March 4th Make-up report
Sunday, March 11, 2018 at 3:49PM Another Sunday make-up Launch, 4 March 2018.
Oh man… I and everyone else were really looking forward to a sunny and clear Saturday AND Sunday launch weekend. BUT, it’s March, it’s Spring, and apparently it’s also the Windy season.
Friday the winds were fierce. Saturday the winds were less strong but well above the maximum allowed wind speeds.
Sunday’s winds were forecasted to be active in the morning and continuously decrease as the day progressed. That’s why we had a late start at 11am when it should start calming down.
SO,,.... we all setup and hung around turning the morning into a “Swap Meet” waiting for the winds to calm down.
Malcolm Smith had his vehicle stuffed full of Motors, Reloads and Casings, trading and selling. I and a few were drooling over what we couldn’t afford.
Kevin McDuffie had a car load of LP prebuilt rockets, a MP/HP rocket and a HP four motor cluster rocket, various motors, a new R/C unit and Rocket Glider kit, building supplies and odd parts that he was selling for an old flier who used to fly with us back in the day, Richard Mayberry. I and Doc got most of that. Kevin was going to bring the rest back at the next launch.
Well the winds hung in there till about 4pm then calmed down. By then some had gave up and left while others were not flying but just hanging out. So there was just a few of us left to take advantage of the evening calm.
Ken Allen of Performance Hobbies,
Ken was committed at another scheduled Launch site as this was not our regular launch date.
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.
Tim Tulowitzky. Your green AeroTech Barracuda was recovered by Doug Knight. After the 21 Jan 18 Launch, it’s in pretty bad shape, but the nose cone, fins, chute and motor mount parts are salvageable. Get new tubeing and rebuild!!
Doug Knight was reunited with the fin canister/motor section of his big “Kiss My Grass” (lost 17 April 2016!) when it was brought in by one of the School teams. He really liked getting back that big motor case. I thought it was going to take a lot of time and patience to get it out and opened up to clean, instead it took some tapping, but it came out and the closure’s came right off. (Old-timer tip...LUBE! Grease those closures with high-quality silicone lubricant, as well as the inner casing surface against the liner, it makes things a LOT easier to clean and if they do get stuck in a tree for several years the casing will be preserved and protected.-DR)
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.
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
Sunday, 4 March 2018.
Not so many fliers so things ran in a “Fly’em when you Got’em” format.
We had 6 fliers , put up 26 flights burning 26 engines .
That includes all clusters and multi-stage flights
A= 5, B= 4, C= 5, D= 3, E= 1, F= 6, G= 1, H= O, I= O, J= 1, K= O.
(Remember, what I write is influenced by your penmanship and spelling.
Malcolm Smith (who Again gets the best penmanship award) flew his long skinny Sem Roc “Thunder Roc” on a D12-5.
West Iredell High School TARC Rocket Team flew the “Tarc R-3” on three F54-6’s for altitude and time test flights with a egg in the nose cone and a second egg in the upper body tube.
Sandy Houston, made 13 flights. He test flew three new rocket kit designs. They have temporary names right now. The “Tabulator”, the “Web Racer”, the “Yard Dart” and the “Holey Fin” all flew on a A8-3, a B6-4 and a C6-5. The “Tab” also started it all off on a 1/2A6-2. They were all streamer recovery which was perfect for their light weight. There was a drag race between the “Tabulator” and the “Web Racer” on C6’s where one may have been lost in or near the tree line. They really went high.
Lenoir-Rhyne School NASA USLI Rocketry Team Re-flew the rebuilt “Big Beur” from last month on a Loki J820 with a dual deployment with a Mursa 54 main chute deployment with a Stratologger back up. It chuffed on the pad a bit then took off straight up with all the systems working perfectly landing a moderate distance away in the field behind the metal vehicle shed by the house.
Doc Russell flew his “Io” (eye-oh) on a F36 then a F42-8 with perfect landings.
Roy Potter, I launched my “Missile” on a E9-6 that Kato’d, just paying forward to the rocket gods. “BOB” flew on a couple of D12-5’s and my Mini “Red Bull Pup” flew on a C6-5 with a horse shoe streamer return. The “Zombie Hunter” flew on a F67-4 that was a bit weak, barely ejecting the chute in time. Then it flew on a G74-4 but the ejection was weak only pushing the nose off but not the chute, so it got one broken fin. Yep, just paying it forward for the future.
We finished with the last West Iredell TARC team flight at 5:30, so we had some fun for that one and a half hour of good flight time before dark.
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.