NC Rocketry

This weekend marked the last launch at Bayboro until the crops have been harvested in September.? A lot of flyers from Virginia and North and South Carolina decided to take advantage of the opportunity to get in some rocket flying before the summer.? The weather was not ideal:? On Saturday the wind was brisk and blowing in exactly the wrong direction ? towards the huge field of winter wheat planted to the west of our customary launch site.? We moved the pads a few hundred feet farther away from the wheat, but a few people had long walks in the green stuff.? On Sunday, the wind was a lot calmer and shifted over to out of the Northeast, but the field was in light fog all morning and it was not until the early afternoon that the fog and cloud ceiling began to lift a little.

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For the past few months I have been more lax than usual about writing the monthly launch reports.? Things have been so busy at work and at home that I often forget that I have been to a launch the moment I walk back in the door.? But I still have the flight cards and a few pencil notes I made on Sunday night, so let me try to reconstruct the last two launches at Bayboro.

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Two-day winter launches at Bayboro can occasionally have a split personality and this weekend was one of the most extreme examples of this tendency that I have seen.? On Saturday, the combination of high wind, low temperature, and high humidity made the weather conditions extremely harsh and unpleasant, while Sunday had long stretches where there was absolutely no wind whatsoever;? it was still cool, but the sun was out and the winds were very calm and it felt great to be outside.

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