Report by Jeffrey D. Gortatowsky
Though in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere February is a rocket building month, here in the southland it's just another month to launch rockets. As long as the Lucerne Dry Lake bed is "dry", it's show time.
Amongst those making some cool flights off the front pads were Mike Todd with a Estes Mosquito name "Red October" on an A. What probably followed the end of that round was, that's right: The hunt for Red October!
More cool flights off the front row pads were had by Jeremy Chafe who flew both his Mini Marz Lander and his Moon Dog twice with A10s for successful flights, while Beth Holcomb put up her Vaughn Brothers Mini Ex. on an A10 for a nice flight. Gabriel Green and Elizabeth Green had good flights using B6-4s on their Athena and Yellow Jacket rockets respectively. Josh Manning put up his scratch-built Superior on a B6 for nice flight as well.
John Walquist dusted off a vintage Big Bertha built in 1969 for a nice flight on a C6. Jacob Cohn wrote all over the sky with his less-than-stable scratch built Double Tread on a C6 staged to a C6. Ahh!! Two stage unstable flights, what crowd pleasers! Speaking of crowd pleasers, Tom Emerson, never one to stick to convention CHAD staged his Estes Snitch using a C6 to an A10 for several "interesting" flights. More successful flights were had by Kaila Moyers and her C6 powered Big Rage, Gary Wicenski and his C5 powered custom-built Toothpick, Joshua Manning and his two staged C6 to C6 Mongoose, and Paul and Alex Sheffield with their Estes Omloid on a C6.
Nick DeLuca shredded his Long Shot on a D21, while Anthony Bullington had better luck with his Estes AMRAAM on a D12. Kevin Britton won a drag race with his Maniac on D12 and, not to be out done also had a nice two stage D12 to D12 flight with his Custom Rockets Lightning. Bob Keating pleased the crowd with a success flight of his Estes Impulse using a cluster of two D12's. Bob also flew the same rocket on two Aerotech E15's but had motor fail.
Steven Szczuka suffered a separation on his scratch built Rocket Cane using an E18 RMS and Mike Davis flew his scratch built POR#1 on a Estes E15-8. Now there is a blast from the past (literally!). Greg "Don't call me Mr. Vice President" Lawson took a break from running the club to launch his scratch built Jolly Green Giant on three Aerotech E15s for a nice flight. George Manning Jr. cruised to a drag race win with an F22 powering his Aerotech Warthog. James McMullin had a nice flight on a F62 powered scratch built rocket he calls La Native. Carl Delzell used a F25 to propel his Estes Prowler to new heights with a recovery by ROC's own Parachutes By Priscilla.
Chuck Lahmeyer had a separation failure on his F62 powered LOC Legacy and Rick Kompiack put his scratch built Lil Squirt into to twilight zone on an Aerotech F25. William J. Inman had a great flight out of his own tower with his G40 powered scratch built "G" Whiz carrying an Adept altimeter. Valentines Day and (someone's wedding I might add) was just the day after February's launch. A fact not lost on Parachutes By Priscilla who provide a heart shape spillhole in the chute used by Carl Delzell's LOC Expediter which had a nice ride on a G80. Greg Lawson put up a great flight on his ROCstock raffle prize LOC 4-29/SS using four G40s. And joining the cluster flyers was of course, Hyam Sosnow who gave his scratch built 329 a nice ride on three G40s and again on three G80s.
Dean Donswyk's scratch built Swacked "probably" made that "swacked" sound after a "no chute deployment" flight on two G80s! Don Pies had a nice flight on his HV Arcas using a G80. Terry McKiernan brought back is scratch built Colonial Viper modeled after the old Battlestar Galactica series for a good flight on an H242. Perry Choate, Gary Wicenski, Gary Worland, and Pat Murphy all certified level 1. Rockets used were a Public Enemy Bullpup on an H128-10, a LOC H45 on an H124-10, a PML Pteradactyl Jr. on an H123, and a Vaughn Brothers VB Extreme 38 on an H124 respectively. Another Level 1 certification was put in by Mark Britton with a combination of grit, determination, and a LOC Norad on an H124. Not to be outdone, George Manning Jr. and Jim Neal certified Level 1 using a Public Enemy Predator powered by an I161, and a scratch built rocket called Window Maker on an I154, respectively. Congratulations to all!
Kurt Gugisberg sent his Optimal 65 on it's way on an H112 carrying an Olsen Altimeter (hey Kurt, what was the readout?), while Perry Choate decided to shred his poor Bullpup on a H180! Hyam Sosnow clustered 2 H124s for nice flight in his scratch built "429" while Greg Lyzenga used an H180 to power his Public Enemy Performer but suffered a separation. Hulan Matthies put up up an interest rocket he calls Bumper Mag using electronic staging to stage an I284 to a G64. He recorded an altitude of 4800+ feet!
Brad Williams had less luck stripping the chute on his Hawk Mountain Transonic on an I211. Successfully flying a couple of scratch built rockets were Steve Schroerlucke and his I211 powered Orion and Ron "Hey I'm the President Now!" McGough and his scratch built I357 powered Starfire. Steve was to suffer a separation with the same rocket that day however on an I161. Paul Sheffield successfully flew his 3-inch Performer and his THOY Pheonix using I161s, but Rick Magee did not have the same luck with the separation of his LOV Forte also on an I161. Dave and Jim Reese successfully flew their LOC I-ROC to an electronically recorded 2823 feet using an I284. Hyam "Mr. Cluster" Sosnow flew his scratch "238" on two I211s for another successful flight. Not having quite that good a day however was Mark Peifer who lawn darted his Fatboy on an I285 flight. Ouch!
Rick O'Neil flew his Dynacom Black Widow on a J460 using an ALTS2-50k for nice flight. John Coker pleased the crowd using a Transolve P5 to recover is J180 powered PML Lunar Express. John Van Norman gave his scratch built Y2K a nice ride using a J415 and an Olsen altimeter for the flight. John Wahlquist flew his PML Nimbus named "Ugly Waite Thing" to a Transolve recorded 9810 feet on a J415. Terry McKiernan finally shredded his scratch built SR-71 on a J350. Barry Forrest became ROC's latest Level 2 member with a nice flight of his scratch built "Plain Wrap" on a J350. Hulan Matties, Adam Powell, and Bill Huber all used various J impulse motors to separate their nose cones from the rest of rocket.
Gary Bitterman tossed his LOC Magnum into the air on a K550 to an ALTS2 recorded altitude of 5531 feet. John Van Norman used a 10K waiver window to try his "Y2K" scratch-built 3-inch diameter rocket on a K185. The Y2K reached an Olsen recorded altitude of 7911 feet. Rick Magee launched his LOC Magnum which he calls the "Semi Naked Stretch Magnum" on a K550 with two airstarted H97s for a nice flight. Ken Finwall was on hand to launch his LOC Bruiser for a nice flight on a K185.
Total Motor usage for February's launch:
1/2A 1
A 12
B 8
C 47
D 18
E 18
F 18
G 48
H 37
I 27
J 19
K 5
L 0
M 0
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Total 258
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