April 2018 Launch Report

Saturday AND Sunday’s 2 Day Launch, 21 & 22, 2018.

Yes, it has been awhile since we have been able to enjoy a full two day weekend launch. And it coincides with the last launch until crop season is completed in about two to three months.

Talk has been made to organize a convoy down to the Camden SC site for those of us who haven’t made our way down there yet. It’s actually closer than the old Orangeburg site.

Ken Allen of Performance Hobbies,

Ken was here answering a lot of questions about new products and keeping up with our orders. (and replacing body tubes for those of us who had Boo Boo’s.)

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.

Michael Strunk’s 5 ½ inch up-scaled Fat Boy “Tweedle-Dum” flown on a I212-11 and lost in the trees on the 2 Dec 2017 launch is back! (See pictures) The chute has been cleaned, dried and now looking like new. The J/L Chute Release was powered up and appears fully functional taking a full charge, performing a number of “Test release’s” and holding the charge. The all fiberglass body was brought in and easily wiped clean. The cardboard/paper motor mount came right out. With a all fiberglass body and bulkheads, there was no swelling to distort or burst the body which happens to fiberglass bodies with wood bulkheads. I can’t get the Pro-38mm motor case out of the paper motor tube yet. It may have to be cut out. BUT it’s ready for pickup at your next visit, or give me a call. 704-575-0109.

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@gmail.com, or as some have done, pass it on a disk, memory card or flash drive

Saturday, 21 April, 2018.

The wheat fields are getting tall, 12 to 18 inch’s closer to the runway and above my knees out closer to the tree line. Made good cushioning for some landings though.

Weather was good, a rare gust to mild to almost calm blowing almost straight west down the runway, then slowly moved south/west. Always the opposite direction from the Simpson farm. And it got warm fast. It is always warmer out there due to the “Solar collector” effect of the fields.

Besides a number of spectators, we had a “Shands Grade School” group under Brad Shea out there which added additional activity with lots of “OOOOH’s and AHHHHH’s”. We should always encourage the next generation with exposure to the science’s.

We had  23   fliers , put up  49   flights burning  52   engines .

That includes all clusters and multi-stage flights

A= 14,  B= 2,  C= 15,  D= 4,  E= 1,  F= 4,  G= 7,  H= 3,  I= 1,  J= 1,  K= O.

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

Lileigh Campbell with Shands Sch, flew her “Spare Parts” on several C6-7’s.

Hailee Campbell with Shands Sch, flew the “Banshee” on a C6-7.

Luke Warren with Shands Sch, flew his “Nova” on several C6-7’s.

Abby Warren with Shands Sch, flew her special “Mr Waffles” on A8-3’s, B6-4’s and C6-7’s.

Ashley Teed with Shands Sch, flew her “Pine Apple” on a A8-3.

Charlie Watkins with Shands Sch, flew the “Annoying Orange” on a A8-3.

Dean (unk) with Shands Sch flew the “American Star” on a A8-3.

Adam Shea with Shands Sch flew the “Make-it and Take-it” on a A8-3.

James Holloway with Shands Sch, flew his “GO 48” on a A8-3.

Ralph Roberts flew his (Squirrel Works?) “East Side Thug” on a Cessaroni H133 blue streak on a great flight but, even though it looks like the delay burned through, the charge did not go off so it made a ballistic impact in the wheat/barley. We had to dig out the nose which turned out to be still good. The damaged body tube was trimmed back to the fin canister section and then a new body tube was acquired from Ken for a rebuild. I had to get replacement body tubes for 2 of mine this weekend myself.

Kylee McDuffie, a Jr flier, flew her “Viking” on a B6-2 and a C6-7, both with good streamer recoveries.

Kevin McDuffie flew a nice large “Iris” on a I180-11, apogee deployment, that made a nice landing only a short walk down the runway. Good flight.

Sandy Houston flew his all fiberglass “Formula 54” on a G104-med delay, that also had no ejection with a ballistic impact. The 12 inch nose cone was totally imbedded in the soil, (shovel recovery) but with nothing but score marks on the nose, there was no body damage at all. Not even a crack in the paint. Totally immediately re-flyable. His Up-scale Estes  “Cherokee-D” flew on a F37-med without incident.

