2021-10-30T13:42:18Z tag:,2021:/2 Movable Type Copyright (c) 2021, bobble 2021-10-30T13:42:18Z 2021-10-30T13:41:32Z tag:,2021:/2.300 2021-10-30T13:41:32Z

What a great day for the last launch of the year at SPARC. Weather was perfect for pushing the upper limits of field and the show was most spectacular, although I did not hear what the exact high temp...

bobble absworld@cet.com Launch Reports What a great day for the last launch of the year at SPARC. Weather was perfect for pushing the upper limits of field and the show was most spectacular, although I did not hear what the exact high temp for the day was, it was plenty warm enough. Got to the launch site at around 0830 and started setting up my rockets. Prepped my first dual deploy flight, a modified LOC Starburst to fly on 29mm motors. Marty was nice enough to perform Launch Control duties early and he started the day off on the D pads, so I got first flight of the day around 10 or so. From there on it was go time. I cannot remember a time when the D pads got so much use at one of our launches. There were twenty flights from our "D" pads today!! Thanks to all who were nice enough to sit in for Launch control duties (Marty, Mark & Rob, sorry if I miss someone), with the "B" pads down, the "A" pads were being worked overtime. It was great to see a large crowd enjoying the day of flying, which lasted well after 4. As a whole we came up just short of 100 flights (but I think I am missing a few), but it was a very busy day anyway. There were 97 Flights Total We Used 109 Motors: (C & E were the motor of choice with 21, D was one shy with 20) First Flight: Myself Most Flights: Myself with 17 (My legs felt good enough to walk today, although when I got home I realized I may have over done it) First Flight: Ireland A, Quest T minus 5 Rocket, she came out to watch her uncle fly some big rockets (later in the day, she was still carrying that rocket with her) Junior Level 1: Although I know for a fact we had a Successful Jr Level 1 Flight, the flight card is missing or not marked as such. Largest Motor: Rob Emanuele Cesaroni K454 (Very Nice Flight Rob, I'm glad the weather cooperated) Last Flight of the Year: Doug Powers, Thanks for closing out our flying season. There were many entertaining flights today, unfortunately some of them were mine. I think I had fouled chute, one land shark, and one auger in. The highlight of my day was flying Jack O'Cooney. I spent the last two months rebuilding him from last years crash (which can be viewed on youtube). He was upgraded with electronics and they performed well as he head blew off spilling candy and the chute deployed bringing him slowly and safely down for a perfect landing just behind the low power pads standing tall. A small gust of wind finally spilled him over, a special thanks to the genius of Marty, who built Jack two years ago. Great flight and he will back next year ready to go again October 27, 2012 just before the end of the world. So our flying season comes to an end and I will be ready to go come spring, with several new rockets recently added to my collection and some old flyers as well. I have another dual deployment rocket almost finished, a 4" Baby Bertha and a 3" Deuce is Wild. So thanks to all of you who made this last launch possible and looking forward to seeing everybody next year. Joe 2021-10-30T13:37:40Z 2021-10-30T13:35:35Z tag:,2021:/2.299 2021-10-30T13:35:35Z

Woke to freezing fog, soon followed by sunshine and blue skies. A few dicey spots on the road if the sun hadn’t hit it yet. Other than cool temps, conditions were ideal. A great crowd showed up for SPARCS annual...

