Spokane Area Rocket Club

Mark Howe Launch Report

October 8, 2007

Great weather...great flights...few participants...that about sums it up. After being shut-out of local launching due to fire-danger over the last 3 months, it was a welcome relief to finally punch holes in the sky once again. I only made it to day-1 of the scheduled 2-day launch. I don't think more than 15 people were on site during the first day (10/06), but those who did NOT make it to the launch really lost out. It was a great day for flying! I arrived about 9:45AM to find the range totally set-up, thanks to Terry, Bob, his dad Earl, and Joe Cooney. I ran the LCO table for the majority of the day, and still managed to put up a dozen bird. (This was a paltry sum compared to Joe Cooney, who launch 35 rockets on this day!) I brought "almost" nothing buy "D's" with me for this launch, (Single Stage, Multi-Stage, Clusters, and Gliders), here is the breakdown of what I flew:. 01) Edmonds Delti on an A3-4T...the glider got snagged in the booster pod recovery system when the ejection occurred, so it turned into a "tumble recovery" model. 02) Modified Phoenix on a D12-3. The lower fin can was removed due to a previous CATO. I added nose weight and rocket flew fine, but cracked a fin on landing. 03) Super Nova Payloader on a D12-5. Nothing spectacular on this flight... 04) Delta Clipper (upper stage only) on a D12-7. Thanks to Allen Roberts for spotting the rocket for me...with the high boost I really couldn't see it until he pointed it out to me in the sky. 05) Edmonds DeeCee Thunder. Nice flight/glide on a D12-3 06) Saturn-V on a pair of D12-3's. One of the 3 chutes refused to open, but the rocket was recovered without damage. 07) Silver Comet on a D12-3. Nothing special to report about this flight. 08) Mean Machine, CHAD staged using a D12-0 and D12-5...nice flight as always with this engine combination. 09) Longshot using a D12-0 and B6-6 combination. Good altitude, and easy recovery since I used a streamer. 10) Edmonds Twin Thunder on a D12-3. Two glider setup. Thanks to Katy for tracking one of the gliders for me! 11) Optima on a D12-3. Standard flight 12) Outlander on a AT 18mm RMS D13-4W. Very nice boost for this bulky/draggy rocket. It really shouldn't have been designed for an 18mm "C" motor! I had another 5 rockets with me but just didn't have time to get them in the air, so I'm already partially prepped for the next launch! ;-) Observations: Joe had two to four rockets on practically every rack we flew. I'm amazed he is able to remember where all of them land! He also has some rather interesting engines...the ejection charges on some of them were really energetic. One actually dis-assembled his quark! Lou Brag had a couple of nice (and the only) high power flights of the day. Terry put up a couple of models, and had an crazy flight on his Screamin Mimi using an AT reloadable. The Cavanaughs showed up and had some nice flights as well. Their upscale "Space Ship One" was very nice. They also had a renegade that flew a couple of times. The booster on the Renegade has a tendency to return in a ballistic fashion...not the first time I've seen this happen with this model! Emerson, our land owner, made an appearance late in the afternoon, and got to see Lou's J540-R flight. He's such a great guy! I wasn't able to make the 2nd day of the event, but I'm pretty sure the best weather was on Saturday. Thanks! Best regards, Mark W. Howe

Posted by bobble at 8:07 AM | Comments (0)

Lou Bragg Launch report

Just a quick mid launch report. I arrived on site to a fully set up range about 9:50 AM. We called the tower to activate the waiver. Guess what?! We get the freaking voicemail! Uhhhh.....okay? After an unsuccessful hour I called Seattle and they said we would be ok and they would get it called in. During this whole time models were flying at a very moderate pace. It was a model dominated day to say the least. Joe Cooney and Mark Howe were there and between them I think they had 60 flights with no single motor being larger than an E. Other attendees included Launch Director Terry Moore-Read, Bob Yanecek (for a short period of time) and his father Earl, Allan Roberts, The Cavanaugh family, myself and Katie and later in the day, Ray Stoner and his clan. The conditions were excellent for flying rockets with little to no wind and a partly cloudy sky. Allan joined in the model fun flying a Mean Machine with great success. The Cavanaugh's had a steady stream of A-D powered models heading to the pad for the better part of the day. Even though he was only there for a few minutes Bob got in a flight of Super Kluge on a G80-1. Deployment almost immediately after burnout causing a seperation. Both pieces were recovered with some moderate damage. Terry flew a few models including a crazy "flight" of his Screaming Mimi on an E28T. The red cap must have been pressed on too tightly and instead of blowing off stayed on and vectored the thrust for a crazy boost that ended in a crash. I flew a couple of models then prepped my new bird The Riddler for its maiden flight. Great ride on an H242 to a very close dual deploy recovery from 2656'. I also flew my Stealth late in the evening on a J540R for a very nice Redline flight to 5186' with dual deploy for a good recovery. Just before this flight Ray showed up and put up a couple of models. Apparently a Quest Totally Tubular is unstable on a C6. Needless to say an interesting flight. He redeemed himself with a subsequent flight on a B6 that was arrow straight. We left around 6:30 with only Terry and Ray staying the night braving the cold. Lou Bragg

Posted by bobble at 7:31 AM | Comments (0)

October Launch Report & Stats

October 7, 2007

The weather managed to co-operate for both days of the launch. Saturday was the better day for high altitude flights with broken clouds. Sunday was more overcast but with little to no wind for most of the day. Attendance was light, this made for a fairly relaxed launch with pads available most of the time.

Highlights:

Joe Cooney launched 50 rockets. Including every estes motor currently being made.

Jim Jopson Certified Level 2 on Sunday.

Lou Brag spent most of the weekend drilling, hammering and sawing but somehow launched 12 flights.

My own attempt to fly a screeming mimi on an E28 motor (I swear it worked last time) resulting in a short spinng flight followed by the inevitable thud. Examining the rocket after the flight revealed that the red nozzle cap stayed on and may have caused some off center thrust early in the flight.

Despite a late arrival on Saturday Ray Stoner managed 12 flights.

Stats :

130 Total Flights

Mark Howe 12
Lou Bragg 12
Terry Moore-Read 15
Ray Stoner 15
Joe Cooney 50

1/4A 3
1/2A 2
   A 9  
   B 17 
   C 45  
   D 37  
   E 19 
   F 1
   G 1
   H 2
   I 1
   J 2


2 stage flights: 8

Posted by terry at 8:36 PM | Comments (0)