wheatchex report Joe Cooney
June 11, 2008
Well the weekend has come and gone, three days filled with varying weather, but all things considered I think it was a total success. All in all 100 different fliers put up at least one rocket. That is nothing short of outstanding.Continue reading "wheatchex report Joe Cooney"
Posted by bobble at 02:48 PM | Comments (0)
Wheatchex report Bob Yanecek
June 09, 2008
Windy, rainy, nice. Friday, Saturday, Sunday. That was WHEATCHEX.Continue reading "Wheatchex report Bob Yanecek"
Posted by bobble at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)
Wheatchex report Mark Howe
he SPARC Wheat-Chex launch was expanded to 3-days this year to accommodate assisting the Midway Elementary School 5th graders in launching their classroom built models. It's a good thing we made it a 3-day affair because the weather on Friday (although very windy), sure did beat the rain we had for most of Saturday! I arrived in plenty of time to assist with range-setup , which was completed before the arrival of two busloads of anxious/excited kids.Continue reading "Wheatchex report Mark Howe"
Posted by bobble at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)
Wheatchex report Marty Weiser
We had a great turnout today with less than ideal conditions - rather breezy and some passing rain showers. The Midway Elementary 5th graders along with their teachers, parents, and other interested adults were present in force. I estimate that the 73 students got in close to 100 flights on their Alphas, stretch Alphas, and other rockets. After this well behaved crew cleaned up we held a raffle for about 10 kits that were donated by various SPARC and other rocketeers.Continue reading "Wheatchex report Marty Weiser"
Posted by bobble at 09:33 AM | Comments (0)
Wheatchex report Lou Bragg
Wheatchex 08 was a three day deal with Friday being primarily for Midway Elementary stundent launching. I wasn't able to make it but I heard that the kids had a great time and got to see some really neat demo flights.Continue reading "Wheatchex report Lou Bragg"
Posted by bobble at 09:29 AM | Comments (0)
M&MinM4M Launch report Joe Cooney
May 13, 2008
I was able to start my flying on Thursday, joining Bob along with Whitworth College. Never wanting to pass up a good day of flying even if the weather is less than perfect. Overcast & Windy would be a good description, I managed to get 6 flights in, thanks to Bob for lending me his 12v launch system. I launched everything from an E9 to G80 and a few in between.Continue reading "M&MinM4M Launch report Joe Cooney"
Posted by bobble at 07:22 AM | Comments (0)
M&MinM4M launch report Marty day 2
May 12, 2008
The traditional offering of doughnuts to the rocket gods managed to hold off the rain and allow recovering off all rockets with at most minimal damage. However, it could not stop the wind – 10 to 15 mph all day.Continue reading "M&MinM4M launch report Marty day 2"
Posted by bobble at 07:24 AM | Comments (0)
M&MinM4M launch report bob_day 2
Thanks to all who showed up for Mothers Day. We upped our 2008 membership by 2.Continue reading "M&MinM4M launch report bob_day 2"
Posted by bobble at 07:21 AM | Comments (0)
M&MinM4M launch report Mark day 1
Greetings all, I was the Launch Director for the first day of the 2-day Mothers' Day weekend SPARC launch. Here's my recap and flight statistics for day 1 of this 2 day event. I'm sure Marty (the LD for the second day) will post his report later...Continue reading "M&MinM4M launch report Mark day 1"
Posted by bobble at 07:15 AM | Comments (0)
M&MinM4M launch report bob_day 1
Turnout was light for day 1 SPARC’s “Marty and Mark in May for Mothers Day” launch.Continue reading "M&MinM4M launch report bob_day 1"
Posted by bobble at 07:11 AM | Comments (0)
Whitworth launch report
May 09, 2008
Whitworth College has a physics program that includes a course in rockets. The course is only offered once every two years and last time they picked fall which resulted in a November launch date. Conditions on that November day were slightly above miserable with breeze, clouds, and snow making up the weather. So, this time around, they picked spring with a May launch date. All I can say is it did not snow.Continue reading "Whitworth launch report"
Posted by bobble at 07:52 AM | Comments (0)
Joe Cooney April Launch report
