February 23rd & March 1st flight report
Friday, March 7, 2014 at 8:12PM Welcome, to the Sun, 23 Feb and following Sat, 1 March Launch Report.
OK all, what we have here is a combined Post Launch report for our regular Feb Launch on its “back-up” launch date and a spontaneous launch the following Sat to make up for the loss of the previous Saturday due to weather.
And that’s why we all need to check the Web site regularly for updates. Hint, hint, hint.
Look forward to our annual April Campout Rocket Launch and nigh Launch.
Watch for information.
I hope you all were able to checkout NAR’s Sport Rocketry Magazine. There is a great article on the ARLISS rocket competition where “K” and “M” flights deployed robot gliders or ground robotic rovers that track as close as possible to a GPS target location. One deployed ground rover actually made to the GPS target.
Pictures. Check the Gallery for launch photo’s.
Remember, 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, memory card or flash drive. We can always get it back to you. That’s how I do it.
ROCC club 2014 Membership’s. See our membership officer Jason Pettler.
We have the drive going for the new 2014 flying season.
Membership funds go to the NAR and Tripoli association fees and insurance and cover the costs of maintaining the launch equipment.
ROCC “T” shirts. ( Any $20 membership comes with a ROCC T-shirt.)
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 assorted solid colored shirts.
All with the colored ROCC logo.
Sunday, one day launch, 23 Feb, 2014. Makeup for the regular 15-16 Feb weekend.
The field was still pretty wet and soft after the rains and melted snow, and a misleading mild to blowing wind which is why the Saturday launch was a no-go.
The Flight Theme for February Launch was Multi-Stage flights, so you will see quite few listed below.
We had 24 fliers who put up 96 flights burning 108 engines including clusters, reflights and multi-stage flights.
A’s= 11, B’s= 10, C’s= 34, D’s= 16, E’s= 21, F’s= 8, G’s= 4, H’s= 2, I’s= 1, J’s= o, K’s= 1.
(Remember, what I write is influenced by the penmanship/spelling of the writer.)
Malcolm Smith flew his Flis kit “Praetor” 2 stage on a C6 to a A6. The LOC “Loc IV” on a G185, a “Stretch Blobbo” cluster with 3 C11’s, and the naked “I-Forgot” flew on a E15.
Greg Bullock flew a one of a kind “Extended Maxi Alpha Bertha” on E9’s, a “Renegade” also on a E9, a standard “Alpha” on a A8, and a standard “Sprint” on a B4 and C6.
Roy Potter, I flew the “Stars and Stripes” on a slow burn H97 black jack, a old Estes 4 inch “V-2” on a F32, tangled the chute but no damage in the soft field. My Estes Pro Series II 2-stage “Ascender” boosted fine on a 29mm Estes F15. After the Estes 29mm E16 sustainer ignited there was a ‘Bang’ and blew out the motor, part of the mount and the retainer out the back rupturing the side of the body. I wanted to find the motor to see what it did, but could not find any of it.
My “Bumble Bee” flew fine on a G40.
Michael Hollowell flew the Estes Pro Series II 2-stage “Majestic” on a F15 to a F15? (it’s on the card) We don’t know why the second stage did not ignite so it came in ballistic into the trees over the creek. It was in reach so he did get it back. He also flew a Estes “Heli-Cat” on a C6 that has a helicopter nose cone recovery.
David Strunk flew his “Needle 29.9”, and it looks like one, on a G77, on a dual deployment with a successful main chute deployment at 600ft.
Gary Pfister flew a scratch built “Tequila”, I think out of odd parts including a plastic wine glass on a E9 and a “Blue-Max” also on a E9.
Prinzton Pfister? Flew the “Orange Passon” on a D12, the “White Tip” on a D12, the “NSA” on a C6, the “Yellow Bee” on a D12, his fathers? “Tequila” on a E9 and a classic Aero-Tech “Mustang” on a E9.
Morgan Pfister flew the “USA” on a C6.
Matthew Pfister flew the “US Army” on a C6, “NSA” on a C6 and the “Eagle Rock” on a D12.
Benjamin Vaughan flew the “Silver Arrow” on a B6.
Scott Vaughan flew a “Mega Mosquito” on D12’s and E9’s and a small “Puma” on mini A3-Ts.
Tyler Deaton flew a “Tomahawk” on a E23 and then a F52.
