Launch Report November 2004

The weather forecasts for the weekend were not good; a lot of mention of clouds and rain. Indeed, rain was falling steadily in Chapel Hill when I woke on Saturday morning. But I collected the trailer and headed to Whitakers hoping for a clearing. Indeed, the weather improved all day long, and shortly after noon the clouds were breaking up and showing big patches of blue sky. The winds at ground level were very calm, but as we began to explore the higher levels, it became obvious that we were seeing very brisk winds at altitude. The good news was the wind direction, out of the south-south west, pushing the parachutes down the longest open stretch of cleared cropland.

Here is the motor use summary:

For some reason, there were not many kids at this launch, it seems like Ben Cox was doing his best to make up for this shortage by flying some sort of personal record for combined A, B, and C motor flights. Ben flew all of the A’s, all but 2 of the B’s, all but 1 of the C’s, a D and an F.

Dave Morey debuted his new R/C glider, the Arcie II, which flew very nicely (twice!) on the D12 motors.

The Antolick brothers, Rich and Bob, joined us for the first time and flew a variety of low-power kits. Allan Rose returned after a long-ish layoff to fly his scratch-built Big Brute on a G80 and his PML Pterodactyl jr. on an H123W.

Sterling Edmunds showed us one of the new Loki Research J528 motors in his Minnie Magg late in the day as the light began to fail. What a fabulous display! This motor was loud and fast and made a great flame. Very impressive, Jeff!

David Cox made another perfect flight in a rocket that is beginning to build up quite a track record: his Magnum made its 33rd flight, this time on an Aerotech J350W.

Dave Morey lost the sustainer section of his 2-stage upscale Arreaux when the main came out at apogee and floated all the way over Fishing Creek, at least 2 miles away. Dave and John Hamill have located the tree, a 30” diameter hickory, and are planning the recovery. This rocket carried a video camera, so we all REALLY want Dave to get this rocket back, as soon as possible. Several people were having the same sort of problem, resulting in a lot of long walks, but Dave was the only flyer to go high enough to cause a serious problem. He accomplished this with a J350W in the booster staging to a J90 in the sustainer for a fabulous flight, the staging occurred right on time with the sustainer pointed straight up.

The most important events of any launch are the certifications. This month Ken Stroud accomplished his TRA Level 1 certification on a completely homemade rocket called the Cert 1 with an Aerotech H128W. Will Marchant aced the TRA level 2 written exam an followed that up with a perfect flight of his Great Pumpkin on an Aerotech J350W. Will was using the tether two-stage deployment technique and had clearly worked all the problems out in advance.

The other big news from this sport launch was the number of hybrid flights. Mike Harris and Ken Parker have been refining and adjusting the equipment and we saw 3 fabulous (and amazingly loud) hybrid flights on Saturday. Mike Harris flew his Ignorant of my Destiny on a K240 and Periwinkle’s Pride on a J140. Ken Parker used the K240 for his Antares for another very fine flight. Dennis Hill was loaded up for another J145 flight in his Ten Forward but the nitrous tank ran out and the mission was scrubbed. The level of interest in hybrids has reached the level that we will now start looking for a larger tank.

On Sunday, the wind shifted around to the north-east, tending to push the parachutes down towards the south-west corner of the field. The temperatures remained mild, the wind light, and even more blue sky was apparent. Another fine day for rocketry in November!

David Cox made two flights: his Barracuda flew to 2142 feet on a 29mm G motor of “White Lightning clone 3”, and his mirage made a fine flight on a 38mm I motor with a propellant made with 6% brass. Very pretty flame!

Sterling Edmunds made 3 successful flights on Sunday, the Loc IV on a J500 Everclear mixed by Ed Rowe , his Concept 98 on a K750 made with mixed grains of Ed's ‘white smoky’ and ‘sparky’ propellants for an excellent special effect, and the last flight of the day – his Red Rider Alpha on a K530 green-flame propellant that he and Mark Lloyd mixed up on Friday night.

Dennis Hill flew his First Contact on a J500 blue-flame propellant motor made by Mike McBurnett to an altitude of 2457 feet. The airframe suffered a zipper when the motor assembly came down nose-first in the absence of a drogue chute, but it is definitely fixable.

It was great to see Mark Lloyd back again after bypass surgery. He flew his Magnum to 6171 feet an L800 made from the previously mentioned green-flame propellant.

Mike McBurnett had two flights on Sunday: the 5.5” Excel on a K600 and the Tomahawk on a K500. One flight was perfect, but the other one experienced a motor burn-through that released the forward bulkhead to do extensive internal damage.

Dave Muesing flew his Proto VII on a medium J motor (chemistry not recorded, but certainly NON-mainstream). The up part was beautiful, but the rocket failed to deploy a parachute and buried itself deep in the soft peanut field across the road. The report I heard was that he had to dig down about 6 inches before the fins could be seen. Ouch! I don’t know how much of that rocket was eventually recovered.

Alan Whitmore flew the big Spork on a 3” M2300 made from a nickel oxide-catalyzed formula with a silvery-white flame. Perfect flight and recovery and the altimeters reported about 5800 feet. Later in the day he flew the Generic Four Inch on a 54mm K motor made with an uncatalyzed propellant. This motor also suffered a burn-through that stripped all the fins and body tube off of the aft section, but caused no further damage to the forward parts of the rocket.

Alan Whitmore, Prefect, Tripoli East NC