Launch Report – October 22 – 23, 2005

All of you rocket enthusiasts who read the weather forecasts and decided to stay home this weekend made a big mistake. By noon on Saturday the skies began to clear and continued to improve all day. Sunday was a complete gem! Absolutely perfect rocket weather all day long. The temperatures were comfortable, the bugs were gone, humidity was low, the skies were clear and sunny, and the winds very, VERY calm. The visibility was absolutely perfect – the skies were so clear that even flights into the 5000 to 6000 foot regions were visible all the way up and down. Everybody who was there on Sunday commented on the weather. We won’t have weather like that again for a very long time.

However, there were not many of us who got to appreciate this gift. There were never more than 20 cars on site at any time on Sunday, and Saturday was even worse. I have been attending the Whitakers launches regularly since 1998, and I have seen the field crawling with people and the skies filled with rockets on days when most sane people wouldn’t want to get out of bed, much less leave the house. This made the lack of fliers on Sunday totally baffling. Let’s look at the motor use summary:

In spite of the low turnout, we still managed to have four successful certification flights on Sunday.

Stephen Daniel made a very successful Tripoli Level 2 certification flight with his X-2 using the Loki J528. I really enjoy watching cert flights that use the Loki J528: the flier is making a very confident statement about his construction techniques when he (or she) chooses this motor. You either build it strong or you take it home in a bag.

Lionel Overton has been away from the hobby for a few years and has let his Tripoli membership expire, but he made it very clear that he has not lost his touch. On Sunday he joined Tripoli again, made a fine L1 cert flight with his Black Brant on an Aerotech I161W, made a perfect score on his L2 written exam, checked out the flight characteristics of his L2 rocket with a flight using the AT I195J, and then flew his Brutus on a J350W for a flawless L2 cert flight. Welcome back Lionel!

Sunday’s main event had to be the TRA level 2 cert flight made by John Hamill. John has also been working his way through the Tripoli re-certification process with a rocket he has been working on for more than 2 years. He has built a 4” diameter Four-Fin Black Brant that is stronger than a brick porta-potty. On Sunday, he flew this marvel on an Aerotech K1275R for a perfect flight to 5400 feet. John has helped so many people at Whitakers with difficult rocket recovery problems that everyone knows him and his many talents. If this rocket had landed in a tree, we would have seen a massive popular uprising and mobilization of prodigious dimensions. Whole forests would have been cut down within minutes to get this rocket home. But, because of the calm winds, the Black Brant fell a few yards inside the gate for an effortless recovery. Congratulations, John, and thanks from all of us for all of your efforts on our behalf.

Gary Nance returned for the first time since February, making 12 flights on Saturday!

The big action this weekend, because of the calm winds Saturday afternoon and all Sunday, was gliders. Dave Morey flew the Tilus Boost Glider 5 times this weekend, 3 excellent flights on ½ A motors, one flight that proved that a ¼ A was not enough motor for this glider and another on a full A that was overpowered. Dave also made the initial flight of his Sweet Vee on an E9, with Kent Parker at the controls, and it’s a good thing he was, because the glider was not trimmed exactly right and the motor tried very hard to push the glider into the ground, a less experienced pilot would have probably crashed hard. Ken and Kent Parker collaborated for seven more flights on Sunday. They brought a new glider, the T25 Centurion for flights on a D11P and an F12J. The Ladyhawk flew very well on a D11P, and the Aerotech Phoenix flew three times, once on an F13T and twice on G12T’s. The second flight on a G12 was in the air for 4 minutes and 27 seconds, it seemed like it would float around up there forever! The Multiplex Combat Jet flew on the very fine F23W motor. I didn’t record whether Ken or Kent was at the flight controls for these flights, but they are both very fine R/C pilots.

Several high-altitude flights fell back into the field or just over the road in the cotton patch: John Hobson flew his Wild Blue Yonder on the extremely entertaining AMW K555 “Skidmark”, Alan Whitmore flew the Astro*Mollusc on an Aerotech I284W to the 4000 foot region and recovered it by the gate. This was the Astro*Mollusc’s 74 ^th  flight, and 60 of those flights were recovered with the assistance of the Transolve P4 altimeter. Since I stopped using flash-bulb based ejection charges in 1999, there has never been an altimeter-based recovery failure.

Dave Morey flew the Sinister 29 to prodigious altitude (not recorded) on a cluster of 3 G80’s and air-started a G64 and 3 E9’s. The airstarts occurred against a perfectly clear blue sky, one of the most beautiful sights I have seen in a while!

Those of you who missed this launch just blew it! It was a great weekend, and we won’t see weather this good for a long, long time

Alan Whitmore

Prefect, Tripoli East NC