NC Rocketry

The weather forecast for this weekend was not at all promising.? Rain and high winds were a universal feature of all of the forecasts.? However, several University teams involved in either the NASA SLI competition or some other activity had flights that needed making and deadlines to meet, so I called in the NOTAM, loaded the truck, and got up early Saturday and headed to Pamlico county.? Before dawn on Saturday, I-40 was a parade of horrors:? light freezing rain the night before had left most of the overpasses and bridges extremely slippery, and there were wrecks and pile-ups every few miles.? I spent the entire trip tip-toeing around the worst ice patches and questioning my own judgement.? Then, between Raleigh and Smithfield, I ran into an icy fog that extended all the way to New Bern.? The fog dispersed just about the time I drove into Lionel?s back yard to pick up the trailer, and by the time I was ready to unload the trailer, the sun was out and the temperature was warming up.

Attendance was, as you might expect, not robust.? But, the people who came out flew some rockets and had fun and enjoyed the company.??? I can dispense with the usual motor use summary and mention every flyer by name and most of their flights. ?I shall proceed alphabetically.? On Saturday, Joe Hill brought out a new rocket, called K Rocket and flew it on a J500G, Apollo in the Forge of Vulcan on a H178 Dark Matter, and his PeeDee on a J275W.? This latter flight was one of the last 2 flights of the day, and the sun was just dipping below the trees when it launched.? It was a very high flight, and landed a long way away, and it was almost completely dark when Joe finally appeared out of the gloom, carrying the rocket.

Robbie Kirk was back with some more rockets:? Red and White? flew on a G104 and Starchaser? with an I195.? One of these rockets is still lying out in the corn stalk stubble somewhere, but while Robbie was out in the field, he found Mike Collier?s rocket which was lost back in November.? ?Jim Livingston waited until fairly late in the day when the wind had died down a little bit to fly his Seahawk on a 54mm EX K motor made from his white smoke formula.? Charles Long had a box of new Loki Research motors to play with and try out the snap-ring configuration.? He flew his Mac Performance Scorpion on an I210, the Blue Toad on an I405, and his Minie Magg? on the I350.? Like most of those who came this weekend, Charles enjoyed several LONG walks in the corn stubble.

Mike Nay also made an appearance to fly his EZI-65 on a J180 for another perfect flight.? Mike was also gone a long time before finally re-appearing with his rocket.

NC State University Senior Design team 2 was back for another attempt at dual deployment of recovery parachutes (after a most unfortunate outcome back in November), flying the White Lightning on an Aerotech I284W.? This flight was a lot better, but the main parachute did not fully deploy, so they still need to refine their approach before the final grade is awarded.? The NC State High Power Rocketry Club, who are entered into this year?s NASA Student Launch Initiative, flew their subscale model, Red Rocket, on a K1103X (a new motor for me!) for a very good flight, but something? happened that prevented both? altimeters from firing the main charges.? Only slight damage there as the rocket was built extremely strong.? Greg Twiss is the faculty adviser for the new Duke University rocketry team, and he was attempting a NAR level 1 cert flight.? The rocket was a beautifully finished Madcow Nike Smoke which was flown on an H230, but the winds carried that one so far that everybody lost sight of it before it landed.? That one is still out there to the ENE in the corn stubble, so be on the lookout for that one in January and February.? If the rocket is recovered ?in flyable condition? or in a condition that looks it was flyable before it got rained on, Greg gets certified.

Sunday:? Even warmer than Saturday, and, if possible, even windier!??? Jeff Goldstein brought a new rocket, the Black Mambo, and also tried out one of the new clam-shell fall-away rail button mounts.? Everything seemed to work just fine.? Joe Hill came back to make one more flight with the K Rocket, this time with a J315R motor.? Another great flight and another long walk.

