April 13, 2025 Launch Report

Sunday 13 April 25, Post- Launch Report.

“Everybody who gets the “NAR Sport Rocketry Magazine”. You also get the periodic issue of the “NAR MEMBER GUIDEBOOK”.

Pull those GuideBooks out of your Rocket Closet and bring them, old or new, to the launch. They are great to pass out to a new flier. “

Ken Allen of Performance Hobbies,

Ken was out, setup, had his old and new ”High Performance” banners out and did as he always does, provides us with all those things we just have to have.

There are sheets with multiple ‘Blank Launch Slips’ you can take home to print your own Launch slips so you can pre-fill out your slips in advance. You can even use colored copy paper for cool custom colored launch slips. Just so long as we can read them.

LOST AND FOUND         and some Donated Items that need a home.

Three Found rockets.

1. Lilly G. (Gambrell?) Silver with Green paint Estes “Star Hopper” flown Sat, 25, Jan, found in the late afternoon.

2. Richard Mayberry’s Estes “Long Ranger” yellow body with purple nose and fins flown Sat, 20 Apr, 24 found during Launch breakdown.

3. Shay Hill’s small Estes “Wizard” painted blue, from way back.

4. 2.5in black pointed nose cone found Sun, 13^th. (Steve Brown?)

Pictures.  Lets Get them to the ROCC Club WEB Site Gallery at   Rocketrycarolina.org  or the  Rocketry of Central  Carolina ROCC, Facebook site.

ROCC Club Membership 

Membership covers the costs of maintaining the launch equipment, supplies and the “expensive” Porta-Pot. Membership also pays our association fees with the “National Association of Rocketry #608” and the “Tripoli Rocketry Association #066” which provides our insurance.

Memberships run January to January. Membership drive starts in October.

Adult - $20.      Family - $25.

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.

Flight Fee Donation Box.

Remember, the Flight Fee, Donation Box goes to the Land Owner.   Please Donate.

We have been running short on the “Rent” to the landowner occasionally.

Club Members = $10 per day  

Non Members = $15 per day

Parent with young child under 12yo = $5 per day.

. Check out all the great pictures on the ROCC Facebook and hopefully the ROCC Web site. “Special photographer is again, Ron Crosier” who shot maybe, every rocket out there.

Sunday, 13 April, 2025.  

Overall the conditions were great. When we were setting up, about 9:45, special thanks to Jacob “Silknitter and Ally Russell” for helping, Kip Williams (Land owner) said the frost had just melted an hour before. It was 37 degrees by then and warming quickly with a strong sun. So the grass was pretty wet from the shins down, but by 10am had pretty much evaporated. Shoes dried quickly after that. By 1pm the sweatshirts and heavy coats were gone except for a few who thought mid sixties was still too cool. But the sun was out and winds were plotted at between 5 and 7mph for the rest of the day. Prominent wind direction was pretty much due East with a periodic drift South up till 2ish then a slight periodic drift North till evening. And of course a little bit back and forth. With that direction, no matter how we angled the pads, a bit West, a bit South or North, we still had chute drift coming over the parking and spectator area. They were usually a couple of hundred feet passing over. A few landings were near the outside edge of the vehicles, and I think one on the runway. Plenty of warnings and instructions were given on how to react if it appeared a chuted rocket was even close to landing in the spectator area and alerts when it even appeared to come close.  Most fliers came out after 1pm and it was like a frenzy to get up as many flights as they could while the conditions were so good. By 4pm, we were all just bushed out. It was 68degrees out at the farm, sunny and almost too glary bright due to the sun. I was still surprised that we had 11, H and above High Powered flights.

AND NO Ground Fires. We had one 3gal sprayer, two 4gal sprayers and one pressurized extinguisher on hand. NO SPARKIES allowed.!! We were still on a Red Flag fire threat.

Everyone, always tell the RSO you have a Sparky motor for a Go/No Go depending on field conditions. Our launch area has a thick ‘thatch’ layer in the turf and restricts the use of Sparkies depending on the season.

