NC Rocketry

Saturday was a superb day for rocket activities except that the wind was a little high.? That is really not a factor at Bayboro, it just means that we walked a little farther to get our rockets back.? I?ll leave off the motor use summary for this month and just hit the high spots, in order of increasing motor size.

Jacob Usher and Andrew Katz were gathering data for a high school science fair project, and they were comparing the results of one or more altitude simulation software packages with the actual attained altitudes, as recorded by a small altimeter.?? They had two rockets, the Sightseer and the Liftoff, and they flew both on 3 B6 motors and 3 C6 motors.? They were recording wind speed, temperature, and atmospheric pressure at the moment of each flight, so they should have a lot of data for their analysis.? That adds up to 12 flights, all successful, and a lot of running after rockets.? Nice work!

Allen Harrell flew 3 of the 4 remaining C6 motors in his Cow-cow and Red Max.? Dennis Hill flew the other C6 in an old rocket he acquired from David Rushing, called the FireFlash.

Robbie Kirk was obviously ?batting for the cycle?, making successful flights in the E, F, G, and H range.?? Dan Fritsch, Dennis Hill and Steve Polk were also flying rockets in the F through H range.? Steve gets this month?s Best Rocket Name award with his Adult Supervision Required, which flew on an Aerotech H180W.

For some reason, perhaps related to the wind, a lot of rockets that might have been launched on J or K motors, made very successful flights on I motors.?? The I motor was clearly the recurring theme for the November launch this year:? Charles Long flew his extremely robust Blue Toad on a Loki I350, and the new MECO on a Loki I405.? Kurt Hesse flew the lovely Shiny Diner on an Experimental 4-grain 38mm I motor made with the Cu4 blue-flame formula.? ?Ralph Malone made another great flight with his EZI-65 with the green-flame I245G.? Dan Fritsch flew his Mad Cow Super DX3 on an I357T.? Dennis Hill brought a new rocket made from spare parts found in his workshop, which he dubbed the SP-3, and flew it on an I284W.?? There was some deployment difficulties, if I am thinking about the right rocket, but the damage was minimal and SP-3 will be back soon.? Alan Whitmore flew the Astro*Mollusk VII on a homemade 6-grain 38mm I motor made from a low-metals formula called ?CATO 1?.? And finally, to wrap up the I motors for the weekend, the NCSU High Power Rocketry Club flew their 2017-2018 subscale model, Very Nuts II, on the Aerotech I435T.?? The main parachute on this project came out at apogee, so the students from State had one of the longer walks of the weekend.

NC State?s Senior Design team #3, headed by Matthew Lampe, flew a small, ridiculously complex rocket called BMER on an Aerotech J420R, for a perfect flight.? This one flew fairly late in the day, and the students were coming back with the rocket right at sunset.? Ralph Malone flew his Sudden Rush on an AT J350W, but anything that flies on the J350 is sudden!? Joe Hill flew a new rocket called Deus Deceptor on a J570W, which is even suddener.? Mike Nay tried out the J270 in his EZI-65, and the flight and recovery were just fine.

Charles Long flew his Big Nuke on the Loki K960 White motor, and Charles and David had one of the more involved recoveries, way over yonder.? Andrew Eulberg made the trip from South Carolina to attempt some altitude not available at the Camden field.? He brought a slim rocket called the Javelin which he had loaded with the long-burn Aerotech K250.?? This rocket was on a great flight until one of the fins came off and it began to cork-screw.? The rocket broke in half, with the front section including electronics bay, coming down under drogue, and the motor and remaining fins continued on under full power.? That portion has not been recovered yet.

Joe Hill flew his L3 rocket, Short Spoon, on the lovely Loki L1487 Blue motor, and recovered it safely.? The big event on Saturday was the flight of Jim Livingston?s venerable Viper on a homemade 115mm full M motor, made from his white-smoke formula.? Slow, stately takeoff, LOTS of smoke and noise, and a perfect recovery over to windward, in a place where very few rockets were coming down.?? When a rocket weighs 106 lbs, the wind can?t do much with it until the main parachute comes out.

Sunday was a heartbreaker.?? Clear skies, warm temps, and a wind that was so bad it was hard to stand up straight.?? One of the NCSU Senior Design teams was planning to fly on Sunday, but they have been pushed back to December.?? I hope to see you all there for the weekend of December 16-17.

Alan Whitmore

Prefect, Tripoli East NC

Our second October launch in 2017 was similar to the first launch (see previous report) in that it was a half-good weekend.? The weather Saturday was just about perfect:? a few high clouds in the morning that disappeared later in the day, and then some extremely high and fluffy clouds moved in.? Temps were in the 60?s in the morning and warmed to the low ?70s later in the day, the wind was in the wrong direction, but calm by Bayboro standards.? Sunday was just foul, and I managed to get the trailer pulled off the muddy field and parked at Lionel?s house by 10:00 AM.? There was just a drizzle when I hooked up the trailer, but one of the tropical storm bands of rain moved in while I drove up 306, and I dropped the trailer in rain so heavy I couldn?t see the back of Lionel?s house.

This was a great weekend for seeing old friends.? The biggest surprise was seeing Stewart Whiteman, who has not been to an event in Bayboro for at least 5 years, maybe more.? Stewart came to re-certify L1 in TRA, and made a perfect flight with a rocket called Rudd on an H148R.? Dave Hash always helps out with the Astronomy Days events every January, but we hadn?t seen him at a launch in a few years, so it was a delight to see him back in agriculture-land.? David Cox was back for his second launch of the season, making several flights in the E through H range.

We were also privileged to see another successful flight on Saturday, when Joseph LoBuglio used an Aerotech H128W for a perfect flight in his Arcas for a NAR level 1 certification.

