April 2013's post-launch report....

Saturday, the 20^th of April was pretty much OK. Except for the crops effect on where we had to set up the High Power and Low Power pads.

Because of the minimum distance required between the High Power pads and the occupied farm house, the HP had to be set up at the usual location out by the wind sock where the new wheat crop was sometimes more than knee high, which wasn’t too bad as the larger rockets would be easier to find.

But the Low Power rockets, if launched at that location would almost be impossible to find in the tall wheat. So we set up the LP pads, which can be closer to the house, back closer toward the Port-a-Pot where the fields on both sides were clear and clean with no planted crops so finding and recovering the smaller rockets should be easy.

So we set up separate launch control system at each end of the runway, with parking in-between.

Winds were off and on, not too bad overall, windcocking and angling the launch’s seemed to take care of those concerns.

We did have a few tree landings, everything recovered as far as I know.

Michael Hollowell had brought out his large RC Helicopter and was able to make a Helicopter Recovery of his and another tree bound rocket. Both had landed, draped across, very close to the tree top and he was able to remotely drop a weighted line across the shock cords and then hand pull the line, pulling the rocket out of the tree top. It was very impressive to watch.

Ken, of Performance Hobbies was there and did a good bit of business sales plus delivering preordered items.

Rocket Ralph had his barbeque up and running most the time serving hotdogs chips, chili and drinks to keep us going.

Saturday Nights “Night Launch” went off pretty good. We had about a dozen flights including those that flew more than once. There were some night flying kits that I and a few others flew and a few imaginative scratch designs, Jason Pettler had a bright blue LED light strip that he spiral wound around the length of his while Laura Owens attached finger laser pointers on hers aimed up into the chute to reflect back. I think it was Ken Parker that flew one with a neon lighted body with lights in the chute that was great.

We did notice that at night, the Estes engines look like mini-sparky motors with a sparky burst at ejection, while the composite motors were very clean and were like bright lights streaking up.

We hope to do it again and expect more flights when we do as it looks like seeing these has peaked some ideas in others.

Saturday Nights Campout was pretty good. Lots of tents and the small of cooking and lots of food, talk and just hanging around the firepit till people dragged themselves to their campsite.

It was a surprise when we woke to find that any dew that had set or puddled on plastic or metal surfaces had frozen. That just made the pancakes, French toast and morning coffee that much better.

There is already pictures on the Gallery, go see them.

For our embarrassment and your entertainment, any pictures you have from this or any recent launch that you would like to get posted on the web site for everyone to see, just contact Doc Russell at rocketrycarolina at gmail dot com, or as some have done, pass it on a disk or flash drive. We can always get it back to you.

We have the ROCC club membership drive for the 2013 flying season.

Membership funds go to the NAR and Tripoli association fees and insurance and cover the costs of maintaining the launch equipment.

We have new ROCC “T” shirts. We went through the gray shirts, then the tie-dye shirts and now by request we will be offering a tannish brown polo shirt with collar and then some assorted solid colored shirts. All with the colored ROCC logo.

LOST and Found.

At last months launch while off in the woods, doing what rocket fliers do, looking for rockets, I came upon and recovered a large bright red rocket with a psyciadelic altimeter cargo section, and white Bio-Hazard decals on the fins and “Caliber-ISP” in white lettering on the body. It looks like a LOC kit and has a large silver engine retainer.

Maybe it was launched in the Saturday 2 March Snow Launch.?

Some think it belongs to a Steve? With a borrowed 38mm engine. I kind of suspect the motor might be J.P.’s?  as he pre-preps and labels a lot of engines in advance. This was labeled as a “H 178 D.M. (dark matter?) –12 (delay) on blue masking tape.

I took it apart, removed the dead battery and dried the parts out, Cleaned the engine casing and after all that, over all, even after maybe 2 weeks in the weather; I think it will be fine. It was very well constructed and painted, so that helped it survive. Most rockets we recover are in way worse shape than this.