( I feel like we missed some flight cards, we had additional fliers sign-in that I don’t have flights slips for. Apologies if your flight didn’t get recognized.)

We had   21   fliers,  flying    53  flights   and burnt   55 motors.  

That includes all   clusters and   multi-stage  flights

A-3,     B- 9,     C- 4,     D- 7,     E- 8,     F- 5,     G- 8,     H- 5,     I- 5,     J- 1,     K- 0

what I write is influenced by your  “Penmanship  and  Spelling.”

( I do not witness all flights, so if no notes were made on the flight slip by the launchers, or a Flight Slip is missing, some information may be in error.)

Laird Bickford, flew ‘The Junk Jet’ on a AeroTech “I140-?” for a L-1 cert with an apogee deployment with a long, long walk East, pass the house, across the road and up the field by the far tree line. It had a big chute and had to have caught some thermals but was successfully returned for a Passing inspection. Congrats.

Steve Brown flew his ‘Vulcanite’ on a A/T “H123-?” with a unk dual deployment at 475ft. ( Steve, did you lose a black 2.5in nose cone? Its in the Lost and Found box.) His ‘Hyper-Loc 1600’ flew on a “J1299-??” (did you mean J129-9?) with a dual deployment at 500ft and back-up at 450ft.

Mason Cooper, Jr flier, flew the ‘Hot Head’ twice on “B6-4’s”. Good show there.

Ron Crosier, when not taking great pictures, flew a upscaled ‘Der Red Max’ on a “F67-9w”, his Estes ‘Big Daddy’ ( a popular kit that by adding/coupling another body tube, you get a reasonable sized and light weight rocket) flew on a “E12-6” and then a “E20-4w”.

Jim Eddings had bugs on his mind with his stock mini ‘Mosquito’ flying on a mini “1/4 A3-3t” with a tumble recovery to be planted in the wheat field. His ‘Mega Mosquito, ‘Mozzie’ flew on a “F25-6w” with a Jolly Logic deployment at 400ft, then on a “F50-6t” with a J/L deployment at 500ft.

Briana Fiser flew a nice Apogee ‘Zephyr ,04997’ on a A/T DMS “I140-14w”for a successful, I believe, L-1 flight.

Ryan Goldin flew a scratch built ‘Paylie, 01453’ on a  A/T “I140-6w” for a L-1 flight I think that it suffered a broken off fin so was a DQd flight. Learn as you go. We all do.

Amy Page, a junior female flier, flew a Estes ‘Cross Fire’ on a “B6-4” and a tiny (for a LOC Rocket) ‘LOC-1’ once on a “A8-3” then three times on “B6-4’s”, good show there Amy.

Clara Page flew her Estes ‘Amazon’ twice on “C6-5’s”. Amy packed one of her chutes.

Matt Page, working to outdo his daughters flew a Apogee ‘Zephyr JR’ on a Q-Jet “D22-4” just fine and then on a unk “D15-4” but the Reload, using a A/T casing, suffered a Rear closure failure on the pad, minor damage I think, but Amy was able to find the rear closure ring and motor retainer. Better was Matt’s LOC 4inch diameter ‘Goblin’ flying a A/T “H128-6” for a TRA L-1 cert flight. It wasn’t noted on the card if it was a good flight, but I believe it was.

Scott Pennington flew his ‘Beetle Bug’ with a cluster of three “E12-4’s”. (You can see in the photo that all three engines are ignited.) It got a good altitude and soft recovery in the wheat. His massive looking ‘THOR’ (black and yellow, good pics) flew on a “H550-8t” with a good J/L deployment at 300ft, everyone was gasping, it may deploy at 300ft but takes at least another 75ft to inflate. His legendary futuristic ‘Cosmo’ had a just above the rod ‘cato’ of a Estes “E12-4” with minimal damage. His ‘Raptor’ flew on a “H219-8t” with another good J/L deployment at 300ft.

