Hello Everybody! More than the temperature was hot at Whitakers at the August 29-30 launch. Launch conditions have never been better. Hurricane Bonnie did not hamper the field or the weather as both days were sunny and clear. There was an intermittent light breeze on Saturday and it was perfectly calm all day Sunday. With the temperature hovering in the mid-90's and a heat index of 105*F, the action was even hotter at the launch pads. Fifty flyers sweated out 177 flights and burned up 205 motors in the process. Rich Burck noted in his lauch posting that it seemed like there has been a shift toward higher power motors at Whitakers. Well, he's right. Following are the motor statistics from this last launch to support his observation:

Level II certifications were achieved by Mike Banz and Thomas Cox. Mike made it in style with his Special K on J350. Thomas' certification wasn't achieved without some effort. He lofted his Sudden Rush on a J275 and it came down in the south crop field. This year soy beans are planted in that field and this time of year they are about hip high. He spent hours out there looking for his rocket. If you have ever tried to walk through a mature soy bean field, you know you have to practically step on it to find it, and that is assuming you can even walk through the tangle of vines and scratchy leaves. Well, find it he did, eventually and now he can start the long hard climb to Level III. (News Flash: A soy bean field can swallow a Level III project, too! )

Speaking of Level III, spectators were treated to 2 successful Level III certification flights only a few hours apart on Saturday by none other than your crack, friendly local prefects and hosts Jim Scarpine (Tripoli North Carolina) and myself, Dennis Hill (Tripoli East North Carolina). I coudln't find Jim's flight card but I'm sure his rocket was named after some sort of cat. He flew a Kosdon M to 4800'. I flew my Wolf 359 on an Aerotech M1419 and got a reading of 4998' on one altimeter and 4872' on the other. I know I can speak for Jim too when I say "I'm glad that's over!"

On a personal note, it is utterly amazing how powerful these motors are. I can understand the thoroughness of the certification process. It took 3 grown men to wrestle my 11 foot long, 9" diamter, 62 pound project onto the launch pad. I was awestruck at how effortlessly that baby M moter popped my rocket off the pad on a column of smoke and fire that was almost surreal. Unless you understood the scale of that behemoth as it streaaked skyward, it could have been an Estes Alpha on a C motor!

Not only was I proud to achieve my Level III certification, I was particularly proud of my flight card. It was signed by none other than Scotty (James Doohan) himself, the chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise. With his signature on my flight card, there was no way Sonny Thompson and Jim Mitchell could not pass my project on technical merit!

The weekend was full of interesting flights, projects and experiments. Paul Kraemer dropped in for a visit after a few years absence. He always does some great stuff with cluster and he didn't disappoint us this time as he lofted his Ultimate Max on a cluster of an I435, 2 H123's and 2 H73's . He also flew his King Cobra III on 3 H128's.

David Rushing was prolific between LCO/RSO duties with 12 flights and 15 motors in two days. His most interesting flight was that of his 125 Special that was ground started on a 9 grain J570 and air started 3 H180's. He achieved 6600' on the flight and one of the H's didn't even light. To top things off, almost all of his flights were retrieved close to the pads.

Lamar Blankenship scored a perfect 100% on the Level II written test, then went out and had fun flying a variety of rockets on E's, F's and G's. He also gets the award for the most interruptions by my son, Joe, in the Performance Hobbies line. All I can say is Lamar is a ver-r-r-ry patient man! (By the way, Ken was really busy all weekend. Gotta keep the vendor happy!)

Bob Buchholz made me tired just watching him. He launched 8 different rockets for 13 flights on everything from D's through H. His best flight was an H180 on his SA-14 Archer XL. Bob's enthusiasm for the hobby is contagious and it's fun to watch him learn and progress.

The Mangum brothers, Brian and Don made it this time. They are always most helpful to other flyers and launch operations, pitching in by helping with anything asked of them. They voluntarily helped Thomas Cox look for his Level II rocket in the soy bean field, and hiked 30 feet up a tree to retrieve Chris Bates' V-2. Between acts of good samaritanship, Don launched his Nighthawk on an H220 and 2 F-20's. Brian was big into Dark Star motors this time as he flew F-62's in his ISP Stormbringer and his Li'l Nuke.

