| Report by David J.
Schat
Lucerne Dry Lake Bed, California (DJS). The morning arrived chill
but calm with broken skies. Joseph D'anjou told me he showed 28
degrees at 6:45 am when he arrived. This
after a nail biter of a week watching the weather that threatened a storm.
I arrived at 7:30am to find the range almost done. I jumped
in to help set up the third row and the range was done in short order
(not because I helped mind you, me being a relative newbie and all). Gloves
were mandatory since it was stinken’ freezing and the cold metal of the
launchers and the cold air hurt the hands. It wasn’t long before it warmed
up to shirtsleeve weather though. The weather was rather pleasant even
until 3pm when I left reluctantly. Kurt Gugisberg told me that
about 9:30 Sat. night the wind
started blowing like crazy. He and a few others fought with the Rocket
Silo canopies and were able to get them down before they took off.
Sunday morning was chilly but not the biting cold that
we usually have (low to mid forties) but it warmed quickly. The winds
were blowing about 10 mph but the upper winds were assumed to be pretty
high so there were no high power/altitude flights.
The cold weather must have slowed us all down because
it took some time before the launch pads really heated up on Saturday
even though they were available early. I’d a’ thought folks would be lined
up early to get their Rocket Jones fix due to last months cancellation.
Once things started rolling though there seemed to be
a constant but reasonable queue at the check in table.
I’ll detail some flights below but I have to say the mass
launches off the front row were awesome. There must have been a half dozen
times the entire front row of twelve pads was sent off. It was necessary,
as there were many Boy Scouts (and a lot of others lighting BP) generating
some decent lines at the check in table. During one launch, I witnessed
two Estes “Dudes” actually touching about 40 feet off the pads, bounced
off each other and continued on the way up.
AP seems to be in short supply; while increasing my debt
at the Rocket Silo booth
I overheard Neil say that he had no 38mm reloads at all. I was
not able to visit Rocketmotion
who was also in attendance.
ROC had officer elections Saturday afternoon. The elections
were held just prior to the “Snitch Fest” with all of our fine officers
retaining their positions for 2003.
According to John Wahlquist the night launching
activities were 'light' and finished early. Folks sat around the fire
and talked for a while. Folks got a great kick out of Wedge Oldham
who so thoughtfully threw an F21 into the fire. Everyone pulled back
and waited for something to happen. After a while Wedge bellied
up to the fire and counted three then backed away daring anyone to go
longer. No takers. After that he said, "I guess it's true, you can
only burn them once!" If looks could kill they might have had to
bury him.
I didn’t have access to the flight cards but I believe
we had about 19 pads filled with Snitch’s for a mass launch “Snitch Fest”.
This event built up for a couple of weeks before the launch and was much
anticipated. Everything from stock to multistage to G powered. Just before
pressing the big red button Rick O'Neil said: "Children, grab
your mothers.... Mothers, grab your husbands...5...4...3...2...1..."
Snitches were EVERYWHERE... the President (Greg Lawson, not that
other guy - ed.) took cover.... Some of the Snitch names were classic.
I couldn't get them all, but here's what I could gather:
"Porter?" 3 stage
Unknown Yo Mama's Snitch
Steve Trammell 2 stage Snitch
Jon Trammell 2 stage Snitch
Wedge Oldham Should be interesting on Three (!) F21s
Melinda Catalano Big Rat on a D21
John Reynolds Yet Another Snitch
David Sparks Is Der WeinerSnitch
David Schat Stuffed Snitch
Morgan Trammell D12 to C6
Rick Dickerson Crayon Snitch
Chuck Garris? 2 stage
Jeff Gortakowsky Snitch in Time
??? Tattle Tale of the Apocalypse
John Hansen Corkscrew Snitch
Doc Hansen Snitch on Steroids (BIG motor)
Summers Jackson? Snitcheroo?
Dennis Dinga 'Lil Son of a Snitch
Jim Garret Two Eared Snitch" on an F-35
The following accounts are from the ROC
Chat list or were sent to me via email. Please forgive any editorializing
or artistic license if what I write doesn’t match what was posted.
Rage (Carl Delzell) launched his “Gravitational
Fool” Saturday afternoon on a not quite full tank of the MAX-M and reached
an altitude of just about 2000 ft. His “drywall mud” finished nosecone
was only “slightly” damaged.
Deanna Sparks made an attempt at her level 1 cert
but was unable to find her rocket after it’s flight. She found it late Sunday but it ejected its motor casing. Better luck next launch
Deanna.
