Launch Report, April 23-24, 2005

The theme for this month’s launch was “April in Manitoba”! The wind was high (again) and Sunday’s temperatures were very cool for late April. The wind was a constant 6 to 15 MPH all weekend (with about 15 minutes break, which we will get to later) with gusts up to 25 MPH. The wind forced the cancellation of essentially all of the high-altitude flights, and severely restricted the use of high-impulse motors, but there were a lot of successful low-power flights and almost everybody had a good time.

The Rocketry Forum internet user’s group had their annual reunion at Whitakers this month, and it was great to get together with a lot of old friends in that group that I hadn’t seen in a year. Dick Stafford, Carl Tulanko, Jim Flis, Mark Brown, Phil Gerringer, and Chuck Jann, and a few more I hadn’t met before.

I’ll insert the motor use summary table here to show what I mean about the relative lack of high power at this event.

When nature gives you low clouds and high winds, you pull out the small rockets and flying saucers and fly low. Dick Stafford even flew his hat! Necessity is not only the mother of invention, but of some very entertaining rocket flights.

There were a lot of certifications this month, and cert flights are the most exciting part of any launch weekend. James Varrone aced his Tripoli L2 written exam, but the winds postponed his L2 flight. John Hobson had a successful Tripoli L1 cert flight with his Thug on an Aerotech H128W after a series of problems with igniters. Mark Easterly made a successful NAR L1 flight with his Binder Design Stealth using the Aerotech H123W. Chuck Jann used a Loc Minnie Magg for a NAR L2 certification flight using a J285. Then, on Sunday, we had two more cert flights: Reed Goodwin-Johansson made his NAR Junior Level One cert flight attempt in two rockets. One was successful and one was not, I don’t remember and the flight cards do not record which one was the good one so I will record them both. Reed flew his X-calibur on an Aerotech H128W and his Eye in the Sky on an Aerotech H180W. The other Sunday certification also required two flights to get it right, Evan Daniel flew his Blue Moon twice on the brassy LOKI J528. On the first attempt the main parachute did not slide all the way out of the body tube, but there was no damage. On the second try, everything worked perfectly for a beautiful flight.

Congratulations to all of you on jobs well done! Welcome to High Power!

A quick glance through the flight cards reminds me of a lot of very exciting flights. Doug Gardei brought two tiny, ornate rockets that flew on the Micro-max 1/8 A motors. These little motors could easily be flown in a gymnasium, and to trust them to gale-force winds in a huge cow pasture took no small amount of courage.

As I am writing this launch report I get to choose the best rocket name of the whole weekend, and this month it goes to Dick Stafford’s Massive Gassive, a 10 motor cluster rocket that flew on 10 D12’s and generated a lot of excitement. The rocket experienced an early chute deployment and popped the main chute at motor burn-out, but there was little damage.

Matt Backman came up from Wilmington to put his Red Baron through a shake-down flight before his L1 flight when he turns 18 in a few months. The rocket behaved very well on an Aerotech G80 with a 7 second delay, so he has a baseline set of data around which to plan his L1 flight. I’m predicting a successful flight.

Low black clouds and sprinkles of rain menaced us all day Saturday, and around 4 PM a brief and nasty squall blew in to soak all of us. We ran out to take down the pads (thanks to all of you who helped here, sorry I can’t remember all of you). After all of the launch equipment had been rounded up and stowed in the trailer, and almost everybody had left the field, the rain stopped instantly. The wind stopped, and the sun came out. Jim Scarpine, who had been working all day on prepping his 7.5” diameter Star Leopard, came out to the trailer and asked us to set up the away cell and launch his rocket. We opened up the trailer and pulled out the relay box and launch controller and ran out some wire. The Star Leopard was set up in a few minutes and those wet, tired few who remained were treated to the sight and sound of a Kosdon M2200 Skid-Mark motor. There was a volcanic eruption of bright sparks, black smoke and the loudest roar in all of rocketry! A great flight, even if the main did come out at apogee.

The wind picked up a little on Sunday, but the clouds broke up and gave us regular glimpses of clear, blue sky.

Dick Stafford brought out a beautiful model of a rifle bullet with plexiglass fins.

Paul Hoetjes’ beautiful Sky Dart was badly damaged by a delay grain failure in an Aerotech H123W. Paul also experienced a bizarre accident in the flight of his Horizon 54 on his first hybrid motor, a Hypertek J170. The aft rail button broke off at first movement, and the rocket began to weather-cock while still on the rail, so the rocket was already about 45 degrees off of vertical when it left the rail. It flew into a stiff wind, so it was recovered safely in the next field over.

Speaking of hybrids, Sunday’s first flight was a collaboration by Carl Tulanko and Ken Parker to fly the Antares on a Hypertek K240. I was working the LCO desk for that flight, and it was loud! That is a very flashy motor.

Phil Gerringer made his first flight in about a year, using his L3 rocket, the Mega Nuke, with an AMW M1900 “Blue Baboon”. A terrific flight to an altitude of 5073’ in spite of severe weather-cocking, which gave him the closest to the pad distinction, about 250 feet.

The flight cards record the attendance of a number of families, always a great sign. John and Nicholas Hobson, Stephen and Evan Daniel, Carl and Bruce McLawhorn, Rik and Rhiannon Faith, Brian and Greysen Coyle, and Nate and Jeff Jones all made multiple flights together.

Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC