Launch Report, May 28-29, 2005

In many ways, the May launch is the finest of the year at Whitakers. The winds of March and April have calmed, the air is warm, but hasn’t yet reached the boiling humidity of high summer, the biting insects are still young and poorly organized, and the buttercups were all in bloom, frosting the rich green grass of the pasture with a vivid yellow topping. The little wind we had to deal with was in the right direction, down the long dimension of the field, toward the east-south-east. Fine, fine rocketry weather!

Attendance was very high, RSO’s and LCO’s remained busy all day Saturday, 113 flights were recorded for the weekend. Here is the motor use summary:

The weather spirits shined their most golden smiles on us this weekend, but the absolute high point of the weekend was the return of John Hamill to the ranks of active rocket flyers and Tripoli members. Many of you know John as the wizard, the saviour of lost rockets, the man we call ‘Bird-Dog”. John was a Tripoli member many years ago, and has been working on a beautiful, 4-fin Black Brant for almost two years. On Saturday, John finally committed this rocket to the skies on an Aerotech I435T, for a perfect level 1 cert flight. Congratulations, John.

Bob Buchholz also made the return to High Power with a certification renewal flight on an unnamed rocket using the Aerotech H128W. Bob hasn’t forgotten much in the 2 years he has been out of High Power, the flight was just about perfect.

Mark Fredrickson made a successful TRA and NAR level 1 cert flight with a rocket called the Blue Pup on an Aerotech H180W, and Robert Wood had a fine cert L1 flight in his PML Ariel using an H148.

Winding up the certification achievements, Stewart Whiteman aced the TRA level 2 written exam. Congratualtions to all of you on a job well done, and welcome to High Power! That is 5 successful certification flights on one day.

I’ll put in another story with a happy ending. On Saturday, Eric Kleinschmidt flew his Ariel on one of the single-use I400 motors (Ellis Mountain?) and lost sight of the rocket at apogee. On Sunday, John Hamill found the rocket while looking for another one. Eric had stayed for the EX session on Sunday, so he was immediately reunited with the lost Ariel.

Mike Harris did battle with the hybrid launch apparatus all day long, managing 2 successful flights, one on an H70 in his Periwinkle’s Prime and another with a K240 in his Ignorant of My Destiny, out of 7 or 8 trips to the pad.

Next to the fine weather, the best thing about Saturday was seeing all the people who hadn’t been to Whitakers in several months or, in some cases, up to a year. Meredith McBurnett, Eddie Haith, Randall Ejma, Brent Bierstedt, and Jimmy Sculthorpe all returned after several month’s absence, and Bill Boykin, who usually attends the Saturday events, flew his first rocket in almost a year. It was great to see all our old friends back at Whitakers, again.

The weather Sunday was even better than Saturday, and the number of experimental flights was equal to the flights made during the WELD event back in April. I’ll try to mention every flight in this summary.

Sterling Edmunds flew his Loc IV on a 38mm motor made from a Rowe propellant called Mach Buster Blue (written in Mike McBurnett’s handwriting on the card) to an altitude of 2704 feet. The acceleration was impressive, but Mach was not broken. Sterling also flew his Resinator on a K700 motor from Mark Lloyd. This was a very impressive flight to 7971 feet. (This flight was conducted during the 12,000 foot window, so hold your indignation, please.)

Randall Ejma had four very fine flights on Sunday. The Phoenix flew on a red-flame I200, HARV III flew on a K500, also using the red propellant, his Devil Dog made a fine flight on a J500 made from a blue-flame propellant, and finally, Randall flew the lovely Super Bee on a I400 load made for the AT 5-grain 38mm casing that holds the I284W and I435T. This motor produced a big, vivid blue flame and a neck-snapping lift-off. Very nice!

There is a very funny story associated with the flight of Randall’s Phoenix. Randall is very fussy about flying in the wind, he doesn’t like to walk very far to retrieve his rockets. The wind on Sunday was between 5 and 10 MPH most of the day, running precisely down the long axis of the field, so that almost everything was falling in the field, and since the landowners had recently mowed most of the drier portions, walking and rocket retrieval were unusually easy. But Randall doesn’t like to walk, so he prepped his rockets and sat down to wait out the wind. 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock rolled around and still he waited. At about 4:30 the wind dropped to a level where Ben Jeffreys’ little electric RC plane could tack upwind with no trouble, so Randall took the Phoenix to the pad and launched it. The rocket flew, popped the chute, drifted down, and struck the edge of the table holding the launch equipment and the PA system, so hard that it broke a fin. Be careful what you wish for: It’s possible that you might be able to recover your rocket without having to take a single step!

Doyle Elkin had 2 excellent flights on KNO3/Dextrose motors and one flight that blew the nozzle out, but no damage resulted.

Mike Harris flew Ignorant of My Destiny twice on 54mm motors made from Terry McCreary’s “PBAN simple” formula. Ignorant required a little recovery effort, but it was found on the ground, not in the trees.

Eric Kleinschmidt flew his Shark Bait on an H170 for a very nice flight. I don’t recall Eric from the recent launches, he may be a new participant in the Whitakers EX scene, although with a TRA membership number of 3271, he has been in rocketry for quite a while.

Jim Livingston brought back the rebuilt Carbon High (with 115mm size fin section and adaptor) and flew it on a 2-grain 76mm K800. The flight was nice and straight, and now it’s ready for something larger.

Mark Lloyd and Dave Muesing collaborated for a flight that used the largest sugar motor I have ever heard of (a 5-grain 115mm N motor) in a beautiful new red rocket built by Mark Lloyd. The boost phase was absolutely wonderful, huge smoke and big noise! Unfortunately, the main parachute came out shortly after apogee, and the rocket drifted off to the southeast. John Hamill is on the case, and I expect good news fairly soon.

Mike McBurnett flew his Ironyx to 5844 feet on a Rowe K800 sparky motor that looked and sounded great and his Soliton on an I300 (blue propellant) to an altitude of 5150 feet.

Ed Rowe brought back his Maniac for a flight with an M-sized sparky motor in the 76mm hardware. Clearly the loudest flight of the weekend!

Alan Whitmore got some big altitude with his little Smooth Green Snake (7354 feet) on a 6-grain 38mm I motor made from several leftover grains from a few different casting sessions.

Alan Whitmore

Prefect, Tripoli East NC

40 lb Maniac on 6000Ns Sparky
photo by Randy Ejma