ROC April 2003 Launch

Lucerne Dry Lake Bed, California (WO). The April 2003 launch began with the traditional camping by a few members of ROC. This camp-out was marked by high winds and cloudy skies. Morning arrived with more of the same, high winds and dense cloudbank overhead. It looked like this launch was going to be a wash. The ROC board made a wise decision to only setup four pads. If there were some brave souls that insisted on flying, they could.

Once the range was setup the entire crowd waited for someone to be the first to brave the weather, as people prepped their rockets the cloudbank overhead began to clear. By the time first flyer had placed a rocket on the pad the skies were over 50% clear and no wind in sight. Who knew?

Deanna Sparks got her Level 1 certification with a scratch rocket built called “Boopster.” This 2-inch diameter rocket stood 3-feet tall and was flying on an H242. At ignition, the rocket screamed off the pad and all lost sight of it for a moment, but soon a bright orange chute was seen. Congratulations Deanna.

Hybrids made a strong showing at the April launch. Both RATTworks and Hypertech motors were flown. Rick Magee flew his Dynacom Scorpion called “No longer Naked” on a K240. Wayne Mrazek flew his veteran rocket named “Orange.” This 6-inch diameter, 10-foot long rocket left the pad on a RATTworks K240, and hosted a special pyrotechnic free ignition. I’m sure we’ll see some more details on this at a later time. Steve Trammell had one of the more interesting flights of the day with a scratch built rocket on a RATTworks I-90. What made this flight so interesting was upon ignition, the rocket jumped in the air about 15 feet, then just sat in mid-air almost motionless. After what seemed like an incredible amount of time the rocket took off like there was no tomorrow. It almost looked like a combination CATO, chuff, and air start all rolled into one — this was a real crowd pleaser. Phil Anderson, David Wilsey, and Steve Trainor showed us all that Hypertech motors are great fun too. All three had great powered flights, and all three would have been great on the way down had Phil Anderson not suffered a separation. There was even an Aerotech hybrid flown this launch by John Wahlquist. This scratch built rocket was a modification of a PML Quantum Leap flew on an Aerotech J260 hybrid and had no chute problems on the way down.

Kurt Gugisberg, veteran flyer, got in a great flight on his Dynacom V2, this time flying on a J420 Redline motor. Eric Wilkins also flew a Redline motor an Aerotech H218, in a Binder Design Sprint. Mike Stoop had scratch built a rocket named “BBX” which amazed the crowd on it J415 powered flight.

With motors in short supply there were a few flyers who still found a way to fly some “I” motors. Namely Bill Huber on an I284, Roy Knyrim on an I218, Andrew Fuller on an I211, and Phil Anderson on an I161, all had great flights.

Dok Hanson, coming off a successful Level 3 flight the month before, took time to put a couple of G motors into the air. The first was a scratch built rocket “Purple People Eater” on a G80, and an Aerotech Mustang on a G40. Both were good flights. Not a lot of two stage rockets were flown but there was one noteworthy flight. Jessy, Evan and Michael Gates took their scratch built two-stage creation out to the pads. At 57-inches in length, and 1.6-inches in diameter, this rocket flew on a G54 and staged to an F20. A separation kept them from getting a good flight check mark on their flight card.

B.J. Koehling scared the crowd when he brought out his modified Snitch. Modifying Estes Snitch’s has become quite the fad now at ROC launches, but B.J. has really started to push the envelope with his snitch powered by a G38. Leaving a 3/16-inch rod, and considering the rocket was slightly over-powered, it still had a great flight.

Towards the end of the day George Payton brought out his Level 1 attempt. George took his LOC/Precision LOC IV and loaded it with an H242. With a zippy launch and a long coast to apogee, the chute appeared right on time. After retrieving his NAR paperwork that had blown down the lakebed, George had nailed his Level 1 attempt. Congratulations to George.

Best flight of the day goes to Brian Sutton. Brian brought out his PML Pterodactyl with a 54mm central motor surrounded by three 38mm outboards. For electronics an Altacc performed drogue and main deployment. A G-Wiz was used as backup and also performed the air starts. A K1100 kicked the Ptery off the pad, and the G-Wiz lit the outboards flawlessly. Perfect deployment of the drogue at apogee. All in all the best flight of the day.

Despite the long lines some people managed to get in a good number of flights. John Anderson got off three good flights. The Danjou’s as a family kept the RSOs and LCOs pretty busy for the day getting in a total of seven flights as a family. Kevin Danjou was the most active member of the family getting in four flights. The winner of the most flights of the day award and the most motors burned award goes to Evan McLean. Evan got in five flights and burned a total of seven motors doing it. Our Newton-Second champ is Brian Sutton burning a total of 2251 Newton-Seconds.

The most crowd-pleasing flight done was Roy Kuyrim. His 7-foot tall 7.5-inch diameter Skunkworks V-2 left the pad great on a K550. The flight up was a little less than straight as the rocket tended to wander a bit during flight. The rocket did a tail stand at apogee, and then started to back slide toward the earth. The chute never did appear and the rocket flew the entire way to the ground in a flat spin. The rocket landed with a thud, but it was one of the most watched flights, and a real crowd-pleaser.

Motor Usage for the April 2003 ROC launch

         Engine     #  Total NS
         A Motors   2      5
         B Motors   4     20
         C Motors  10    100
         D Motors   9    180
         E Motors   3    120
         F Motors   8    535
         G Motors  15   1654
         H Motors  11   2385
         I Motors   5   2230
         J Motors   8   6743
         K Motors   4   6096
         Total     79  20068