April 2009 Launch Report

Well did everybody have a good time at the April Campout Launch weekend?

Conditions the Saturday was pretty great overall. Mostly sunny with high clouds, some light winds that we worked with using longer delays for more fall time for lower chute deployment, streamers for less drift and slight angle adjustments into the wind.

Barley growth surprised us also at 18 inch�s or greater that tended to swallow whole rockets and chutes. By next month it will be 2 foot or more.

Wind, We did have a few drift far, far away, some recovered, some not. Hind sight is so 20-20 after the launch when you know, I should have angled, longer delayed, smaller chute or streamered the rocket. But over all we had a great launch that Saturday the 18th of April.
Campout was a great success also. I counted about what looked like 12 campsites and we had the 3 Marshmallow Girls (Ashley Bergsmith, Amanda Roberts and Jocelyn Phillips) to keep us safe from the dangerously evil bags of marshmallows by ensuring that they were all reduced to flaming charcoal brickquets in the fire-pit, and even ate some of them. You could hear kids laughing and running around well past dark, so hard to settle them down after such a great day.

Mr Millikan had a camp dutch oven that cooked his kids dinner with just a few individual coals then a chocolate fruit cake that was really good.

Saturdays launch was as I said pretty good, we had a really good turn out, more people than usual in proportion to fliers probably due to the campout event, lots of family�s, 37 fliers out of the crowd, but we only got up 118 flights, an average of 3 flights each. I expected more, but there was a lot of preparation time spent on larger complicated flights that ate into peoples flight time. Some were also waiting for perfect wind conditions.

Name Spelling is as close as I can get reading your writing, HP=High Power, MP= Mid Power, LP= Low Power.

Malcolm Smith had 7 flights with his Semroc �Vega�, Semroc �Aero Dart�, Semroc �Explorer�, a mini Pizza box �Pie in the Sky� all on LP and the LOC �Star Burst�, �Cool Spool� and a PML �Phobos� on MP.

Doc Russell kept busy assisting others but did get his �NORAD� up on MP.

Roy Potter also had 7 flights with the �Stars and Stripes�, �Union Jack�, the new black and yellow 4in. �Bumble Bee�, the 4in. �Pepsi� and 4in. �Chivas� soccer team rocket all on MP.

Chuck Bracey had multiple flight of his �Hustler�.

Bob Bernatchez actually had the most flights with 10 each. On LP he flew a Estes �Mars Lander�, a �Mini-Mars Lander�, a �Mercury Redstone� and a NCR �Replica 2650� on a 3 LP cluster. On MP he flew Estes upscaled �Interceptor E�, NCR �Quasar�, a great looking �Mercury Atlas�, and a �Super Big Bertha�. His big 1.6 upscaled �Tango Papa Mars lander� on HP.

Mark Easterly flew a �Horizon� on MP and a �Stealth� on HP that was a wind drift victim.

Thomas Beckett had 7 LP flights with his �Sunward Space Speeder�, a classic Estes �Alpha� and a �Polaris�.

Gary Phister flew a �Yellow Man� on LP and a �Big Red� on MP.

Tanner Lovelace flew a �Big Daddy� on LP and the �Green Arreaux� on MP, and then a LOC �IV� on a sparky skidmore MP engine. Looks and sounds so cool.

Mark Ferrell brought out his �Lil Nuke� for a good MP flight.

Colin Westgarth-Taylor flew a LP Estes �Fat Boy�.

Clark Millikan had 6 flights with his a �Bull Pup�, �Sizzle�, a �Navaho� 2 stage on LP and a �Laser-X� and a Aerotech �Mustang� on MP. A active Jr Rocketeer.

Alex Millikan had 4 flights with his �Big Daddy� and �Red Head� on LP.

Steven Ayers flew a �Paper Alpha� and the �Machele� on LP.

Mike O�Hara, got a flight in with the �Low an Slow� that wasn�t on MP.

Brandon Jackson flew a cert-2 flight on HP, the �URFCO� for a successful flight.

John Lucas flew a Estes �Blue Ninja� and the �Rubicon� on LP.

Sandy Houston had 3 MP flights with the �G-Whiz�, �Aura� and a �LOC IV�.

Jured Santiago had 6 LP flights with his �Bad Paint Job�, �Red Flyer� and an �Out Law�.

Alex Santiago had 5 LP flights with the same �Bad Paint Job� and �Out Law�.

Andrew Durrette had multiple LP flights with his Estes �Patriot�.

Mike Garner flew a Estes recently re-released Classic glide return �Scissor Wing Glider� on LP and a Pro-Max �Norad� on MP.

John Bergsmith flew a �Strong Arm� and �Mozzie� on MP.