bobble absworld@cet.com Launch Reports Woke to freezing fog, soon followed by sunshine and blue skies. A few dicey spots on the road if the sun hadn’t hit it yet. Other than cool temps, conditions were ideal. A great crowd showed up for SPARCS annual Halloween themed late October launch. Joe Cooney was Launch director and brought his ‘brother’ Jack-O-Cooney along for flight #3 (this time with a recently transplanted A/V bay). Jack had a great flight, dumping his brains of candy at apogee and ‘sticking’ the landing albeit headless at that time. Dang B pads were dead all day but once we figured that out (it was a Halloween theme), the only problem was full racks on the A pads. We’ll have to fix that………later. Members of the Colville TARC team showed up. Looks like they are poised to make a run for TARC 2012. Someone masquerading as Marty Weiser (another Halloween theme ?) showed up prepped and ready, flew to over 6K’, recovered, and left….. I think it was Jeff Halstead ;-) Alan Roberts was showing off a really nice brush on paint job (something about signs and hairs from squirrels) that really did look great, but the rocket flew like @#$%^&! Thanks for the LD duty, along with Joe Cooney, Mark Howe, Marty Weiser, anyonelse?? Dave Glass flew what is my favorite rocket of his, the boosteDart. As with previous flights, this one was awesome though I’m confused why the booster ‘peeled off’ at separation. His unexpected “Dude, where’s my camera” flight ended with the camera still ‘someplace’. Ann (my wife) stopped by with our kids (3 dogs) and lunch, stayed for a few racks then headed back home (I love it when that happens). I managed to get 1 flight, a non minimum diameter 38X29mm rocket on an H-128 w/motor eject (at least I still used a tower). Good boost, good deployment, good recovery less than halfway to Wild Rose, ……burntoo many holes in the X-form chute……………...Chute. Our most wonderful landowner, Emerson Grafmiller stopped by and stayed for a couple hours, enjoying the activity. Mark Vanderlip got in a few flights along with continued search for his lawn dart from the June launch. I think David Wickman left his chair (now I’m stuck with it) and put up a big heavy purple rocket on a sparky push + a couple others. Rob Emanuele joined the “Oh Crap, that’s my main on top” club though recovered just fine. He also had a weird CTI CATO and a nice big K sparky push that took advantage of our waiver. It was good to see Mark and Bryce Hollenbeck, remnants from SPARC’s early days. In addition to LCO duty, Mark Howe also flew though he kept landing so close to the pads that I think someHOWE ;-), he was cheating. David and Doug Powers flew, crashed, and recovered all day. I think they lit the most motors. Doug took home the Dave Glass Donated 29m hardware set for 25 bucks. The sun was just setting as I cruised that wonderful 15 minutes home. Thanks to everyone who was going to remind me to dump the fire extinguishers during tear down for winter storage. I guess my proposal of 6 folks spaced 10 paces and ‘firing’ made them lose interest. Guess I’ll be ‘shooting in the wind’ tomorrow as I prep the trailer for winter storage. President bob 2021-10-30T13:35:13Z 2011-10-30T04:28:15Z tag:,2011:/2.298 2011-10-30T04:28:15Z

Our last launch of the season has concluded with a fantastic day flying. Regular annual dues of $20 are reduced to $15 if you sign up before 12/31/11. Membeship forms can be downloaded from the 'Club Forms' section of the...

bobble absworld@cet.com Our last launch of the season has concluded with a fantastic day flying. Regular annual dues of $20 are reduced to $15 if you sign up before 12/31/11. Membeship forms can be downloaded from the 'Club Forms' section of the web site. President Bob 2011-10-06T14:57:26Z 2011-10-06T14:55:35Z tag:,2011:/2.297 2011-10-06T14:55:35Z

Finally I can say we have a launch coming up THIS month!! Saturday October 29'th, Halloween theme, Joe Cooney is doing Launch Director duty and his 'buddy' Jack-O-Cooney is slated to fly once again with a head full of candy,...

bobble absworld@cet.com Finally I can say we have a launch coming up THIS month!! Saturday October 29'th, Halloween theme, Joe Cooney is doing Launch Director duty and his 'buddy' Jack-O-Cooney is slated to fly once again with a head full of candy, and upgraded to include electronics for more reliable deployment. Daily updates will be posted here beginning 1 week before launch. president bob 2011-06-16T14:58:01Z 2011-06-15T14:54:38Z tag:,2011:/2.296 2011-06-15T14:54:38Z

The following is my launch report for the Midway Elementary School Launch on Friday 6/10 and the SPARC launch on Saturday 6/11. Friday 6/10 It was such fun to see the kids and their rockets for the Midway Elementary School...

