Launch Report, Whitakers, NC   June 28-29, 2003

    Rocketeers are a group of people, like aviators and farmers, who are keenly in tune with the rhythm of the earth, the seasonal changing of the skies and the earth that alternately and annually rakes your face and hands with biting cold and wind that grabs even drogueless rockets and slings them way off over miles of frozen, barren land, or, like this weekend, soaks your body in the kind of supernatural heat and humidity that makes even the biting flies torpid and listless as they crawl up your socks.  The rolling seasons have however, gradually progressed out of the waterlogged spring into the brain-boiling summer, and the sun has dried out the pasture-land at Whitakers, bringing with it the migration of rabid rocket flyers.  

    There were more than 30 registered flyers at this months’ 2-day sport launch, and more hot and fractious kids than you could shake a launch rod at.  The REAL good news is that, in spite of a very uncertain regulatory future, there were a lot of new fliers and lots of new spectators asking the kind of questions that indicate a new rocketeer on the way.

    Let’s start off with the flight card data:

     As for most months, the most popular motor size is D with the old reliable D12 being the most popular motor at the launch (23 D12’s were consumed).  The G64W was the next most popular motor at this launch, and I suspect that this is due to the recent purchase of a bazillion G64’w by Ken Allen.  Thanks Ken!  (I flew one in the Nematode, a rocket that had not flown in more than a year!)

     Some statistical analysis:  30 of the 154 flights made this weekend were H motors, or larger.   Thus, 19.4% of all the flights were “high-power” flights.  In the previous 12 months, my launch reports catalogue 309 flights made at Sport launches (no EX included here), 62 of those flights (20.1%) used motors [or combinations of motors] that were H or larger.  These fractions are not statistically significant (Chi-square test), and my interpretation is that the new ATF regulations have not yet affected the high-power hobby in North Carolina. 

 Memorable high points:

  1.  The delicious pignick that was orchestrated by Bill Shamblin.  Thanks to all of you who brought food and supplies, it was all very good.  I don’t know who brought what, but it was delicious, and the pig was perfectly cooked.  Apparently lots of people agreed with me, cause there was nothing but skin and bones left.  Special thanks to Bill, good job! Look for a little something in the mail.

    2.   The thunderstorm that blew in just as I was finishing up my supper.   I have a lot of experience with the old Carolina Frog-strangler, but this one was a corker!   Kelly and Rich and I ran out to tear down the launch equipment and get all the electronics in the trailer, and we could only orient ourselves by shouting, we couldn’t see 2 feet on front of our face.  Pulling down launch rods with lightning crashing around so close that there was no delay between the light and the sound just about scared the wadding out of me, I don’t mind reporting that I was flat scared.  I was also wet, but you should have seen Kelly and Rich!

    3.   Mike Harris made a successful L2 certification flight with his rocket Periwinkle’s Pride on a J285.  Mike was loaded up and ready to fly when the storm blew in, so he had to wait until Sunday to get the job done.  It was a beautiful flight and recovery was spot on!  Congratulations, Mike.

    4.   Randy Ejma and David Cox flew 5.5” rockets on the loud and brassy Aerotech J415W, one of my absolute favorite certified motors.  Randy had some sort of premature ejection charge problem on the way up, but HARV II is so strong that it came down undamaged under chute.

     It felt great to be back in the cow pasture flying some rockets with my friends.  Lots of folks had beautiful new rockets with wonderful designs and great paint jobs:   Eric Brown from Roanoke, VA brought some very clever designs by the RSO table when I was on duty.   I wish the ATF and other regulatory type could see the level of family participation that we have at our launches when they decide to legislate us out of existence.  A quick glance through the flight cards showed a major family presence: the Draper, Hash, McBurnett, Hoetjes, Jeffreys, Rushing, Ejma, Fadely, and Jensen families all had multiple flights by multiple family members.

              Alan Whitmore