NC Rocketry

We had very good weather for this launch, but attendance was down again.  The winds were about normal for us but primarily out of the Northeast so that really put a damper on anything high.

Summary of the motors flown:

There were some certifications this weekend.  On Saturday, Todd Bowman flew his Competitor 3 on a J425 for a Tripoli level 2 certification.  Cory Campbell flew Night Fury on a H100 for a Tripoli level 1.  Paxton Lammey, after a time away, completed the level 2 exam to re-instate his Tripoli level 2 certification.  Congratulations all of you.

For Saturday, we had one flyer who was extraordinarily busy.  Wes Shipley flew Alpha on a A8 and again on a B4, Bid Daddy on a D12 and twice more on E12’s, Amazon on a C6, Baby Bertha on a C6, Crossfire on a C6, Viking on a B6, Hi Jinks on a A8, Code Red on a B4, and Rascal on a A8.  That’s a lot of flights, some of which were a decent recovery hike for low power.  Richard Powers flew Patriot on a C5, Big Bertha on a C5, and 3 Inch School Rocket twice on E35’s.  Dave Morey flew Two Stage Crayon on a F63 in the booster to a D12 sustainer,  Stretched Mega Der Red Max on a I211, and Sinister 24 #2 on a G150 with two pairs of D12’s air started in succession, all of which worked perfectly.

Morgan Willis flew The Dream Machine on a J540.  Matt Willis flew Punisher III on a J315 that unfortunately started blowing gas out of the forward closure on the way up, popping off the nose cone and doing a little sky writing.  I am not sure, but I think the rocket escaped without major damage from the motor failure.  Cory Campbell flew Night Fury again after his certification on a H550. Paxton Lammey flew 4” Ugly Phoenix on a H220, Transonic II on a I180 and Estes Phoenix on a D22.  Jim Livingston flew Seahawk on a K560 research motor made from white smoke and Carbon High on a L1200 made from JSTB II 4b that didn’t quite go as expected.  Liftoff was good but somewhere between about 100 and 200 feet up, the motor casing let go.  Examination of the casing revealed that it apparently had a seam in it as it was split from one end to the other along a straight line with a nice shiny stripe down what looked like a step midway through the tubing wall.  It certainly looked like a defect in the extrusion.  The bottom of the rocket was a total loss and needs rebuilt.

Sunday was a very low activity day.  Dennis Hill flew WAC Corporal on a B6 and Big Dawg on a B6.  Samuel Kirk flew Shark on a G64 and with his father Robbie, Blue Star on a C6

Hope to see you all at the next launch.

Regards,

Kurt Hesse

Prefect

We had very good weather for this launch, but attendance was down a bit.  Saturday was a little breezy, but not bad, but Sunday was fabulous.

Summary of the motors flown:

There were some certifications this weekend.  On Saturday, Nick Pyrtle flew Aurora on a M1340 for a successful Tripoli level 3, and a fair amount of good natured heckling from the regulars.  Josh Elkerson flew PK-56 Hi-Tech on a H219 for a successful Tripoli Level 1.   On Sunday, Thomas Owens flew his Madcow Torrent on a J270 for a successful Tripoli Level 2.  There were some NARJjunior Level 1 certifications as well with Erin Bienstock flying Green Bean on a H130, Spencer Thomas with his Jack on a H165 and Michael Chen flying Space Z on a H130.  Congratulations to all of you for your accomplishments.

Other Saturday flights included Robbie Kirk flying 2.0 R2 on an experimental motor, his first (and I’ll leave that there), a G30 made with BV-3 propellant.  Brent Bierstedt had three nice flights, Nike Smoke on an I366, Black Brant on a M1297 and V2 on a J712.  Richard Powers was out again and flew Show Stopper on a D16, Top Shot on a E12 and 3 Inch School Rocket on a E35.  Conner Beaufait (I think – pretty hard to make out) flew his Mean Machine twice, both times on E16’s for nice flights of that long, tall, skinny rocket. 

Jim Livingston was flying his usual experimental motors with Seahawk on a K560 white smoke formula, and as a tribute to Alan Whitmore, a rocket named Alan on a 54mm J motor that was made by Alan Whitmore with the BV-5 formula.  We will be seeing the occasional flight of motors made by Alan as we work through the “rather large” stock of motors he had on hand.  Dave Morey flew  his Two Stage Crayon on a F63 to a D12, Big Daddy on a  F79, and tried Sinister 29 #3 H250 with four air start F15’s.  That one didn’t exactly go as planned as the H250 was cantankerous and just did a slow burn on the pad, blowtorching the blast plate.  It’s probably a good thing though as afterwards, he tried ground testing the F15’s and all four of them did their best impression of a single shot roman candle – might have been worse for the rocket than what did happen.  Old Estes black powder motors – gotta love them.  (Dave here- I think the H250G road flare toasted the nozzles/grains of the F15s and caused them to fail when ground tested.) Mike Nay flew Double Shot on a K1200 to a K260.  That one did OK until that long burn K260 lit with a significant horizontal component to the trajectory, resulting in a long trek but successful recovery.  Finally, Todd Bowman flew Cumulus on a J316.  This is not meant to reflect badly on Todd, but this was a light rocket on a day with a little wind, flying on a J motor with motor ejection only at apogee and no tracker on board.  That rocket came down a fair distance away and was not recovered.  It was observed to be under chute during descent so that part worked.  The lesson here is that high flights with a main deployed at apogee can be difficult to get back – especially with no tracker.  I would strongly encourage anyone attempting such a flight to use a tracker – either one of the GPS units or a RF beacon type that we can use the club receiver with.  Personally, I don’t fly anything without one, regardless of how high I expect it to go.  That is a big field and rockets mysteriously seem to just disappear into it.

On Sunday, Mike Nay flew Blue Iguana on a J380.  Kurt Hesse flew Butt Ugly, a rocket that has seen better days but still works, on a four grain 38mm  experimental motor made from Everclear.  Nick Pyrtle flew Cloud Maiden on a K400.  Robbie Kirk was back out with his son Samuel and they flew Camo Monster on a D16.  Robbie also flew Red & White on a G64.  Jeff Register flew Miffed Cow on a J460.  Jim Livingston flew Carbon High on an experimental L1200.  The NC School od Science and Math flew Cardinal on a J500.  Josh Elbertson flew Dumpster Juice on a H219 and Gabe V (something, sorry the flight card is illegible here) flew Splater Bug on a I140.

All in all, a good weekend and I am looking forward to the next launch.

Regards,

Kurt Hesse

Prefect

We had a good start to the 2024-2025 flying season.  The weather, while warm, was very good for flying, with moderate winds and decently clear skies.  The only down side to the weekend was the failure of out low power launch controller, which made us  launch those rockets using the near high power control box.  That coupled with a lot of flights, resulted in a line for the pads for a while on Saturday – something we just don’t see often at Bayboro.

Summary of the motors flown:

There were several certifications this weekend, all on Saturday with several of them for level 2 – always good to see.   Alex Key flew Starcatcher on a J435 for a successful level 2 certification.  Katelyn Yount flew ACME on a J270 for her level 2 certification and Trent Couse flew Madcow Torrent on an I140 and again on a J425 for successful level 1 and 2 certifications.  Nate Orlowski flew LOC Forte on a H100 for a level 1.  Ethan Sites flew Rocket in Progress on a H100 for a successful level 1 and Lauren Wilkie flew Pepto Bismol on an I180 for a successful level 1 certification.  Congratulations to all of you.

Also on Saturday, NC State was out in force and flew a couple of rocket.  First was SQUAKIT, a 3D printed/Duct Tape rocket with a square cross section (why not…) on an I366.  They also flew the more conventional Shake & Bake on a L1940.  Zane Anders flew a couple of rockets, Styx on a H128 and 20/20 on an I200.  Matthew Polanski had four flights, Corkscrew on a B6, Silver Comet on a D12, Double Portion on a C6 to a B6 staged and R2D2 on a C6.  Shriyans Dwivedi flew Send It! On a F35 and H1, a TARC rocket, on a F35.  Neveel Chheda flew Why so Feinious, another TARC rocket on what I believe was an F35, but that information was not specifically listed on the flight card.

Dan Fritsch came back after a long absence and was busy.  He flew LOC EZI on an I305, Big Dog on a F23, LOC HiTech on a H73 and Discovery on a H54.  Mike Nay flew Pink Lady on a K650 that suffered a motor casing burn through and a subsequent “non-optimal” flight.  Richard Powers flew Big Bertha on a C5 and Top Shot on an E12.  Mark Hartmann flew Frenzy on a K805 and DX3 on a J575.  James Holley flew Rocinmtc on a J270.  David Moreno flew Mustang II on a G76 and Kevin Vaughn flew LOC Precision on a H175.  Shyanne Large flew Miss Fortune on a C6 and Cameron Brown flew Mr. Rious on an E12.  Jim Livingston was flying research for the weekend, as usual.  He flew his Carbon High on a L1000 made from the reliable BV5 formula.  Phill Ash flew Pershing 1 on a G74.  Allen Harrel flew Hustler on an E12 and Audry Miskow flew E2X on a C6.  Ceila Smith flew another E2X, also on a C6.

On Sunday things were a little quieter as they usually are.  Just a reminder, on Sunday we generally fly until the people that are there and ready to fly are done and then pack up the field.  We don’t necessarily stay until the waiver expires. 

Robbie and Samuel Kirk flew Shark Claw on a G77 and The Orca on a C6.  Kiatlny Holm flew Hakeln twice, once on an H268 and again on a I218.  Chad Holm flew PML Ariel on an I245.  Mike Nay flew his Double Shot, a two stage on a J760 to a K360 with much better success than the previous day.  John Tolppi flew Estes Executioner on a D12, while Connie Tolppi flew Screaming Eagle on a B6 and X-15 on a C6.  Jim Livingston flew Seahawk on a K500 white formula research motor.

We had a good start to the season, and I hope to see everyone at the next launch,

Regards,

Kurt Hesse

Prefect