bobble absworld@cet.com The following is my launch report for the Midway Elementary School Launch on Friday 6/10 and the SPARC launch on Saturday 6/11. Friday 6/10 It was such fun to see the kids and their rockets for the Midway Elementary School launch. Boundless energy and excitement is the best way to describe things. For those of you that have not attended this event before, you really should put it on your “to do list” and tap into some of that youthful energy. I managed to get in 3 flights all off the rails. My first flight was a LOC –ISIS flying on a F40-9T. I was rushing to get the white and black checkered paint job done after work this past week to poor effect. The white base coat was fine but the masking job was less than perfect and then the black came out of the rattle can like syrup so the result was rocket that I named “Bad Paint Job”. Of course any paint job looks good from a distance so it looked just fine to me on the pad. The flight was uneventful with a good straight boost on a green flame and deployment at apogee. Recovery was easy but the paint job looked just as bad as it did before the flight. My second flight of the day was my red and white Binder Design Excel flying on an H180W with a medium delay. This is the same bird and motor that I did my level 1 on last year and is named “Just a Level 1”. The flight was a clone of my level 1 flight with about 2,300’, apogee deployment, and recovery close to the pads (did I say how much I like no wind when flying high power). My third flight was my LOC Hi-Tech flying on a G78-7G. I have flown this one previously on G and H motors. Its yellow paint job (with primer grey fin can) lends it the name “Screaming Yellow Zonkers”. The flight was straight and true again however the deployment was a bit shorter of apogee than I would like to see. I brought my BBQ out in my utility trailer so folks could cook dogs and burgers with a few lessons learned: • Burgers and dogs are popular so perhaps we need a BBQ at future launches • Too many people in the back of my utility trailer overbalances it with things (including the BBQ) moving quite quickly • Joe Cooney is faster on his feet than he looks (see above) • Tomatoes prepped for hamburgers that hit the ground clean-up just fine (also see above) Saturday 6/11 As previous reports have mentioned the skies were not cooperative at the start of the day but we had good intel being relayed from Ann Yanecek who was watching the radar loop at home and keeping us focused on the nice weather behind the storm cell that had us questioning our sanity at the start of the day. It turned out that the radar loop was correct and the day turned beautiful with very light winds and all around favorable rocket conditions. My first flight of the day was the second flight of the aforementioned LOC ISIS named “Bad Paint Job”. This time I bumped the motor up to a G40-10. Once again the poor paint job did not hurt the performance as the flight was straight and high. The delay was probably about a second too long and while the rocket was recovered fine, there was slight damage to the fin can coupler where the recovery harness quick link hit it with some enthusiasm. It’s an easy fix (certainly easier to fix than the bad paint job) and given the rocket’s willingness to flight straight and true I may just put a small H in it for the October launch. My second flight was my LOC Hi-Tech, “Screaming Yellow Zonkers” on an H128W with a medium 10 second delay. This rocket really likes an H and so this flight was straight, high and true and, thanks to light winds, a “breeze” to recover. For my third flight I brought out my Comanche 3 with a D12-0, C6-0, C6-7. This is the third time that I have flown it with the full stack and I was hoping to keep my string of recovering all parts alive. The rocket roared off the pad and out of site. Fortunately for me I had good eyes on the ground with Ann Yanecek. recovering the main booster from the wheat, Bob Yanecek. recovering the second booster from close to the pad and Mark Vanderlip keeping his binos glued to the main rocket. For the longest time he was the only one with an eye on the main rocket until finally it got low enough for us to hear and see the gold mylar streamer with rocket firmly attached. Thanks to all for keeping the recovery streak alive on my Comanche 3! Saturday was great fun with a wide range of rockets from everyone. It seemed like we had quite a few more high power boosts than in recent past launches. Perhaps it’s my imagination and if so don’t tell me because either way I sure enjoyed the roar and power of those big motors. It was great to see some new folks at the launch and of course all of the old classics . . . . . I'm referring to the rockets of course. Great job to Bob and Dave for co-launch director duties. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Alan 2011-06-14T13:44:01Z 2011-06-14T13:42:34Z tag:,2011:/2.295 2011-06-14T13:42:34Z

Looks like Bob beat me to the punch and hit most of the highlights, so I'll just add a few personal notes....

bobble absworld@cet.com Looks like Bob beat me to the punch and hit most of the highlights, so I'll just add a few personal notes. I managed to put up six flights (thanks in part to leftovers from last launch's windy shut-down). One of my favorite rockets, Dude, Where's My Nose Cone? went up on an I161 (thanks for finding me some, Bob). As I said after the flight, "I love seeing wierd stuff in the air". Yet Another Goddard launched for the second time on a D12-3; great up part (see previous comment) but an energetic eject charge tore off a strut that the recovery system was anchored to, and the Goddard is now (ahem) history. Something Fishy flew with a video camera on on I 218R; nice video, if perhaps a bit "spinny" (not bad if you slow it down). The motor breakdown is as follows: A 6, B 5, C 22, D 16, E 7, F 2, G 4, H 3, I 9, J 2. Both J's were flown by Rob Emanuele, including the last flight of the day, a picture-perfect dual-deploy with his Yellow Boy on a J330. David Powers got in teh most flights with 10. Beautiful day, great launch (69 flights), thanks to all! 2011-06-14T13:40:59Z 2011-06-14T13:36:52Z tag:,2011:/2.294 2011-06-14T13:36:52Z