Saturday 20 April 2013.

We had 27 fliers who put up 103 flights burning 115 engines. That includes multiple flights, multi-stage and cluster flights.

A= 4,   B= 6,   C= 39,   D= 14,    E= 10,   F= 6,   G= 12,   H= 6,   I= 5,   J= 3,  K= 0.

Who flew what? Remember your penmanship of what I can read influences my spelling. 

Mark Bartkowiak flew a bunch of flights all with a Jolly Roger altimeter to test the performance of his rockets with the selected LP motors. His “Polska-1” flew on a C6, the “Farstrider” and a “AIM-9” on D12’s while the “Viking Black Mace” and the “Orange Whip” on A8’s.

Roy Potter, while running the Low Power end of the runway, I got my “Thumper” up on F20’s and the “Test-III” on D12’s. My Estes “Night Flyer” flew its lights on a C6 that night.

Christian Russell flew a “Speedo” on an A8 then C6’s with an altimeter. His “LoadStar” and the “Old Original” flew also on C6’s.

Greg Bulloch flew a “Super Bertha” and a “Mean Machine” on E9’s, a regular “Big Bertha” flew on a D12. His “G-Force” flew first on a G64, a G104 then on a H128 for a L-1 cert flight.

Malcolm Smith Flew a LOC “Graduator” on a F39 and the “Wild Child” on a F120. His “I Forgot” flew on a C11. His 38mm “Cinco” flew on a H112.

Bryson Smith flew a “Vagabond” on a D12 then a E9. His “Amazon” flew on a B6.

Mitchell Bird flew a nice “Bumble Bee” on a C6, a neat Estes kit, the “Converter” that can be reconfigured into different configurations, flew on a C6, and the “Heat Seeker” on a B6.

Randy Bird flew the “White Lightning”, a moonshine power rocket on a E20 and the “Orange Blossom” on a D12.

Kaitlin Pettler, check out the picture of her running down the runway towing the large chute behind her, well she flew a Barbie pink “Mega-Mosquito” on a E9.

Jason Pettler, flew a LOC “Mini Magg” on a H8? Had to be something else. His Night flyer the “Blue Light” flew on E15’s that night. A Flis Kit “Tres” flew on a cluster of three C6’s. A LOC “Cruiser” flew on a J350 for a L-2 cert flight. His “Pit Bull” flew on a H128.

Joe Pettler flew a Estes “Tomahawk” on a E9, a “Baby Bertha” on a D12, a mini “Red Max” on a  A10, a Estes “Heli-Cat” on a C6 that has a helicopter return nose cone. His “Bull Pup”, Estes “Metalizer” and “Der Red Max” all flew on C6’s.

Spencer Wallen flew a “No Name”, the “Colors”, the “Mean Green”, the “Argosy” and a “Nova” on C6’s and a small rocket “Not a Mosquito” on a B6.

Chuck Bracey flew a Estes “Leviathan” on a CTI F30 and a “Mega Der Red Max” on a CTI G57 and then a G106 Sparky.

Michael Hollowell flew his “Thunder, No Lightning” on a I211 on a dual deployment with main chute deployment at 700ft. His really great big LOC “Bruiser” went up on a J800 on a dual deployment with main chute deployment at 500ft. Very impressive, and loud.

Laura Owens flew a “Naked Baby Bertha” on a daytime test flight and its later night flight on C6’s to see if the added finger lights were too heavy.

Ken Parker only flew his Night Flyer, the “Sunrise” on a G64 twice that night.

Michael Strunk flew a Estes “Big Bertha” on a B6.

David Strunk flew a “Bigger Bertha” on a G54 and then did a daytime test flight of his night rocket on a F79, but failed to deploy a chute and was deflated on impact. It was a cool looking internally illuminated, large “Inflated Carona beer bottle”. That would have looked so cool.

