March 20th launch report

Regular Launch Weekend, Sunday, 20 March 2022,  Post-Launch Report.

Yes, our regular third weekend scheduled launch of the month. Unfortunately, the first half of the weekend “Saturday” was blown away by high winds “as reported at some sites” at 20mph at ground level and over 40mph at over 300ft.

BUT Sunday, though still windy, was doable just because the wind blew the right direction. Mostly blowing straight East toward the farm and also a bit south angled toward the Bridge where it cross’s the creek at the road. Have to admit, even with that, the wind did hold us back to more low-power and mid-power flights. Did have a LP flight (don’t know who’s) angle high over toward the south tree line and nested in the crown of a tree, and a LP made a powerline landing on the solitary powerline close to the hog pond. Don’t really know which would have been worse.

And we did have a large HP “G” motor flight with a failure to deploy resulting in a shovel class retrieval, once we finally found the impact site.

With Sparkies “Banned” due to the “County Declared fire risk” with windy conditions, we had No Fires.

Some pictures by Barb Tobin and others may show up on the Face Book sites by now.

Ken Allen of Performance Hobbies,

 Ken was in SC Saturday. They have a much larger field so can risk windy flights and long retrievals with less risk to tree and building/property landings. He did state a lot of stuff, like his container lids, blew around.

He had a couple of beginners who selected some good LP and MP kits and also met all us old timers needs in the way of motors, Kevlar, this and that. You know, Stuff.

LOST AND FOUND

Check the box for a few nose cones, and a few other odd items.

As a note, when you are walking across the fields, keep your eyes open on the ground for anything. Not all motor casings look alike. Also there are mini altimeters, nosecones, motor retainers, ect.

Pictures. Check the Gallery for launch photo’s.  We see everyone is    taking photo’s.   Lets Get them onto the ROCC Club WEB Site Gallery.

Just contact Doc Russell at rocketrycarolina@gmail.com, “or” as some have done, pass it on a disk, memory card or flash drive

ROCC Club Membership  covers the costs of maintaining the launch equipment, supplies and our association fees with the “National Association of Rocketry” and the “Tripoli Rocketry Association” covering our insurance.

For memberships, check it out at the launch site.

We also now have new envelopes with a membership form that can be picked up filled out at the site or taken home and then filed out and brought back.

ROCC Club “T” Shirt’s, are limited right now but can be purchased as the supplies last until a new source is obtained. Check on styles and colors available at the launch.

(Remember, the Donation Box goes to the Land Owner. Please Donate.)

Sunday, March 20, 2022

We had  15   fliers,  and flew  33  flights and burnt   33  motors.

This includes all   clusters and   multi-stage  flights

A= 2,   B= 6,   C= 10,   D= 4,   E= 4,   F= 5,   G= 2,   H= 0,   I= 0,   J= 0,   K= 0.

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

Doc Russell flew his “Argent” on a F52-5 with a Jolly Logic deployment for 500ft. But either it failed to release, or the chute tangled. Luckily, because it was not ballistic, it landed flat in the soft farm field. No real damage I think. Well, his second flight with his “Star Explorer” on a F67-6 suffered the same fate. As a note, I had to adjust my chute folding technique to get mine to work correctly, consistently.

Mark Bartkowiak, besides being a Coffee Guru ( I got a ground bag of some surprisingly interesting ground coffee for my K-Cup), flew the “Estes?” “Stove Pipe” glider return rocket on a A8-3. The booster ejects a large tube (the pipe) at apogee that is cut and balanced so it actually glides horizontally while the booster tumbles  back. Maybe the wind helped because it worked great.

Lawson Every-Leonard, a father-son beginner team flew a Estes “Rip Tide” on B4-4 and the aptly named “Star-Ship Octavios” was flown twice on B4-4’s so much to their satisfaction, that they upgraded to the next kit (a Estes Red Nova) from Ken.

Malcolm Smith flew a real nice mini “Der Red Max” on a mini A3-4t that got a decent altitude pushing through the wind. His “Schecter Totally Tubular”, hollow tubes instead of regular flat fins finally flew on a C6-7 once the #3 launch cable was corrected.

Ralph Roberts flew his Estes “Red Nova” on a D12-7 which was a great flight, but, so good it ended drifting down toward the hog pond and laid across the sole power line in the area, and then the wind just had to blow it on down the line up against the pole. That Bites. Ralph did a Drag Race with Dan Rushing, Estes “Patriot” VS “Patriot” on C6-5’s. It’s your opinion as to who won, first off the pad or straightest and highest. He also flew his “Patriot” solo on a C6-8 for a longer fall time for a shorter walking recovery.

Dan Rushing flew his “Patriot” VS Ralph on a C6-5 with a medium/long walk. His “NASA Relic”, nice job, flew on a B6-6 for a shorter walk.

Matt Rushing, flew his “Slo-Mo” on a C6-3 and his “Air Mail” on a C6-5, both great.

Stella Russell, a young female flier, flew her “Sky Fairy” on a C5-6 and a C6-5 with a streamer return that hid in the corn stalk stubs quite cleverly till found.

Evie Martell, Girl Scout Troop 274, flew her “Red Diamond” on a B6-4 and a C6-5 and her “Olympus” payload rocket, with a plastic Bunny as payload flew on a D12-5 that played hide and seek in the field of corn stalk stumps.

Roy Potter. I made mostly low flights with my rear ejection rockets luckily with only medium walks. “White-1” flew on a D12-3, “Yellow-2” flew twice on a E12-4 and “Blue-3” flew on a F32-4. They mostly turned into the wind under thrust.

Trent Dominick flew a interesting rocket that launch’s normally then at apogee ejection the fins change pitch and performs a Helo auto gyration return. The “Helo-1” flew on a D12-5. His 3-D printed “V-2” flew on a E12-6. The unpronounceable (except by Trent) “Hippoputomonstrosesquiepodauophobia” (Fear of Long words?) flew on a F27-8. I’m afraid to know how it did, phobia.

Chuck Bracey flew a nice looking scaled Estes “SLS” on a Q-Jet C12-6. That was a Good flight.

Paul Kraemer flew a almost skinny neon green “T-Bolt” on one of the two “G” flights for the day on a G38-7 for a great flight and recovery. His up-scaled “Mosquito” flew on a F15-4 turning with the wind but didn’t get too far. The only other “G” flight of the day was his “Hi-Tech-45” on a G125 with a dual deployment for 500ft. But, not completely sure at the time, but at apogee the drogue and the main did not deploy and so came in ballistic into the far right field across the irrigation ditch between the fields. And you would think it would be easy to find, but it took about 6 of us. Paul did a quick check and the ejection charges did not go off, so a more in-depth CSI grade autopsy will be conducted later.

Randy Selman flew a scale “Falcon-9” heavy lift on a E12-6 that turned and flew with the wind but not too far and recovered intact.

Perry Leoward flew his “Stripes” on a B4-6 and didn’t have to walk too far.

OK, it could have been better but with the favorable wind direction it turned out pretty ok.

Watch the Facebook postings and web site for future launch’s.

Just remember, keep the pointy end up and your exhaust nozzle clear.