February 2002 launch report (2/23/2002)
Not at all a bad day for February!
On Saturday, February 23, a good-sized group of MASA-ites
gathered at Sunrise Park Middle School in White Bear Lake for the
first official launch of 2001. It was a pretty decent day with
temps in the 40's, cloudy skies, and a breeze out of the
south. A number of new faces and new members came to fly
rockets alongside the "old" and faithful... Some
others just came to watch. Welcome! It was a successful
start to the year.
A big thanks to: Alan Estenson (gear hauling, LCO/RSO
duty), Rick Vatsaas (LCO/RSO duty) and Jeff Hove ("found
parts" rockets event)
One special event was the flying of people's "found
parts" rockets. (See the February
meeting for more info.) A number of interesting rockets
took to the skies, and nearly all of them were successful.
[More info to come.]
A few of the flights:
Club President Alan Estenson started off the year's flying with
his SD-1 streamer duration rocket on an A6-4. After Mike
Martens landed his Fat Boy on the school roof, Stuart Lenz kicked
things off in traditional MASA fashion by launching a STOMP rocket
on a C6-3. Later, Nick Nolen and Mike Martens drag-raced mini
R2D2's on A10 motors.
Joe Schneider flew a tiny streamer duration rocket on a 1/4A6 out
of a homemade tower launcher. Joe also had a nice flight of
his Explorer Aquarius on a D12-3, but his Tie Fighter suffered a
separation during its descent. Sara Downham had her first two
rocket flights - ever! She flew her rocket two times on
A8-3's. Mike Downham's no-name rocket had a late ejection -
just as it came ballistic into a tree - and then hung there while
one of the cardboard fins burned.
Rick Vatsaas' found-parts rocket, "Christmas in
February" was flown nicely twice on two-motor clusters - on
B4-4's and then on C6-5's. Neal Higgins tried a cluster of
three A8-3's in his Ranger but only persuaded two of them to
ignite. Ken Jarosch had several nice rocket flights including
a Super Big Bertha, Interceptor, Meteor, and Firehawk.
Alan Estenson performed his NARTREK
Bronze-level D motor flight by launching a Maniac on a D12-5.
Jeff Hove launched his Bic Arcas MicroMaxx rocket successfully, but
the cold kept the chute from unfolding. John Stenberg had two
good flights of his Estes Eliminator on D12-5's. Neal Higgins
burned the only composite motor of the day when he flew his VB
Blobbo on a D21-7.
The Details:
Full launch tally (in
Adobe Acrobat PDF form, requires version 4 or newer of the Acrobat
reader)
The totals were: 54 flights, 57 motors. The
cumulative total impulse was 466 Ns with an average total impulse of
8.2 Ns. The motor breakdown follows:
|
Type |
# Burned |
| MicroMaxx |
1 |
|
1/4A |
1 |
|
1/2A |
2 |
|
A |
9 |
|
B |
14 |
|
C |
18 |
|
D |
12 |
|
E |
0 |
|
F |
0 |
|
G |
0 |
|
H |
0 |
(Alan Estenson)
|