Shawn Becigneul flew a tiny “Quark” on a mini ½ A3-T, a Estes “Skywriter” on a A8 up to a C6, the “X-Flyer” on a B6 and a “Der Red Max” on a C6.
Larry Becigneul flew a Estes “Comanche” 2 out of a normal 3-stage on a C6 to a B6, to keep the altitude down.
Stuart Samuels flew the “Bi-Oc” tumble recovery on a C6, the popular “Go Deep” flying football on a D12, a upscaled “Bottle Rocket” on C6’s, his 400% upscaled “Maple Seed” on a E18 (he should have been out sat 1 March, it was so calm). His “Mega Mosquito” flew on D12’s and a (what I call a Mono-copter) “18mm Helix” on a B4.
Savanna Samuels flew a all white “Snow Blizzard” on C6’s with a streamer recovery and the “Achamedes Razor” on a mini A10-T.
Laura Owens Balley flew her “36D Squared” cluster on two D12’s, unfortunately one did not ignite flipping it to the ground with some body damage, Don’t worry, she can fix it for next month. Her “Weasel” flew great on a F40.
Jason Pettler flew a Estes “Duces Wild” cluster of two C6’s, The “Viper 3” cluster on three E9’s of which 2 ignited but still flew successfully.
Doc Russell flew his “Mega Mosquito” on a D12, his up-scaled “Sprint XL” on a D12, a unfinished “No Name” on a E9 and the “Herc” on a C11.
Ralph Roberts flew a Estes “Patriot” on a C6, “Amandas UFO” on a D12, a “Nike Smoke” on a B6, and the legendary Monty Pythons “Cosmic Staff of Azul” on a pro-29 G106 Skid mark Sparky.
Barb Tobin, who has a history with NAR contests with her brother, has decided to get into it herself. While she has helped and built many rockets herself, she has only now started flying them. She has started with a “SR-71” on a B6, a red sci-fi (see picture in gallery, kind of like a Mars Snooper) “EPM-010” on a C6, the “Launch Missile” on a B6, a NAR competition helicopter recovery model “Heli-Roc” on a mini 1/2A3T, a fishy “Baby Bertha Bass” on a B6 and a really nice “Starship Excalibur” on a A8 then C6. Welcome to ROCC.
Charles Ogino prepped a fantastic looking and high performing “CCR 130” on a K2000, on a dual deployment with a successful main chute deployment at 700ft. He had 3 altimeters to function as backups.
Ryan Bergsmith flew a small Estes “Red Crayon” on a C6, the really neat looking “Star” on a C6, a Estes, short, fat “Bulls Eye” on a C6, and the “Pencil” on C6’s.
John Bergsmith flew his “Long Tom” 2 stage on a C6 to C6, a “Astro Sprint” on a D12, the “Thunder Roc” on a E12, the Estes Pro Series II “Ascender” one stage on a F15, his imposing military “Honest John” on a H135, I hope he got it back, it really flew high so it drifted far. His “Phantom EXL” made up for it with a great dual deployment flight on a I245 with the main chute deploying at 300ft for a easy recovery.
Saturday, one day launch, 1 March, 2014. Spontaneous Makeup flight.
We started late to allow the early morning rain to pass and dry out. So after setup at 1130 we had great almost perfect calm flight conditions.
Everybody was launching as high as we could taking advantage of the conditions.
Even with those conditions it was a little more laid back and easy going.
We had 20 fliers who put up 65 flights burning 74 engines including clusters and multi-stage flights.
A’s= 2, B’s= 6, C’s= 22, D’s= 5, E’s= 19, F’s= 8, G’s= 6, H’s= 2, I’s= 3, J’s= 1, K’s= O.
Mark Bartkowiak was doing documented flights to get his NAR Bronze level award.
Don’t know if all were duration flights or if they were only required to be successful.
Required flight Category #1 was a flight of a Chute Duration flown onA8 and B6’s.
Category #2 was a Steamer Duration Also on a B6.
Category #3 was a Two Stage of C6 to C6 using a Estes “Comanchee.”
Category #4 was using a D12 using a “Stelth Fighter”.
Then for the fun of it he flew the “Polska” with a cluster of three C6’s and a ring finned “Ring Thane” three stage of a C6 to C6 to C6-7 followed by a “Mach 10” glider on a C6.
Don’t know if these flights were for the Bronze award also or not.
You can check the NAR website for information on the award badges you can earn.
