NC Rocketry

We found the lost launch cards from the October 28 Sunday event, so allow me to give you the individual run-down on that day before I get into this last weekend.?? I?ll list the flyers alphabetically, since I don?t remember the order in which these flights happened.? Dan Fritsch flew his Madcow Tomach 4? on an Aerotech K400C DMS motor, and one other flight with his Madcow DD Screech on a Loki I430.? Kurt Hesse flew his new-ish Butt-Ugly on a homemade 3 grain 54mm motor.?? The apogee charge fired, but did not separate the parts, so when the main deployed there was some minor damage.?? This is a fiberglass rocket, so it wasn?t nearly as bad as had it happened to a paper or phenolic rocket.

Johnny Hoffman was on hand with a 3? hybrid rocket powered by a HyperTek J317.?? Flight and recovery were perfect.? Robbie Kirk had two fine flights:? His Red and White II flew on an Aerotech G79W using the Jolly Logic device, and the Moonracker flew on an Aerotech H210R.?? This one chuffed a few times on the pad, so the delay element started burning too soon, resulting in an early ejection.

Jim Livingston flew his big V-2 on a homemade 6 grain 54mm K560 that was probably made from the blue-flame CP5 formula.? Mike Nay flew his Yellow Jacket on a K650 that worked very well.?? Unfortunately, both CTI and Aerotech make K650?s, so I can?t tell you which one it was.?? Since it was Mike Nay, it was probably a Cesaroni motor, but I don?t know.?? Everybody could help out the launch report writer by writing the manufacturer and ?single-use? or ?reload? or ?EX? on the flight card.?? Alan Whitmore flew the Stealth Blue on a 3-grain EX 76mm small L made from the Black Velvet formula, and his GFI flew on a 4-grain 54mm EX K motor made from the CP5 formula.

Now?.??? On to November.?? The weather this weekend was so fine that I worry that we have used up all of our good-weather luck for the 2018-2019 season!?? Saturday was clear, cool, and amazingly calm, for Bayboro.? The wind was out of the west, blowing everything out over one of the longest axes of the field.? First, the motor use summary:

Eric Noguchi usually flies with the Butner group, but this weekend he was in Bayboro to try his luck in a really big field.? He flew his Rumble Bee on an Estes B4, and the Vertigo on a D21.? Tom Keith returned after a long absence to fly 2 rockets twice.? The Formula 54 flew on a G80sk and again on a G83 blue flame motor.?? Then, the Optima flew on a CTI G280 vmax and again on an H151.

Allan Rose was back with his short, fat rockets.? This weekend the Minnie Mag flew on an Aerotech H148R, and the Sky Raider and Big Cletus both took rides on the Aerotech I284W.? The NCSU High Power Rocketry team made their qualifying flight with their sub-scale model called NICE on an Aerotech I435T.?? The flight was good and recovered intact, but the full-scale needs a little more fin area.

Tommy Harrell made a flight with his two-stage project, which placed the Crazed Pink on top of a booster section, with a CTI I566 Vmax in the booster staging to a CTI I224 cl in the sustainer.?? These two motors add up to a total installed impulse in the J range, so this rocket is listed in the ?J? group in the motor use summary.?? As of Sunday afternoon, the sustainer has still not been found, so be on the lookout for a pink rocket lying over to the south of our usual launch site.?? This flight and one of Tom Keith?s reminds me that someone reported that Cesaroni will no longer be marketing the Vmax propellant formula.?? It did give a lot of flyers problems with CATO?s during its lifetime, so the decision is not really surprising, but it was always one of my favorite commercial propellant formulations.

David McCloy, the prefect of the South Carolina group, made the trip from the Palmetto State to fly on a larger field, and flew his G3 on a CTI K750.??? This was a flight to the 10K foot region of the skies, an attempt that could never be made at the somewhat smaller Camden sod farm.

A lot of our regulars were on hand keeping the pads busy until the sun was almost down on the horizon.?? Mike Collier had 4 flights, Dan Fritsch had 3, and Joe Hill, Ralph Malone, Robbie Kirk, Mike Nay, and Dennis Hill were all busy and productive.