Ashley Bergsmith, master marshmallow killer, flew a �Metalizer� and a Estes �Converter on LP and a �Big Maxi Alpha 3� on MP. At the end of the day she and her dad flew 4 small paper �Pyramids� on LP.

Ryan Bergsmith flew the styrofoam coffee cup rocket made of foam coffee cups on LP.

David Tomkinson flew a 2 LP engine cluster �Deuces Wild� and the �Patriot� and �X-Prise Eagle� on LP.

Terry Baucom was out between being somewhere else to get in a flight of his �Big Daddy� on LP.

Isaac Beckett flew a Estes �Hi-Flier� with a streamer on LP along with a �Astro�.

Charlie Ogino got in 6 test flights of his �TARC� competition rocket on MP.

Benton Griffin had 2 flights with the �Bug� on MP and �Shark Bit� on LP.

Mary Katherine Snow flew a cert-1 HP flight with the �Spots�.

Jocelyn Phillips, master marshmallow killer, flew her styrafoam �Snow Flake� that needed MP to push it up, it has a lot of drag to overcome, and a mini �WISHB-1� on LP.

Brad Shea, being ROCC Prez kept busy but, but got his �Sword of Damocles� up on a MP Sparky Skidmore to dazzle us all and then the �Insomnia� up on HP.

�Plastic Paul� Phillips, besides his RC sail planes, flew his �WISHB-2� improved Talon design on MP and a Cert flight attempt of a larger HP version that suffered ejection charge failure that following a post flight inspection was due to the battery�s being shaken lose on acceleration.

Meghon Kent had 3 LP flights with a �Silver Monarch� and the �purple Butterfly�.

Lauren Kent flew her �Tomahawk� for a flight on LP.

Thomas no-last-name, flew a �Silver Spike� on MP that the slip said was one of the few wind loss�s.

Sunday�s launch was very much a different story. We all knew that a major change of weather was forecasted for the early to late afternoon with a large and heavy rain front.

We knew that would keep some attendance down, especially those who come out after church, and some campers had to leave after getting up due to those Sunday requirements. We were hoping that the weather would not enter our area till later that afternoon so they could come back.

We were watching our blackberry and cell phone screens showing the front moving in as the morning progressed. We really wanted to go the day, but at one point with us standing in one of the early rain fronts knew our time will soon be up. We decided, in best interest and safety of everybody to break-down some time soon after noon and had a last launch by Charlie, who needed qualified TARC flights, in a steady rain, as we broke down the low power equipment.

There was a long break of calm after we had packed everything up and were sitting around eating the rest of Ralph�s hotdogs so he didn�t have to carry them home. But right after I left it rained all the way home.

Raffle results. We had a good participation, young Jocelyn Phillips drew the winning names. Clark Millikan won the AeroTech Initiator, and David Tomkinson won the Aerotech Barracuda. Congrats guys and good flights. David, I�ll hold yours for you.

We had 15 signed fliers and we got 41 flights up, mostly LP, till we broke everything down.

Roy Potter, I flew 6 flights with my horseshoe streamered �Bull Pup�, �White Dwarf� and my Farm Field Core Sampling �USAF� all on LP.

Alex Santiago flew his �Hi-Flier� twice on LP.

Jared Santiago had 7 LP flights with a �Hi-Flier�, �Outlaw� and the �Bad Paint Job�.

John Bergsmith had 2 LP flights with his �Blue Bird Zero� and the �Duces Wild�.

Ashley Bergsmith, with sticky fingers of melted marshmallow�s, flew a �Snitch�, a Estes �CBU-87 Cluster Bomb�, and the Estes �Converter� on LP flights.

Ryan Bergsmith flew his pizza box �Pizza� rocket on LP.

David Tomkinson had 4 flights with his �Maxi-Alpha 3�, a �Duces Wild� and the �Delta Wedge� on LP.

Ralph Roberts got a flight in with his �Big Bertha� on LP.

Clark Millikan flew his �Bull Pup�, �Navaho� and �Guardian� again on Lp and one of the few MP flights with his �Mustang�.

Jeff Millikan flew a Estes �Big Daddy� on LP.

Bob Bernatchez had 4 LP flights with his �Mini Mars Lander�, �Mini Bomark�, �Sidewinder� and the scaled �Titan III E� and 1 MP flight with his �D-Region Tomahawk�.

Keith Wickersham flew a Estes �Blue Ninja� on LP.

Meghon Kent re-flew her �Silver Monarch� on LP.

Charlie Ogino had the last flight in the rain as we tore down the low power with his �TARC� competition rocket on MP.

Jocelyn Phillips got her �Snow Flake� on MP one last time.

Sunday could have been better, but Saturday and the campout made the overall weekend a success. We hope to schedule another as soon as conditions and location permit.

Untill then, keep those exhaust nozzles clear and see you on the flight line.

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