Stuart Samuels was really busy out there. He was flying everything he could. The (Flis-Kit ?) “Frick-N-Frack” 2 stage saucer thing, went from a C6 to A8-3 for a air drag return but the A8 didn’t push the other stage off and burnt one of the fin arms off. (ok, its hard to describe). His “Scintar” flew on a D12-3 and made a normal tumble recovery. The ordinary looking rocket the “Whirly Bird” flew on a A8-3 that altered the 3 fins at ejection to do a helicopter recovery. The 400% up-scaled “Maple Leaf” was 99% perfect on a F39-3 with a 2 part spinning return. His “Go Deep” rocket propelled Nerf Football made two good flights on D12-3’s. The dark blue side of the football made it bit hard to find in the wheat field. He also flew a “Spool” on a E9-4 with a tumble recovery. The flying pyramid “Sun Rise” flew on a G64-2 that arced over into the wheat field. Damage unk, as pyramids can take a lot of punishment. His 3 stage “Tri-Fecta” flew on 3 mini A10’s. And the 18mm “Helix” spinning flying helicopter blade flew on a C6-3.

Mark Ferrell flew his up-graded Estes “Vagabond” on a F24 with a dual deployment at 400ft.

Roy Potter. Well I tried to light my “Pepsi” on a G79 12 TIMES. And NO GO. So moved on to my “Red Arcas” on a old G34-4  that also refused to lite-up until Ralph gave me the “Igniter From Hell” that lite the motor that then chuffed and chuffed then flew up almost normal with a tooo looong delay that ejected a micro-sec before impact, pushing the front body tube and nose out of the way, crushing that tube, so the main body could take a core sample crushing it down to the fin canister section. Nose and fins are all that’s left. But then I got a nice long body tube from Ken.

Mike Garner flew a really nice up-scaled Estes “Guardian” on a G76-7 then the “TEGH” on a C6-7 then a nice looking down sized Mini “Interceptor” on a mini A10-3t against his daughter Nora.

Nora Garner flew a nice mini “Blue Bird Zero” on a mini A10-3t with her dad.

David W Bloom flew a LOC “Precision IV” on a FAST Cessaroni H871-5 for a normal flight and recovery.

 Doug Knight flew a Estes “Mammoth”, ( 60 inch’s tall with a 2 inch body weighing in at only 11oz without the motor ), on a G74-6 that may have been just a bit over-powered, but it looked good. His “Stubby” flew on a Quest (hard to find) D5-6. His Estes “Photon Disrupter” flew on a C6-5.

Dan Butcher made a NAR L-1 cert flight attempt with a (PML) “Small Endeavor” that he first tested with a F67-6 with a Jolly Logic deployment at 300 ft. Then after a great test flight, went for broke on a H165-14 with the Jolly Logic set for 300ft. Which everything worked just fine, except it arched over too close to the trees down the runway to the left. It just landed way too high to recover. A real bummer. We all have fed the trees at some point.

Lenoir-Rhyne U. Bear Club, Flew the “Red Redemption” on a J820 with a 12 inch apogee drogue chute, with a strato-logger main deployment of a 60 inch main chute at 700 feet. It was all GOOD. A terrific flight and a safe recovery.

Kohl A Whitlow flew the “Lady Liberty” on a G125-10 with a close recovery.

Eddie Haith, I believe to be one of the oldest fliers from the beginning of the hobby, flew a Big “Red Crayon” on a G79-med delay for a good flight.

Sunday, 22 April, 2018.

Pretty much like Sat, a bit more windy but well within limits and still blowing to the west down the runway.

We had  15   fliers , put up  55   flights burning  55   engines .

That includes all clusters and multi-stage flights

A= 0,  B= 7,  C= 14,  D= 2,  E= 5,  F= 10,  G= 11,  H= 4,  I= 1,  J= 1,  K= O.

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

David Bloom came back with his “LOC IV” for good flight on a H250-7 and a jolly Logic recovery at 300 feet, which was the last flight for the weekend at5:30. Earlier he flew his Estes Pro-series “Ascender” on a F67-9 with a classic X-chute. His Aero-Tech “Arreaux” flew on a F23-4 then a G80-7. His Estes Pro-series “Majestic” flew on a slow burn F10-7 that just kept going up before returning to the field.

