NC Rocketry

Well, we have had a rocky – or rather a wet – start to the season, but at least it got started.  The September launch was totally scrubbed due to the aftermath of a tropical storm and the Saturday launch for this weekend was rained out.  Sunday proved a little more acceptable with low ceilings for most of the day, only breaking late in the day for a couple of higher altitude attempts.

For a summary of the motors flown:

To start the season, we had the annual “burning of the scraps” where the EX crowd brings in all the off cuts, drillings, questionable propellant, etc. from the past year and it gets burned in a pile.  The pile this year was about average size and was an impressive show. 

Mark Peot had the first flight of the season with Eric the Rocket flying on an I140.  Robbie Kirk had three flights, Baby Bertha on a C6-5, Silver Rocket on a C6-3 and Red and White on a B4-4.  Cameron Brown flew his Bell X1 on a H550 which resulted in an impressive and loud vertical.  Nathan Patvin had two flights of his rocket Carrot on a I161 and a J510.  Sailor Koeplinger flew Changes in Altitude on a J800 later in the day after things opened up a bit for an impressive flight.  Sam Anderson flew Tempting Fate on a J250.  This was a nice flight until the main chute failed to deploy, but resulted in no real damage to the rocket.  Mike Nay flew Rocket (inventive name there Mike) twice, once on a F67 and again on a G77. 

The EX flights for the day were done by Jim Livingston and Alan Whitmore.  Jim flew LZ on a JSTB #4b formula, a fast burning blue, configured as an I400.  Alan flew Astro Mollusk 7 on a six grain I class motor made from a tri-modal variant of Ferric Fudge, a fast burning low metals propellant that is not for beginners… 

For the larger motor flights, Karl Robinson flew his Mac Performance Hyper 54 on a 54mm L805.  This was a minimum diameter rocket that was supposed to go to about 16,00 feet.  There was an issue on the ascent with some corkscrewing and I doubt it went that high.  It came down in the far South East corner of the field.  NC State had their Frankenrocket out for a flight that was a test of some of the upcoming SLI concepts and an interest launch for new members of the team.  It flew on an L1520 and was for the most part successful.  The only issue I observed was a dropped payload rover with no recovery system.

The next launch weather is looking much more favorable as this is being written and I hope to see every one on the 28^th.

Kurt Hesse

Once again, Mother Nature dealt us a hand that wasn’t exactly extraordinary for rocketry. Operations were cancelled on Saturday due to rain and overcast skies, but Sunday turned in a wonderful day for flying. The day started out cloudy, breezy and cold, but around noon, the sky opened up and temps rose to a semi-comfortable 55 degrees. Here is the motor table summary for Sunday’s activities. 

We had an exceptional amount of flights in the certification department; six successful Level 1s, and one successful Level 2. I usually talk in some depth about each flight, but that would result in a lengthy paragraph, so I’m just going to list the stats below.

Successful Level 1 Certifications;

• Christopher Luzzi, Just in Time, Aerotech H-242T
• Kennedy Anderson, Purple Pointer, Aerotech I-140W
• Gabriel Valenzano, Splatterbug, Aerotech I-140W
• Thomas Owens, Tech 20, Aerotech I-140W
• Lorenzo Botter (all the way from Italy!!), Loc IV, Aerotech I-140W
• Jonathan Grose, Hi-Tech 45, CTI H-125C

Successful Level 2 Certification;

• Parker Rhyne, Ugly Dragon, Aerotech K-535W

Congratulations are in store for everyone! Job well done!

Other than the several certification attempts, we had the usual club fliers on site. Jim Livingston started the day off with his Carbon High rocket which took his tried and true White Smoke propellant formula. The designation this time was a L-1100, and took the Carbon High to 4500′ with a nominal recovery. While we’re talking about research motors, Alan Whitmore put up two rockets, both of which came home just fine. The first was his 5 Point 5 on a propellant he calls Alan’s Accidental Achromatic. The motor was a four grain 54mm K and took 5 Point 5 to just under 2000′. The second flight Alan had was in his trusty Astro*Mollusk 7, which took a six grain 38mm I motor filled with Thing propellant. Dave Morey showed up with his 4″ Darkstar rocket, which went up on a classic Aerotech K-550W. While Dave was on site, he oversaw the Jordan High School BOTR team who put up their Taurus rocket on an Aerotech J-500G. Joe Hill brought out his workhorse 4″ rocket that he calls Iron Moon and flew it on a K-550W. Brent Bierstedt had three successful flights – a beautifully done 5.5″ Honest John scale model on a CTI K-670R, a smaller 2.6″ scale model Honest John on an Aerotech G-64W, and a plastic UFO saucer that took an Estes D-12. Our local club member, Robbie Kirk, kept the low-power pads busy with several flights, and Nathan Potvin finished the day out with his Karat rocket which went up on an Aerotech J-500G. 

