August launch report

                The August launch at Whitakers didn't see nearly as much action as other recent launches, because of the heat, the lack of commercial high-power motors,  and perhaps the obligatory afternoon thunderstorm, but those of us who did attend had a fine time.  The motor size breakdown runs something like this:

                (Tech note:  Staged flights are always listed by the motor class of the booster.  Thought I would mention that because we are getting an increased number of staging attempts, very exciting.  This past weekend the sustainer of Dave Morey's Two Stage Arreaux (G64 to G40) made it to 4568 feet!)

                We were anticipating a NAR level 3 certification attempt from Randy Ejma, but the afternoon thunderstorm caught him still in the preparation stage, so that flight was scrubbed until later.

                There was one successful certification flight, Bill Morris made a NAR level 1 flight with his LOC Expediter, using an H180W.  Congratulations Bill, and welcome to High Power.

                Sunday was at least 5 degrees cooler than Saturday, so the small crew of EX enthusiasts who showed up enjoyed relatively mild conditions in the low 90's.  Jeff Taylor had two flights of his star-grain 54mm motor configurations in his new Iris, the first was a very successful flight of a J1200, the details of the second were not recorded, but the long grain experienced a de-bonding problem, followed by the abrupt exit of the forward bulkhead.  Alan Whitmore had two flights, the Higgs Boson flew on a 5-grain 54mm K motor and the Astro*Mollusc survived yet another flight, this time on a screaming 8-grain 38mm J motor that almost lost its nozzle.  David Cox also had a very successful Sunday, launching his Magnum on a J800 blue-flame propellant and his Mirage on a 6-grain red-flame I motor. 

                Kelly Mercer had one very fine flight on his Cherokee loaded up with a 54mm K1000 made from the very reliable "75:5" propellant.  Kelly and Doug Gamber teamed up for a collaborative project that didn't turn out as well:  They fitted Doug's Triton out with a 3" L motor in a Kosdon casing loaded up with 3 grains of one of Kelly's fast blue recipes.  When the button was pushed, both forward and aft snap ring grooves were torn off and the casing was split wide open, most of the back half of the rocket was destroyed.  This is indeed a shame, because the Triton, like any rocket from the Robbins/Gamber stable, was beautifully finished, it had a metallic clear-coat finish that you could fall into and get lost.  We all hope Doug and Jerry rebuild this magnificent missile and bring it back to Whitakers as soon as possible.

                The table shown above illustrates a real problem in sport rocketry currently:  High Power, at least on the East Coast of the United States, is becoming the exclusive realm of Experimental flyers.  Aerotech is not selling motors to East Coast distributors and the other manufacturers are not stepping in to fill the gap that really needs to be filled to bring more High Power flyers into the hobby: the G through K motor size range.  The whole rocketry hobby is driven by progression and advancement: any kid who has successfully launched and recovered a little rocket with a B motor immediately thinks how much cooler and exciting the flight would be with a C motor.  The same thing is true for the big boys and girls:  I can tell you from my own personal experience that the moment you make and fly your first M motor, you are thinking about N's!  But the economics of survival for the vendors who make this hobby work lies right in the middle - the people who spend the money that allows our vendors and dealers to pay the rent are now flying G's and H's and want to build rockets with which to fly I's and J's.  These people are not interested in EX, they want commercial, certified motors.  The market is there, why won't Aerotech or Cesaroni gear up the process and sell us some motors?

                Alan Whitmore