Charlie Moss made a number of flights on Sunday and did not let the wind discourage him at all.? His Ventris flew on an F32, the Vulcanite on a G70, and his Forte on a G64W.? I just love that G64, I need to get one of the 29/40-120 cases to replace the one I left hanging in a tree deep in the malarial black-water swamp next to the old, unlamented field at Battleboro, NC.? Mike Nay stayed overnight to fly his Formula 75 on an I345, for another perfect flight.

The University of North Carolina at Charlotte SLI team was another academic group who needed to make a subscale flight in December to stay on schedule, and the Midlands activities were cancelled because of rain, so they made the long drive out from Charlotte to check out the flight characteristics of a rocket they called Big Subber on a J315R.? This flight was just about perfect, but a very large main parachute dragged it a long way over the field after landing.

Alan Whitmore got Sunday started with a test of the winds aloft conducted by his Astro*Mollusk 7 on a 6-grain EX 38mm motor made from the ultra-reliable Livingston White formula.? The main parachute got tangled with the aft section shock cord, and the landing was hard, but the damage was slight

Please join us at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh on the weekend of January 29-30 for the annual Astronomy Days Event.

Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC

The 2016-2017 flying season at Bayboro got cranked up last weekend on a glorious, sunny, warm, and calm day in late September.? The air was still (and very humid) and most rocket recoveries were easy.? The only problem, other than the heat, was that the soybeans are still green and thick.? Rocket recovery in soybeans is a major challenge.? Without a radio tracker it is almost impossible, and with a good, powerful tracker it is a huge physical challenge, and involves a lot of luck and careful planning.? A field of beans cannot be traversed by a normal healthy human being by going across the rows,? you must first determine how the rows are laid out and then travel the length of the field by staying in one row.? Even then, there are significant vines, weeds and other organic hindrance to make a walk through the beans a physical workout like you can?t get at a gym.? In short pants, don?t even think about it.? A lot of flyers have bean stories from this weekend.

Perhaps I should have just cancelled this month?s launch, but I?m glad I didn?t.??? We?ll have a look at the motor use summary and then get down to the details.

The most important events at any launch are the certification flights, because they are an indicator of the future health of the hobby.? This month we had two.? Henry Hartman had gotten out of the hobby for a few years to raise kids, and has recently decided to get back into it.? He made a successful TRA level 1 cert flight on Saturday with his Cardinal Glory on an Aerotech H148R.? Steven Batten is a regular with the Charlotte club that flies near Midland, NC and he came to Bayboro to get a little more altitude for his TRA level 2 flight, which he pulled off perfectly with a flight of his Spark Knight Rises on a Cesaroni J285.? Steven also gets the long-neglected Best Rocket Name award this month for his whole collection of rockets, which includes the Snowflake of the Apocalypse which he flew on a D12, and the Waiver of Oz, which flew on an Aerotech E20.

We also had a few new flyers.? Ralph Malone came down from METRA country with one of his friends (whose name I did not get) to do some flying in the North Carolina humidity.? Ralph had successful flights with his Quicksilver on an AT H123W and his Sudden Rush on AT?s I357T.

Another new flyer just learning the HPR ropes was Mike Nay, who flew his Astrobee D on a CES G126WT and his G-Force on the Cesaroni G88SS.? Both worked quite well, if memory serves.

A whole crowd of our regular flyers was there and stayed very busy on Saturday.? Tom Keith had 3 flights and his son Matt flew his Silver Arrow on a B4.? This rocket was given to him by our own Joe Hill at a previous launch.? Ed Withers, Ray Bryant and Dan Fritsch each had 4 flights and most of them worked great.

Kurt Hesse is beginning to get into making his own motors in a big way.? This month he made a fine flight with his Shiny Diner on a 38mm I motor constructed with a blue-flame formula, and flew his first 3? diameter homemade motor in his Performer 98 which made a perfect flight to the 8000? region, followed by a rather athletic recovery in the soybeans.

Charles Long flew his Green Arrow on a Cesaroni I224CL and Joe Hill had an extremely successful flight of his Frenzy Primus using the EXTREMELY loud Aerotech J825R.

Jim Livingston has been making his own propellant since the Truman administration, it seems, and he showed us how it was done with a K500 flight in his Extended I-Roc and an L1000 flight in the very sturdy Carbon Hi.? Both motors were made from his tried and true white smoke formula.? For some reason not apparent at the time, both altimeters in the Carbon Hi fired the main charges but the nose cone did not deploy, resulting in a hard landing.? This rocket rested in the field overnight, and when Sunday dawned about 15 degrees cooler than Saturday, Jim made the long trek through the beans and brought it home, showing some minor damage (the rocket, not Jim).

The 2016-2017 Jordan High School team was on the scene, and under the direction of Dave Morey they made a checkout flight with the latest version of their gyroscopically-controlled variable roll rate rocket, called the Ursa Major.? The motor they chose for this flight was the Aerotech K1000T {which for some reason I cannot find in the list of certified motors}? and it took an abrupt left turn after leaving the rail and ended up in the woods down near David?s trailer.? After about an hour and 7000 mosquito bites, they emerged from the woods with the rocket!? Nice work, guys!

The weather was so perfect on Saturday that Alan Whitmore blew off his RSO responsibilities and prepped the ridiculously large Be?lzebob at the away cell and loaded it up with a homemade 115mm N motor made from the always-reliable Black Velvet propellant.? Around noon, the buttons were pushed and Be?lzebob rose to 8900 feet and landed perfectly, very close to the launch site.? Later on Alan flew his Astro*Mollusc VII on an 8-grain 38mm J motor made from a little bit of this and a little bit of that.? Another great flight followed by a long walk in the beans.? Even the prefect is occasionally obliged to take a long walk in the beans.

Sunday was a very different sort of a day.? Lots of clouds with overcast at 2400? when we got the equipment set up at 10:00.? The winds had picked up to about 7 or 8 MPH and were blowing directly out of the east, pushing rockets towards the closest soybeans (there?s that word, again).? The cloud deck slowly lifted to about 4000?, but everybody on the field had been there on Saturday and done some degree of exercise in the beans, so nobody was eager to fly very high.? I can tell you about every flight.

Charles Long brought out an Applewhite Saucer and flew it on a Cesaroni G54RL.? Charles also flew his tube-fin masterpiece Delta Heavy on a CT G118 Blue Streak motor, and finished up with the very heavy Blue Toad (another tube-fin drag queen) on an I195R.? This particular flight was remarkable for a coincidence that I have never observed and will probably never see again.? On the way down the Blue Toad hit Charles? car and put a small dent in the fender.

Dan Fritsch also thought that Sunday morning merited a pyramid and put his up with an Aerotech G53FJ.? Later in the afternoon the winds calmed down a little bit and Dan decided to take a chance with flying his Thumper jr on an Aerotech J425R.? As it turns out, the wind and the soybeans were the least of his problems.? A failure of both apogee and main deployment put this one in the ground ?way over yonder?.? Dan and Joe Hill went on a safari and finally brought it home, but the nose cone will need to be replaced.

The attentive reader will notice that I have attempted to identify each motor by manufacturer and propellant type, even which such information was not recorded on the flight card.? This is because I will soon be assuming the job of Chairman of the Tripoli Motor Testing division, which certifies all mid- and high-power rocket motors made in the United States.? I am trying to get more familiar with commercial rocket motors, even though, as most of you know, I seldom fly commercial motors in my own rockets.? It?s going to be quite an adventure for me, working with the TRA Board of Directors and with the rocket motor manufacturers directly to make sure that you, the members of both the NAR and TRA rocketry communities, get accurate information about motor thrust curves and delay performance.? If any of you would like to help with the motor testing sessions, your assistance will be very valuable.

Alan Whitmore

Prefect, Tripoli East NC