Forecast called for 50% chance of heavy rain. Web site was down so I could not post a last minute status report. I woke to bright sunshine on the hill behind the house so headed out. The launch site remained...

bobble absworld@cet.com Forecast called for 50% chance of heavy rain. Web site was down so I could not post a last minute status report. I woke to bright sunshine on the hill behind the house so headed out. The launch site remained partially set-up from yesterday’s Midway event and, based on the dark clouds heading towards us, we weren’t in any rush to complete setting up the range. Before 1000, a cold drizzle started and everyone became best friends with anyone who had a tarp up. The cold drizzle lasted for less than an hour then the nasty looking cloud moved north and our weather improved dramatically resulting in a very warm afternoon of rockets. It was nice to see several fresh faces especially since the ‘old’ core group of SPARC seem to be drifting towards other priorities. Once flying got started, we continued at a steady pace until after 1700 when finally folks seemed to have enough and began packing up to head home. Rob Emanuele returned for a second day of dual deploy practice and he made it look easy with at least two very nice flights. His main deployment charge doubles as an audible locating beacon with a pronounced BOOM. While I contemplated advising a smaller charge, other than being loud, his deployment was very nice with no damage to the rocket or chute and no sign that the recovery harness hit the end of its leash before fully deploying so I kept my mouth shut. Rob also flew a Skidmark shortly after the drizzle stopped. With no worries about fire we pressed forward and it wasn’t until Dave Glass headed out to load up his rocket on the following rack that we heard the call …..”FIRE”. Dave was busy dancing around the pad and by the time help arrived, all was good except for some slight blistering on the leads to the pad. Even Dave was clueless that the low stubble was burning until the slight crackling sound caught his attention. No smoke, no visible flame, just a small blaze that found enough dry stubble to support itself. I managed to finish prepping my 29mm rocket that I had started on Friday with a 23” chute and a G40-7. I knew the 7 second delay would be short so took extra time Z-folding my Kevlar harness with multiple wraps of tape to help ease the shock when the chute deployed. Boost was good, the eject charge sounded like a SALUTE then, even with multiple binoculars searching, nothing. I immediately knew what the rest of my day would be like………….walking a dreaded GPS grid search. Limiting my search to south of Wild Rose, I zigged, zagged, and looped making sure I never retraced any of my steps. My wife Ann, our 3 dogs, and Alan Roberts searched off and on all day with only other folks lost rockets to show for our efforts. Alan got in several flights but my favorite was his perfect Comanche 3 flight. Straight up, all 3 stages recovered. We did manage to locate 5 missing Midway rockets from Friday. Kudos to Mark Vanderlip and his son for recovering 4 of them. Lou Bragg was on hand and got in a couple flights. Lou is always a big help pulling LCO duty, helping clean-up, recovery line locater, and general mentor to those around him. David Wichmann and his girlfriend drove up from Pullman to check out our site. He put up a few nice model flights and left promising to return and aim for L1. Peter Van Doren and family put up multiple flights. As they were departing, Ann was walking in from searching for my rocket with an unidentified lost rocket in her hand. The Van Doren car stopped as multiple arms extended from the windows with voices of glee that their rocket was in Ann’s hands. Ken Brown put up a nice Dual Deploy flight that also flew successfully at FITS a couple weeks ago. He draped his main chute over the fence making for trivial recovery…..cheater ;-) Dave Glass stayed busy both flying and taking on co-launch director duties. Given I was the other half of LD, and distracted searching for my missing rocket, Dave got the brunt of the work load……thanks DAVE!! His “Dude where’s my nosecone” rocket was, as always, a big hit. Very odd looking on the pad, yet boosted straight as an arrow for a blunt tipped rocket. Deborah Schopp was once again clicking pix like she had unlimited memory (I think that’s pretty close to being the truth). I look forward to reviewing what can only be a huge set of pictures. Bryon Schopp flew regularly throughout the day and more than one person was envious of his on-board screamer that announced where the rocket was no matter where it happened to be. While everyone else was diligently searching, Bryon could have walked his rocket down with his eyes closed (not recommended). Mark Vanderlip returned after his successful L1 cert on Friday and put the same rocket up 3 more times. Flights 1 and 2 were textbook with none of the ‘kick’ off the rail that we observed on Friday. Flight #3 boosted well then arced over and the “oh-no” period of dread began and continued through ballistic impact. Two different folks agreed on the line so Mark headed out only to return empty handed a while later saying “I think I need a GPS”. We got a line and began heading out. Before long we crossed the fence into waist deep thick grass. Another couple hundred feet and we were in a thick young stand of trees with multiple leg breaking downed logs buried in the underbrush. We crissed and crossed our way through the tangled thicket knowing that we were searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Other than a fresh Coyote den and a nice deer skull, I once again felt the frustration of a failed search effort. Sometime after 1700 my legs began complaining along with the back of my sun drenched neck so I headed back towards camp. Marks wife, Cindy handed me a perfectly chilled bottle of Gatoraide that did wonders to my parched system. As we packed up the range, Mark headed back out for more searching. As of this morning, he had not succeeded but was planning to once again, head out for more searching. Maybe he’ll find my rocket  That’s it for us until late October when Joe Cooney will be doing Launch Director duties for a Halloween themed launch. President Bob 2011-06-12T10:37:09Z 2011-06-12T02:39:57Z tag:,2011:/2.292 2011-06-12T02:39:57Z