Because of the almost-ideal atmospheric conditions, there were a lot of big motor/high altitude flights on Saturday.?? Paul Schaefer flew his Worst Paint Job Ever on an EX M1330 made from the Black Velvet 7% formula.?? This flight was perfect both up and down.? Johnny Hoffman flew his Hy Tek Red Nek on a Hypertek M1000 hybrid motor.?? Like the best of the large-tank nitrous motors, this one seemed to burn forever as the bright dot of flame disappeared into the clear sky.?? The HTRN was recovered ?intack?.?? Jim Livingston tested his Viper with his new 7 grain 115mm O motor made from his white-smoke formula, and this time the power of the O4470 was just too much for the fins on the Viper.?? Somewhere around 950 feet/second and 2500 feet up, the fins started to rip off, the rocket turned sideways, and it started to come apart in grand fashion.?? Several very heavy parts hit with a major thump, but no property damage or injury was reported.?? To finish off the BFR group, Alan Whitmore flew the recently rebuilt Spork III on a 3 grain 115mm M motor made from the EX CP5 propellant, a blue-flame recipe.?? This one was recovered with only minor airframe damage after flight to the 9200 foot region.

Sunday was another great day for weather, with warm temperatures, bright, clear blue skies, and extremely calm surface winds.?? We soon discovered that the winds aloft were very strong, and anybody who put anything up to any serious altitude was taking a very long walk to bring things home.?? The winds and the fact that everybody was still a little tired after Saturday resulted in an early close on Sunday.?? I can mention every flight on Sunday.?? As usual, Dan Fritsch was very busy, flying the PML Ariel on an Aerotech H178DM, his PML Tethys on a Loki J377 [The J377 is not listed in the TRA/NAR combined list of motors or in the Loki catalogue, but the I377 cocktail motor is, so maybe this was an I motor flight.]? Dan also flew his Madcow Tomach on an Aerotech K1100T for a very exciting flight and athletic recovery.?? Mike Nay started his day off with a flight of his Sahara on a CTI I55 mellow yellow motor, and then followed that up with a flight of his Sublime on an Aerotech L1000W.?? Both Mike and Dan were over in the northeastern section of the field for A LONG TIME on Sunday, chasing the Tomach and the Sublime, but they made it back home safely.? Alan Whitmore then flew his Bertrand Brinley?s Beta on an EX 2 grain 54mm J motor made from Livingston White.

Have a great Thanksgiving and we?ll see you in December for the last launch of 2018.

Alan Whitmore

Prefect, Tripoli East NC

We could tell by the weather reports that this weekend was going to be about ?half good?, with the forecast for Saturday being cold, wet and cloudy, and clearing skies for Sunday.? As it happened, the winds were high both days, in the 12-17 MPH range, but the wind direction was optimal, everything was being pushed out to the east, away from the closest trees.? We are gradually getting used to the fact that Bayboro is windy, and occasionally a long walk will be necessary to get your hardware back home.

The big news of any launch report is any certification flight, and on Saturday Justin Freeberg flew a very well-finished Madcow kit he calls Batman on a CTI I255 for a great flight and perfect recovery.?? Welcome, Justin!

Mike Nay is still sharpening his 2-stage skills, and after assessing the wind situation, he decided to test a new wrinkle on second stage ignition, and launched the sustainer of his Double Trouble #3 on an Aerotech J340 Metalstorm which was initiated via a head-end ignition system triggered by some Wi-Fi connection on his smartphone.?? Must have been magic or voodoo, because it worked perfectly.??? Allen Harrell was back with his grand-dad to fly a 2 stager called Bad to the Bone II on a D12 staging to a C6.?? This one worked perfectly and Tommy and Allen had a long walk and a good time visiting the soybeans.

Dan Fritsch was not at all discouraged by the wind, and he stayed busy all day, giving some smaller rockets a good workout with flights to lower than usual altitudes.?? Even so, Dan had a lot of exercise on Saturday.?? Dan?s PML Tethys flew on an Aerotech I180W, and he had three flights of his Madcow Discovery on motors of increasing oomph.?? First, the Aerotech F23FJ, then the F40, and finally the AT G25.? All of these flights came home undamaged, I recall.

The skies cleared around 4:30 Saturday afternoon, and we packed the trailer in welcome bright sunlight.

Sunday morning saw clear skies and a much higher ceiling, so a lot of folks who kept their rockets in their cars on Saturday brought out the parts on Sunday and started prepping.?? Unfortunately, I could not find the flight cards late in the day, so I will not be able to give you any details about specific flights.?? The wind remained high, but the skies were exceedingly clear, and even my old eyes were able to see 3? and 4? diameter rockets up to 1 mile and beyond.?? We don?t get atmosphere like that at Bayboro very often.? Also on Sunday, the booster section that the Univ. of Tennessee team lost on the second weekend in October was found by Robbie Kirk and his friend as they searched the field for one of Robbie?s rockets.