Roy Potter, I didn’t expect to get 9 flights, but I got some “Q-Jet” motors from Ken to compare to Estes and AeroTech motors. Performance/thrust was better, but the Q-Jet exhaust clay nozzles seem not as hard as the Estes and look like they are subject to crumbling. Anyway, I got most of my Rear Ejection rocket’s up. The ‘Orange- .5’ flew on a Estes “C6-3”, the ‘White-1’ flew on a Estes “D12-5” and a Q-Jet “D22-4w” which seemed to perform better. The ‘Blue-3’ flew on a A/T. “E30-4” and then a Q-Jet “E35-5” both looking pretty equal. My ‘Orange-4’ flew on a A/T “G40-4” and a A/T “G74-4”, then the ‘Red-5’ flew on a A/T “G74-4”. My experiment use of the Jolly Logic chute release with a rear ejection system prompted me to make the ‘J/L-X-2.5in’ (2.5in body diameter) that flew on a Q-Jet “G35-5” without the J/L this flight. All good flights except for Blue-3’s first flight when the ejected motor mount choked the cute not allowing it to inflate, I didn’t allow enough slack between motor mount and chute. No damage as it acted like a very efficient streamer and the wheat ground was nice and soft.

Charlie Rankin flew the ‘Nuke Duken’ (flew last month?) (good pic’s) nicely on a “F50-9” with a good J/L deployment at 500ft.

William Rankin flew a A/T ‘AeroBee’ (haven’t seen one for a while, are they still available?) first on a “G38-7” with a good J/L deployment at 500ft, then it flew on a “G80-10” with another good J/L deployment at 400ft.

Jeff Register flew the ‘Cantankerous Cow’ ( there’s got to be a story here) on a “I140-?”. Dual deploy was indicated on the card but no information.

Ally Russell (Who helped us setup that morning) flew her ‘No Clue !’ on a “D12-3” originally in a drag race with Jacob who was left on the pad. Girl Power Dude.

Jacob Silknitter (who with Ally, helped us set up the range, Thanks) got left on the pad in his drag race with Ally. But with a quick pad check was ready to fly the Estes ‘Cherokee-E’ solo on a matching Estes “D12-5”. But the “D” Cato’d on the pad blowing out the fin section. Bummer when that still happens, not as often now, but it still happens.

Doc Russell wasn’t busy with ARC teams this time so had time to get in some flights. His ‘Century Saucer’ (Century Rocket Co.?) flew up on a “D20-6” and made a tumble recovery and recovered from the north wheat field. His two part ‘Maple Seed’ (separates and returns spinning like two Maple Seeds) went up on a “A3-4” and it worked but the smaller spinning seed was lost in the south field. Doc spent most the time prepping his greatly upscaled Estes little 3/4in diameter ‘Sprint’ to a 4in diameter giant ‘Sprint’ flying on a “I211-?” falling drogueless after apogee separation with an elec RC3 dual deployment at 500ft.

Colt Slusarczyh, (sorry, best I could make out) is a Jr flier who made three flights of the Estes ‘Tigris’ on “B6-4’s” who was easily heard in the crowd.

Kevin Vaughan flew another upscaled rocket, the 4in LOC ‘Goblin’ ( the Goblin seems to be getting popular as a solid and sound design) on a pro29 “H237-?” with another successful J/L deployment at 400ft.

Burke Wallace flew the ‘A-20 Demon’ nicely on a A/T “G74-6w”, and the skinny tall ‘Slo-Me’ flew on a “C6-7” quickly off the pad. The great looking “Odd Rocket Category” goes to the ‘Bobby Bullet’ (an old classic Odd Rocket kit) flying on a “G78-4g” good picture.

Burkes upscaled ‘Der Red Max’ flew on a “F67-9”.

Happy Flying Everybody and Remember to keep the pointy end up.

And Check the Web Site for any possible last minute changes.