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October 2008 launch report (10/31/2008)
On Saturday, October 25th, MASA held its 11th launch of the
year. This was the sixth launch of the year at the sod fields near Nowthen.
The next MASA launch will be on November 22 at the Elk River
VFW soccer fields.
Huge thanks to the RSO/LCO volunteers! Ted Cochran, Jason
Colt, David Whitaker, Todd Schweim, and Alan Estenson.
Extra thanks to all who stayed to help
clean up the range and pack up the equipment!
The theme for this launch was "goonies, odd-rocs, and
Halloween rockets"
A few of the flights:
MASA members - please send in your thoughts about the
launch!
John Carlson writes:
I managed to launch 4 rockets Saturday, first was my
up-scaled estes Starblazer on a G38-4. She core sampled
because the chute didn't open. Fortunately, there was very
little damage. ? also shot my Gee-hod goonie from Semroc.
Also launched were a estes V-2 on a D12-5 and D-region Tomahawk
on a E9-6.
Alan Estenson writes:
I arrived at the field a little after 8am and started
setting up. After awhile, a few other people arrived, and we
were ready to start launching a bit after 9am.
The day started out cool, breezy, and cloudy. When we
started launching, the breeze was about 8mph out of the SW. By
noon, it was up around 10-12mph. By 1pm, it was about 13mph with
gusts to 16. In the face of gusts to 20mph, we ended the launch
at 1:30pm. The clouds did clear up and the sun came out later in
the morning, so it wasn't too bad out. Come the January launch,
we'll remember Saturday's weather with fondness. <grin>
Despite the wind, there was a great turnout of people -
probably one of the largest of the year. The wind (and shortened
launch hours) did keep down the overall number of flights.
I flew some odd-rocs first: Sputnik, Pump-nik, Birdie,
and the ingeniously named "2008 Halloween rocket".
I then decided that, despite the wind, it was time to
fly my Rocketman Explorer 7 for the first time. I bought the kit
something like 8 years ago. Construction went in spurts over the
years with intervening
periods of the rocket being banished to a corner. I finally
finished it up and painted it back in August.
First flight was quite nice on an I211. Delay could have been a
second or two shorter. With the wind, it landed amongst the
"orchard" to the NE. The bottom half of the airframe did a
splashdown right in the
middle of a ditch while the top half and chute were up on the
sod. No harm done once I wiped off the pond scum and let it dry
out.
My only other launch of the day was another first
flight. This time, it was my scratchbuilt goony - the Solar Goon
- on a B6-4. It flew well, and I was happy. :-)
Ted Cochran writes:
I had a pretty short day, since I needed to get home by
1:00 for another engagement.
So, I did a little shmoozing, a little LCO/RSOing, and,
oh yeah, I launched my LOC-IV--the rocket that I certified on 10
years ago-- on an H180 for another good flight. The wind was
annoying, but there were a ton of people there anyway. Lots of
flying halloween rockets, some old favorites, some first
flights--any day flying rockets is a good day!
The Details:
Full launch tally (PDF)
The totals were: 102 flights, 107 motors.
The cumulative total impulse was 2677 Ns with an average total impulse of 25 Ns.
The motor breakdown follows:
|
Type |
# Burned |
| MicroMaxx |
0 |
|
1/4A |
0 |
|
1/2A |
6 |
|
A |
15 |
|
B |
23 |
|
C |
33 |
|
D |
12 |
|
E |
5 |
|
F |
5 |
|
G |
4 |
|
H |
3 |
|
I |
1 |
|
J |
0 |
(Alan Estenson)
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