December 19th 2020 Launch Report

ROCC December 19th,  2020 Launch Report from Midland, NC

I will try to channel Roy for this report...

We had 19 registered flyers for the day and the pads were kept pretty busy the whole day. 

All told we used 9 A's, 16 B's, 15 C's, 18 D's, 15 E's, 14 F's, 10 G's, 6 H's, 2 I's, and 3 J's. 

Mike McKeon fley his Estes Big Daddy on a D-12-5, an E-12-4 and an F-32-6T, then stepped up and did his L1 with an Apogee Zepher on an H-219 with 8 second delay for a successful L1 (congratulations Mike) and then reflew the Zepher on an H-130-8 to top off the day. 

Jim Scarpine of the Rocket Mafia was with us again, and flew his 54mm Stealth on an H-180 for a low altitude but really noisey flight. The Stealth looks like it should be very heavy but is made of Gator Foam so it's much lighter than it looks. 

Greg Hanson flew the Phobos on a G-80, then did his L2 attempt with a J-145 flight that was picture perfect. This is the same rocket and engine choice that was a spectacular CATO last February. Congratulations Greg. 

J. R. Devine was busy with a couple of cluster flights, the Star Chaser flew twice on a pair of C-6-5's, then the QCC Explorer on a D-12-5, and the QCC Explorer II on an F-15-8.

Bill Jetter flew his Phantom Blue on a C-6-7

Brenda Marshall flew her ISS Free Spirit on  D-12-5

Scott Pennington was busy, flying his Nike Ajax on 3 D-15-5s, the Mars Snoop Dogg on a C-6-5, his Nike Zeus on an H-550 that really ripped off the pad, the Nike Smoke on an F-23-7 Black Jack, Old Glory on an H-115-7 Dark Matter, Lil' Stella on an E-12-6, Cosmo 2 on an E-12-4, "Beetle-Bug" on a cluster of 3 E-12-4s, a QCC Explorer on a D-12-5, and Big Bird on a G-74-6.

Mike Nay flew his Estes Sahara on a "G-Something", (I think it was a G-74), an Estes helicopter named "Where is my Helicopter" on a C-6-3, the Blue Avalanche on an I-180 Sparky, Tree Hugger (it spent a year and a half in a tree) on an H-550, man we like those motors!, and a 1:200 scale Saturn V on a D-12-5. 

Joshua Lambert flew his Fat Man on a C-6-5, the Destroyer on an F-59-5, a Terrier Sandhawk on an E-12-6, the Destroyer again on an F-59-5 again and the Magestic on an F-15-8.

Ron Crosier had a collection of custom reproductions based on Jim Z's LINK plan site that were delightful to see fly. He started off with a Ranger on 3 A-8-3s, a Constilation/Goblin crossover flew twice, once on a B-6-4 and again on a C-6-3, the Constelation D flew 3 times, once on a D-12-3, then twice more on D-12-5s, a Sprint flew 3 times, twice on A-8-3's and once on a B-6-4, the Ranger again on 3 C-6-5s, a Gyroc flew twice on A-8-3s, and a straight-up Goblin on a D-12-7 twice.

Bruce Graham was also very busy, flying a Baby Bertha on a B-6-4, a "DRM" (Der Red Max) 2.5" upscale on an E-12-6, a Big Daddy on a D-15-5, the Indicator on a B-6-4, a Bull Pup also on a B-6-4, a standard Der Red Max on a C-6-5, a Goblin on a D-12-5, a Vapor on a D-15-5, a V-2 on a D-12-5, and an Estes Doorknob missle on an F-15-8.

Paul Kramer flew the Allegro on a pair of F-37W's, his Vertical Assault on "an ancient" I-218R, the Big Nuke #e=E on a J460, the Ultimate on 4 Estes E-15's and a central CTI G100 Skidmark, a dual-deploy Hi-Tech 45 on a G-69N, and the aptly-named Swarm on 9 B-6-0s and 3 C-6-5's. 

Paul Phillips was back with us flying some of his own designs, Marvin's Uber was a multi-finned saucer kind of shape that wend on a G-76 0, H2O (a water bottle with a circular tail) went on a B-6, The Feather flew on a G-76-10 and his Whisbee Micro flew twice, once on an F-12-5 and once on an E-11-3 Black Jack. 

Bill Jetton flew his 2-stage Super Nova on a C-6 to a B-6-6 for a v ery nice flight. 

Bfrent Bierstedt was with us and flew his Astrobee D on a G-53, his Ka-Boom on an E-20-4, and his beautiful Boyce Aerospace 4" Mercury redstone on a G-80 5, but didn't get an ejection so the flight ended with a very distressing lawn dart just short of the pad. 

Joe Hill was out fro the Raleigh area and flew his Yersinia Pestus (the black plague microbe, I had to ask too!) twice, once on a G-64W and then on a G-80T.

The DaPolito clan was flying their stash of rockets, Jason flew the Olympus on an F44 with a "space pretzel" as a payload, a group project the Dark Ninja on a D-16 AT motor, Dominic & Nolan flew the Small Boy on an E-16 and then the Cook-a-racha on an A-8-3, Dominic flew the Viking EX-105 on an A-8-3.

Out from Chapple Hill were the TARC team from Emerson-Waldorf School who flew their TARC rocket the Lawn Dart 3 times, all on F-44-8 motors. They said they were closing in on their time and altitude goals quite well.

Our second L2 attempt was made by Chuck Bracey, a long-time ROCC flyer. He flew his Nike Smoke on a CTI J-270 Green which landed over the other side of Tines Road. He was still looking for it and hopefully he'll find it and we can certify the flight. It was perfect all the way to the tree line. Good Luck Chuck!

That was the December launch in a rather large nut shell.

Hopefully we'll all be together on the First for our somewhat traditional New Years Day launch. 

dr

Comments

[Paul Phillips]

It was a great day of flying with a great group of people.