Dennis Dinga launched “Now Hear This”. What the
heck it weighed 20 lbs, had dual deploy and only a dinky little 30"
drogue. Might even hit the pad, right? Wrong! Try over a half mile
away. It was really blowing upstairs.
Greg Lyzenga and Rich Silva teamed up for the first launch
of their upscale Goblin. It is a 30 pound, 7.5" diameter version
of the classic Estes D-powered rocket of the early 1970's. We flew it
with five Cesaroni Pro38 J330 motors. Two were lit on the ground with
two more airstarting at 3 seconds and the final center motor firing at
6 seconds. Everything worked perfectly. The Co-Pilot altimeter recorded
an apogee of 5018 feet, and the Rocketman R14C chute brought it to a gentle
landing about a mile away. Photos can be seen at <http://www.physics.hmc.edu/GL/RS16/>
Kurt Gugisberg made a shake down for the Big Dumb
Rocket (BDR weighing in at 62 pounds dry). He
lit off three K700s on the ground and then air started the L850 central
motor. The three K motors came up quickly, one slightly ahead of the
others, but it flew straight up off the pad. As the K motors trailed
off you could see a wobble in the rocket as the asymmetrical burnout pushed
the tail end around a little. He set the timer to light the L850 a second
after burnout but it took another 1.5 seconds for it to kick in. It was
a perfect flight from there out. As it arched over the drogue chutes
came out. He was trying out Troy Monroe Stacey's
Tether for the first time
so he decided to use two large drogues just in case. It was coming down
at about 35 feet per second to the 1000 foot mark When the Olsen fired.
The drogues pulled the main out as planned. The Tether actually worked!!!
The main deployment went flawlessly with the big cargo chute gently opening
fully as the drogues pull the nose cone and the deployment bag away. The
landing was incredible. It landed about 100 feet off the road with the
nose cone landing within 25 or 30 feet of the booster. On board electronics
registered 7146 feet for the Altacc and about 6514 feet for the Olsen
Altimeter.
Bart Harns flew his Horizon on a Pro 38 for a perfect
flight that landed near the road with the rocket “Standing up” for a perfect
touchdown.
Your reporter flew a glassed Executioner on a G25 using
a Defy Gravity “Control”
for dual deployment. It worked perfectly deploying a streamer at apogee
and the main at 800 feet. This was my 2nd successful dual deployment.
I also successfully flew my Messerschmitt Me163 RC rocket glider on a
G12.
Eric Pyne flew his "L-evation". It had
a liftoff weight of 33 pounds. It flew to 7177' on a Hypertek M740 hybrid
motor. This was a succesfull L3 cert flight. Other than getting stuck
on the fill stem for what seemed like an eternity, and being kidnapped
by locals and held hostage for a reward, it was a perfect flight. He was
able to track down Levation to some nearby houses with the aid of the
onboard “Rocket Hunter” tracking system.
Jim Garrett launched a 4 grain Pro-38 I285 that
was spit out of the casing at the night launch. Since he was using motor
ejection it came straight in. His strobe survived the flight!
Jeff Gortatowsky sent me this link of pictures
from the weekend: http://www.fototime.com/inv/5A7DFED1CAC0D12
Bob Brigham flew his “America The
Beautiful” It was his first dual-deploy and that part worked great. The
Rocket Rage RRQ70 chute did a fantastic job of letting the 35lb bird down
easy. There were supposed to be air starts but upon touchdown the TIMER2N
triggered both sets of air starts. It was interesting to see how the
fins guided the rocket along a straight path as it dug a furrow 40 feet
long and three inches deep in the lakebed. He noticed the bottom half
of the rocket was completely full of dirt when he went to pick it up.
Anyway, all the fiberglass and kevlar paid off. Virtually no damage -
It's ready to fly again!
John Wahlquist loosed his mASS to an altitude of
2464' into the cold, overcast sky only to have the main chute tangle and
streamer. The entire 65# rocket (70# with empty motor and 75mm/98mm motor
adapter) came down on a 60" military ballistic drogue. Looked nice
but was moving just a little fast on landing. Damages were minimal but
alas, no level 3 cert.
Chris Feenstra flew a black LOC Vulcanite Saturday
afternoon on a Pro38 I285 (4 grain) as a test flight for his new AltAcc2C.
It flew straight up into the clouds at an estimated 4000 feet and disappeared.
This was a little too big a motor for the size rocket under the conditions.
The rocket was returned undamaged by someone at about dusk to the range
head. The AltAcc2C worked perfectly.
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