1-2, 2025.  

Summary of the motors flown:

Motor	Saturday	Sunday
A	1
B	1
C	7
D	1
E	1
F	1	1
G	7
H	9	12
I	3
J	8
K	8
L	3
M	1
N	1
Total	52	13

More pictures from Todd Harrison:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rS3w7qRKVgBsA9mRxJnHqFmBEGGMFZtn

Regards,

Mike Nay

Prefect, NC East Tripoli