Report by Jeffrey D. Gortatowsky
Ahhh Springtime, when a man's thoughts turn to... rockets of course! The second Saturday in March turned out to be yet another winner in quite a streak of winners. Rockets were everywhere! Without further adieu let me tell you about some of the notable and not-so-notable flights...
Troy Monroe Stacy, one of our more shy rocketeers, launched his scratch built Grunt on a F20 "CATOJET" (his words). For his insults of the motor manufacturer, he was treated to a core sample. Thou shalt not bite the hand... Not to be left unnoticed, Bill Stokes shredded his PML Quasar on an I435. Also in the "hmmm" category Hulan Matthies' scratch built 29 Extreme was gone and apparently suffered an ejection failure on Kosdon demo flight using a 24mm G39. Moving on, Dave Ramsparger suffered a separation with his scratch built RAM-3 on a H124, while Bob Keating watched his Commanche 3 stage become a playa marker when only the first stage D12 lit.
Deciding to do a bit of skywriting David Shmiz launched his LOC Onyx on a G64. March just wasn't Dave's month as his Public Enemy Patriot separated on a H220 flight as well. Speaking of skywriting Dustin Davison with Ken Finwall tried a scratch built rocket with a large J180 booster to a small H70 powered sustainer. But whole thing was a bit unstable and both pieces fell to the ground. Still it was an impressive experiment. Perhaps we'll see more...
Not to give the wrong impression there were tons of awesome flights that went "nominally" to coin a NASA phrase. Bert Gordon launch his version of the ever popular Public Enemy Performer on H180 and on an I161 and used the Missile Works RRC^2 altimeter to recover the rocket both times. Well done! Bill Seiders, owner of Pad 39A used it to launch a Mr. Bill BB Company built Grungy Black Thing on a nice K-700 ride. Bill used dual AltAcc's with his own pyrotechnic release mechanism. Also off the rail on pad 39a was Richard Rothchild's Optimal 65 on a J350! Richard used and AltAcc for a successful dual deployment flight.
Brian Sutton took a break from scale and scale-up rocketry to launch his LOC Graduator on a nice G64 flight carrying an Olsen FCP M1 along for the ride. Tom Dittman launched his scratch built Double Barrel on 2 G80's and successful brought the rocket home on a "Parachute by Pricilla" parachute. George Perez had a nice flight with his R&D Sky Raider on a J415, while Joel Simon used an I211 to give a nice ride to his White Heat. Hulan Matthies put up a nice flight with his "not-so-stock" Minnie Magg on a J800! Worked great!
Not doing quite as well was Calvin McAllister whose Aerotech Initiator hit the playa when the G64 failed to eject his chute. Likewise, Carl Delzell had his problems when his scratch built Rocket Rage separated on an I300 flight. Hyam Sosnow had an early ejection cause his scratch built "329" to separate on three G35s. Bill Huber's Sandblaster also separated on an I435 flight. And yet another separation (YAS?) ruined the flight of Gary Wicenski's PML Callisto on a H180.
Barry Forrest proved using a Hypertech J145 hybrid is no laughing matter when he successfully launched and recovered his scratch built "No Laughing Matter" using yet another Missile Works RRC for dual stage deployment. That RRC seems to be very popular! Ron McGough was not about to let Barry have all the hyper-fun. He successfully launched and recovered his scratch built Starfire on a Hypertech J205 using an Alts25 for deployment.
Bob Holcomb had a nice flight on his Vaughn Brothers B.O.B. using a G64 as did Jacob Cohn who had a nice flight using his scratch built two stage Black Window on a C6 to C6. Joe Huber's scratch built Gray Ghost had a great flight on a J350 while Brian Albert also had a nice flight with his PML Endeavor on a J460. Another PML rocket having a great ride was Kelly Ferdman's Sudden Rush on an I435.
Not all had gone bad for Calvin McAllister as Calvin certified Level 1 using a PML Phantom and a H242. Later Calvin used an Olsen altimeter to record an I211 powered flight to 5280+ feet! Pat Murphy certified level one using a Vaughn Brothers VB Extreme 38 on a H73. Steve Todd certified Level 1 using a nice PML Lunar Express and then turned right around and did it all again on an I161! David Perrier did so as well using an I357 powered PML Callisto. Kevin Lane showed some sprit after having a separation on his first attempt using and H180, then used his LOC Expediter powered by a H128 to reach level one certification. Congratulations to Calvin, Pat, Steve, David, and Kevin!
Charles Rodgers took his rocketeering to the next level certifying level 2 using a J275 powered PML AMRAAM 4. Brian Wolff also certified level two using a J135 in his "The Way She Likes It" named LOC Magnum. Congratulations to both!
Greg Lawson successfully brought back to earth his RRC equipped Public Enemy Performer after a great flight on a K1100! Tom Donahue flew his modified Vaughn Brothers Javelin on an I284 for a sweet flight and Hyam Sosnow took a break from clustering and successfully flew his scratch built "154" on a J90. Hulan Matthies had a nice flight on his scratch built Shaker using an Aerotech J415 as well as lighting a K550 under his LOC Warlock for a ground shaking flight.
Mr Bill's Booster Company was not having that great a day as Bill Seiders' Drano Dart separated on an I211 flight. However it did not take a big rocket with a big motor to have a separation failure as Steve Todd's C6 powered Red Storm found out. Brian Sutton had one of the more "interesting" flights as his F22 powered Estes Saturn V never left the pad! More thrust!!!
It's clear everyone who attended the March launch had a great time! ROC launches run the gamut of people in the hobby and that's what make the club so much fun to participate in. See all of you in April!
1/2A 1 A 10 B 16 C 45 D 26 E 10 F 42 G 36 H 27 I 28 J 15 K 7
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