June 2005 launch report (6/27/2005)
On Saturday, June 25th, MASA held its fourth launch of the
year. This was the second MASA launch at the new site near
Nowthen.
Unlike the April launch, the weather was darn-near perfect.
Skies were clear and sunny. The breeze was light and variable
out of the east. A good-sized crew of MASA members came out to
fly lots of rockets.
Prez. Mike Erpelding put in stellar duty with launch equipment
and range setup. Mike
deserves a big round of applause! Let's all be sure to help
out at launches this year; Mike can't do everything (and he
shouldn't have to!)
Thanks to everyone who helped pack up the range at the end of the
day.
Thanks to the LCO/RSO volunteers: Ken Jarosch, Mike
Erpelding, Alan Estenson, David Whitaker, Ted Cochran, Glen Overby
(apologies if I've forgotten anyone!)
The theme for the day was "multi-staging" and quite a few 2-stage
rockets took to the air.
16 G-powered rockets were launched. That's more than at any
MASA launch since 2003!
A few of the flights:
MASA members - please send in your thoughts about the
launch!
Ted Cochran writes:
Great day for launching!
The wind wasn't as bad as forecast. We got there just before
noon, and spent three hours on site. Flew the Ring Hawk, which
still looks like it could use a tad more nose weight, as it flew
down more like a backslider for part of its journey. The
scissors wing flew straight as an arrow downwind. The Silver
Comet got in its 55th flight, but the first one on an E30--It's
flown on everything from a C6-3 (using an adapter) to an F32...
Finally, Phobos got some air on a G80-4. Thanks to Mike for
hauling out a ton of gear!
Alan Estenson writes:
It was a very nice day. The breeze occasionally
picked up a bit and made the walk a little longer, but hey, it
was still a very nice day. Remember, model rocketry is a
nice walk that's occasionally interrupted by a few seconds of
smoke and noise. There were many great flights, and the
launch range was kept busy.
Due to the wind direction, the small "pond" (wide area
of the irrigation ditch) just west of the launch range came into
play during recovery. Since one of his rockets was the
first to affect splashdown, this body of water was dubbed "Overby
Pond". Quite a few rockets followed over the course of the
day, and Glen's telescoping pole was used a number of times to
fish wayward rockets out of the slimy green water.
I missed the range setup, but stayed all day and
assisted with range cleanup. I managed 15 flights, and I'm
embarrassed to admit that they were my first flights of the
year. Four rockets that I built over the winter saw their
first flights. Two tube fin rockets, Diamond 'lil and Red
Varmint, took to the skies on B motors. Plans for these
two will appear in a future issue of the Planet.
Polarized, a stretched and modified Estes Polaris, was flown on
a C11-5. And, of course, the Screaming Yellow Zonker (a
Screamin' Mimi that ended up with tube fins) flew on an E9-6 and
then on an F21-8.
The Details:
Full launch tally (in Adobe Acrobat PDF form, requires version
6
or newer of the Acrobat reader)
The totals were: 158 flights, 177 motors. The cumulative
total impulse was 4030 Ns with an average total impulse of 22.8 Ns.
The motor breakdown follows:
|
Type |
# Burned |
| MicroMaxx |
0 |
|
1/4A |
0 |
|
1/2A |
1 |
|
A |
13 |
|
B |
46 |
|
C |
53 |
|
D |
27 |
|
E |
13 |
|
F |
7 |
|
G |
16 |
|
H |
1 |
(Alan Estenson)
|
