April 2001 launch report (4/28/2001)
Blown Away!
It was warm. It was sunny. It was infernally windy!
On Saturday, April 28, a small group of MASA members and visitors
congregated at the soccer fields in Elk River. Having more
eagerness than good sense, they decided to fly a few rockets in
spite of the stiff wind. Starting around 10am, flying
progressed through about six racks before everyone had enough around
noon and decided to blow home.
Steve Robb brought his newly constructed launch controller for
its first test. Wait until you see it, it's an impressive
piece of engineering. (Plus, it's really shiny!) It
worked well save for a few bugs that'll need hunting down.
A big thanks to:
- Steve Robb, for hauling out all the gear, and for making the
new control system
- LCO and RSO volunteers: Steve Robb, Ted Cochran, and Art
Gibbens
A few of the flights:
The theme of the launch was "Oddrocs!", and quite
a few odd-looking rockets took to the sky. Philip Gibbens flew
a rocket made from a Milk Duds box on a C5-3. Philip also flew
his ("exploding") Estes Death Star for the first time on a
C5-3. Several UFO's were seen in the air: Seth Cochran
had a Quest UFO, Alan Estenson had an Estes Invader, and Steve Robb
had the "Lampshade of Death" (made from the recent plans
in Sport Rocketry magazine.) Alan Estenson and Dave Fergus
both flew Stomp Rockets (BOINK!) on B engines. Alan also flew
his "Pumpkin-roc" and the Monolith, both on C5-3's.
Tim Bush flew his "Beldar" (Return to Romulak) on a
cluster of two C6-5's for a nice flight.
Dave Fergus used the biggest motor of the day. He flew his
Cosmodrome Nike Smoke on a F23-4. Dave also flew his Boat tail
Fat Boy on a D12. Tim Bush tried two boost gliders despite the
wind. His Apogee Darkwing was a bit unstable, but his Estes
Screaming Eagle flew pretty well. Tim also flew a scale
Wasserfall on a D12-3. Ted Cochran's Estes Silver Comet took a
muddy core sample, but he scraped it clean and flew it again
(successfully). Jeff Hove burned a couple of Micro Maxx motors
in a Mosquito and his Bic Pen rocket.
The Details:
Full launch tally (in
Adobe Acrobat PDF form, requires version 4 or newer of the Acrobat
reader)
The totals were: 32 flights, 33 motors. The
cumulative total impulse was 345 Ns with an average total impulse of
10.4 Ns. The motor breakdown follows:
|
Type |
# Burned |
| MicroMaxx |
2 |
|
1/4A |
0 |
|
1/2A |
3 |
|
A |
2 |
|
B |
5 |
|
C |
11 |
|
D |
9 |
|
E |
0 |
|
F |
1 |
|
G |
0 |
|
H |
0 |
(Alan Estenson)
|