This is the season when our academic teams bring out their projects for preliminary performance analysis.? ?The NC School of Science and Math TARC team, led by Sahil Sethi, brought a rocket called Halo, that they flew twice on Aerotech E28s.? The details are not recorded, but I recall that deployment was safe in both flights.? Lorenzo Shaikewitz is leading another TARC team from Jordan HS and they flew a rocket called Waddle three times on the AT F39, for successful, informative flights.?? The Jordan Rocket Team also brought out a rocket called Dark Matters that they plan to enter in the Battle of the Rockets.? This one flew on an AT J500G for a perfect flight and recovery.? For some reason, the lander did not manage to fall out of it’s deployment bag, so that aspect needs a little work.? Somewhere in all the other student flights, NCSSM student Jennifer Wolfe flew an Estes Maxi Alpha Three just for fun on an AT F24, for another perfect flight.

A bunch of the regulars were back doing what they do well.? Allen Rose, Chuck Hall, Kurt Hesse and Dave Morey all had excellent flights.? Dave Morey nailed another one of his spectacular air-start extravaganzas:? loading up hi Loc IV with an AT I245G, followed up by 3 Estes E9s, and then 3 D5s 2 seconds later. ? At least one E9 blew up and some of the D5s may have lit, but it is had to tell from the ensuing fire and damage in the motor airframe. When I add up the total impulse of all seven motors, it still classifies in the I range, so this flight is listed among the I motors in the motor use summary.

Jim Livingston was very busy on Saturday, making three? flights on homemade Research motors.? The H-Roc flew twice on 6-grain 38mm I motors, one was a mixture of a little of this and a little of that, and the second flight was made with the extremely exciting ?Jim Scarpine Tribute Blue #4? propellant.? Then, later in the day, he flew his 7.5? diameter V-2 on a 5-grain 54mm K motor made with a white-smoke propellant.? All three flights put the main parachute out at apogee (by design), so Jim did a LOT of walking on Saturday, for a man of his age.?? Also in the Research area was a spectacular motor failure by your correspondent, in which a 4-grain 54mm K motor blew out the forward bulkhead at ignition, destroying 90% of the Generic Four Inch, a rocket that has been around for 13 years and would have made its 69^th flight, if it had stayed together.? The design is just too good to abandon, and you will see Generic Four Inch II at some future launch.

The big deal of the weekend was a joint endeavor by Dennis and Joe Hill, who flew a beautiful scale model of the Honest John on an Aerotech L850W.?? This rocket actually needs more motor than the L850, because the HJ laid over coming off the rail like it wanted to play like a real battlefield nuclear weapon and go destroy one of farmer Rice?s barns or something like that.? It got to about 35 to 40 degrees off vertical before the power band really came alive, and it continued straight at that angle.? Max altitude somewhere around 2180 feet.

I hope to see all of you in November?..

Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC

This was one of those classic half-good rocket weekends at Bayboro, when the weather really cooperates on one of the days,? and just can?t seem to get it together on the other day.? Saturday was warm and calm, but the clouds started out low, and just never seemed to clear all day long.? The local AWS was reporting 600 feet of ceiling at 9:30, when I arrived at the field, and only rose to 1200? by 5 o?clock.?? Sunday, in contrast, was a gem!? Still warm with calm winds, but the clouds broke up around 11:00, and we had clear blue skies all day.? How about a motor use summary:

The smallest motor flown all weekend was the F24 flown by Robbie Kirk on Saturday in his No-Name rocket.? Very unusual to have a whole weekend with no low-power motors flown.? The regulars were there on Saturday, looking around in the motor boxes for some combination that would keep them below the clouds.?? Most did.?? Dan Fritsch, Charles Long, Steve Polk, Mike Nay, and Sam DeLong were busy all day, but almost no-one else was there or flew anything.

Sunday was much better.? Certification flights are always the biggest events of the weekend, and we had two on Sunday.? Allan Rose re-certified level 2 with the Tripoli organization by scoring high on the written exam and then flying another nameless red and yellow rocket on a J350W for a perfect flight and recovery.? Welcome back to Allan!? Cade Brinkley waited all day Saturday for a break in the weather, and when none presented itself, he came back on Sunday for a perfect flight of his beautiful bronze and white rocket, also currently without a name, on the Loki M1650, a motor made with both blue and red flame propellant grains, and which is called Cocktail by the manufacturer.? The motor and the rocket both performed flawlessly for a successful TRA L3 certification.?? Cade has posted the on-board video from that flight at https://youtu.be/kYoej2Nj6vc????? .

Ralph Malone was in town from New York, and he had three good flights on Sunday, using his EZI-65, and a PML Sudden Rush.? Kurt Hesse, who is usually in the homemade motor group, flew his Shiny Diner on an I211W to good effect.? Charles Long and Sam DeLong were both back on Sunday for some much higher flying, and both were very successful.

The good weather on Sunday brought out the EX crowd in a big way.?? Jim Livingston and Alan Whitmore were up to their usual sort of EX activities, and Eric Fadely and Jeff Goldstein made the trip from SEVRA-land to fly with us again.?? Jeff had two flights that were right at the ragged edge.?? The first was a flight of his Swamp Thang on a motor made from one of the low-metals/high red iron oxide formulas that are famous for extremely fast burn rates.?? This was predicted to be something like an L3000, and it sure acted that way.?? Safe recovery after a high flight.?? The other flight was on the other side of the ragged edge:? This flight abused his rocket called Red Stick on a commercial Aerotech K2050 Super Thunder motor.? As soon as it got up to pressure, it blew both the front and back ends of the motor off and the propellant came spinning down, burning from both ends.? Very messy.? The opinion of the senior members of the club is that the ST propellant may not actually be ?ready for prime time?.?? I certainly would not fly it in any of my rockets.

Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC