NC Rocketry

This weekend was the finest rocketry event I have attended in a long time! Lots of people (old friends and new), great weather, good field conditions, and a lot of interesting flights. The only things that could possibly have been improved were the wind direction on Saturday, and perhaps a few less mosquitoes. The recent loss of the Fentress field in Southeast Virginia brought a lot more of our friends from the North this weekend, and it was great to see them all. I have certification flights to talk about, tales of adventure in the deep woods of Pamlico county while recovering rockets, and lots more fun to tell you about, but first, the motor use summary. Continue reading →

Tripoli East NC held its last Butner launch of the year last weekend, and the weather was extremely cooperative. The winds were slightly higher than they were for the July launch, but the sky was blue and the temperatures were great for an August launch. I?ll stick in the motor use summary, and then I will mention a few people by name. Remember that all clusters and staged rockets are classified according to total installed impulse, which means that, for example, when Chuck Hall flew his Astron Cobra on three B6-6?s, it is listed in the motor use summary as a D flight.

Several families were in attendance and flew a bunch of rockets in the A through D range.?? Jarrod Ambrose was there with his children Owen and Sadie, Ed and Sonya Withers flew several rockets each and spent a lot of time with visitors and first-time flyers, like Luke and Camden Warden, helping them get some rockets ready to fly. The whole Amaroso family was there — John, Jame, Eliizabeth and Mitchell — and they were busy most of the afternoon.? David Clemens was on-hand with his daughter Linden, and they got in 2 or 3 flights before David dropped one in the trees, and a fairly involved expedition into the woods involving Dave Morey?s famous ?40 foot pole? was necessary to bring it home.

In the higher power ranges, Chuck Hall, Ron Hill and Jimmy Blackley all had a few very nice flights.

Dave Morey and Alan Whitmore found a pink Estes Mosquito in the lost-and-found bucket, and Dave had a bunch of extremely small (and some extremely old) motors in his tool boxes, so they had some fun trying to get that one lost again on motors in the 1/4A to A range. Those little guys are just plain tiny, and after the delay grains burn out, nobody saw a thing. But somebody kept finding it and bringing it back, so we managed to give it four flights before it flew off somewhere unseen. One of the motors was a 40-year-old Centuri A4-2, which performed perfectly, but hung out the back end so far that the little Mosquito was unstable. That one landed hard on the asphalt.

Now it?s time to move the action down to Bayboro and bring out the larger rockets. I?ll see you there on the weekend of September 26 ? 27.

Alan Whitmore, Prefect
Tripoli East NC