Spokane Area Rocket Club

Luders Launch Report

May 11, 2009

This is Teresa Luders. Our son Brian invited two of his friends to the event and it was a huge success. As is typical for teenage boys, we didn't see enough KATOs but David manage to burn a hole in one of the pads when his rocket ignited, flamed, then failed to take off. Very impressive! It was so nice to attend this launch as we haven't had the time for quite awhile due to scout obligations. Weather and launches were great. Hope to do this again! Thanks again for such a terrific Mother's Day event! Regards, Teresa L.

Posted by bobble at 5:17 AM | Comments (0)

Joe Cooney Launch Report

Weather was perfect both days, even if I spent most of Saturday watching my daughter play soccer. I got there late Saturday sometime around four in the afternoon. Judging form the flight card stack, Saturday was extremely busy. Most of the fliers had already packed up and left so the flightline was rather empty. I even scored a good parking area close to the pads (cuts down on walking). I pulled out the old reliable Pride of Cucamonga, my Mean Machine Clone, readied it for my first launch. I had some catching up to do with stories abound of a father and son who put up 25 flights earlier in the day. Congrats to Vince & Sean for wearing out the equipment. They flew some pretty cool rockets too, I would have liked to seen their Pemberton Kraken. I only managed to get 17 rockets into the air on Saturday, flying cut short for a great Lasagna dinner, courtesy of Ann Y. My last few flights were recovered by a brother sister who lived near by. There dad showed up in a little 4 wheeler and gave me a ride back to the launch area. They returned the Sunday and helped Prep and Launch two more of my flights. It is always nice to talk to the neighbors who live around the field and share rocketry with young kids. Food was great, thanks again Ann for preparing the Lasagna. After dinner I launched the last of my two flights, both small spool rockets. One on an A10 the other on a D12, everybody settled in around the fire by Bob. I had to leave around 9 to pick up my Dog Bandit, (He hates Rockets, but loves running the field), by the time I got back, everyone had called it a night. Coyotes hollered all night long and kept Bandit whimpering for a shot at going outside. Sunday morning I awoke around 7:30 and took Bandit for a walk and then took him home so I would not have to deal with him during the launch. With more great weather and practically no wind to speak of I pulled out an old Estes Scissor Wing Transport and let her rip on a B6-4, landed safely after a nice glide on the far side of the flightline. I also broke out my Storm Caster and let that go on an E9-8. Nice high flight with a short recovery. Next was Bad Bertha on an E9-8, nearly lost sight of it, but again recovery was close by. I had made repairs to my CC Express during the night (drilled hole in booster and glued fin back on) and decided to fly it again to see if I would have better luck. Worked as advertised so I figured a D12-0 to E9-8 should be good. I fell short of the 60 rockets I prepped for flight but still managed a full two days of flying. All in all there were 30 fliers accounting for 140 flights (98 on Saturday & 42 on Sunday), total impulse was about 5050ns (just shy of a small “M”). Here is the breakdown: Most Flights -- Joe Cooney, 32 Most Flights in one day -- Vince & Sean, 24 Most Flights by Kit -- Estes Big Daddy, 8 Most Flights by One Rocket -- Der Red Max (Terry Moore-Read and his Daughter Brianna & Son Jon) accounted for 6 flights Highest Impulse -- Ray Stoner “I284” Most Impulse -- Marty Weiser 1068ns, Joe Cooney 1028ns & Ray Stoner 621ns There were 8 Cluster Flights -- 3 two motor clusters, 3 three motor clusters, and 2 four motor cluster flights. There were 10 two stage flights, some of them were CHAD staged. 27 different motors used this weekend: 15 A’s A10 -- 4 A3 -- 1 A6 -- 2 A8 -- 8 21 B’s B4 -- 6 B6 -- 15 48 C’s C6 -- 42 C11 -- 6 40 D’s D12 -- 40 22 E’s E9 -- 20 E18 -- 2 8 F’s F12-- 1 F23 -- 2 F27 -- 3 F40 -- 1 F50 -- 1 4 G’s G38 G40 G71 G80 4 H’s H97 H220 H238 H242 3 I’s I195 I284 I366

