December Post Launch Report

Happy Holidays and seasons greetings to everybody. And with the holidays now past, and the decorations taken down, lets take some time to get caught up on last Rocket Launch Meet.
Any misspellings will caused by a recently acquired small kitten jumping across the keyboard. Seems that trying to catch my moving fingers is just too much of a temptation.
The December Rocket Meet and Launch weather was actually much better than I was expecting and everybody who came out had good flying weather with little drift. It was more cold/chilly Saturday than Sunday, but when the sun was out it was comfortable. I had the fire pit set up with hot water for coffee, coco, tea and to warm the hands.
Saturday the 17th of December, HO! HO! HOO! I even had a red and white �Santa Loves Me� hat. We didn�t expect a large crowd, after all it was the weekend before Christmas and we knew that a lot of members had family holiday activities or trips that weekend. We did have some drawings for rocket kits, we hope to see them fly in January.
Roy Potter, I had a few flights I wanted to get up during the day, first was a NAR Cert 1 flight on a H165 redline short delay that was a success, thanks to Terry Baucom for acting as the NAR witness. And then I flew the �Sounder� a couple of times on F21-4�s and the �Bomark-D� glide return missile a couple of times on D12-3�s.
Ralph Roberts spent most of the day doing the launch�s, talking and assisting members, and prepping his �Sugar Cherry� to go up later on a I161w-m for a successful flight to a recorded altitude of 2,458 feet that separated at
apogee and came down drougless with the main opening at 600 feet. That was a good end of the day flight.
Bob Bernatchez always brings out a fleet of rockets to choose from. The �Centuri Nomad� went up on a B6-4, the Original �Mars Launder� on a C6-3, Centuri �Astro 1� on a B6-4, Estes kit �Space Ship one� on a C6-3, �Replica 2650� on a cluster of 3 D12-7�s, the �Orbit� on a F39-6, a classic, 20 year old Battle Star �Colonial Viper� on a C6-5, �Big Brute� on a G64-4 and his �Sidewinder� on a D15-4 reload.
Terry Baucom besides as acting as my NAR witness, took it upon himself to be the clubs sacrifice to the rocket gods. Well it seemed that way last month and his first flight of the �2-UP� with 2 E9-6�s covered the rest of us for
the day. Other than that, Terry had a good day. �Garfield Express� went up on a I205-m for a nice flight, a Naked upscaled �Fat Boy� (yea, that�s right, fly�em naked before you paint�em) on a H128-m for its first flight, then
later on a H165R-m. The �HV Arcus� went up on a G64-7.
Robby Kirk came out but left his imaginative list of rocket names at home. His rockets flown that day were aptly named as to how they looked. You can see what I mean as the �Blue + Silver� flew on a D12-3, �Grey + Yellow� on a D12-3, �Red + White� first on a F20-4, then on a F52-5, �Light Blue� on a F20-4, �Yellow + Black� on a A8-3 and the mighty �Silver� on a D12-3. Anybody with suggestions can submit them in January.
David Tomkinson also had a fleet to choose from Saturday. A �Baby Bertha� flew on a B6-4 for a very low level flight, them boosted it up with a C6-5. �D-Region Tomahawk� on a D12-5, a classic Estes �Maxi-Alpha 3� on a D12-5, �X-Prize ThunderStar� on a cluster of 2 C6-5�s, a Estes �Ranger� on a D2-5, �Der V-3� on a D12-5 and the �Delta Wedge� on a C6-5.
Ralph Lowe came out with his daughters who had their own rockets. Ralph flew a nice �Black Brant 2� on a D12-7 and a Estes two stage �Renegade� on a C6-0 to a C6-7. Two stagers always look cool when they function right, and his Renegade seems to be a good example.
Candace Lowe brought her own rockets. The �Harpon� is a nice looking Estes kit and flew well on a C6-5 and a �SR 71 Black Bird� on a C6-5. Those look really cool when they are flying under thrust.
Chelsea Lowe also had her own rockets, a �Canadian Arrow� on a D12-5, a �Super Big Bertha� on a D12-5 and a �Big Daddy� on a D12-5. Good flying there girls.
Tony Casey I think came in late in the day and wanted to fly his �Honest John� on a G64 to check it out. It looked fine to me.
Kyle Casey flew a �Cosmic Cobra� with the nose section returning on helicopter blades on a C6-5 and a �Fat Boy� on a D12-5.
Eric Arndt, also was going for a Cert-1 flight and had a rocket named �Black Bird� (not a SR-71) fly a successful flight on a Pro 38, H143.
And that was it for Saturday, we had=
Flyers= 12, Flights= 46,
Engines burned including stagers and clusters= 53.
A= 1, B= 2, C= 15, D= 18, E= 2, F= 6, G= 3, H= 4, I= 2.

Sunday the 18th of December. More chillyness, a warm fire pit to keep warm, heat up coffee and coco, mild wind conditions resulting in short recovery walks. Ken Allen from Performance Hobbies was out making last minute Christmas sales to the members and said that he will try to come out on a regular basis.
Roy Potter, I had a bunch of A8�s to burn so the �Polaris� and �Red Pup� went up repeatedly during the day. That and I spent the time keeping the fire pit going. It was popular that day.
Steve Bumgarner had a number of flights, starting with the �Runt� on a F39-9, The �Pleides� on a F39-7, the �Bully� on a F24-7, the Hi-Rise� on a F20-7, The �Flaming Arrow� on a D12-7, the �Cherokee-D� on a C11-7 and the �DD
Express� two stager on a D12-0 to a D12-7 which looked too cool.
Bob Bernatchez came came out again and flew his �Pathfinder� on a D12-5, the �Maniac� on a D12-7, the �Titan IIIE� on a D15-4, which always looks like a flying man in flight, and a �DC-Y� on a C6-3.
Doug Knight, came in around mid afternoon and spent the whole time with Ralph prepping his one of a kind flight. Doug is the schoolteacher who assigns his science students problems to be answered by designing and flying a rocket to specified heights or other requirements to demonstrate science and physics using rocketry. And they get graded on it. This time he had his own exam, to build a rocket weighing in at 10 pounds to fly on a J350 engine. It ended up being built of large PVC piping and epoxied together, so the rocket was appropriately named �PVC Rulz�, and hey, it worked. Good show.
Tony Casy came back, just at the end of the day to get in I think the last flight of the day with his reptilian snake of a �Mean Machine� rocket on a E9-4.
Emily Neilson had me fly her rocket �Blade�, named after the Wesly Snipes movie Blade, on a H165R-s that could probably go on a medium delay next time. It looked like it was still vertical when it ejected.
Ralph Roberts had just enough time to fly his �Big Bertha� on a C6-3.
That was it for Sunday, smaller crowd which is usually the case on Sundays, especially the weekend before Christmas. But everyone had a good time.
Flyers= 7, Flights= 20, Engines burned= 21.
A= 5, B= 0, C= 3, D= 6, E= 1, F= 4, G= 0, H= 1, I= 0, J= 1.
Watch for the January Rocket Launch announcement soon.
Till then, Keep those exhaust nozzles clear. Roy