Doc Russell prepped and flew his “Tigger” on a H123 and his upscaled “Sprint XL” on a D12 and then a E9. And like I always say, always watch to see where a rocket is going to land before running in circles to try and get away from it. The D12 flight landed exactly where I was standing at the launch table. I did jump out of the way kinda fast though.
Roy Potter, I flew my “Pepsi” after repair from last months field core sample on a G80 that got higher than I expected, but it was so calm it came down not far from my trailer in the center of the runway. I flew a new unpainted (base white coat) Aero-tech “Arcus” on Aero-Tech RMS F39’s that come in a 3-pack.
Jason Pettler flew a “STUVI” cluster flight of SEVEN E9’s that all lit up and those long burn E9’s just really got it up there. A really fantastic flight. He also flew a military (Navy) scaled “Sea Wolf” on a I212 black jack smokey for its first flight which was another great flight. His biggie was a 51/2 inch LOC “Cruiser” that flew on a J825 redline, dual deployed with a successful main chute deployment at 700 feet.
Joe Pettler, son of Jason, flew a Aero-Tech (I think) “IQSY Tomahawk” on a E9 them bumped it up to a F27.
Benjamin Vaughan flew a “Silver Arrow” on C6’s.
Scott Vaughan flew a “Mega Mosquito” on a D12 then E9’s, his “Mini Puma” flew on a mini A3-T and his “MINI Mosquito” flew on a 1/2A3-t. And with calm conditions, they all came back.
Malcolm Smith flew a LOC “Loc IV” on a G67 that blew the nozzle off so just sat on the rail burning fuel and ejecting the nose. Nozzle blew straight through the retaining ring.
His LOC “Onyx” flew fine on a F36 and the “Mega Mosquito” on a E12.
Louise Ferrell showed off her brilliant blue and white LOC “Mini Magg” with a great flight on a H123.
Professor Doug Knight flew a Estes “Cherokee-D” on a E30 of course, and got it back the same day. His “Green Machine” flew on a Cessoroni I170 that he also got back. We like to point out that usually he gets his rockets back up to a couple of months later. In fact he got a fiberglass rocket back that day from some time back.
Ralph Roberts flew his notorious “Eastside Thug” on a CTI G250 which was great but then upped it with a G106 Skidmark sparky engine, very cool dude. “Amand’s UFO” flew on a sedate D12 for a air-drag return.
Devon Tomkinson flew a “Super Big Bertha” on a D12 and a “Big Betty” on a C6.
Wesley Dunford flew his “Sparkling Jet” on C6’s.
Brad Shea, Hey Dude, Long Time. Flew the “Amazon Mutual Ins” on a C6 and his new really “Mean Machine” on a E20 for its first flight.
Miguel Gutierrez flew a “Black Hawk” on a C6 and a mini “Nitro” on a 1/2A3-T.
Ryan Bergsmith was busy with the cool designed “Starship Vega” on a C6, a egg lofter looking design called the “Atlas” on a E9, a large “Blue Crayon” on a G64 white lighting, a “Mega Mosquito” on a E12, a small “Red Crayon” on a C6 and the “Praetor” on a C6.
John Bergsmith was almost as busy as his son with a “Phantom EXL” on a I300, dual deployment with a good chute at 450 feet. A “Weasel” flew on a G64, a really good looking SimRoc “Saturn 1B” flew on a E20 and a classic Estes Clone kit of a “Mars Snooper” also flew on a E20.
East Alexander Middle School TARC team, led by Prof Doug Knight flew a “Falcon-1” rocket with 2 eggs, altitude target of 800 feet and duration target of about 50 seconds a number of times on a F29, F36, and a F50 that gave them the perfect duration time.
John Warner flew a “Baby Bertha” on a B6.
Luke Sewing flew a Estes “Big Bertha” on a B6.
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.
Reader Comments (1)
Actually only Requirments 1 and 2 needed to be timed. Chute had to be over 60 seconds and streamer had to be over 30 seconds.
Requirment 3 had to be a 2 stage flight, which I did with my homemade Commanche (from plans).
Requirement 4 had to be a launch with a D size engine, which I did with my unpainted homemade S.W.A.T. (also from plans).
The rest were just for fun. It was a perfect day for the 3 stage Ringthane which was an Estes Design of the Month from Sept 1976 by Bob Dinsmore, which I modified since the plan had some missing dimensions, incorrect dimensions and was unstable with current materials. I do hope we have more of these windless launches, I'd like to see my 3 stage Commanche really fly!