Ben Russell, Mark Lloyd and Ed Rowe made it worthwhile to hang around until Sunday afternoon as they engaged in a three-way K550 drag race. As soon as the ignition button was hit, controversy turned an already awesome display into an even more interesting discussion. All I can say is after the drag race, Mark was very busy explaining how a K550 could produce a blue flame and why only his rocket had a 2 event drogue and main recovery in a race for first up and first down! The main parachute on Mark's rocket ,set to deploy at 250', tangled a bit before fully opening. It managed to stop his rocket's free fall about 50' above the ground. As hot as it was, he didn't need that stress to make him sweat that one out. In any event, it was a beautiful sight to see three large rockets rising on huge columns of smoke and gently returning to earth under colorful 'chutes silhouetted against the Carolina blue sky.

Mark also launched his scratch-built Fire & Chrome on a powerful cluster of a K550 with 2 I211's. Many thanks to Mark for bringing the extra speakers to the launch which proved most effective on keeping the flight line appraised of all activity.

Fred Wallace likes to launch his rockets from his own launch rail. His flight of a 1/3 scale Bull Pup on a J460 was beautiful. His scratch-built Blue Night flew great on a cluster of 2 H123's and recovered nicely under a drogue at apogee and main 'chute at 450' using Adept electronics.

The flight of Rich Miller's Magnum was noteworthy for the ground start on a J460 and an electronic airstart of 2 G80's.

For the long burn enthusiasts Chris Bates pleased the crowd with an I-65 in his homemade rocket aptly named "15 Seconds to Heaven".

Jeff Taylor tested an interesting deviation on the drogue and main recovery system. He launched his Sandhawk on an I161 to test his "pyro release mechanism" which deployed the drogue and main from the same payload section.

Rich Burck, proprietor of Whitaker's newest amenity - foodservice (known as the Cow Pie Cafe) - was busy prepping and flying between sales of hot dogs and drinks. He brought out his Orbital Transporter and Crayon rocket but was plagued by early ejections. Sounds like a personal problem to me, Rich!!! Anyway, on Sunday he had a successful flight of his 2 stage Terrier Sandhawk. Boost was obtained on an H242 and staged to a G54. Since the trajectory was not quite 90*, drag separation failed to occur which didn't satisfy Rich but the crowd was pleased nonetheless.

Don Wittenauer had a successful flight of his scratch built Concrete on a J460 that recovered spectualarly under a 7.5' spinning parachute. Unfortunately, that wasn't always the case for Don this weekend as he continues to push the envelope in novelty recovery systems. Through it all Don keeps everything in perspective though and he'll be back with more goodies with which to dazzle the crowd.

Our webmaster, Ed Rowe, came out both days and enjoyed several successful flights. Besides his Standard Arm flying in the K550 drag race, he put up noteworthy flights with his Endeavour (I161) and Explorer (I211) . The Explorer used a combination of motor ejection and electronics to seperate at apogee and deploy a 'chute at 250'.

Mike Henry achieved 3494' in his Endeavour on a J350 which recovered nicely using electronics to deploy drogue and main at 600'. Mike has always shown up to help with set up and take down and is now getting comfortable with LCO duties as he gains experience.

Nelson Wallace was dispatched to the away cell to once again attempt to fly his American Standard toilet rocket on 2 offset F-20's. He did not break his altitude record of 13' as this version merely cartwheeled along the ground as it tore itself apart (hopefully, for good!). He had another clanger in his PML Black Brant as he forgot to attach the payload and booster sections.

Nelson's experience was symptomatic of an uncharacteristically high incidence of prangs, lawn darts, separations and catos at this launch. Of the 177 flights we had, I counted at least 19 failures of various sorts which adds up to 89% success rate, far below the Whitakers norm and the standards we hope to achieve. I would like to see at least a 95% seccess rate which is what we usually experience at Whitakers as our flyers have demonstrated a keen sense of safety and concern. It seemed to me that the incidence of failures increases in hot weather and in discussing this with David Rushing and Lamar Blankensship, David offered an interesting hypothesis. It was his observation that in such heat and humidity, many flyers rely only on the paper sticker cap for the ejection charge. The glue tends to fail in the dampness of humidity and the ejection charges may leak out during handling for launch. It was David's practice to reinforce the paper cap with several additional strips of masking tape to help hold the cap on during handling. It's a thought provoking safety idea and one I hope all flyers consider when they encounter the extreme conditions like we had at Whitakers this past launch.

Many thanks to all who helped man the LCO/RSO/Pad Manager duties, and with set up and take down. I think everyone had fun and the show put on by the flyers may have been the most impressive high power display we have had to date at Whitakers. Everyone was observant of the traffic rules, kept the field clean and showed deference to the neighbors. I can assure you our land owner notices and is very pleased with the behavior and conscientousness of our crowds.

Thanks to all for making the Whitakers experience great and safe HPR fun!