April 14, 2008
Well I woke up at 0600 hrs and took the dogs for a walk. While watching the sunrise I thought this is going to be a great flying day, so I went home loaded the Durango and headed out.Continue reading "Joe Cooney April Launch report"
Posted by bobble at 08:03 PM | Comments (0)
Marty Weiser April Launch report
We had a great day at SPARC today - sunny to high clouds, temperatures in the 60s and perhaps low 70s, and the field slightly damp. As a result we had lots of people show up - I bet there were 40 - 50 cars at one point.Continue reading "Marty Weiser April Launch report"
Posted by bobble at 08:01 PM | Comments (0)
Mark Howe April Launch report
SPARC held its' first launch of the 2008 flying season on Sunday, 04/13. I arrived about 9:15...a little late due to the "fried chicken" not being ready at the local Albertsons's market when I got there, which caused a 15min delay in my travels. There were already half-a-dozen cars at the field and the club trailer when I arrived. After greeting old friends who had not been seen during the looong coooold winter months, we got the range set up and activated the waiver around 10AM.Continue reading "Mark Howe April Launch report"
Posted by bobble at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)
Jeff Halstead April launch report
Dear Fellow Rocketeers, If SPARC members are working their way up the alphabet ladder, they are still largely in "elementary school" as shown by the numbers recorded below: A - 12 B- 36 C- 34 D- 27 E - 22 F - 8 G - 3 H - 5 I - 1Continue reading "Jeff Halstead April launch report"
Posted by bobble at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)
President Bob April Launch report
Well wooHOOOOOO for the beginning of the 2008 SPARC season eh? Of the 16 members we now have, 13 made a showing sometime during the day ranging from member #2 (Dave Glass) and our newest member #74 (Peter Hof).Continue reading "President Bob April Launch report"
Posted by bobble at 07:50 PM | Comments (0)
Mark Howe Launch Report
October 08, 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.Continue reading "Mark Howe Launch Report"
Posted by bobble at 08:07 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.Continue reading "Lou Bragg Launch report"
Posted by bobble at 07:31 AM | Comments (0)
October Launch Report & Stats
October 07, 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 08:36 PM | Comments (0)
Gregory Ashworth LDRS launch report
July 28, 2007
Yes Hot does seem to be the proper description. I flew a Polecat Aerospace 7.5" Hawk Missle that is the first known field build 7.5" Hawk. Many thanks to Andy Woerner (owner of What's up Hobbies) for his help in construction and the use of his trailer for building. It was flown on a Cesseroni K1440-10 with motor ejection to approximately 4000 feet (no altimiter unboard so exact height is unknown). Pictures from the trip are online at http://innexdigital.com/pictures/rocketry.html . GregPosted by bobble at 04:17 PM | Comments (0)
Lou Bragg Launch report
June 15, 2007
Greetings all, WheatChex 07 blasted into the cloudy skies of Deer Park on June 9th and 10th. The trailer arrived about 9:30 AM and we were ready to go by 10:00.Continue reading "Lou Bragg Launch report"
Posted by bobble at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
Bob Yanecek Launch Report
June 12, 2007
It was no FITS but I'm trashed (again) after a nice 3 days of rockets. I returned home from the Midway Elementary event on Friday thinking I was packed and ready. So, of course I overscheduled my 'normal' chores and ended up 30 minutes late on Saturday morning for set-up duties. A nice contingent (they looked like a lynch mob to me) was patiently waiting for the trailer to arrive. By 1000 things were set up and Lou activated the waiver.Continue reading "Bob Yanecek Launch Report"
Posted by bobble at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)
Mark Howe launch report
