ROC October 2002 Launch

Lucerne Dry Lake Bed, California (RBP). October is known for some of the best weather on the lake bed, and this year was no exception.  A crowd of about 20 arrived the evening before and awoke to temperatures in the upper 40’s and a high, broken overcast that lingered most of the day. 

Setup was leisurely and the first rockets went up just before 9am.  As the day warmed into the 70’s 63 rocketeers crawled out from under their EZ-UP™s and Shelter™s and sent 113 rockets skyward. A total impulse of 27706.5N was spread across the sky before a crowd of onlookers numbering in the low hundreds.  The smallest engine was a BP 1/4A in a badminton birdie by Trent Steele (the sort of launch you could do in your living room on a rainy day), the largest a Hypertek L540 in a scratch-built crowd-pleaser named “Seismic” flown by Fred Sanford.  In all, 71 BP, 63 AP, and 4 hybrid engines were fired.  The predominance of BP over AP shows how composite motor inventories are running low one year after the Aerotech fire.  Then again, it may be that many are saving their best and finest for ROCstock XVI next month.

The October launch continued the tradition of hosting visiting groups. In this case it was a Troop of Boy Scouts who spent Friday and Saturday nights camped out on the lakebed (and taking advantage of ROC's sanitary facilities which are notably absent at other times of the month).  They kept the first rack of pads busy burning a good number of Estes BP engines in stock Estes products.

Among these new faces was Conner Jenkins who sent up his first rocket ever, a “Super Eagle”, on an Estes C6.  Apparently the hook has been set.  Conner sent up two more flights before the day was through.

This launch also hosted five certification attempts. James Schumacher reached level 1 by successfully lofting his BSD “Horizon 54” on a Pro38 I205.  Dave Eckart used the same engine in his level 1 attempt with a PML “One Shot”. On the other hand, Lisa Smith went with an Aerotech H242 in her PML “1/4Patriot”.  Ron Canevari launched a scratch built missile dubbed “Look Ma, No Hands” with a Pro38 H153 in his level 1 attempt that sported dual deployment recovery using a Missile Works RCC2.  The only level 2 attempt was by Greg Gabelman who successfully retrieved his scratch built “Red Rocket” after its ride on a Pro38 J330.

Though the quantity of rockets fired is down, the quality, as in variety and creativity, remains high. David Wilsey started things off by flying your basic Snitch – not on a single BP motor for which it was designed - but on a D12 staged to a C6.  Comments Dave, on landing it did “a touch-and-go on Jim Garrett’s truck…” but otherwise survived.  Next up was David Gates with Snitch powered by a F20.  It punched quite a hole in the sky as it clawed its way to all of about 300 feet (maybe) before flopping back down on the lakebed. Not to be outdone, David Wilsey returned with a Snitch propelled by an F50, and achieved essentially the same result.  Having shown the basic plastic airframe could take this level of abuse, David Gates upped the ante with his Snitch², a two stage version consisting of two Snitches mounted in tandem, each loaded with an F20, the second ignited from the first by a length of Thermalite fuse. To quote the ROC resident philosopher, “the up part looked good” as the first F20 muscled its way a few hundred feet into the air.  It was matched by an equally interesting “down part” powered by the second F20.  The delay between the stages was a trifle too long, allowing the rocket to flip over prior to second stage ignition.  The second burn ended inches above the lake bed, but a Snitch, being what it is, hardly suffered any damage.  All in all, it was a very symmetric flight.  Deciding there were simpler ways to force more power into the plastic saucer, David Gates’ finished the series with his “Snitch on Steroids”, lofted on a single G80. It, too, survived to fly again.

Not to be out done, veteran flier Kurt Gugisberg (aka Goofyberg) showed his own brand of free thinking.  “I had two flights on my virgin flyer, ‘Gloomis Red’”, notes Kurt. “Built from a fly rod packaging tube and spare parts (acme fin can, aeropac retainer, etc.), it flew on a H123 for it's maiden flight and a H242 for the second flight, both straight up in the still morning air and both successfully recovered. Next up for ‘Gloomis’...electronics and some real motors like J350s and J570s.”  What Kurt failed to mention is that the packaging tube is made from transparent red plastic.  Put a strobe inside it and you’re all set for a ROCstock night launch!

