Bayboro 10/09 Report

Launch Report October 24-25, 2009

We have been banking away the "good weather luck" for a long time, and this weekend we were finally able to make a withdrawal. The weather was warm but not hot, partially cloudy or clear blue skies, and no rain at all until about 4:00 on Saturday afternoon. The main problem was the wind on Saturday, and it beat us up pretty good, making everybody walk a long way for recovery, but the crops were harvested and I got no reports of lost rockets. By Sunday, the wind had died down to a much more manageable level and lots of people showed up: not quite up to the glory days at Whitakers, but still a very good crowd. The new road signs that Dave Morey made brought in quite a lot of spectators, and we made a few more friends in the New Bern area. Many Thanks, Dave!

Let’s have a look at the motor summary and then talk about some specific flights and welcome a few new flyers.

Motor	Sat	Sun	Total
A		3	3
B		2	2
C		2	2
D	1	6	7
E		5	5
F	2	5	7
G	2	7	9
H	2	6	8
I		5	5
J	1	2	3
K		1	1
	8	44	52

For those of you who are new to my method of reporting "motor use", I intend to make my summary reflect the actual number of flights, so complex flights are reported as a single motor with the total thrust of the combined installed motors on that flight, assuming that all of the motors light. For example, on Sunday Dave Morey flew the fantastic Sinister 29 on a combination of 1 H250G,(green flame, lit on the pad), 2 G53FJs (black smoke, lit at 1 second after launch), and 4 E9s (grey smoke, lit at 4 seconds after launch). The total installed impulse of this particular combination of motors is 524.4 N.s, so this flight was listed among the I motors. The flight was fantastic, by the way, even though it weathercocked into the wind and sacrificed some altitude.

Lots of old friends showed up to enjoy the almost-perfect weather: Eddie Haith made a lot of flights, F.E. and Mike Collier from Roanoke Rapids, VA, Craig Anfinsen, and a lot of the regulars, the Hash family, the Harrell family, John and Nick Hobson, Paul Hoetjes, Stew McNabb, and Jim Livingston flew his miniscule Hi-Flier on an A6!

We had 3 new flyers at Bayboro this weekend. Joe Vanlandingham visited from Virginia and flew rockets constantly all weekend with a variety of kit and home-made rockets on anything from the D through G range. Robbie Kirk also visited Bayboro for the first time on Saturday and flew several times. Robbie has a lot of experience with the Charlotte group and has recently moved to Morehead City.

Sam George, from the Smithfield area, was another new flyer and flew the only certification flight this weekend. Sam flew his Public Missiles Ariel on an I161W. He had a Perfectflite altimeter riding along keeping track of altitude, and a Communications Specialists ELT for radio-location. Sam had done his homework, because the flight was perfect and recovery was uneventful.

There were no interesting rocket names this month, so that award will remain on the shelf until November. The loudest motor award will definitely have to go to Dave Morey, who flew his beautifully finished Starfire on a K780R on Sunday. For those of you who are not familiar with this motor, it is the Aerotech offering in Redline propellant in the 75/2560 casing. The flight really hurt my ears, I think we had the launch pad set up a little too close to the flight line for that launch.

It was a great weekend, the weather cooperated, a lot of new and old friends showed up and we were able to assemble 9 people to go out to the local Outback for supper on Saturday night. As usual, thanks to all of you who helped with setting up and taking down the launch equipment.

Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC

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