March 25th launch report

Makeup launch, Saturday the 25th of March 2017.

Well, the weather gods took our regular launch last weekend so we had to backup a week to Sat the 25^th. Saturday was a great launch day, Sunday was just too “iffy” according to the weather forecast. But.. as I said, Sat turned out just fine. We had a lot of flights, a couple of kato’s and an odd skywriter, but nothing bad, just enough to pump up your adrenalin a bit. The winds we did have did blow toward the Simpson Farm but luckily two drifted past his field and I was the only one who needed to knock on his door. I truly feel that if we follow the rules and conduct ourselves properly and politely, we can expect his cooperation.        I hope someone got a film of the “K” flight by Charles Ogino and Alex Sutton, now that got your pulse up, especially hoping the Jolly Logic release worked. It Did.

Ken Allen of Performance Hobbies, (the designated target area for out of control rockets)

Ken was there to meet our requests and delivering orders just to keep us supplied with all our rocketry needs.

Jason Pettler had the grill up and grilling burgers and dawgs. And he had cold soft drinks including some Dr. Peppers. Man, I haven’t had any Peppers for a while so that was great. Jasson was also taking care of our ROCC Club memberships. Hey Jason, are we officers up to date?

ROCC Rocket Raffle season was finished last month except for TYLER DEATON. SO Tyler, I will hold your rocket till your next visit to the Launch Farm. It’s the white “Unk Scale Missile”, two motor, 24mm, cluster rocket. Congrats dude. And Congrats to all the other winners and a special thanks to all the participants.

ROCC Club Membership (along with the Raffle sales) covers the cost of maintaining the launch equipment, supplies and our association fees with the National Association of Rocketry and the Tripoli Rocketry Association plus covers our insurance.

Remember, any $20 membership (which can cover your whole family) comes with a ROCC Club “T” shirt. Check with Jason on styles and colors available.

Check with Jason ( or Club web site WWW. Rocketry Carolina.org) on Memberships.

LOST AND FOUND. We have= A grey unmarked sweatshirt.  Is it Mark Ferrell’s?

Check the box for a few nose cones, and a few other odd items. We do have the blue-ish/purple rocket that I had a Dad re-glue a fin with super glue.

Pictures. Check the Gallery for launch photo’s. We see everyone is taking photo’s.                     Get them onto the ROCC Club WEB Gallery.

We see a lot of people taking pictures out there. Let’s get them onto the ROCC Web Site and 0nto the Gallery section 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@gmail.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.

Jolly Logic Chute Release System. (check NAR “Sport Rocketry” magazine articles) A great simple system, check it out.

NOTE: It says in the Jolly Logic instruction book that, depending on how YOU pack your chute, you should allow 50 to 125 feet for the chute to FULLY deploy. So, Remember, it doesn’t actually open at “your” selected altitude of 200ft, more closer to 75 to 150ft. or even less depending on how YOU wrap your chute. That’s cutting it close. And it will be different for each of your rockets so you may need to experiment a little to find what works best for that particular chute.

A couple of 200ft deployments didn’t FULLY open until feet before impact.  Please take that into consideration.

Saturday, 25 March.

The winds did blow toward the Simpson Farm, so please see the Rules for any future retrieving of any rocket from Mr Simpson’s farm on the Club Web site or Club Face Book Site. Like I said, if we are polite and follow the rules, it will work.

We had  37   fliers , put up  84   flights burning  97   engines .

That includes all clusters and multi-stage flights

A= 13,  B= 7,  C= 12,  D= 8,  E= 19,  F= 22,  G= 7,  H= 4,  I= 3,  J= 1,  K= 1.

(Remember, what I write is influenced by your penmanship and spelling.

Janelle Chaney flew a Big Bertha named “Brave, For All the Unicorns” on a C6-3.

A Estes “Skywriter” flew on a A8-3 and then “Kristine, the Science Queen” also on a C6-5. She kept them all on streamers.

Marie Chaney flew the Estes “Big Bertha” named “Brave” on a C6-3, again, For all the Unicorns”.

Scott Chaney  flew a Phonex named the “Serno” on a D12-5, a Estes “SR-71 Black Bird” on a C6-3 that kind of whipped off the rod flying low and level into the field that looked pretty cool. His “Big Red” flew on a E30-4.

Lily Oltchick, was one of a small group of fliers with small printed paper “Stealth’ pyramids. Her “lil Ship” flew on a 1/2A3-4 mini motor.

Lily Nein flew hers, “Lily 3.0”, also on a 1/2A3-4. They thought they were really cool.

Alex Nein flew her “Peppa Pig Goes BOOM” also on a 1/2A3-4.

Davis Moli flew the “Thomas the Dank Engine” also on a 1/2A3-4.

Peter Nein flew a “Smartie” sweet tart candy roll rocket on a E30-4. His tribute to the original Ghost Busters, “ECTO-9” flew on a H183-9. The “Da Bomb”, that looks like a VN era aircraft dropped bomb, flew on a C11-5.

