February 18th Launch Report
Wednesday, February 21, 2018 at 9:27PM Sunday, 18 Febuary 2018.
Saturday the weather was just too iffy with overcast, scattered mist, drizzle and light rain depending on where you were at any random time of the day.
Though it was not as wide spread as last Januarys launch, we again had a field fire. But this time we were almost expecting the possibility with a “Sparky” launch. So we were prepared and quick to respond. Ralph spotted the small scattered hot spots and then spotted one in the shredded corn field that we had overlooked.
Those who get the NAR magazine, “Sport Rocketry”, there was a large article about “ Range Safety : Fire Prevention & Response ”. NAR does have funds available to its Chapter groups for safety equipment, that’s something to look into for additional “Nomex” blankets and other equipment. Its just amazing how much fuel energy there is in that thin grass “Thatch” layer on the ground soil.
We just want to keep everyone thinking safety here. Summer season is coming, and depending on the crop season, we may get some launch’s in during the Hot Dry part of the summer.
Ken Allen of Performance Hobbies, (the designated target area for out of control rockets).
Ken was on site to meet our requests and delivering orders to keep us supplied with all our rocketry needs.
In the new NAR, Sport Rocketry Magazine there is a 6 page article about putting the Jolly Logic Chute Release system through the paces. It’s a good article that might answer some of your questions if you are undecided in getting one yourself.
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.
For memberships, check with Jason Pettler. ( or Club web site WWW. Rocketry Carolina.org)
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.
LOST AND FOUND. Check the box for a few nose cones, and a few other odd items. We do have a small LP blue-ish/purple rocket.
Pictures. Check the Gallery for launch photo’s. Come on, We see everyone is taking photo’s. Lets Get them onto the ROCC Club WEB Gallery.
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.
Jolly Logic Chute Release System. Reminder NOTE: It says in the Jolly Logic instruction book that, depending on the way YOU FOLD and 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. And it will be different for each of your rockets so you may need to experiment a little to find what deployment setting works best for that particular rocket and chute.
Sunday, 18 February 2018.
It was sunny and quite warm out there all day with really mild wind conditions. They went mostly down range and toward the tree line on the left. We only had one sacrifice to the rocket eating trees, It was one of the small LP “Wind Test Launchs” with a real high altitude at the beginning. REMEMBER, even with a mild wind, a high deployment is still going to drift, and there are different wind speeds at various altitudes. We saw some change drift directions four or five times as they descended.
Not so many fliers so things ran in a “Fly’em when you Got’em” format.
We had 17 fliers , put up 56 flights burning 61 engines .
That includes all clusters and multi-stage flights
A= 4, B= 4, C= 6, D= 9, E= 14, F= 14, G= 5, H= 3, I= 1, J= O, K= 1.
(Remember, what I write is influenced by your penmanship and spelling.
Malcolm Smith (who gets the best penmanship award) flew the “Black Bertha” on a C11-5.
Roy Potter, welllll. I had one with a failure of the ejection charge, one with a premature ejection that fowled the chute and then of course I had to forget to remove the rubberband off a chute bundle on another. “Thumper” went up on a G74-6 that Lawn Darted with a unfired ejection charge. She has a heavy body tube so only needs a cleaning up. “Zombi Hunter” also flew on a G74-4 with a rubberband still around the chute bundle. Zombi landed flat on soft mud so came out without damage. The “T-4” went up on a G79-4 that ejected while under thrust fowling the chute so it could not inflate. Now those are some good pictures. The nose and about 8 inch’s of body tube will need to be replaced but should be ready soon. Now the “Missile” a poop-chuter, on the other hand flew perfectly on E20-4’s and the “Bumble Bee” flew and deployed normally on a G74-4.
Rebel Rocketeer’s TARC Rocket Team flew the “Fortnite” on F42’s and a F50 for timed test flights.
West Iredell High School TARC Rocket Team flew the “Tarc R-3” on F59-7’s also on timed test flights.
