Spokane Area Rocket Club

Rob Emanuele launch report

June 9, 2015

Sorry for the delayed launch report. We had another beautiful albeit hot day for flying. I'm not sure I was out of my car one minute before Joe Cooney and Jim Jobson had something flying. . We had many spectators, especially in anticipation of the launch by the EWU student team. Motor breakdown: 1/2 A 2 A 4 B 8 C 26 D 10 E 11 (4 in a cluster) F 3 G 2 H 4 I 3 J 3 L 1 Thank you all for taking part in another fun launch, helping each other to make the day go smoothly, and for helping clean up!

Posted by bobble at 3:30 PM | Comments (0)

David Powers launch report

I agree with Alan a great two days; prefect weather, fun watching the Midway students, and fun helping future launchers. Midway Was a minimilist launch day for me, my Pike (I 357 T) sat on the launch rail all day waiting for the igniter to light which after 4 tried looked like it was not going to happen. But, Alan came to the rescuer and took the Mid-Power battery and wired it in series to the High-Power battery and away the Pike went. Thank you to Alan. It was a good flight except the 14 second delay lasted only 4.4 seconds (perhaps related to the motor baking in the sun all day - wondering if the EZ pre-installed delay is glued in with Epoxy that softens in heat) and only made 1500’. Fortunately the chute stayed on and did not zipper the tube. Though the Pike did manage to hang up in a tree to the West. Thanks to Joe for the help in getting the Pike out of the tree…and in one piece. SPARC Perfect weather and the drift was bringing everything (nearly) back to the launch area. I had just three launches, myself built John Long which launched on three E9-6s and one E12-6 (a mistake, intended it to be an E9-6), but the flight didn’t seem to be effected by the slight increase in thrust from the E12 (my guess is the long body helps, one of the prior launches only 3 motors lit but the flight was straight). Then my Pike was launched on the first try, again on a I357T, the 14 second delay was 9.9 seconds. The Pike made it to 1967’ The altimeter showed the discharge was .1 seconds early, but it looked to me like it was late. The only other launch I did was my SiFi One on an E9-6 (I actually set it up for one of the Lang brothers, but they were busy talking Joe out of rockets, so I launched it). A good flight and short recovery. The rest of the day was helping the Lang brothers select, prep and launch … they recovered all of them. The Lang launches were on D12s, E9s, A3s. One of them talked me into launching the CC Express with the booster … at the end of the day … despite Bob’s insinuation I did not launch it and it was not launched to get out of helping with the take down. Surprise of surprises I got both part back. The main stage landed in the middle of the trees to the West, thanks to Bob and Alan’s good line on it I found it right away. Despite my history of parking in trees, the CC Express threaded the neeedle between the trees and was on a small area of open ground. Now that is the way to end a great launch day.

Posted by bobble at 3:27 PM | Comments (0)

Alan Roberts launch report

What a great two days of Rocketry we had this past Friday and Saturday. Friday of course was Midway Elementary School's opportunity to run the low power pads and what a job they did. The pads were ready and so were the kids with some excellent flights and even better attitudes (call it attitudes and altitude). I was quite impressed with their building skills and with their energy level. There were a few demonstration high power flights with lots of "ohhhs and awwwwws" from the kids. Saturday got off to an early start since the pads were already set up from the previous day. Given that it was going to a hot one the early start was very much welcomed. I started the day with a Binder Design Dragonfly on a H97 Black Jack. This rocket is basically a nose cone with elliptical fins. My build included some carefully calculated nose weight to get the proper CG/CF relationship. I must have done it right because I was rewarded with a perfectly straight boost with absolutely zero spin. Deployment was late but no damage. The next flight will have some changes to the delay grain to get a closer to apogee deployment. My second flight with my Excel Plus on a J350 White Lightening with dual deployment. This is a rebuild of the rocket that I got my Level 2 on. The second flight of that rocket (named "Just a Level 2") crashed when the altimeter shutoff after drogue deployment. The post mortem indicated that the fin can and av bay collided after drogue deployment shutting off the altimeter because of the "push pin" type of arming switch used. Accordingly my rebuilt rocket (aptly named "Just a Level 2 ver 2.0") has a roatary arming switch. The launch was straight and true with apogee drogue and the main at 700' as planned. Altitude was 3,300' v RockSim estimate of 3,700' so I'm either getting better at my simulations, better at my builds, or just plain lucky. My final flight was my MR-1 on a G80 Blue Thunder. I fly this one off a rod and got a fair amount of rod whip which sent the rocket on a trajectory over the trees to the SW. I had help from friendly spectators in tracking down the rocket and it was recovered intact without hanging up in the trees to conclude a "three for three" day for me. With all of that the highlight for me was watching Marty's EWU students launch their L powered rocket out of a 24 foot tower. What a show and what a flight. The blast hole created by the motor ignition alone was worth seeing. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they have a good showing at their competition in two very short weeks. Thank you everyone for making it a great weekend. I'd list all your names but then run the risk of forgetting someone. Please know that your work is appreciated! That is all, Alan

Posted by bobble at 3:13 PM | Comments (0)

June launch concluded

June 6, 2015

What a great day for Rockets! Weather was HOT but awesome. Great turnout. Congratulations to Eastern Washington University on their USLI test flight. Next launch is set for October 31'st. Joe Cooney will be Launch Director for a Halloween themed event. president bob

Posted by bobble at 4:16 PM | Comments (0)