Launch report from February 3rd make-up launch day.
Wednesday, February 13, 2019 at 4:46PM 3 February, 2019, , Another Sunday 1 Day Launch .
The morning temperatures were in the 40’s by 10am when we started setting up with a cloudy overcast, but with very, almost calm conditions. Between noon and about 1pm the clouds were driven out by almost clear skies and we were in the mid 60’s or higher. It seemed to get even calmer as the day progressed after 12 noon.
Ken Allen of Performance Hobbies,
Ken was there and as always, if not providing some essential item desperately needed, he was answering questions from new fliers and potential fliers, or helping out even some of us older fliers.
LOST AND FOUND.
Check the box for a few nose cones, and a few other odd items.
As a note, when your walking across the fields on the trek to locate your latest launch, keep your eyes open on the ground for anything that isn’t a corn cob or dirt clod and even if you don’t know what it is, bring it to the launch table. Not all motor casings look alike, mini altimeters, nose cones, motor retainers, ect. Someone found Trent’s Photon Probe from the Jan 27 launch this morning and it was still in good shape to fly again today.
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
Sunday, 3 February 2019.
As I said above, the conditions were good and only got better.
Now, of course…. that forecast did not apply to some of the launch results. We did have a few Kato’s, some with no damage and those that may require a complete rebuild.
And a few J/L deployments were pretty close and a few tangled in the chutes.
Note, we might be forgetting a few points, thereby expecting too much from our Jolly Logic Chute Release units. They recommend that you may need to change your chute folding techniques. The instruction booklet shows one style and the Web Site has videos of recommended folding techniques. AND to take into account the 70 odd feet fall time it takes to register and release the chute to open fully, and you should take that into account when you choose your deployment altitude.
You will be able to see pictures of many of the rockets flown, and after their flights in the Gallery or on the ROCC Face Book site.
We had 13 fliers , put up 62 flights burning 70 engines.
That includes all clusters and multi-stage flights
A= 15, B= 1, C= 11, D= 10, E= 12, F= 5, G= 4, H= 9, I= 3, J= 0, K= O.
(Remember, what I write is influenced by your penmanship and spelling.
Scott Pennington, flew a really nice military scale “AmRaam-4” on a H219-7 with a J/L deployment at 400ft. His nice looking military scale missile “Nike Ajax” with a cluster of three D12-5’s, which all lit up flew smoothly. The futuristic “Cosmo” flew on a E12-4. The “Lil Stella” resisted the first attempt to launch but went up on a F67-7 the second time. “The Scoob” flew on a H550-7 with a J/L deployment at 400ft. His LOC “Weasel” flew quite high actually on a F15-6. The “Expedition” (Estes Pro Series?) flew on a E12-4 but unexpectedly went into a Loop-D-Loop, saved by the chute deployment. Close call, good save.
Trent Dominick, flew a, mostly 3-D printed “Short” version of his “Red Robin” on a E16-6 then the “Red Robin Long” twice on E16-6’s. His Estes “Star Orbiter” flew on a F15-6. His recovered “Photon Probe” flew (after spending the last week in a empty corn field) on a C6-5 just fine. The Estes “Tweety Bird” helicopter return rocket flew twice on a C6-5.
Duane Dominick, flew a “Mini-Der-Red-Max” on a A3-4 with a tumble recovery and was recovered. The “American Eagle” flew on a H283-9 with a dual recovery at 500ft.
Doc Russell, Flew his Estes? Sem Roc? “Goblin” on a D12-5 with a streamer return. His Estes “QCC Explorer” flew fine on a E9-6. He had another, but like a few others of ours, it just refused to lite up.
Mark Bartkowiak, Flew his Estes? “Mercury Redstone, Liberty Bell-7” on a C6-5 successfully on the second try after the first try was stuck on the rod and burned the motor on the pad, but being stuck may have saved it because the ejection charge didn’t fire, so it was saved by its failure to launch. His Estes “Super Neon XL” with 6 tubular fins flew on a E9-6. Marks nicely looking fictional Nazi WWII Super Rocket fighter “Skunk Wulf” by Skunk Works/Apogee productions flew great on a E9-6. His very tiny “Mini Mosquito” flew on a mini A10-3 that naturally flew up and out of sight. His “SR-71” Black Bird, flew on a nice long burn E9-6 that lifted well then the wings curved it out over and well past the spectator area to Lawn Dart into the middle of the runway. The Estes “Xarconian Space Cruiser” Kato’d on a C6-5 that blew the top off with a small fire in the upper tube. It must have been hit by enemy Phaser Fire.
Greg Hanson, flew a successful test flight for a L-2 Cert Flight with the “L-2 Test Flight” on a H282-10 with a E-Bay dual deployment at 700ft. His PML “Phobos” flew once on a H135 with a J/L deployment at 300ft, then on a I204-12, again with a J/L deployment at 300ft.
Malcolm Smith, Flew a Sem-Roc “Goblin” with a streamer recovery on a C11-5, then a D12-7 with good results. His Sim-Roc “Super Roc” flew on a D12-5 and then, also a Sem-Roc, “Aero Dart” on a E12-6.
Mike Nay returned to fly a Estes “Savage” two stage on a D12 to a C6-5. Staged rockets always look good when it all comes together. A Estes “Sky Twister” flew on a C6-5 where the nose has a helicopter return and the main body returns by chute. The larger “Sahara” made a good flight on a G80-8 with a J/L deployment at 300ft. Mikes Estes Pro Series II “Ascender” flew well on a F15-6.
Barb Tobin, who also had the most flights with 12, test flew a number of potential Competition models. She puts on a lot of miles traveling from one NAR rocket meet to another competing in the different class’s. A “Helicopter Test” on a 1/4A3-3. “Boost Glider” on a A10-3, “Rocket Glider” twice on C6-3’s, “Altitude Flight” on a E10-4, “Heli Test-2” and “Heli Test-4” on 1/4A3-3’s. Then a “Chute Duration”, also on a 1/4A3-3. For the fun of it, Barb flew a “Cluster Buster”, of five C6-5’s, and a long narrow frilly “Pride of the 4th of July” on a C6-5. Then her NAR award winning, “NAR-59 Pink Book” where the rocket is completely coated with pages of the NAR contest Pink Rule Book on a D12-5.
Steve Brown flew his “Vulcanite” first on a G61-8 with a J/L deployment at 400ft, then again on a H242-12 with a J/L to deploy at 400ft, but jerked open at apogee instead and luckily made a field landing barely in the field. The Estes “Hi-Flier” flew on a E9-6 with a streamer recovery. The Estes two stage “CC-Express” flew on a D12 to a D12-7 looking good. His Big “Stump” looking like a tree trunk, flew on a I170 with a successful unk dual deployment at 400ft. The LOC “Fantom” flew on a I170 also with a dual deployment at 400ft. The “Sand Hawk” flew on a F24-6 with a J/L deployment at 400ft. A LOC “Forte” flew on a H123-10 with a J/L at 300ft.
Kevin McDuffie flew a “Snow Flake” rocket on a A10-3, designed and produced by one of our local fliers. (Erica Owens designed, laser cut and packaged some nice Mini-Engine rocket kits). His rocket “Spare Parts” made up of, of course, spare parts laying around, was flown on a A8-3, quite nicely. The “Hulk Nose” (the nose cone was green?) flew on a G33-5. A Estes “Viking” flew on a B6-6.
Roy Potter. Well, mine never got off the pad, one in many pieces. My rebuilt Pepsi, renamed “Seven” took three tries to ignite a OLD G79-4. On the third try, Barb Tobin by random chance, got a perfect picture as the bottom of the rocket blew apart. Not the fault of the igniter, but of the old motor grains. I tried to ignite another G79-4 in the “Bits-N-Pieces” that also refused to ignite. I retired that motor. Then I tried a H128-4 with the “T-4”, and also retired that motor after the third try. It just was not my launch Day.
Ralph Roberts, attempted to fly his rebuilt, “East Side Thug-2” on a H210-10 red line for the last flight of the day at 4:55. But it did not ignite the first time and on the second try it “Chuffed” repeatedly on the pad until the ejection charge went off and then the chuffing stopped. It made a nice, pretty, blanket of smoke to flow over the fields as we packed up and put things away.
Overall, it was a good day for flying, everyone had a good time and yes, a few paid up in advance to the Rocket gods for the future.
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.