Launch Report, September 22-23, 2007

The first launch at the new field at Bayboro was a complete success. Attendance was a little disappointing, but I hope that the pictures that we are going to post on this site and others and a little "spreading of the word" will get the attendance back up.

Everybody who did attend was dazzled by the size of the field! There was an inconvenient field of corn, and most of the soybeans have not been harvested yet, but these crops will probably be gone by WELD and certainly be gone by the October 2-day. At that point we will be able to set up the launch pads about 1 mile from the edge of a rough circle about 2.5 miles in diameter, no trees, no power lines and no crops.

Dennis and Joe Hill made it down from Nashville, almost the entire David Rushing clan came to fly for the first time in (seems like) years, Lionel Overton lives just a few miles down the road and, of course, he and Valerie came and launched a lot of rockets on Saturday. Another flyer we hadn’t seen since the Whitakers days was Stewart McNabb who attended on Saturday, flying a variety of fine low-power rockets. Other members of the true hard-core who made the trip and seemed to have a fine time were David and David Hash, Dave Morey, Jim Livingston, Ed Rowe, John "Bird Dog" Hamill, and Tim Cherry.

For the historical record, the first flight at the new field was Alan Whitmore’s Jaguar on a D11, the first high-power flight was David Rushing’s Loc IV on an Aerotech H180W, and the first M motor flight was made by Captain Jack Orr in his Master Blaster using an 8000 N.s sugar motor.

Here is the motor use summary:

So, for those of you interested in getting your own name in the Bayboro history books, the first flights in the ¼ A, ½ A, N, O, P, and Q classes are still open.

Sunday was another fine Tripoli Research Launch, the weather was just about perfect, and David Cox showed up with some fascinating long-burn motors flying in his series of saucers. Jack Orr and Johnny Hoffman came up from South Carolina to fly some very exciting sugar motors. One of the motors was a little too exciting, the last flight of the weekend was Jack’s Sweet Sensation flying on a 3" L motor on an older formula from the Orr recipe book, and this rocket did not quite leave the rail before the motor CATO’d and destroyed the rocket, and smacked the motor back down against the launch pad hard enough to break the blast deflector off of the quad-pad. I’ll fix that baby up by WELD and it’ll be good as new.

On Sunday we also got to meet Mr. David Hunning, who farms much of the land in the big open area that surrounds the farm we have our launch agreement with. David was much entertained by the proceedings, and we have his permission to set up on his land when the wind conditions make that desirable.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Lionel Overton again for the work he did getting landowner permission and filing for the FAA waiver. All true lovers of High Power rocketry should give Lionel a big hug when you see him next month.

Alan Whitmore

Prefect, Tripoli East NC