I only made day-1 of the 2-day SPARC WheatChex launch, but it was definitely worth it! I arrived around 9:15 on Sat, The 4th car on-site (D.Glass, R.Jopson, and another vehicle had beat me). With no club trailer in site, I began to wonder if I had the right weekend! A few calls were made and we were assured that B.Yanecek was "on his way". He arrived about 10min later and set-up began in earnest. D.Glass was the first off the pads...he brought a nice array of scratch-built birds, as usual. He even found time to repair his Robert Goddard "Hoop Skirt" rocket (which I think is a 1/4 scale model of a 1929 vintage). It's always a treat to see Dave's creations fly...(and he makes a mean "ceaser salad" too)! For the third time in as many launches, I came with no rockets pre-prepped for the launch. I did bring a large "box-o-rockets" with me, however, and managed to put all of them up into the sky except for my small 13mm powered glider...which broke after the wind that was present for most of the day caught the glider on the pad and broke the nose. Seeing that as an omen, I waited until much later in the day to attempt additional glider launches.Continue reading "Mark Howe launch report"
Posted by bobble at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)
Mark Howe Launch Report
May 21, 2007
Weather could have been better...but it definitely could have been worse! The rain stayed away, but gusty winds were prevalent throughout the day, which grounded all of my bigger gliders. :-( Arrived on site at 9:05AM. The GSE was already being set-up. It does not bode well when the Launch Director shows up 5 minutes late, however the range was set up by 9:30AM primarily due to many helpful hands, and Ray Stoner called to activate the waiver for a high power start time of 10AM. I managed to be the first flight off of the pad, only because Joe Cooney was gracious enough to let me take a place in front of him on the "A" pads. The flight was my Edmunds Tinee...which turned out to be the only glider flight of the day and the smallest impulse at 1/2A. According to a count of the flight cards, a total of 16 fliers shot 45 rockets into the sky, using 53 engines. Motor impulses ranged from 1/2A to a J, with Lou Bragg blasting the largest engine, an AMW J480-BB in his Skeletor. The most flights were put up by Joe Cooney and his "team", which consisted of Gage Pomeroy and Connor & William Waldman. They made good use of our remote "self-launch" button and managed 18 flights. I came in second with 6 flights, and Bob Shaw from Colville was a close third with 5. Bob was the only person to attempt staged flights on this windy day, and tried both B6-0/A8-5 and C6-0/B6-4 combos. He also suffered the only CATO of the day, with the A8-5 totally destroying the upper stage of his first 2-stage flight. Joe Cooney went in the other direction and was the only person to fly clusters. He had a 3-Motor BigBertha/Ranger clone that took to the skies on B6-4's, and a couple of LOC kits that were flown on a 2-motor E9-8 and 4-motor E9-8 combos. Two certification flights took place, one for L1 and one for L2. I believe the L1 cert ended up in the power lines across Wild Rose Road. Not sure if either cert was successful. Three electronics based dual-deployments were attempted. Jeff Halstead flew an I211...the rocket wobbled a little shortly after leaving the pad, and the main chute got fouled in the drogue. It was recovered but sustained a good bit of damage. Lou Bragg used dual-deployment with the largest engine of the day, and had a successful flight...although it did take him a while to find/recover the bird. John Hearns bid for his dual-deployment flight on a H268 ended in disaster. Both the drogue and main charges fired, but not enough BP was used in the ejection canisters. The rocket came in ballistic (far away from the flight line), and is obviously a total loss. We all feel your pain, John! Bryon Schopp made his trek over from near the Mansfield area, and we had a father&son who drove over from Missoula. There were a fair number of spectators in attendance as well. Joe Cooney had the last flight of the day with his AeroTech Mustang (nicknamed Mustang Sally) on a G38-7FJ. Tear down was quick, again due to large number of "helping hands" available. A big thank you to everyone who assisted with the launch. Ray, Krys, Charla, Lou & Katie for spending the night, assisting with set-up/tear-down, RSO, LCO and waiver/registration/wrist strap duties. Bob Y for delivering/removing the trailer, and supplying some of us with an excellent lunch of Brats! Many more people to thank...but I can't remember all of the names. Looking forward to next months 2-day "WheatChex" launch. I'll be thinking about everyone going to FITS in Mansfield next weekend...I'll be in Bellingham over the holiday weekend... Thanks! Best regards, Mark W. HowePosted by bobble at 07:56 AM | Comments (0)