Doc Russell flew a “Mako” on a D12-5, his Estes “Duces Wild” with a two B6-4 motor cluster flew fine but his “Talon II” flew great on a G79-5 with a J/L deployment that did not deploy at 500ft. Doc says the J/L released the chute bundle but the bundle did not unravel. And 12 inch’s of grass hid it quite well from our search till he almost stepped on it. I didn’t see any damage.

Roy Potter, I flew my new scratch “Short Red Top” rear ejection on D12-3’s that looked good, My new scratch rear ejection “Missile” was underpowered on a D12-3 and still a little underpowered even on a E9-4, I may have to go up to a E15. The larger rear ejection “Stars and Stripes” flew on a G79-4 and the “T-4 Missile” rear ejection flew really well on a H128-6 that required my knocking on Mr Simpsons door for its recovery.

The East Alexander Middle School “TARC” rocket teams were out all day first making TEST flights then successfully made their Qualification flights with two sections with a chute each, one egg, various weights to control the targeted altitude and targeted flight time.

The “Aikido” “boys team” made 9 flights on F36-7’s The boys team made the last flight of the day at 6:45 after mistakenly trying to ignite a already burnt engine 6 times. Duh. But they still qualified.

Meanwhile the girls team “AC Classic” made qualification with only 7 flights with the same F36-7 motors. Girl power.

Charles Ogino and Alex Sutton flew a really big “Little John” with a 14ft red and white paneled chute on a AT K1275 redline that tested a J/L parachute reefing system that apparently worked. Card didn’t give the programmed altitude.

I hope someone filmed that.

Marcus Harmon, glad to see you back at the farm dude, flew his 7 motor cluster “Ultimate” on a center G125 surrounded by two F15’s and four E16’s for a successful flight and recovery. He just makes it look all too easy.

Mylan Green flew a OD green “US Army” missile on A8-3 flights.

Kevin Green also flew the OD green missile “US Army” on a A8-3.

Stacy Henegar flew a Estes “Wizard”, streamer recovery on a A8-3 then a B6-4.

Andrew Henegar flew a Estes “Cross Fire” on a A8-3 then a B6-4.

Cheryl Batten flew a Estes “Blue Ninja” on a D12-5 and her sporty “Go Tigers” flew up on a F32-6 with a J/L deployment at 300ft.

Malcolm Smith flew a classic SemRoc “Aero Dart” on a E9-6.

Alan Stephenson flew a Mad Cow “AGM-58” missile on a J357 with a drogue at apogee and dual deployment at 500ft that failed because he realized (like I have done) he did not remove the rubberbands we sometimes use to keep the chute bundle from coming apart while we handle it.

Julius Burris flew a Estes “Top Shot” on a D12-5, the “Rookie” flew on a C6-5, his “Stars and Stripes” on a E12-4 and a LOC? “Lil Nuke” on a F23-4.

Eric Noguchi flew a nice round fined helicopter return rocket called the “Cyclone” on a C6-3 that worked perfectly.

Zachary Frost flew his “Superman” on a 1/2A3-2 and the “POP” on a C6-5.

Doug Knight flew his old “Tubeular Trash” with round fins on a G80-7 skidmark. His “Red and Silver” had a katoed E9-4 that blew out the exhaust nozzle before it cleared the rod and sat there till the fuel burned off. No damage.

Micah Knight flew a new unpainted (we call it Naked) “Nike Smoke” on a F15-6 for its first and successful flight.

Liam Thrower flew his Meco “Rock-it” on a I170 with a dual deployment at 500ft.

John Bergsmith flew a Estes “Big Bertha” on a C6-3 then a “Carbon Cowboy-54” on a I211 with a successful dual deployment at 450ft.

Kim Bergsmith also flew a Estes “Big Bertha” on a C6-3 and a Estes “Rock-it” caveman rocket on a D12-3.

Ryan Bergsmith flew a Estes “Orange” and a “Black” crayon on C6-5’s.

Scott Pennington flew a big upscaled “Der Red Maxx” on a G78-4 with a J/L deployment at 400ft. His Sci-Fi “Cosmo” flew back to normal on a E9-4. His “Bull Pup” flew on a E30-4 and a LOC (STOVI) 7 motor cluster with all E9-4s. The center motor katoed, ejecting the nose and chute, cutting the shock cord while the remaining motors continued burning spiraling it in air till they burned out. The J/L chute release survived to fly again. Very entertaining. His “Old Glory” flew on a H100-7 with a J/L deployment at 400ft.

Ralph Roberts flew his “East Side Thug” on a G64-7.

Joe Pettler flew a “Formula 54” on a G100 skidmark. His “Honest John” flew on a I211 with a dual deployment at 700ft.

Henry Unk. Flew a Estes “Cross Fire ISX” on a B6-4.

Elliott Doerr flew the “Amazon” on a B6-4.

Adam Doerr flew the “Fat Rat” on a B6-4.

A Unk TARC Test flight, “White Lighting” on a F36-7.

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.