Despite the dearth of AP, the hybrid pads were also quiet, hosting only four flights.  One, the largest flight of the launch, was the previously mentioned L540 flight of “Seismic” by Fred Sanford.  Joe Mullin fired the only RATTworks product, a K240, in his “Huntress”.  Bearing one of his ‘Rocket Hunter’ transmitters, it is assumed it was recovered and will fly again.  The remaining hybrid flights were by Allen Farrington who wrote,” I had two good flights on my LOC Magnum [named “Yet Another Magnum”] using the Hypertek J317 motor. I used an Altacc 2a for both flights with a PET2 timer for backup for main deploy at apogee. Both flights went to about 1500 feet and were serving as check-flights prior to my Level 3 Certification flight later this year. I am amazed at how simple the Hypertek system is once you know what's going on. It seems intimidating at first but once you know how to do it, its really quite easy.” Wayne, how’s that for a testimonial?

Karin Towle, sporting a new Level 2 certification (as of July), consumed her share of AP with two flights: As she described it, “Flight #1 – A scratch built 4” rocket called TAZ III with Missile Works electronics made a successful flight on an Aerotech J275 to an altitude of 4,663 feet. Flight #2 – A Hawk Mountain Jumanji all fiberglass 4” rocket called ‘TAZ IV’ flew successfully on an Aerotech K550 to a RockSim predicted altitude of 5,920 feet.  With apogee deployment, the winds aloft carried the rocket 2-1/2 miles northwest into the sagebrush outside of the lakebed.” 

It was a good thing it was recovered.  “TAZ IV” has one of the nicest paint schemes of anything sent up during the launch, and we hope to see it back at Lucerne soon.

Only one other high altitude waiver flight was logged.  Chuck Cerise sent his Binder Design “Sentinel” up on a K185.  No word on how high it actually got, but it was noted as a “Good Flight”.

This being October, weirdness was in evidence: At one point three of the four rockets in the RSO line consisted of Rob Brigham’s Quaker™ Oatmeal box rocket, Rick Haupt’s “Pringles Express” made from a stack of Pringles™ cans, and Troy Monroe Stacey’s contrivance appropriately  called “FrightFlight”.  Both the “Oatmeal Special” and the “Pringles Express” are successful veterans and flew reliably on Aerotech F21 and H180 motors, respectively.  “FrightFlight” promised a different story. Having been finally reassembled/repaired after its previous airborne debacles, Troy stuffed a K550 into it – held in with bailing wire, really, I’m not kidding – and loaded up the nose cone (hat?) with 10 lbs. of what authorities describe as “guano”.  (However, some doubt has been expressed about even Troy’s formidable ability to cram so much fertilizer into so little space.) Being made of multiple plastic Halloween candy buckets with faces, it gave a fuller meaning to the term “Heads Up Flight”. Moreover, the K550 was among the largest AP engines fired at the launch.  However, contrary to the mutterings of the ‘nattering nabobs of negativism’, the flight was flawless and there are those who are even looking forward to seeing it again next October.  Good job Troy!

Oh, yes, the fourth rocket in the RSO line: it was a Big Bertha scratch built to fly on an Aerotech E18 motor, fielded by Greg Lyzenga. It was the third rocket of the day flown by Greg and his son, Andrew Lyzenga. Commented Greg, “I had the maiden flight of my Public Enemy Performer clone named ‘Event Horizon’ on an I357 Blue Thunder. The flight was perfect and the altimeter reported an altitude of 2459 ft. Next my son Andrew flew his RocketVision Solar Venture (a ring-finned rocket) on an Estes E9 for an out-of-sight but perfect flight. Finally, we closed out the day with a flight of my recently repaired Big Bertha clone on an E18. After taking a razzing from the bystanders for the rocket not being ‘weird’ enough, it roared off pad #1 to a perfect flight. All in all, a good day of flying.”

Greg’s parting comment sums up the feelings of most who were present.

ROC is grateful to Erik Gates for divvying out fuel and parts from RocketSilo2.0’s inventory, and looks forwared to seeing them back next month for the much awaited ROCstock XVI.