WELD Fall 2008

Launch Report, October 11-12, 2008 Fall WELD

It just wouldn’t be a real WELD without some nasty weather, but this weekend the bad weather was confined to Saturday afternoon. Sunday was GREAT!

First, the motor use summary, and then I’ll describe every flight.

Size	Sat	Sun	Both
H		1	1
I	1	2	3
J		2	2
K		2	2
L		1	1
M	1	4	5
Stati Test		1	1
	2	13	15

Saturday began cloudy, began to drizzle, and then it started raining and didn’t stop. Alan Whitmore began the day with a flight of his Smooth Green Snake on a 6 grain 38 mm motor made from a formula called "Jim Scarpine Tribute Blue". Some portion of the rocket including the Walston was later found in the top of a very tall pine in deep, thick woods, where it remains. Then, Jim Livingston got the "Rebuild, Refurbish, Repaint, or Dust Off Your Level 3 Rocket and Fly it on a Homemade Motor" celebration off to a great start, flying his Viper on a 3 grain 115mm M1750. Flight and deployment were perfect and an altitude of 3900 feet was reported. It’s a heavy rocket! The Viper was recovered deep in the soybeans in the rain, we waited about an hour for a break, and then we called it quits.

Sunday showed us some much improved weather, although the wind was still in the worst direction, out of the east. The sun was shining and the clouds were high. I’ll report the flights in alphabetical order of the flyers’ names.

It was a treat to finally meet Mike Ficco, from the western portion of Virginia, who visited Bayboro for the first time. Mike flew his Simple Pleasures on an I180 made from the well-known "swamp gas" formula, his Sundog on a J285 made from the same formula, and finished off with his 4" diameter Sonic Disturbance on a K1100 blue flame formula. All flights were flawless! The Sundog wins my "favorite rocket name" contest this weekend, simply because of the actual sundogs that were visible in the high clouds early Sunday morning.

Mike Harris flew his Snarky twice on hybrid motors. The first attempt was on a K350/500 "Tribrid" that left the pad well but didn’t really deliver anything like K performance, topping out at 1229 feet of altitude. He then loaded the same rocket up with a Ratt-works L600 that really hauled the freight, recovering perfectly after a boost to 6229 feet. Blaine Jeffreys flew Ben’s Bigger Rocket on a 6 grain 38mm black smoke propellant that was very zippy, and again, the recovery was perfect.

Mike McBurnett had a L3 rocket contribution: his Sendero on an M1200 made from the really slow-burning "Orange Sunset". The flight was just about perfect, and the altitude of 11,367 feet was the highest of the weekend. Ed Rowe had another M loaded up for a patched-together rocket called White 6". This was another high flight (10,900 feet) that left the vast field, but with a happier result this time, it was recovered in a small grave-yard in the woods.

Ben Russell resurrected his Big Red for the L3 celebration and flew it on an EXTREMELY fast-burning M2700. This was a big, heavy rocket and it also recovered perfectly.

Ken Stroud static-tested a 4" sugar motor that worked very well (didn’t blow up). Now we need to get some performance figures for this project.

The most beautiful flight of the weekend was clearly the 2-stage project by Team Triton (Doug Gamber, Jerry Robbins, Ed Rowe and Mike McBurnett). They flew the Triton on a fast-burn, blue-flame L1500 in the booster and a white-smoke L2000 in the sustainer. Staging was perfect, recovery was perfect, and the sustainer reached 9238 feet. Just a magnificent job, guys!

Alan Whitmore flew his Generic Four Inch on a 4 grain 54mm motor made with steel powder (magnetic ink-jet toner) and a little catocene. The steel powder made a bright white flame, but detracted from the total thrust, so the motor delivered performance in the very high J range (1237 N.s) and the altitude was recorded as 4682 feet. Whitmore then flew the new V2 on a 2 grain H motor to 1119 feet.

It was a great weekend! Fun times with old friends, lots of big flights, only one rocket lost, and no CATOs.

Submitted by Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC

Photos by Ed Rowe

Photos by Mike Ficco

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