September 2004 launch report (9/25/2004)
Beautiful, wonderful, perfect rocket-flying weather!
On Saturday, September 25th, many MASA members and fellow
rocketeers gathered at Sunrise Park Middle School in White Bear Lake
for the scheduled September launch.
Big thanks to:
- Mike Erpelding for hauling all the gear to and from the launch
- All LCO / RSO volunteers (Mike Erpelding, Alan Estenson, Glen
Overby, David Whitaker, Stuart Lenz...)
A few of the flights:
It was a great day for flying rockets! Warm, blue skies,
scarcely a breeze...
A number of younger rocketeers invigorated the launch.
Jeffrey Brink had a great time flying his Quest Falcon. Ben
Voissem (and his range crew, David) chalked up 10 flights of various
Estes rockets and both appeared to be having lots of fun. The
Boe Boys (Caleb, Daniel, and Joshua) had an amazing 30
flights! Caleb was also working on some of his NARTREK Bronze
flights. Way to go!
Russ Durkee made two nice flights of his Cuda radio controlled,
rocket-boosted sailplane. He also made two flights of an
Edmonds ECEE Thunder rocket glider modified for R/C. It still
has some controllability issues, though.
David Gensler was really supporting the "little
guys". He flew rockets by DynaStar, FlisKits, ASP, The
Launch Pad... He had several nice cluster-motor flights, and
he flew the largest motor of the day, an F50, in his LOC Legacy.
Ken and Paul Jarosch had a blitz of 25 flights between
them. Ken had lovely flights of an Estes Maxi Honest John and
a Super Vega both on D power. Not to be outdone, Ellison &
Stuart Lenz had an amazing 39 flight total for the day!
Ellison insisted on flying his "Red Doom" twice on
F20's. He got it back, but the second flight recovered off the
field.
[and there was lots, lots more ... take a look through the launch
log for the details - Alan]
MASA members - please send in your thoughts about the
launch!
Stuart Lenz writes:
The launch day dawned crisp, clear and with no wind. Mark T.
had already been at the site for an hour by the time Ellison and I
arrived at 830. We set up 2 of our midpower pads and our Micro
Classics MicroMaxx pad. Mike E. arrived shortly after us and we
helped set up the RSO/LCO table and equipment.
I started with some new MicroMaxx rockets, a MicroDelte and a
Micro Interceptor, then switched to full size clones, Space
Cruiser Excaliber, Dragon Ship 7, Andromeda and a recently painted
Shrox Alien 8. By 1100 we were out of B and C engines having also
flown several cluster rockets. I then experimented with A8-3
clusters and some Art Applewhite Qubix rockets. I also flew a 6'
BT 5 SuperRoc on an A8-3. I assumed RSO/LCO duty from Dave W. at
around 100 and we closed the launch at 200 when everyone also
seemed to have run out of rockets and/or engines.
Russ D. had brought out several radio controled gliders,
including a new conversion of a Edmonds kit that flew O.K. on a D
but lacked right and left control. After some modification and
minor repairs and the attentions of several club members,
including Ellison , he then flew on a F composite engine for a
nice flight.
There was also a larger than normal turn out of families and
new flyers and much fun was had by all. Must have been a three
inch stack of used flight cards.
Ken Jarosch writes:
What an unbelievably nice day. We have had several this year.
If you missed this one you missed one of the best. I haven't see
this many cars here since fall of 1999.
We flew mostly old routine rockets. Nothing fancy. We started
with 4 old multiple streamer rockets. I flew the Sparrow on a
A3-4T, the Pip Squeak II on a B6-4, an Antari with a C6-7 and an
old favorite the Orange Bullet on a 1/2A3-4T.
I brought along two calm wind rockets. I used a D12-3 in my
1993 Maxi Honest John and the 1993 Super Starship Vega. Both these
rockets were last flown here in 1999. I also burned up my last yy
zz ?? old D12-3's. These are the ones that Cato in cold
weather. They burned the Broadsword 2 years ago October and
completely burned the Super Big Bertha last October. I use one
today in the Broadsword and one in the Interceptor with no
problems.
Mike E. , Paul and I had our Tornado drag race on A8-3's. I
think I was the first down because the body section came down
rather fast. A heavy nose cone.
I flew the Firehawk on a C11-3. I finished the day with two
Junkyard rockets, the Katy-sha Slim and the High Flying Jester on
C11-3.
The Details:
Full launch tally
(in Adobe Acrobat PDF form, requires version 4 or newer of the
Acrobat reader)
The totals were: 175 flights, 195 motors. The
cumulative total impulse was 1461 Ns with an average total impulse
of 7.5 Ns. The motor breakdown follows:
|
Type |
# Burned |
| MicroMaxx |
8 |
|
1/4A |
0 |
|
1/2A |
7 |
|
A |
48 |
|
B |
63 |
|
C |
44 |
|
D |
21 |
|
E |
0 |
|
F |
4 |
|
G |
0 |
|
H |
0 |
(Alan Estenson)
|