Our next launch is April 8th and 9th, come join us if you can!

Joe Hill

Prefect, Tripoli East NC

Mother Nature has not been the kindest as of recent. This launch was a rescheduling of the weekend prior due to rain, and we didn’t get much better weather this weekend either. Saturday yielded ~18mph constant winds, but Sunday was sunny and fairly calm. Here is the motor table summary for this past weekend’s activities. 

IMPORTANT – before I get into the report, I have some bad news unfortunately. One of the farmers has made it crystal clear that he doesn’t want any vehicles on the field, AT ALL. I know we have been allowing tenured club members to drive on the farm roads ever since the big issue we had a couple years ago, but that will not be happening at all for the foreseeable future. EVERYONE will now have to travel by foot to get their rockets back. Please respect this as it’s a zero tolerance rule moving forward. 

As stated before, Saturday was pushing the limits as far as the Tripoli rules allow regarding the winds, and there was a ton of sitting around talking rocketry instead of flying. This report will be relatively short simply because there wasn’t a whole lot of activity! 

We had some hardcore regulars that were willing to make the trek to retrieve their rockets, and they weren’t going to let the wind keep them from flying. Mike Nay was the guinea pig on Saturday with his rocket named Mini Demon, which took a CTI H-255WT. He set the main parachute deployment altitude to 300′ to try and keep it close, but it still drifted quite a ways. Joe Hill decided to put an Aerotech I-211W in his 3″ rocket called Pink Dog, which only took it to 2400′. Joe’s rocket, even with dual deploy, drifted farther than it went up. Lexi Tucker, who is newly level 2 certified, put up the same rocket that she certified with called Oliver White on an Aerotech J-275W. Lexi’s rocket went up almost 5,000ft, but thankfully the weathercocking brought her rocket right back, and Oliver White laid down closer than every other rocket flown on Saturday. Jealous!! The final flight of the day was by NC A&T. They brought out a 12′ long, 5.5″ rocket that weighed in at 60lbs. They decided to shove the very high thrust Aerotech L-2200G in it, which turned in roughly 3500′ of altitude with a nominal recovery. 

Sunday was almost a complete 180 as far as the weather, and we got many more flights in. Jim Livingston started the day off with one of my favorite research propellants – Jim Scarpine Tribute Blue #4b. For those of you who have not witnessed JSTB#4b before, it’s basically a clone of Aerotech’s Blue Thunder propellant. Jim had mixed up a four grain, 76mm configuration which was designated an L-1500. Jim threw this motor in his 5.5″ Carbon High rocket, and it turned in an absolutely text book flight. While we’re on the subject of research flights, Alan Whitmore had two picture perfect flights on Sunday. First up was Alan’s Bertrand Brindley’s Beta which took a 54mm 2 grain JSTB#4C motor. I’m guessing this was about a 800Ns J-600ish, and if I remember, he started this motor at a Kn of about 190 or so. Alan later flew his Extended Irene on a six grain 29mm H motor filled with AlFeO propellant. He really ramped up the Kn in the motor, so it went out of sight pretty quickly. Richard Powers has been consistently joining us for a couple years now, and always keeps the low power pads busy. It’s always great seeing Richard, and am glad he got back into the hobby after so many years of not flying. Joe Hill put up a new 4″ rocket that he calls The Man with Fire on His Face on an Aerotech L-1150R to 11,000ft. 

We had one successful certification this weekend. John Meredith joined us from Greenville with his 3″ Loc Precision ‘Iris’ in an attempt to become Level 2 certified with the TRA. John clearly knows what he’s doing because he had an absolutely beautiful flight. John’s Iris went for a super fast flight on an Aerotech single use J-435WS, and came back home unscathed. Congratulations are in store for John! Great job.

We’ve got a launch coming up this weekend (3/18-3/19), so come join us if you can!

Joe Hill

Prefect, Tripoli East NC