From cold drizzle to hot and sunny we got started a little late but once the skies cleared, we launched till after 5 P.M. Next launch is scheduled for Saturday October 29'th. President Bob...

bobble absworld@cet.com From cold drizzle to hot and sunny we got started a little late but once the skies cleared, we launched till after 5 P.M. Next launch is scheduled for Saturday October 29'th. President Bob 2011-06-12T01:28:39Z 2011-06-12T00:52:57Z tag:,2011:/2.293 2011-06-12T00:52:57Z

Currently watching a small weather system that will pass over us by 10am, but hoping for good conditions as the day progresses. President Bob...

bobble absworld@cet.com Currently watching a small weather system that will pass over us by 10am, but hoping for good conditions as the day progresses. President Bob 2011-06-12T00:45:45Z 2011-06-12T00:45:14Z tag:,2011:/2.291 2011-06-12T00:45:14Z

See you all there !...

terry terry@mooreread.com Announcements See you all there ! 2011-06-11T13:34:14Z 2011-06-10T13:25:33Z tag:,2011:/2.290 2011-06-10T13:25:33Z

As seems to be typical for 2011, the forecast is marginal for our launch scheduled for tomorrow Saturday June 11'th. A lot will depend on what conditions are in the morning so check back her for last minute details. I'll...

bobble absworld@cet.com As seems to be typical for 2011, the forecast is marginal for our launch scheduled for tomorrow Saturday June 11'th. A lot will depend on what conditions are in the morning so check back her for last minute details. I'll post a final GO-NOGO decision by 0800. Battery charging sequence is complete. Dave Glass and I will be your launch directors. I drove by the launch site and it’s in great shape. Fresh wheat is knee high. That means both difficult recovery (if you have a beeper, use it) and, the potential for a very wet recovery walk so be prepared to either protect your legs or bring a dry change of leggings, socks, & shoes. The fallow areas are showing fresh green but it’s still low enough that recovery should not be an issue in those areas. Battery charging sequence has begun. Stay tuned for daily updates. President bob 2011-05-17T00:59:40Z 2011-05-15T22:58:22Z tag:,2011:/2.289 2011-05-15T22:58:22Z

I suppose one could debate whether today’s weather was better or worse than Mothers Day when we cancelled but we did launch all day under mostly sunny skies with significant breezes and a few rain drops....