Lou Bragg Launch Report
April 18, 2007
Greetings all, SPARC held its second official launch of the season the weekend of the 14th and 15th. It had its ups and downs. Saturday the 14th could be summed up in one word: RAIN! All day and most of the night. The weather guessers were off by about 8 hours on their predictions so what should have cleared up by 11 or 12 o'clock was still around at the close of the waiver at 6 pm. However even with constant rain we still got off 37 flights. I have to thank Joe Cooney here for his will to launch in whatever. He put out his own pad and launch array and went at it. I believe he logged 17 flights himself. This convinced others and I believe we had 5 fliers that day. Joe Cooney, Mark Howe, Lou Bragg and Katie's nephews Justin and Gentry Schumacher. It was mainly a model day with only a few dips into mid power. Joe flew a myriad of birds including an upscale Deuces Wild, a scratch Mean Machine, Mini Velociraptor and an Aerotech Mustang. Mark had his usual collection of OOP kits that flew nicely. I flew my Lil Nuke on a G40 donated by Brett Simpkins. Thanks much Brett! Justin and Gentry each flew their rockets until they were so water logged and broken they wouldn't fly anymore. Oh well time to get new ones! That was about it for Saturday. I bailed around 6 pm and nearly wrecked my truck during a vicious downpour that had me hyroplaning until just outside of Wandemere. I woke up Sunday to partly cloudy skies with the sun just itching to get through. And boy DID IT EVER! About 10am we were looking up into nearly cloudless blue skies with very little wind. It was time to fly some big stuff. I wasted no time prepping Post Office Special to fly on an I211W. I was using Bob's tower launcher and I must say he has me almost converted! Absolutely straight ripping boost with deployment handled by the Perfectflite. A main at 500 feet set it down nicely just a few hunred feet into the wheat. Easy recovery and an altitude of 3311 feet. After that great flight I settled down and called a flier's meeting. After getting that out of the way it was back to launching. The racks were nearly full all day. Lots of low, mid and high power rockets of all sizes were launched. Some noteworthy ones were Brett Simpkins Nuclear Sledgehammer, Dave Glass' Goddard prototype, Hans Vogel's Fat Boy, Ray Stoner's Charm on yet another J350W, Bryon Schopps first dual deployment flight in his Excel Plus with an I161W Great job Bryon! Joe Cooney was at it once again with some more real neat birds. A 4E cluster rocket that just flew great every time. His upscale Deuce, an Onyx and many others. Kyle Lantzy and his family made the trip from Coeur Da lene, Idaho to attempt his Level 1 flight. Kyle had a PML Phobos that he called Senior Project and flew it on an H128W for a great cert flight! Gregory Ashworth had a heck of a neck snapping flight on his GLR Firestorm 54 loaded with an I 435T. He predicted around a 5400 foot flight and I am pretty sure he got all of that and maybe more. Brett Simpkins had another great flight this time with his Nuclear Stonebreaker on a CTI K445. At One, the igniter fired and immediately lit the motor and sent that big bird hurtling into the sky. I am pretty sure he hit 5000 to 6000 feet with that flight. I flew 3 more times that day. My Lil Nuke on an F40-10W, Post Office Special again this time on a more agressive I284W to 4432 feet that was also absoulutely straight out of Bob's tower and the last launch of the w eekend with a G64-10W in Some Spare Parts. All in all a great day to fly rockets. I must thank those who helped me pull this launch off. Bob, Marty, Ray and family, Bryon and Debbie and everyone who helped with RSO and LCO and set up and tear down of the range. Also big thank to Bill Munds of PSP for making the trek and selling us some much needed AP. Hope to see some of you in two weeks! Lou Bragg Launch DirectorPosted by bobble at 09:14 AM | Comments (0)
Launch Memories
I didn't launch anything but remember some stuff. Joe Cooney: Rain or shine he launched rockets ALL WEEKEND. To say it didn't rain Saturday would have to require minute by minute data. No way around it, Saturday was wet. Yet there was a stupendous sunset with good color on all horizons that evening. Ray Stoner provided shelter (and movies) in his new 31' motor home. Ann Yanecek won 1'st place in a "Healthy Nacho" contest with her "Ceviche Nachos" at a contest at "Downriver Grill". Leftovers were delivered about 30 minutes later and consumed in short order. We didn't even open up the trailer. I'm sure I think I remember 37 flights in a day that was nothing but rain while the waiver was open. Free G-40's had no problem finding airframes. I forget the name but some guy with his 2 kids flew all day. Talk about drowned rats, yet with a GRIN that made you wonder if it was really that miserable. Sunday was a whole different story. An 0300 bladder maintenance event revealed a starry sky. By 0700 the sun was shining and by 0900 the range was set up and ready. Once rockets started launching, I don't think they stopped until time for the waiver to close (1800). Can you imagine getting to the pad and then remembering you forgot the case for your installed motor, The frantic call of "Wait, don't light it" sure was a crowd pleaser. Bret Simpkins and Hans Vogel were up from Richland with some really nice looking rockets. Both are planning L3 certification attempts at LDRS-24. If you count "touching the line", all rockets stayed on-site. Just in case you ask who; Joe Cooney. While we're on the subject, Most flights=Joe C, Closest to pad=Joe C, most clusters=Joe C, First flight=Joe C, most misfires (I think)=Joe C, He'd a had last fight but our great Launch Director (Lou Bragg) was LCO and made sure he followed Joe into the wonderful Sunday sky. It was just after 1830 when I finally departed, guess who was behind me?....Joe Cooney. All in all, a great weekend. Bob YanecekPosted by bobble at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)
January Late launch report
February 06, 2007
Whoopsie, it's February and I never posted the January launch report. Better late than never but late is bad :-( .....sorry. Bob YanecekContinue reading "January Late launch report"
Posted by launchdirector at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
November 05 Launch Report
November 14, 2005
The week prior to launch was busy with checking the weather reports. The weather guys really kept us guessing during the lead up to the launch. The best weather report I saw indicated partly cloudy skies with a 30% chance of rain. The worst showed a 70% chance of rain all day. The call was finally made Friday evening to hold the launch, the weather report showed that we'd have rain by 1 or so...
Continue reading "November 05 Launch Report"
Posted by ray at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)
October 2005 launch report
October 30, 2005
I believe I volunteered to do the October launch report during the September meeting so here's a quick swing before I head back to Seattle. An addendum should follow in a day or four with techno-stats from flight cards. I encourage anyoneveryone to post their own observations/reports.
Continue reading "October 2005 launch report"
Posted by ray at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)
September 05 launch report
September 26, 2005
I thought I would get this out, even if it is very, very late. Computer crash and rebuild have delayed things somewhat.
I arrived on site to find the trailer, Bill Munds and Bryon Schopp and his wife, Debbie, on site already. I was late, so I was surprised to find so few people there. It was a harbinger of things to come.
Continue reading "September 05 launch report"
Posted by ray at 05:07 PM | Comments (0)
June 05 Launch report (Wheatchex)
June 29, 2005
Story of the weekend was the weather. Saturday was "unsettled", sunshine, downpours that had everybody running for cover and some thunder. It didn't stop us from flying though. We had a good crowd on hand when I arrived, but nobody seemed to want to set up the GSE. It took a bit before people started moving toward the setup, but once started many hands made short work of getting it set up. I called in the waiver and rockets started to fly, naturally, Mark Howe had the first flight of the day (both Saturday and Sunday). There were a number of people from the west side of the state that got us off to a nice start on the high power pads. The guys from PSP let us know we should get the SPARC team flying.
Continue reading "June 05 Launch report (Wheatchex)"
Posted by ray at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)
May 2005 Launch Report
May 14, 2005
We had a nice launch in mostly drizzly weather on Sat. 14 May. Sometimes it was actually rainy (never stormy), sometimes misty, and for a couple of hours in the early afternoon sunny. We had about 25 cars on site and flew 48 rockets on 51 motors. Both were fairly low for a one-day SPARC launch, but the average impulse was quite high at 150 N-s as a few big projects went up in the afternoon.
Continue reading "May 2005 Launch Report"
Posted by bonrocketsai at 08:56 PM | Comments (0)
April 2005 Launch Statistics
April 16, 2005
The number of flights at the April 2005 launch was fairly typical for a SPARC one day launch at 74. However, the total impulse and number of staged and clustered flights were on the low side. Please see the extended entry for details and a histrogram of the current launch compared to historical averages.
Continue reading "April 2005 Launch Statistics"
Posted by bonrocketsai at 08:33 PM | Comments (0)
April 2005 launch report
April 11, 2005
SPARC had a launch on this last Saturday. The weather predictions weren't promising, but it turned out to be a nice day to launch rockets.
Continue reading "April 2005 launch report"
Posted by ray at 06:02 PM | Comments (0)
March 05 launch report
March 14, 2005
Saturday was a great day for a rocket launch. It certainly didn't look like it at the beginning of the day though. Winds were higher than we like and it was pretty cold outside.
Continue reading "March 05 launch report"
Posted by ray at 07:45 PM | Comments (0)
November 2004 Launch Report
November 19, 2004
Submitted by Marty Weiser
SPARC held its latest ever official launch of the year on Sat. 13 November, 2004. The forecast was for good weather, even though it was low overcast in the morning – unfortunately, the weather folks blew this one and it was overcast almost all day.
About six of us were on site at 9 am and it was damp, slightly drizzly, and a low ceiling. So we stood around and talked with Matt Hobson, a former L3 flyer and owner of the new HobbyTown USA in north Spokane who had stopped by to meet with us. We bent his year about what high power rocketry stuff might sell in Spokane for about 40 minutes and got him to volunteer the store for SPARC meetings so it was time well spent.
Continue reading "November 2004 Launch Report"
Posted by kurlybitz at 05:04 PM | Comments (0)
September '04 Launch Report
September 26, 2004
We had a nice family oriented launch today in spite of the threatening weather. Of course on part of the family played in B/C land while the other played mostly with Js. A large band of rain passed over the site around 8 am, but we had not planned to start set up until 9:00 so it was fine. We decided to do a minimal set up to make it easier to tear down if it really started to rain and were ready to start at 10 am even though I showed up with the trailer closer to 9:30 and than 9.
Continue reading "September '04 Launch Report"
Posted by ray at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)
Mothers Day Launch 2002
May 30, 2002
Well hello to all NW Rocketeers out there. We had the best Mother's Day launch in SPARC's history with One hundred and Fourteen flights from a quarter A to a J 420 redline motor. We also had 3 Level 1 Certs., 1 Shred ,and 1 Cruise Missile (horizontal flight). Weather was great the sun was out with high thin clouds with no wind throughout the whole day. We hosted about 75 flyers and just had a great time. Moms, Grandmoms, Granddads, and Dads watched their children's Spirits Soar, letting their own spirits soar right a long with them!Continue reading "Mothers Day Launch 2002"
Posted by terry at 07:59 AM | Comments (0)
Wheatchex 2001 Launch Report
June 30, 2001
What an excellent time we had at WheatChex 2001!For those of you new to the SPARC launches, WheatChex was aptly named for the wheat field in which we launch. This years theme for the 2 day campout launch was 2001:Wheat Odyssey
Friday night started a few rolling in to camp for a desired early morning Saturday start. Winds were gusty and tents took awhile (and a few extra people) to set up. At 6 am I got up to a fairly nice morning and met two arrivals from Portland. Nothing like a welcoming committee for them that sported bed head and a glazed "I want coffee look"!
Continue reading "Wheatchex 2001 Launch Report"
Posted by terry at 07:56 AM | Comments (0)
