July Post Launch Report

Saturday July 19th � Williams Farm

What a good day�. considering. Our surprise one-day July launch came as a surprise for the ROCC members. Ralph consulted the ROCC officers and Kip Williams about a launch due to the Northeasterly winds forecast from Tropical Storm Christobal that form off the Georgia coast Thursday. As the storm moved along the coast it kept our winds out of the Northeast all day allowing recovery into the South and Southwest side of the field, which had soybeans that were just coming up.

Our day started with a setup of the pads just into the South field near the small tree on the left hand side of the Runway. New flier Bill Kent and his daughter, Steven Ayers assisted in the launch set-up, thanks guys and gal.

We had a total of 6 fliers and three guest, our guest included the President of the RC model club in Midland and a Charlotte Police helicopter pilot and his wife.

Gary Pfister and Bill Kent were new, hopefully potential members, and looked to have a great time. It was a very relaxed launch due to the heat and small turnout, however, it gave us time to share ideas and just talk some shop.

The flights:
Steven Ayers brought out some new birds, another of his famed paper rockets and another scratch design with a baffle system designed for low power.
His Yellow Paper rocket flew on a B64 and sounded like a hybrid rocket as the paper fins flutter in the wind, however it held and was a cool flight.
His Stick-fin rocket had these struts running down to the edges of the fins that looked really cool. It flew twice, once on a B6-4 then a C6-5

Bob Bernatchez was the big flyer of the day. He flew a lot as his motor box run-th over.
The big flight of the day was on his NCR Quasar NG on a Aerotech G71-4.
His AGM 78 on a D12-5 had a strange boost possibly due to off-center burn. It took a right hand turn an flew into the corn patch. However, due to some re-planting Kip did of a different variety of corn. It landed right on the edge of that corn row. We walked in about 75 yards and found it. 8-foot tall corn can be a little scary.
Other notable flights were his Matra Magic R550 on a F24-4 and his Big Brute on a
F52-5.

Doc Russell started the launch with his Bumble Bee on a C6-5 and then flew his SR71 Blackbird on a C6-3. He flew his Maxi-Streak on a C11-3 and his Cherokee D on a
D12-5. He finished up on his Grasshopper rocket on a D12-5.

Brad Shea flew his Box-O-Parts contest rocket called Outlandish on a D12-5. It looks like a flying saucer stuck on top of a Paul Phillips designed booster with Pods on the end of the fins. It flew perfect with a slight spin for some cool effect. He also flew his �Naked� Rubicon on a D12-3, very cool.

Gary Pfister who has just recently relocated to the Charlotte area from Ohio brought out a tube-fin rocket that was actually a kit. The rocket named Red, White, and Blue flew on a F20-7 to a straight up flight with a back slide to ejection, Very cool.

Bill Kent and his daughter flew an brand new Aerotech Initiator on an F40-7 for the highest flight of the day with an expected altitude of around 1400 feet. We were concerned that the rocket would make it down before the tree line by the creek but later in the day the winds shifted slightly more out of the East so we were able to get the flight in.

Ralph Roberts flew only one, his Big Bertha on a C6-3. It recovered on the door handle of Doc�s Van. Could not do that again in a million years.

Doug Knight came down and brought some of his more conventional birds and flew a number of shots. He started off with Gold Cluster on 3- C6-3s, followed up by his Blue Byrd Zero on a C6-5 He flew his mortar looking rocket named Gold-Silver on an F20-4.
He finished up the day flying is Mustang on an F20-7, however due to a wind shift it dropped the rocket into the corn, But again due to some good eyes Doug found it about 20 minutes later.

Total flights : 21

B Motors: 2
C Motors: 9 with one 3 motor cluster.
D Motors: 5
F Motors: 6
G Motors: 1

It was a nice day and a good launch; we had discussions about a meeting place for next month. Doc agreed to have the meeting at his business off of Remount Rd in Charlotte or their new building not for away. We will post time and details shortly.

Lesson learned from this launch. Always keep tabs on our events all the way up to the day of the launch. We are constantly looking for opportunities to fly, and when this came together on Friday, we pulled the trigger. For sure next month we will have an official meeting, so no launch. The next launch event will be Freedom Launch in Orangeburg Labor Day weekend.

Thanks,
Ralph Roberts
ROCC Prez and Prefect.