bobble absworld@cet.com I suppose one could debate whether today’s weather was better or worse than Mothers Day when we cancelled but we did launch all day under mostly sunny skies with significant breezes and a few rain drops. It was good to see a fresh launch director face in Alan Roberts who split LD duty with Marty Weiser, thanks to both of you! I got multiple reminders of stuff you should never forget: Sunscreen, lip balm, and a hat (I’ll pay for those dearly tonight when I hop in a hot shower). Binoculars and GPS, I swear there was a lecture at NARCON that specifically addressed these crucial items. Even with the breezy conditions, Rob Emanuele showed up ready for an L1 certification attempt. Flight was near picture perfect with good recovery so Rob followed up with a second flight. While multiple eyes got a good line on touchdown, the initial recovery effort was unsuccessful. Joe Cooney too, had a good line on a rocket that just couldn’t be found. Marty had a red H-210 something or other that he attempted to light multiple times in his ‘mamma racoon’. It sat and hissed-n-chuffed a couple times. He finally burned enough of the propellant that he wasn’t comfortable in continuing with that effort. Dave Powers succeeded in locating but not recovering a rocket in a tree (I remember that from NARCON too ;-). As the winds finally increased to the point launching was futile, we shut down the range. Several of us couldn’t resist knowing there were rockets out there with good visual lines so we split into two teams and headed out. Marty went above and beyond LD duty when he located and retrieved Rob Emanuele’s rocket from a bog just a few hundred feet further out than the initial search. Lesson learned, trust your line and keep walking. Joe Cooney’s rocket was discovered 1 degree off ‘the line’. This was most probably due to the line being defined where the rocket disappeared over a rise and well before touchdown. We walked past the rocket 3 or 4 times, crossed a creek over and back 2 times, went out over ¾ of a mile, then finally found the rocket less than a half mile out. Lesson learned, don’t walk past the dang thing when walking your trusted line. Thanks to everyone who helped pack up the range while some of us were out searching. Next launch has expanded to a 2-day event. Friday June 10’th will be in support of Midway Elementary 5’th graders who will control the range from 10’ish to 2’ish. During and after that, SPARC’s regular waiver will be active for anyone interested in participating. Range will be set up with just model pads then 1 or 2 ‘away’ cells that we’ll use throughout the day. Saturday June 11’th will be SPARC’s scheduled June launch. 5,000’ ceiling without prior approval (downrange direction is weather dependent for high(er) flights). Overnight camping is permitted. President bob 2011-05-17T00:57:51Z 2011-05-15T20:56:11Z tag:,2011:/2.288 2011-05-15T20:56:11Z

We had 79 total flights using 83 motors. This included one chad staged flight and 3 clusters....

bobble absworld@cet.com We had 79 total flights using 83 motors. This included one chad staged flight and 3 clusters. The motor distribution was. 1/2A 1 A 12 B 16 C 19 D 19 E 10 F 1 G 2 H 1 I 2 (both by our new L1 flyer) David Powers had the most flights today with 11 followed by Mark Howe with 9. Wyatt Nelson had the first launch of the day which contributed to the Nelson Clan total of 16 followed closely by the Vanderlip clan with 14 launches. We had a couple of marginally stable rockets that ended up being unstable due to the wind. The wind kept the larger motors in the range box today. Marty 2011-05-15T09:17:00Z 2011-05-15T01:20:06Z tag:,2011:/2.287 2011-05-15T01:20:06Z

Today's May 14'th launch has concluded. Lots of sun, a good bit of wind, and even some rain drops but we launched all day. Next launch is Saturday June 11'th with a pre-launch on June 10'th in support of Midway...

bobble absworld@cet.com Today's May 14'th launch has concluded. Lots of sun, a good bit of wind, and even some rain drops but we launched all day. Next launch is Saturday June 11'th with a pre-launch on June 10'th in support of Midway Elementary 5'th graders. Dave Glass and myself will be performing Launch Director duties. President bob 2011-05-06T04:12:30Z 2011-05-05T20:15:46Z tag:,2011:/2.286 2011-05-05T20:15:46Z

Due to the poor weather forecast we are slipping the date for our May launch to Saturday May 14. Marty Weiser and Alan Roberts are doing co-launch director duty and have adjust their checklist processing to accomodate the new launch...

bobble absworld@cet.com Due to the poor weather forecast we are slipping the date for our May launch to Saturday May 14. Marty Weiser and Alan Roberts are doing co-launch director duty and have adjust their checklist processing to accomodate the new launch date. Stay tuned for udates as we get closer. President bob