Launch Report – November 19, 2006

It was a delicious November day in North Carolina, clear skies, bright sun, a little breeze from the west, and we were back at the Marriott Road field near Battleboro, flying some rockets. Eastern North Carolina has been hammered with heavy rains, and some fairly severe tornados and thunderstorms lately, but this weekend was calm and dry. The field itself was wet, but several rockets (and eggs) came in hard and benefited from the soft mud.

The turnout was good! I counted at least 18 cars on the premises at one point. A TARC team was on hand to practice and check out some rocket designs for this years competition, but I neglected to record their high school. [Green Level? Green something….] I hope that if they or a parent read this report they will fill me in on that detail and I will amend this report. I did figure out from the flight cards that the team consisted of (or perhaps were joined for the occasion by) at least some of the following: Heather Perry, Josiah Rex, Raphael du Sablon, Natalie Harrell, Abby Skinner, John Yakupkovic, Emily Shupe, and perhaps several others.

Here is a quick motor use summary:

Not too bad, considering it was November, and the field is so small. Somebody flew a K motor?!?!?! Yes, indeed, David Cox flew the delightful Aerotech K185W in his Big Gray flying saucer.

There were a lot of Harrell’s on site this weekend. We saw flights by Thomas, Sue, Natalie, and Jeremiah. Thomas flew a beautifully thought-out boosted glider on 3 C6’s. The glider part was a very swoopy, silver-finished “jet fighter” design that glided very well.

You will notice from the motor use summary that there were a LOT of C6’s burned this weekend. A lot of them were used up in 2 big drag races in which 3, and then 4 almost identical Estes Alphas were launched simultaneously, and I do mean simultaneously! The confusion was great as the little Alphas boogied on out and disappeared, and slowly found and recovered, or perhaps not, in some cases. The C6 is a lot of motor for an Alpha!

Wayne Hill was also on hand, and this month he showed us a variety of helo- recovery rockets and the extremely long and light CFK Six Footer, which flew on a D12.

I have two favorite rocket names from this weekend: first is Shrinky Dink, which Andrew Cox flew on a ½ A, and then there was Momentary Lapse of Reason, flown by John Hobson on an H128W. I may have nominated John’s rocket before, I just really like that name. I have had that problem many, many times!

It was a good day, I enjoyed spending it outdoors. Have a great Thanksgiving, everybody.

Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC