ROCC members - represent!
Monday, July 11, 2011 at 8:57PM ROCC’ers at "Sci-Power", Orangeburg, 4th of July weekend launch
It was great to see a lot of us down at the ICBM and Rosco Clubs, Orangeburg 4th of July weekend 3 day launch.
Saturday the range opened at 10AM with good conditions then later the winds kicked up about 4pm where we then got up launch’s between wind bursts, which was the leading edge of a storm front for the rain showers that forced us to call it a day at about 6 pm. Of course, just 5 miles down the road it was bone dry.
Sunday was really great overall. There were only low to mild winds that had no overall affect on launching.
Monday was somewhere between the wind conditions of Sat and Sun.
Besides the Tripoli L-2 and L-3 Sport and Research/Experimental flights, Tripoli L-1 members were able to fly certified engines. That kept things fairly busy, but laid back.
Of course, all three days were hot and humid. Lots of fluids and sunscreen were highly recommended and in use.
There were no tree landings that I can think of, only one large launch flight draped across the big sprinkler pipes.
Hey, think of this as a test run for Freedom Launch, Labor Day weekend in September.
There were 3 or 4 vendors there. Ken was really trying to sell as much of his bulky stuff as he could to make room for cases of about 50 new certified engines and new Cessaroni engines.
There were probably some club members or frequent ROCC fliers that I didn’t notice but I got all I could to tell me if they had any special flights or what they were planning on besides just taking advantage of the open skies and fields.
I got a few pictures that I will get to Doc, there was one guy and his dad from Raligh or Ashville, I forgot, but his dad got a lot of great pictures that I hope he can send to Doc at rocketrycarolina at gmail dot com.
Malcom Smith was there and had a number of flights but nothing special that he wanted to list separately.
Spencer Thompson and his parents were there and I happen to have his "D-Region Tomahawk" ROCC Raffle prize from a couple of months ago to hand over. After a TARC season of stressful prepping flights, he spent the weekend just flying for the fun of it. I know that a few of his flights were of his TARC rocket, the "Schmetterling".
Roy Potter, well I paid, or provided the sacrifice to the rocket gods by being the first flight of the weekend Sat morning with the "Stars and Stripes" on a G64 that came in ballistic with no ejection. Delay burned but did not ignite the charge. I’m pretty sure that I over greased the forward closure and plugged the tiny hole with grease. The rest of the weekend I flew "Thumper", the rear ejection "Target Drone" that caught the curiosity of a few fliers. Also the "Arcas", "Bumble Bee", the "Canadan Flag", the "Union Jack", the 4inch Estes "V-2" and a few lowpower flights.
John Metcalf noted that he plans to fly all Cessaroni engines. Besides other flights he listed flights of a "Mini Darkstar" on a G115-WT, its bigger brother "Darkstar" on a H118-CL, "Wild Child" on a F29 imax, the "Super DX3" on a I204 imax and the "Xcellerator" on a J293-BS for a L2 certification attempt.
Steve Morris and his daughter, who along with the other kids had a lot of fun in the huge puddles, only listed one special flight of a "Graduator" on a G40, but also flew his "Pop-Out Hang Glider" rocket and other flights with his twin spinning chutes.
Mark Ferrell had listed special flights of "Sweet" on a J420-R, a "Baby Betty" on a I154-J and possibly an "Endeavor".
Louise Ferrell flew her "Onyx" (there were a bunch of them out there), but a freak fast build-up of exhaust deposit on the exhaust nozzle seemed to cause it to "Sky Write" and "Land Shark" on a engine it has flown on many times before. Her "Forte" and very pretty rebuilt "Mini Mag" all had good flights.
Mike Garner all the way from Asheboro, listed special flights of a "Guardian" on a G65-7G and a "Norad" on a Promax J350 for a L2 certification flight.
Keith Biddinger along with regular flights, listed his special flights as a "Endeavor" on a J575-FG and a extended "X-LX-Calibur" on Fastware G and H motors.
Sorry if I missed anybody, but remember, we get to do it again next September during the Labor Day weekend, Freedom Launch.
Roy, ROCC Sec.
Reader Comments (3)
Way to go Roy. Great recap of the ROCC'ers adventures at SciPower. August is coming up fast and then there's Freedom Launch in September. Tom Binford has some videos posted on the the Tripoli ICBM site at http://www.tripolisc.org/modules/news/
John Metcalf
Great post, Roy. Scott Schnegelberger is the fellow from Raleigh attending the O'burg launch and whose father took incredible launch photos from the weekend launch in Orangeburg. They are posted in this web-site's members-only section under his comment to the Sci-Power post. Well worth the browse. If you flew, you will likely find some shots there.
- Martha Thompson
Roy,
I was happy that nothing burst into flame. That was special for me!
Malcolm