Posted by bobble at 5:13 AM | Comments (0)

Marty Weiser Launch Report

I showed up about 9:30 Sat. and the everything was ready to go. I got in two great dual deployment flights in my 54 mm Go Bucks III - Sat. on an I366 to 4372 ft. and Sun. on an I195 to 2843 ft. (big difference in the same 6 grain 38 mm case). The smallest 54 mm loads I had would have been around 9 kft, which might have worked with the light winds, but I wanted to see the deployments. I also flew a Commanche 1.5 on a D12-3 to a C6-7 which Bob found for me after I had walked the suggested line twice and 2.6" diameter on Nike Smoke on 4 x D12-7 which came in hot (nose cone and fin can are reusable). A great weekend with a small turnout of good friends and a few new acquantainces. Marty

Posted by bobble at 5:07 AM | Comments (0)

Jopson Launch report

Great launch! Arrived Fri evening to Ray and Krys camped S of the flight line. Parked the Den and had a nice evening with Ray supplied pizza. Spring (planting) moon rose to the Southeast looking HUGE. Awoke Sat am with perfect flight conditions, no wind, no clouds. Robo called 6:30 with arrival info from his Ski gathering at Priest Lake. 7:30 am - Set up the flight line ropes and moved the Den and Ray's Upgrade to define the flight line. Beautiful day for a launch!! Flew my PML Phobos on an Aerotech H97 4 gr 29mm. Recovered in the trees NW of launch. Robo saw a coyote pup during recovery and we located the den. Cool! Enjoyed evening meal supplied by Ann Yanacek lasagna, with all the trimmings including, veggies and dip by Jim & Robo, wine from Terry, antipastos by Marty with help from Chico. Lasagna dinner was accompanied by salad from Katie & Lou, garlic bread from Ray and Krys and a wonderful pasta salad from ??? (sorry!). Bob Y. built a roaring fire to ward off the chill. Dessert by Robo & Jim was Oreo cookies, blackberries, strawberries, vanilla and chocolate ice cream. Option was to make the ingredients in to a milk shake which was done by 6 folks, the limit of the milkshake cups. Fire was enjoyed by all with bed not too long after sunset. Had to leave Sun am because of prior commitments. Great Launch! Thanks to Launch Directors Sat, Ray Stoner, Sun, Joe Cooney. Jim Jopson

Posted by bobble at 5:04 AM | Comments (0)

Presidentialaunch report

May 10, 2009

Sure couldn’t have asked for much in the way of better weather this Mothers Day weekend. Last count had 133 flight cards and lots of sun drenched skin. Two local neighbors dropped by and, for a change, both were supportive, friendly , and interested in what we were doing. Due to our lack of pre-season maintenance, we had a high percentage of ignition failures. Many thanks to today’s launch director, Joe Cooney for volunteering to haul the trailer to his home in an effort to get some maintenance performed. On top of that, Joe had a camping trailer with him so he got stuck with two trips just to get home…..Thanks JOE!! Ray Stoner and Jim Jopson spent the night Friday and had the range completely laid out (not set up (don’t to give too much credit ;-)) in a new and improved orientation by the time folks arrived. This new set-up has the flight line parallel to the access road with parking also oriented that way. Model and mid power pads headed straight west then the high power pads diagonal towards the NW putting them on a slight knoll. This orientation allows more flexibility in launch angle with respect to the wind and reduces the odds of a rocket boosting over the crowd. Next launch is Wheatchex with Midway Elementary on Friday June 5’th followed by Saturday AND Sunday of rocket launching opportunities. If anyone is interested/willing to put up a demo launch on Friday while Midway is on-site, please let me know along with some details of your project. Other than crummy weather last year, things went well with Midway so this year we’ll aim for the same type of plan where Midway takes control of the A and B pads along with performing LCO duties. All ‘commercial’ fliers will utilize the C and D pads (we’ll have model rods through 1515 rail available) as ‘away’ cells. This will allow Midway to launch as fast as possible with us tagging in when we’re ready to launch. As with a normal launch, everyone fills out a flight card. Stay tuned for more details once we get FITS behind us. President Bob

Posted by bobble at 5:21 PM | Comments (0)