Launch Report for Whitakers, NC, July 26-27, 2002

            First and foremost, I want to apologize if some of the information in this report is incomplete or inaccurate, because on Saturday I was not wearing my prefect hat, I was prepping a rocket for a Level 3 certification flight.  My attention was not on the details of the launch mechanics and crowd activities. 

The July and August launches at Whitakers have historically produced some of the hottest and most humid conditions that we ever experience.  The weather this weekend will be remembered for a long time by those who made the trip as some of the most severe in memory.  In spite of the weather, however, lots of flyers showed up on Saturday and more than 60 flights were made.  A late-afternoon thunderstorm added some drama of its own, especially for Ken Allen, our vendor, because his beautiful new truck doesn’t yet have a top for the cargo bed!

First, a breakdown of the motors flown on both days:

* We know that this number is low because I saw Jeff Taylor fly 3 rockets and only 1 flight card was in the box.  More about the flight card situation below.

            Only 3 certification flights were made this weekend.  Eugene Cebollero attempted a NAR level 1 certification flight on a Public Enemy Rockets Patriot, using an Aerotech H123W.  Unfortunately, the card does not record whether the flight was successful, so I don't know whether to extend our congratulations or our sympathy and encouragement.   Eugene also made several flights with a G80-powered rocket carrying an Intel onboard digital movie camera.   If you know Eugene, please encourage him to send some of that video to Stephen Krall to be posted on this website, we would all love to see the output!

Jeff Koffel had a very exciting and very successful Tripoli level 3 certification flight with his scratch-built Solus which flew on an Aerotech M1419W.  The horizon towards Whitakers was black and threatening when the Solus lifted off and the wind was picking up, there was a lot of drama during the the prep and the flight.  Congratulations, Jeff!

Alan Whitmore was not so successful.  His Architeuthis dux   was  loaded with one of the new Animal Motor Works M1850 Green Gorilla motors and flew absolutely straight up and out of sight in the haze, but the main chute came out at apogee.  

            Sunday was even hotter than Saturday!  We had a real Jeff Taylor-fest on Sunday because Jeff is moving to Connecticut and wanted to clean out his magazine;  Jeff flew 3 times with his own rockets and two of us (that I know about) flew Jeff’s motors in our rockets.  Jeff has been working very hard to perfect the star-grain technology for Experimental High-Power and he has attained an encouraging level of reliability. 

By 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon, we were gasping for breath and sagging in our chairs.  The temperature was climbing up to 98 degrees and the humidity was well up in the soggy area.  Even Jeff eventually lost enthusiasm for recovering rockets in the heat, and we folded up our tents and left the field by 3:00.

A note about flight cards:  I rely on the flight cards to give me a complete picture of what went on at our launches, even when I was looking in the other direction.  A lot of people read these reports and seem to enjoy them, I especially enjoy recording in a public forum the successes of flyers who have made Tripoli and NAR certification flights.  If you are serving as LCO at our launches, please remember to record all data for certification flights in detail, especially whether or not the flight was successful.

Experimental launches present another set of problems.  Because we don't usually have a formal RSO/LCO arrangement working when there are only 4 or 5 flyers at the field on an EX Sunday, a lot of people simply don't bother to fill out flight cards.  Please remember that , 1.) the Tripoli insurance policies require us to fill out and save flight cards for every flight that is made at all of our launches, and 2.)  I rely on the flight card to write an accurate launch report for each launch.  Gimme some help, people!!

            Alan Whitmore