Kohl A Whitlow returned to re-fly the “Lady Liberty” after the test flight Saturday for a L-1 Cert flight attempt on an Old H165-10 with a apogee deployment. The first igniter worked but Chuffed out the flame. Not wanting to chance another Chuff ignition, he got one of Ralphs ignitors from hell which worked but it still chuffed a few times on the pad then took off. About 30 feet up it started chuffing again making it look like a po-go stick bouncing up and down vertically till it tipped oved chuffing it to the ground where then the motor blew out the rear end. Not just the rear closure but part of the rear motor casing. What can you say but the rocket gods said “Not Today”.

Gary Byrum also returned with a very cool looking “Slick Daddy”, basically it’s a (about) 8 inch long and 2 ½ inch wide nose cone with fins, flying on a C11-3 for a successful maiden flight. Also on a maiden flight was the “Fat Vagabond” on a D12-3. His Estes up-scaled “Custom Alpha” flew on a C11-3. Check the pictures of the up-dated classic Estes “Space Man” that flew a maiden flight on a B6-4. Off balance or something caused it to arc over into the wheat field, broke one of the poor guys legs. Now his “Gyro Dragon” is really cool. It only has two fins that curl or spiral around the main body providing stabilization. There should be pictures in the gallery.

Erica Owens test flew her “Rocket Guitar” design five times on a C6-3 to find out how it can be stabilized. No luck so far with the changes she tried. She test flew the “Turbo” design on a B6-4.

Sandy Houston flew the “CB Special” on a G75-med delay and a Aero-Tech “G-Force” on a G64-4, both were good flights.

Scot Pennington flew “Old Glory” successfully on a H135-7 with a J/L deployment at 400ft. His big “Der Death Coffee Max” (All Hail Coffee!) flew on a G74-6 with a J/L deployment at 300ft. The “Big Bird” flew on a F15-6 while his great looking “Cosmo-2” flew on a E12-4.

Brandon Jackson flew the “Aldebaran” on a H128 with a good J/L deployment at 300ft. The “Scrapper” flew on a F15-6 while the “Bellatrix” flew on a E11-3. His nice PML “Pterodactyl Jr” flew on a fast G118-8 blue streak very nicely indeed.

Greg Hanson flew the “Charlotte-V1” on a G80-7 fast and high with a good landing. The “Charles-V1” made a repeat performance on also on a G80-7.

Roy Potter. I got a little more active today. My “Yellow ARCAS” flew a good flight on a F42-4 with a J/L chute deployment. The “Missile” flew on E9-4’s popping out the ole poop chute. The “Pepsi” finally flew on another G79-4 that kato’d about 30 ft up without damage except for a tear on a chute line. The “Bumble Bee” flew on a G35-4 with a J/L deployment at 300ft.  Poor “Thumper” has to have the main body replaced after the second flight on a F30-4 that had a forward closure failure on a single use motor burning the upper body tube from the inside. A picture in the gallery shows the outside damage, not looking too bad till you look inside.

Trent Dominick and his father Duane, did a project on the flight performance of three different standard fin designs, angled back, forward or straight, on three exactly duplicate rockets except for the fins with a J/L Altimeter-One to record the altitude reached with each flight. All seven flights were on the same C6-5 motors. The “Unofficial” result was, except for a few feet difference, there was NO difference.

Duane Dominick flew his “American Eagle on a fast G125-14 blue thunder with a successful strato-logger dual deployment at 500ft.

Mark Ferrell came back to fly his “ARCAS” for a good flight on a F40-4 with a J/L deployment at 300ft.

Alan Stephenson flew a up-scaled “Fat Boy” on a G54-5 and then a Mad-Cow “Formula 75” named “Capt America” on a very nice I236 with a J/L deployment at 500ft.

Liam Thrower flew what I was waiting for. A rocket powered R/C controlled “Wolverine Mig Fighter” glider. It did look so cool. At one point he had turned it into the wind where it sat hovering in place for a second or two before he had to turn it away. Very impressive. Unfortunately, the “Alien” had a bad close encounter experience with a Kato’ing J335 motor. Alien technology Pooh.! The pictures and video are on the site.

Malcolm Smith came out to have fun with us mere mortals. He came out with a bunch of old Quest motors that he found in his rocket closet and tried to fly as many as he could. His Estes “Der Red Max” flew on Quest B6-4’s just fine. A Flis-Kit “Thing-A-Ma-Jig” also flew on a Q B6-4. His “Super Flea” on a Q B6-6 and the popular “Flying Pizza Pan” also on Q B6-0.

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.