Spokane Area Rocket Club

Joe Cooney Launch report

June 09, 2009

Wheatchex 2009, The weekend started out with great weather, Midway Elementary showed up around 1000 and things got started shortly afterwards. While the kids were gathering around I got things started with "Brightside of the Road", and Estes Fly it before you can buy it, Pre-Clone. Flew nicely on an E9-6 and I managed to get 10 flights in the first day. I ended our time with the Midway kids by flying "Antwerp's Placebo" a scratch built plunger rocket on another E9. I ended the day flying my E9 modified Baby Bertha named "A to E Flat Jam". All in all a great day with weather being much gooder than last year. Saturday was Windy, Windy and Windy all day, pretty much left me flying not much at all. A third of my flights were on 13mm birds and I even managed to put one of those over the fence. Seven of my flights were small wire spools either 13mm or 24mm. I managed to completly kill the 24mm one by installing a streamer for the flight. A few flights later it was in pieces. I will definately rebuild these motor wasters as they can be some kinda fun. My big flight of the day was an Aerotech Sumo named, "Orange Tango Jam" I flew it on a G71-4. The delay was more like a two but it recovered safe enough. Dinner Saturday night was a great Potluck, filled with all kinds of food and fellowship. With night drawing near I put my Mean Machine Clone, "The Pride of Cucamonga" up on a pair of flights D12 & C11. The C-11 was a little low and under powered but it recovered nicely. Sunday was Windy but flyable, many flyers putting up a variety rockets on many different motors. There were 8 high powered flights and 15 additional mid power flights as well as a good mix of Models flying all day. I got 11 more flights in on Sunday while spending a few hours walking around looking for lost rockets. I flew the "The Pride of Cucamonga" twice once on an F39 and again on an E28. Both excellent flights with chutes at the top. My big flight of Sunday was my Estes Fatboy Clone, "Heaven Help the Fool" on a G71-10. Luckily I was watching as it was fired out of sequence since the leads were a little jumbled on the mid pads. Good boost and nice recovery just south of the field. Near the end of the flying day the Launch controller started acting up and that pretty much grounded the flying around 1500hrs for the weekend. Things were wrapped up and flight cards counted, over 100 flyers, flew 265 flights on some 300 motors. Looking forward to seeing everybody on Halloween for our last launch of the season. Joe

Posted by bobble at 05:50 AM | Comments (0)

Wheatchex concluded

June 07, 2009

A very interesting 3 days of Wheatchex has concluded. Stack of flight cards was impressive at the least. I'm sure there are several lost rockets but the MOST important one is mine ;-) Missing one 24mm blue/yellow/orange + long streamer rocket. If you were there, please feel free to send in a launch report. presibobdent

Posted by bobble at 05:48 PM | Comments (0)

WHEATCHEX starts today

June 05, 2009

All systems GO for WHEATCHEX this weekend featuring Midway Elementary on Friday. Battery charging sequence is complete. Porta potty is on site. Fresh wheat is about a foot tall so bring beepers if you've got em. Overnight camping is welcome. Be prepared for some potentially stormy weather. Tear down on Sunday whenever those in attendance have had enough. During the time Midway is on-site (approx 80 students + faculty + parents between 1000 and 1500), we will be running the range with the objective of ensuring all students get their rockets in the air. Specific range policies are listed below. Hopefully, the range will be set up and ready to go by 0930. While Midway is on-site, they will provide LCO service and control both A and B pads with the goal of loading and launching as fast and safe as practical. During this timeframe, the D pads will be available to the general public with all sizes of launch rod/rail/tower available for the smallest rockets up through low high power birds. We'll attempt to utilize just the D pads as that will provide additional safety distance allowing folks to prep rockets on the D pads simultaneously with Midway launching from A and B pads. We’ll have a dedicated safety observer associated with the D pads so folks can focus on their projects yet still be kept aware of any potential issues. Should there be enough fliers to warrant the C pads, they can also be incorporated. As with a normal launch, everyone must fill out a flight card and post it in the queue for the LCO who will launch all rockets in the queue (A – D) during the next available launch sequence. After Midway departs, the range will remain open and revert to ‘normal’ flight operation till 1900 or so). Marty Weiser and myself will be your launch directors. president bob

Posted by bobble at 05:14 AM | Comments (0)