March 2002 launch report (3/23/2002)
Not a bad day for March, either!
On Saturday, March 23, a pretty large group turned out for a
morning launch on the snow at Sunrise Park Middle School in White
Bear Lake. At first 4 pads were set up, but that turned into 6
and then 7. This was almost certainly the biggest winter
launch day that MASA has ever had! The field was
snow-covered; it was packed down hard (made for easy walking
but hard landings.) Flights started around 9 am and ended at
11:30.
On a historical note, this was the first time ever that
MASA's March launch was NOT canceled due to bad weather.
A big thanks to:
- Alan Estenson & Ted Cochran for gear hauling
- RSO/LCO volunteers: Alan Estenson, Ted Cochran, Mark
Thell, Ellison Lenz
- Everyone who helped set up and pack away the equipment
A few of the flights:
The new Estes C11 motors made their first appearance at a MASA
launch. Dave Fergus put a nice first flight on his Shadow
Composites Sprint ABM using a C11-3. Alan Estenson flew the
"Red Shirt" on a C11-7; it lost its streamer but
survived. [Red Shirt - Venturing into the frigid sky above a
frozen wasteland on an untried propulsion system, no one knew
whether this rocket would be seen alive again...] Alan flew
his Estes Fat Boy on a C11-3 with good results. He also tried
a 2-stage flight on an Estes Long Shot from C11-0 to B6-4, but it
failed to stage.
Neal Higgins had a successful cluster flight of his Ranger on 3
B6-6's. Ellison Lenz lit all 3 A8-3's in his "Green
Thing", but the nose cone stayed firmly in place and the rocket
"snow darted." Dave Fergus had two successful
flights of the "X-File", his rmr Descon X entry.
Jeff Hove had two successful 2-stage flights. Leland Cheng
flew his Estes Mercury Redstone twice on C motors, and his Estes
Maxi Honest John once on an Aerotech E15. It was a nice flight
although the rocket got a little dinged-up from landing on the
frozen ground. Ted Cochran had a good flight of his Estes
Jayhawk, also on an E15.
Courtesy of Kent Peterson and Leland Cheng, several Quarks &
Mosquitoes took flight. The flight of Dave Lynch's Estes
Transwing glider ended with a cry of "Curse you, Red
Baron!" when it became entangled. Sara Downham flew her
S2 rocket 3 times on A8-3's. John Stenberg had two good
flights of his "FireBall" on D12-3's. Derek Lynch
flew his Estes Sizzler 3 times. Collin Dudra flew his Estes
Goliath 3 times, too. Mike Erpelding had an excellent flight
of his Estes SR-71 on a C6-5.
On the 2nd-to-last flight of the morning, Glen Overby showed us
an impressive example of rocket instability. Those E9's are
heavy, folks!
The Details:
Full launch tally (in
Adobe Acrobat PDF form, requires version 4 or newer of the Acrobat
reader)
The totals were: 92 flights, 98 motors. The
cumulative total impulse was 737 Ns with an average total impulse of
7.5 Ns. The motor breakdown follows:
|
Type |
# Burned |
| MicroMaxx |
0 |
|
1/4A |
2 |
|
1/2A |
4 |
|
A |
23 |
|
B |
27 |
|
C |
30 |
|
D |
9 |
|
E |
3 |
|
F |
0 |
|
G |
0 |
|
H |
0 |
(Alan Estenson)
|