I can report from memory that Jim Livingston, Alan Whitmore, Mike Nay, Kurt Hesse, Robbie Kirk, Dan Fritsch, and Johnny Hoffman all had very interesting flights and long walks to help with their cardiovascular conditioning.??? If I find the launch cards at the next launch, I?ll append a little more detail on to the November launch report.??? Remember that we are flying on the weekend of November 17-18 to avoid conflict with the Thanksgiving holidays and the family-related events of that weekend.

Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC

After a brief delay while eastern North Carolina recovered from the effects of Hurricane Florence, we met again at Bayboro to officially kick off the 2018-2019 High Power Rocketry season.? ?The weather was fine all weekend, except for the wind direction on Sunday (more about that later).

I shall try to hit all the flyers in alphabetical order, and mention most of their accomplishments, both positive and negative.? Dan Fritsch was very busy both days, and on Saturday he made 5 flights:? the LOC Iris flew on and Aerotech H550ST, the Madcow Sport-X used an AT H135W, the Discovery flew on an AT single-use G80T, and another Madcow kit, the DX3, flew on an AT G125T.?? Dan also flew the Mini Cowabunga Extended on an E30 for a very unstable flight.?? Allen Harrell was on the scene with his grand-dad, and they flew a rocket called Williams (or maybe it was William?s rocket) on an AT G64W, the heavily modified CowCow on an Estes C6 to C6 staging, and his Red Max on a single C6.?? Mark Hartmann scored a perfect 100% on the NAR level 2 written test and followed that up with a successful L2 flight in his Madcow DX3 using the very loud Aerotech J500G.?? Also on Saturday, Mark flew his Pitbull on an AT G77R.

Dennis Hill gets this month?s ?most disgusting rocket name? award with the first flight of a new rocket made from extremely old parts:? A 3? diameter rocket called Lu?s Prolapse.?? The flight itself was perfect.? Joe Hill had 2 very fine flights on Saturday.? The Carbon GTR flew on an Aerotech J180T and then the K-Rocket flew on the Aerotech Warp Nine motor J1299N.?? Nasty fast!

The team from Jordan High School is working on 2 projects this year.?? Their 2018-2019 TARC project is called Audacity, and they flew it 3 times on two different F motors to dial in their performance for the contest.? They also brought back last year?s Battle of the Rockets (BOTR) entry, Beep Beep I?m a Sheep? on a Cesaroni I216cl motor.?? Robbie Kirk was working his way through the alphabet on Saturday, flying the Sky King on an AT D15T, Terra Cotta on an AT E28T, a nameless rocket on an AT F22T, and ending up with his Spike II flying on an AT G54W.? All those flights went very well.

Jim Livingston had a mixed day on Saturday.? He flew his Sea Hawk on a homemade 3? L900 made from the Black Velvet 5 formula for a magnificent effort:? Long, smooth burn and lots of altitude, and it stayed out of the trees.?? The flight of the new-ish EX-Rocks was less happy.? At motor ignition, the 6-grain 38mm Ferric Fudge I500 CATO?ed instantly, destroying everything below the equator on that rocket.? He thinks the culprit was likely the accumulated ?fines? as the bottom of a bag of old AP 400 that was intended to slow down the burn, but may have had just the opposite effect. ??The North Carolina State University HPR club brought the new members of the club to the field for an introduction to HPR and to prep and fly a rocket built by last years team, called Ery Nuts II, (a name more typographical than creative, I think) on an Aerotech I435T.? The flight and the trip were a complete success.? Mike Ney is getting very good at staging, so this weekend he was working on air-starts.?? On Saturday he flew his new Big Orange on a AT K805G, with 2x AT J340M motors to help out.?? For some reason the J340?s did not light, and he was able to use them again on Sunday.

Lionel Overton had a fine flight with his Black Brant on an AT J350W.? Ed Withers had 3 flights.? Corrected Mistakes on a C6 staging to a B4, and this one worked well, so the mistakes were apparently corrected.? Then, his Initiator flew with the AT G64W, and then he finished up with a flight of Deere John on the CTI I242w.? This flight used the Jolly Logic Chute Release device, which is really catching on.? Alan Whitmore flew Bertrand Brinley?s Beta on a homemade 2-grain 54mm J motor for a safe flight.