Lenoir-Rhyne School NASA Rocketry Team did a ground ejection charge test of four cylinders of different charge strengths that echoed back and forth across the field. Then choosing the right sized charges, prepped and made the last flight of the day at aprox 5:30 of the “Big Beur”. It was an impressive design that provided a few challenges, but it lite off on a Loki K690 in an impressive flight with a normal apogee separation to dance it’s way down to (I think) a 900 ft chute deployment with a 800ft back-up charge. It is thought that both charges fired together overwhelming the body to contain and eject the chute normally. So it unfortunately returned in one large and many small fluttering parts. The team seemed to take in stride and were bouncing ideas back and forth for improvements while they rebuild.
Braves unk? name, flew the “Falcon Light Weight II” on a A8-3 to a B6-4 and then a C6-5. A small light weight rocket named the “Noisey Cricket” flew on a D10-5 motor that he got from Ken and it actually returned to the field.
Lily Nein flew the “Flying Lily” on a 1/2A3-4.
Peter Nein flew the “Smarties Candy Rocket” (see picture) on a E30-4 and the Ghost Busters “Ecto -9” on a H135-6.
Ralph Roberts flew his daughters “Amandas UFO” She’s off to collage, on its retirement flight on a D12-0 and his Estes cave man rocket “Rock-It” on a D12-5.
Doc Russell flew his “Tarque Two” on a F24-4.
Scott Pennington took the whole day prepping and flying eleven flights. His scale “Lance Delta” flew on a F24-4 with a jolly logic deployment at 300ft. The scale “Nike Hercules” flew on a single F42-4 and his patriotic “Old Glory” went up on a H163-5 with a JL deployment at 300ft. His Estes “Cosmo-2” flew on a E12-4, a Estes “Explorer” flew on a E12-6. His “Big Bird” flew on a F15-6 where his “Harpoon” flew on a E9-6. A clone of the Estes Mars Snooper, the “Mars Snoop Dog” flew on a C6-3 and the Estes “Mercury Redstone” flew on a D12-5. The military “Nike Ajax” flew on a cluster of three E9-4’s that all successfully ignited. But, his “MB-1” on a H143-6 experienced a Blow-By ejecting the chute at the top of the rail with minimal damage.
Charles Long also flew eleven rockets. A Estes two-stage “Fire Storm” flew on a D12 to a B6-4, then flew the upper stage alone on a C6-5.The silver tubular fined “Plumbers Helper” flew on E9-6’s. The “Tuber not Uber” flew on a C6-5 and a kit two stage flying spool “Two Cool for Spool” flew on a D12 to D12-5 that really looked cool. Charles took a Estes Rock-It kit and customized into a cave man “Stone Age Nuke” that flew on a E30-7. The “Blobo” flew on a E30-7 and a classic Estes “Hornet” flew on a C6-5. The “Mystery Estes Rocket” flew on a B6-4.
Dan Butcher flew a classic looking yellow/black “V-2” (see picture) on a D12-5. His upscaled Estes “Big Bertha 100” flew on a F67-6 then the “Blade Runner” flew on a cluster of two D12-5’s.
Eric Noguchi flies what look like competition gliders and helicopter return rockets. He flew a “SlipStream Back Slider” swing wing glider on a maiden flight on a A8-3, a “J+H Aerospace Switch Blades” on a mini A3-2T. One of the two was almost too good and took a search team to find it. The “E-Rockets Blue Jay” flying triangle, made a good maiden flight on a B6-3.
Doug Knight flew the “Mammonth” and no it is not a extinct prehistoric rocket, it flew on a F67-6 but where the nose was ejected, the chute was stuck in the edge of the tube making a flat landing.
Mark Ferrell flew his renamed “Sweet” on a I435 blue thunder with a successful dual deployment at 400ft.
Hope everyone had fun and will be looking forward to our next launch, till then, remember to keep your exhaust nozzles clear and the pointy end up.
Roy. ROCC Sec.