Terry Baucom flew his big ole “Fat Boy” on a H225G then the “Afterthought” on a G61.

Mathew Baucom flew a Estes “Two Stage” rocket on a B6 to a C6 and a “Wart Hog” on a E15.

Charles Ogino took time to prep his “Carbon Cowboy” for a RRC-3 Beta test for a flight on a I165 on a dual deployment with main chute deployment at 500ft.

Rodney Earp flew his “Mega Mosquito” on a D12 and his LOC “Hyper LOC 835” on a J500G for a recorded altitude of 3,700ft, only 300ft short of our waiver ceiling. His LOC “V-2” flew on a I245G.

Devon Tomkinson flew a “Super Big Bertha” on a D12 and a LOC “Mini Magg” on a H238.

Todd Haring, glad to see him back, he flew his mega upscaled “Sprite” on a I284, then his “Risky Business” also on a I284 on dual deployment with main chute deployment at 400ft for a tree landing just pass the creek where Charles Ogino was to somewhat easily, using the extension pole, retreave it from the trees.

John Bergsmith flew his night flyer, the “Night Skeeter” on a C6. His Estes “Dark Energy” flew on a C6, a Estes “Leviathan” on a G80 and a really big “Mega Der Red Max” on a G64. His “Honest John” flew on a G76 a large “Crayon” on a G64 and also a “Nike Smoke” on a G80.

Ryan Bergsmith flew a Estes Kit “Crayon” on C6’s.

Ashley Bergsmith flew a “Mega Mosquito” on a D12.

Sunday 17 March 2013.

It started out calm, up until the morning dew dried out, then it became a little more breezy as the morning continued. It wasn’t what I would call windy, but the breaze was consistant and changing directions.

We had 11 fliers who put up 25 flights burning 28 engines. That includes multiple flights, multi-stage and cluster flights.

A= 3,   B= 0,   C= 5,   D= 8,    E= 4,   F= 0,   G= 5,   H= 1,   I= 1,   J= 0,  K= 1.

Who flew what? Remember your penmanship of what I can read influences my spelling.

Laura Owens flew a LOC “Weasel” on a E23 and her “36 Double D” on a cluster of two D12’s.

Mike Hollowell flew his, it looks just like the other one but smaller LOC “Mini Bruiser” on a C6 and a Estes “Flying Port-a-Pot”, the “Crapper” on a C6.

David Popkin flew the “Cruller” on a CTI G250.

Spencer Wallen flew LP yesterday, today he got introduced to HP with a LOC “RIM-67 or 66 standard surface to air missile”, a prototype of a new LOC kit donated by J.P. After getting a lot of advice on engine selection and, he first flew it on a G76-4 then a G80-5R. I think he got the BUG.

Kaitlin Pettler flew a Estes “Tomahawk” on a E9, the pink Mosquito “Summer Fun” on a D12 and the “Freedom” on C6’s.

Mitchell Bird flew a Estes “Der Blue Max” on a D12.

Doc Russell flew his “Tigger” on a I211 on a dual  with the main chute at 400ft. Recorded altitude was 2,200ft. His “Airiel” flew on a H128 to 1,580ft.

Guy Ogino took time to prep and fly the “Back in Black” on a K1085 white thunder with dual deployment at 700ft. It made the wheat move in a wave away from the launch.

John Tolppi flew the “Mad Cow Mozzie” on a G88, a “Apple White Saucer” on a D12, a Quest “X-15” on a C6, the new “Viper” space fighter from Battle Star Galactica with a cluster of three A8’s and a Estes “Snitch” saucer on a D24.

Roy Potter, I was still running the LP end of the runway but flew my British ”Union Jack” on E15’s and the “Test-iii” on D12’s.

Michael Strunk flew his “Bigger Bertha” on a G80.

Hope everyone had fun and will be looking forward to our next launch, till then, remember to keep your exhaust nozzles clear.

Roy. ROCC Sec.