Spokane Area Rocket Club

Dave Glass had the first flight honors with Mad Maxine on an E15-4. Great flight with good recovery. Things got a bit hairy when Paul Nelson's Eliminator had the E9 motor CATO about 50-100 feet up. It continued burning almost until it hit the ground. Luckily the eject charge burnt up during the CATO so it did not start a fire. Bob Shaw had some impressive flights including his first staged and clustered flghts. Deciding to go big or go home he had a minimum diameter three stage on a C6-0 to C6-0 to C6-7. It lit fine but that C6 just isn't enough to push the stack and it came off the pad crooked and just got worse from there. By the time the third stage fired it was nearly horizontal. It streaked off to the South never to be seen again. Sticking with the small bird big motor philosophy, Bob flew his first cluster. Central C6-7 with three outboard C6-3s. Good flight. Mark Howe had the most flights for the day with 16. He flew everything under the sun, gliders, clusters, staged, regular old boring single motor. Gentry and Justin Schumacher showed up again and flew until they were just about out of motors. Gentry had 11 flights while Justin had 7. SPARC president Bob Yanecek had some great flights including a minimum diameter bird on a G35. Great boost but it was lost in the sky. Bob was bummed most of the day until I came strolling back with his rocket in my hand. He was more than happy. The Phillips family showed up with camper in tow and even had some nice flights. Joel flew some neat AP cluster flights and Matt Myren chose C6-5s to power almost all of his birds. Rob Jopson flew several minimum diameter ETV flights with some recoveries where he walked out in the direction he figured it came down and guess what there it was! Bryon Schopp showed up for a few hours and flew some midpower birds with his grandon Kalib. Even though I was the LD I still managed to get in 7 flights. Most were models but I did take largest motor honors with an Aerotech I-225FJ in Katie's Purple People Eater. Long recovery hike though. Across Wild Rose but I got a ride back from Bob so it wasn't too bad. All in all there were 95 flights on Saturday by 18 fliers burning 109 motors. Largest motor was an I-225FJ. Motor Breakdown: A: 8 B: 17 C: 34 D: 20 E: 15 F: 7 G: 5 H: 1 I: 1 I woke up Sunday with gray skies with the sun desperately trying to break through and give us some awesome weather. There were a few less fliers with a much slower pace on Sunday. We still managed to get 18 flights in and burned 22 motors. Rob Jopson was at it again with Comanche 1.5s and ETV flights aplenty. Dave Glass put up Something Fishy on an I-218R for a great flight and recovery. Marty Weiser showed up ready to fly and put up Beat Stanford on an H97 for a great dual deployment flight. Marty used a streamer for a drouge which had the bird coming in at a touch under Mach 1! However the main deployed with no damage and landed very close for an easy recovery walk. Marty also flew a glider with great trimmings and a motor eater saucer for a loud and low flight. Bob Yanecek put up Mr. Wiggles on an E9-8 for an amazingly straight boost and good recovery. Joel Phillips put up some more AP cluster flights and a two stage Commanche that landed within feet of me while I was out recovering my own bird. I once again took largest motor honors with a J350 in my 4" bird Skeletor. Achieved an altitude of a bit less than 2500 feet with recovery in the fallow field to the north. I had a less than optimal flight with my Estes Partriot on an E9. It rod whipped hard and went West really fast. It deployed and we watched it drop behind the trees to the west way out in the field. Bob and I set out after it and I am just glad Bob took a GPS bearing since we got way off once we got into the trees. I found it a couple hundred feet out in the field. Look for it to go up on an F21 at the next launch. Motor Breakdown A: 0 B: 2 C: 3 D: 5 E: 6 F: 2 G: 0 H: 2 I:1 J: 1 Packed up in the early afternoon and headed home. I am still recovering. Until the next one! Lou Bragg Launch Director