Launch Reports for 1/21 & 1/27

Sunday, 21 Jan 2018. Sat was still too wet and soft from recent wet weather.

And

Saturday 27 Jan 2018. Makeup from last weekend.

FIRE ! !  Like it was an omen, in this months NAR magazine, “Sport Rocketry”, there was a large article about  “ Range Safety : Fire Prevention & Response  ”. On Saturdays make-up launch we had a “Surprise Sparky” that lit a good sized ground fire that drained all three extinguishers, warmed up a lot of shoe leather stomping and Ken slapping the ground with flat cardboard to slap-out flames. Its amazing how much fuel energy there is in that thin grass “Thatch” layer on what looks like moist ground soil. What we apparently had was a misunderstanding on what the alphabet code at the end of the motor identification means. When you buy a new motor you haven’t flown before, ask exactly what those code letters mean when its something new. “SM” does not mean a “Smokey something” motor, apparently its “Skid Mark”. Not a sparky flier myself, I would not have known the code myself. I might not have caught it either. Now I know. If you don’t know what the code actually means ASK. Luckily we had both equipment and quick responders. We had about a 45 minute break till we could get the extinguishers recharged before resuming flights.

(Thank God, all Kip Wiliams, the land owner, did was laugh it off)

Ken Allen of Performance Hobbies, (the designated target area for out of control rockets). And Fire Fighter Supreme.

Ken was on site on both days to meet our requests and delivering orders to keep us supplied with all our rocketry needs.

Also 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.

TYLER DEATON. I am still holding a Rocket you won in last years Rocket Raffle, 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.

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. (check NAR “Sport Rocketry” magazine articles) A great simple system, check it out.

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 works best for that particular rocket and chute.

Sunday, 21 Jan 2018.

Where Saturday was still too wet and soft out at the farm, Sunday was just good enough to get into the area in the morning and then by afternoon, it was dry and firm. It was sunny and quite warm out there all day with really mild wind conditions. With dual deployments and care, the only flights that resulted in a tree landing or drifting off the farm were those that just decided go the wrong way or make a unexpected high altitude apogee chute deployment. Even with mild winds, a high deployment is still going to drift, and there are different wind speeds at various altitudes.

Not so many fliers so things ran in a “Fly’em when you Got’em” format.

We had  12   fliers , put up  43   flights burning  54   engines .

That includes all clusters and multi-stage flights

A= 3,  B= 0,  C= 12,  D= 5,  E= 19,  F= 6,  G= 5,  H= 1,  I= 1,  J= 2,  K= O.

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

Roy Potter, I did some testing of engines and the altitude they provided on different rockets and the new Econo-Max G74’s, 2 pack. As Ken said, they are more like a Super F with a max lift-off wt of 36oz. The 2-pack is about the same cost as a single G40 single use motor. I flew my “Coca Cola” on the G74-4’s with a Jolly Logic deployments at 300ft. “Zombi Hunter” flew on G74-4’s with a JL deployment also at 300ft. “BOB” flew on D12-5’s and “The Missile” on E9’s and E15’s. The Rear Eject system just isn’t configured for space for the Jolly Logic, too tight.

Kevin McDuffie flew a modified Estes “Cross Fire” on C6-3’s, Estes “Amazon” on a C6-3 and a “Spare Parts Scratch Built” on a C6-5 that may need just a bit more nose weight. But Looks good.

Katie Mc Duffie kept busy flying a Estes “Sky Writer” on a bunch of C6’s.

Scott Pennington flew “The Scoob” on a Estes F15-6, the “Blue Thunder” flew on a G106-5 Sparky (no fire) with a Jolly L deployment at 300ft. The very good looking “SA Archer” flew on a F42-4 with a JL also at 300ft. A LOC “Stella” flew on a F27-4 and another LOC, the “Stovi” flew on a cluster of seven (7) E9-6’s also with a JL deployment at 300ft. (300ft seems pretty common). A good looking “Nike Ajax” flew with a cluster of three (3) E9-4’s followed by a “Nike Smoke” on a F27-4. The Estes “Cosmo” flew on a E12-4? and The “Death Wish Coffee Max” (I can relate to the name) flew on a G70-4 with a JL at 300ft.

Everett Harrell flew a classic Estes “Alpha” on A8-3’s.

Tommy Harrell flew the “Twisted” (V-2 looking model with a spiraling paint job) twice on G64-7’s  with a JL deployment at 300ft but the eject charge on the second flight failed causing it to impact ballistic in the field, real shame it was a nice one. The JL did release the chute in the body but it wasn’t ejected so did not deploy.

Doug Knight flew “Dads Rocket” (So named so his kids know its his and not theirs to play with) on a nice long slow burn H73 that came apart at ejection with the nose cargo section falling in front of Kens set up and the booster/chute recovered in the field.

Lenoir Rhyne School Rocket Team with Prof Doug Knight, flew “The Hulk” (with only one green stripe), it  flew on a J410-9 for a test flight of the build design and altimeter systems with a Marsa for the main at 1,000ft and a Stratologger at 900ft with a 100% success.

Tim Tulowitzky flew his old Aero Tech “Barraccuda” on two flights with preloaded unknown “F” motors. (stickers missing) Good flights but with a very high apogee deployment with the second landing in the Simpson farm which could not be recovered as Mr Simpson was not home. His Rule, he has to be home and escort you. Tim’s Estes three stage “Commanche-3” flew on a D12-C6 to C6-6 successfully.

Doc Russell flew his “Talon-2” on a H128 with a JL deployment at 300ft which worked but the Talon decided to turn at takeoff and zoom over the creek so made a tree landing pretty high up so it will be a challenge to try to recover. That is always a bummer when you can stand there and look at it but not much else. He does have a plan to recover it for the hardware at least. His Estes “Interceptor-E” flew great on a E15-7.

Charles Ogino flew his “Meco” on a I115 with a stratologger altimeter recovery that still drifted past the Simpson farm and was successfully recovered.

Mark Bartkowiak  flew a Estes? “Puma” space fighter looking kit on a mini A10-3t, the “Skunk Wolf” a cool looking WWII secret Nazi rocket fighter (Skunk Works Kit?) flew on a E18-4 that chuffed on the pad resulting in a wobbly flight and big ejection/kato? That kind of broke it into parts. German engineering is usually much better than that. Mark is still trying to get the motor/rocket design/weight combination for a successful flight of his “Virginia Class Nuclear Submarine”. The flight on a E16-4 was still unstable.

Saturday, 27 Jan 2018 make-up launch.

It was a bright day with a high altitude overcast with the rain forecasted to move in sometime after 6pm, but warmish, some t-shirts mixed in with the long sleeves and again with pretty good calm’ish 5 – 7mph wind conditions. No missing rockets due to drifting off and except for a tiny rocket there were no loss’s. Did have a ballistic impact behind Kens setup but not much else. Course, we did have that little FIRE issue.

Again, we ran a in a “Fly’em when you Got’em” format.

We had  15   fliers , put up  40   flights burning  44   engines .

That includes all clusters and multi-stage flights

A= 6,  B= 2,  C= 16,  D= 4,  E= 7,  F= 2,  G= 4,  H= 2,  I= 0,  J= 1,  K= O.

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

Roy Potter, I continued testing the new Econo-Max G74’s performance. The “Red Arcas” flew on the G74-4 with a good JL deployment at 300ft, again the “Zombi Hunter” also on G74-4 with a JL at 300ft. The “Bumble Bee” also on a G74-4 with a JL at 300ft. Different results and altitudes but looking economical. A two pack is about the same price as a single AeroTech G40. Both “Bob” and the “Missile” rear ejectors flew on E9-4’s and 6’s.

Sandy Houston test flew a new kit design they have, the “Short Change” with laser cut fins like a series of full size coins also laser etched with the coins image. It flew on A8’s B6’s and C6’s which  all flew very straight and stable switching from a small chute to a streamer as the big fins really catch the air on decent. It will probably join the “Snow Flake” and “Pine Tree”, they also have those kits available.

Trent Dominick flew his Estes “CBU-87 Cluster Bomb” minus the bomblets, on a C6-5, the Estes “Photon Probe” also on a C6-5 and a “Silver Bullet” on A8-3’s. His “Orvile” (In recognition of the new Sci-Fi show) flew on a C6-5 while the “Golden Dart” flew on a D12-5.

Duane Dominick flew a 4in gold V-2 “Golden Jet” on a G125-8 blue thunder with a lucky field landing with a apogee deployment. The “Fire Ball” flew with a three (3) motor cluster of C6-5’s.

Tim Tulowitzky flew a nice looking new kit, a Estes “Red Ryder” two stage twice on a C11 to a B6-4. The second flight, I think had non ignition of the sustainer B6 with a ballistic in the field. I might have that mixed with another flight.

Malcolm Smith , when not pulling Safety Inspection duty (thanks Malcolm), flew a SemRoc “Magnum Hornet” on a C11-7. The “Odd’l Rocket Critter” flew on a E15 while a classic “Gremlin” flew on a C11-7.

Aidan Thrower flew a “Falcon-9” (looks like a familiar kit) on a E9-6 and a Estes “Centurion” on a C6-5. (both last years Rocket Raffle)

Liam Thrower flew his Loc “Mini Magg” on a H133-7 that also luckily made a in-field landing with a high apogee deployment.

Johnathan Hallenbeck flew a Estes “Metalizer” on a C6-5.

Trinity Hallenbeck flew her “Dart” on a mini A10-3t.

Faith Hallenbeck flew her “Arrow” on a mini A10-3t.

Trevor Hallenbeck flew a Estes Pro Series-2 “Majestic” twice on Estes F15-6’s. The “Lucky Blue”, the “Sky Bound” and the “Power Patrol” all flew on C6-5’s.

Ralph Roberts, our Club President getting back into the hobby after his daughter left for collage, flew his daughters “Amanda’s UFO” on a D12-0 with a air brake return. He renewed his Tripoli L-1 certification with a successful flight with the “East Side Thug” on a H148-10.  Another “Born Again Rocketeer”. He also flew his Estes Cave Man rocket, the “Rock-It” on a D12-5, sooo easy that even a cave man could do it.

Alan Stephenson flew a very up-scaled “Fat Boy” on a J250 (surprise. It’s a Sparky) that was a good flight, just a surprise to all of us.

Doc Russell flew his Estes up-scaled “Interceptor-E” on a E30 and the “Terk” on a D12-5.

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.