The University of Tennessee ? Chattanooga team, UTC Rocket Mocs, worked most of the day to prep the little Golden Boy, a minimum-diameter 2-stage project designed to attain some serious altitude.?? This device had an H140 in the booster and a H53 in the sustainer and GPS recovery in all of the sections.? For some unknown reason, the sustainer did not light, but was recovered intact.?? The booster section was not seen again, even after some sustained search work.

Sunday began with high clouds around 6500 feet up, but they began to break up around noon, and provide us with big patches of blue.?? The humidity was low, the temperatures were great, even for transplanted northerners, but the wind stubbornly remained out of the southeast all day long.?? This is a problem because for the site we set up in this weekend, the closest stand of woods is located to the northwest.? Your correspondent is one of the people who decided not to fly on Sunday.

I?ll list the flyers alphabetically as for Saturday, and mention interesting happenings as they occur to me.?? Sam Delong had a Sunday that was a lot more athletic than he imagined when he got up that morning.?? He flew his beautiful scratch-built Warthog on a CTI J140w, and the rocket did what all rockets with marginal thrust/weight ratios do upon take-off:? It wandered around during the burn, going this way and that until the airspeed finally was able to stabilize the flight path.?? Unfortunately, the flight path was almost due north at that point, and the rocket ended up deep in the woods.?? Sam and I carried the lineman’s pole back into the underbrush for about 100 yards until the GPS unit carried us directly to the trees that held the Warthog.?? Fin section, electronics bay, and nose cone were arranged almost horizontally, about 60 feet above the ground.??? We hiked back out of the woods and Sam went looking for ladders and eventually chain saws.?? As sunset approached, Sam crawled back out of the woods with the rocket, about 50 fire-ant stings, blackthorn scratches, and about a million mosquito bites.? When Sam gets his teeth into a project, he just does NOT give up.

Trevor Elliott, who is the academic advisor for the UT-Chattanooga rocket team, was also trying to get NAR level 2 certified this weekend, and aced the written part on Saturday, as did Mark Hartmann.?? The NAR written test is a lot more detailed and involved than the TRA L2 test, and this is the first time I have administered the test and had anybody score 100%.?? On Saturday we had two perfect test results.?? However, Trevor?s L2 flight was not a success, with some airframe damage and structural bulkhead damage that could not be repaired.

Dan Fritsch was back on Sunday to make three more flights.? The Sport-X flew on a Loki H125ct motor, his LOC Iris had its structural integrity tested with the violent AT H339N motor, and a new rocket, the LOC Goblin Extended on an AT I140W.?? All flights were right on the money.? Joe Hill and Jim Livingston were planning a big flight in Joe?s Carbon GTR making use of one of Jim?s long 54mm homemade K560 motors made from Jim?s white-smoke formula.?? Joe fretted about the clouds and the wind direction all day, and finally decided to let the Carbon GTR go for a wild ride.?? As it turned out, the rocket ended up a long way away from where everybody was concerned that it might end up.?? When the Marshall transmitter and the Walston receiver finally located the rocket it was almost 1.5 miles away to the east, and the main parachute had never been deployed, so it landed hard.? Very, very strange.

Robbie Kirk was back for one more flight, the Sky King flew on an AT F40.? Mike Ney brought Big Orange back on Sunday to try the airstart thing one more time.? This time he used a CTI K780bs in the middle and lit up both J340?s in the airstart.?? All the parts on that project came home intact.? To finish out the Sunday activities, the UT-Chattanooga team flew another, very similar 2 stage minimum-diameter rocket called Big Red.? On this occasion, the booster motor was an H53 and the sustainer was an I204.? The badly under-powered rocket crept out of the tower and began to hunt around and gyrate around the body axis.?? When the second stage finally lit up, it was pointing slightly above 45 degrees from horizontal, and headed off to the south.? All parts of this rocket were recovered in the same field we used for the launch, so the max altitude was probably around 2000 feet, which was not very close to the predicted 14,285 feet listed on the flight card.? This team needs to take a long, hard look at their performance simulation computer program.?? Any program that would predict that an H53 would be adequate for the booster motor and that 14,000 feet would be attainable for the package needs to be carefully re-examined.

I had a fine time this weekend, and I hope everybody else did, too.?? I?ll see you back at Bayboro for the weekend of October 27 ? 28.

Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC