Launch Report August 24, 2003

            The August launch at Whitakers is, next to the Christmas launch, the second-least-attended launch that we hold on most years.  The heat, the high chance of thunderstorms, the fact that almost everybody has summer vacation plans, conspire to make even the hardiest rocketeers stay home or go elsewhere on the fourth weekend in August.   The devoted hard-core who showed up this weekend were hit hard with a very good reason why they should have stayed home this weekend.  The current lease-holders had trucked in about 2 or 3 hundred tons of reeking excrement from the floors of chicken houses and from  various municipal waste “sludge” producers.   They were in the process of spreading this ordure over the whole field, but Saturday came and they were at home, leaving gigantic piles of excrement all over the pasture.  The grass was very high, and the spreading operations that had been carried out in the part of the field containing the tree line and the walk out to where we set up the pads, had splattered a lot of stinking excrement on the grass stalks almost waist high.  It was impossible to walk out to the pads without getting smeared ankle to armpit with a bunch of nasty filth.  The grass at Whitakers has never been higher since 1997, when I first started attending launches in this field.  But we rocketeers are made of stern stuff. We came to fly and fly we did, stumbling through the vegetation, sweating like pigs, and praying we didn’t drop a rocket on one of the larger piles.

              The heat was high, the humidity was very high, the stench was apocalyptic, and the density of flies was absolutely beyond description.  On Saturday it was literally not possible to breathe without swallowing a few flies.  The ambient sound was worse than a bad horror movie.  The flies screamed and whined so loud that conversation was difficult.  About 4 or 5 o’clock they decided that fecal material was not enough and they started to chomp on human flesh.  Even Bill Shamblin, a devoted camper who enjoys the solitude of a night in the cow pasture under conditions that would drive most of the hardiest people home for the night, had to pack his gear and head to the motel with the rest of us.  Whew!

              Let’s have a look at the motor breakdown.

              As you can see, activity was down.   Statistical anomaly #1 – no H motors were flown on Saturday.  This is very odd and brings me to the thing I usually take the greatest joy in reporting. This weekend there were no certification flights.  However, the regulars provided a lot of entertainment and we had a few first-time visitors to Whitakers to spice things up.

              Dave Morey brought 2 of his “Sinister” series, the first, with 7 24mm motor tubes was flown with 2 D12’s and 3 E9’s.  I missed that flight and don’t know what happened, but I did see the flight of the Sinister 29, loaded with 2 G35’s and one G64W, ignited on the pad, 2 G40’s airstarted at 2 seconds, and 2 E9’s airstarted at 5 seconds.   Everything got rolling right on schedule and the flight was magnificent.  Dave, if you have an altitude on that flight, let everybody know.

              Eric Fadely can also cluster a bunch of motors.  He launched his Event Horizon on 7 F20’s.  The rocket weighed 6 lbs, and got off the pad very rapidly, so I assume all the motors lit.

              David Draper flew his minimum diameter Cirrus Dart on a Pro38 I205 out of a tube launcher.  The launch produced a fascinating booming brassy sound out of the tube, and the rocket accelerated like the proverbial scalded dog, but unfortunately was not recovered.

              Mark Mazzon joined us from Ohio this weekend. Everybody learned a lot from his innovative construction and main parachute deployment techniques.  On Saturday, he made a big impression with the flight of his completely scratch-built Honest John on a J350W.

              Fans of the long Aerotech White Lightning loads were also thrilled on Saturday by the flight of the Red Bullet V2.0, built by Alexander Bruccioleri from New Jersey.  This rocket was an all-business altitude attempt using the Aerotech J570W.   We activated the 12,000 foot window and waited for a hole in the clouds.  The J570 came up to pressure like a shot-gun blast and ripped a big 12,000 foot long whole in the sky.  The nose cone and electronics bay were recovered down by the grocery store, but the fin section was not seen again.  BOTL.  Metallic red, 1.5” in diameter and little triangular fins.

              Sunday was slightly cooler, slightly less humid, and only about 75% as many flies showed up.  Mark Mazzon is new to EX and flew his first 2 homemade motors with complete success!  Good job, Mark.  Bill Shamblin flew his Black Brant X on a 54mm K motor made by Alan Whitmore, 4800 feet and about a 200 foot walk to bring it home.  The winds were very calm on Sunday.  This worked to the benefit of Dave Muesing, who is getting some serious altitude from his potassium nitrate/magnesium/epoxy formulas.  Dave uses the magnetic apogee detector, so he always puts out the laundry at apogee.  Time for some 2-stage recovery, Dave.

              David Cox was very busy on Sunday, he had 4 flights and 2 static tests that ranged from tough little 29 mm motors to 54mm full K motors made with the new secret weapon, E118P.  David can release that secret if he chooses to. Suffice it to say that the burn is fast and there is nothing in the flame to prevent you from seeing A LOT of Mach Diamonds.

              Alan Whitmore put up the Astro*Mollusc on an 8-grain 38mm motor that snapped more than a few necks, and the nozzle, and warped the steel thrust washer.  After assisting Bill Shamblin with the arduous recovery of their joint Black Brant flight, Whitmore launched the Confusing Fall Warbler on a 5-grain 54mm mid-K motor made with a Chromic Oxide-catalyzed formula.  The Altac reported 7332 feet pressure altitude, 7448 feet inertial altitude, maximum velocity of 1102 fps and max acceleration of 33 g’s.  A personal record!

 Alan Whitmore, Prefect

Tripoli East NC