September Launch Report

            We had a semi-disappointing launch this month – the weather was fabulous, the manure had been spread and washed in by the hurricane, the flies were back to normal, and the winds were calm, but attendance was slim, only 15 registered flyers showed up.  Those flyers who did make the trip had a fabulous time in weather conditions that were perfect for rocketry:   If you pointed them straight up, they came straight down!

Here is the motor breakdown:

 Impulse             number

 A                      6

B                      

C                      3

D                      7

E                       3

F                       4

G                      10

H                      8

I                        2

J                        3

K                      1

              The big excitement for the weekend was the certification flights.   Josh Swarts flew his Explorer on an H165R for a successful level 1 flight (I got there a little late on Saturday, so I didn’t determine whether this was a NAR or TRA cert.) and Mark Miller had a fabulous flight with his Magnum on a Cesaroni J330 for a Tripoli L2 certification.  Congratulations to both of you on jobs well done!

              A scan through the flight cards reveals the first attendance of the Chauvot family from Florence, SC.  Cory and Joel made several flights this weekend, including an L1 cert flight, and we hope you will come back and fly with us again.

              Ken Parker made several flights with a free flight glider from a British company called Orbital Engineering.  These were absolutely delightful!  The airplane boosts absolutely straight under C and D power and goes into a very flat glide path immediately after boost.  The construction and attention to detail on this kit is quite amazing. 

              Dave Morey reports that he had a very good flight with his camera rocket, so be sure to check his web-site for the latest pics of Whitakers under ideal conditions.

              Sunday was an EX day, and attendance was also down.  There were a lot of people there, but only 2 rockets were flown.   Everybody is waiting for WELD, I reckon.   Alan Whitmore flew his Flying Buttress on a 76mm baby L motor constructed from the copper oxide-catalyzed propellant CP3.  The Buttress has been on the injured reserve list since December, but it is back on the roster, now.  Data analysis from the Altaac accelerometer indicates that the motor was an L890 that burned for 3.5 seconds, sufficient for 5898 feet. 

              Dave Muesing was also in attendance with a motor in the big I or small J range that he flew in his Proto VII.  The propellant was a variant of Dave’s KNO3/Mg/RIO/Epoxy project that he has been working on lately, and this one just slightly missed the correct Kn:  the rocket didn’t have quite enough speed at the end of the launch rod to get stable, so it laid over horizontal and relied on the Magnetic Apogee Detector that Dave uses to bring it back undamaged.  He’ll tweak that combination a little and bring it back again next month for WELD.

              We have an ESTES Silver Comet in my truck that was lost in June or July.   Is it yours?

(submitted by Alan Whitmore)