January 2003 launch report (1/25/2003)
Brrrr !
On Saturday, January 25th, a few dedicated fliers came out
to the field in White Bear Lake for MASA's first launch of the
year. 4 to 5 pads were set up in "misfire alley"
formation. Launching ended after 28 flights.
A few of the flights:
MASA members - please send in your thoughts about the
launch!
Rick Vatsaas writes:
I got to the launch a bit late, just as a few people were
leaving. I only brought five rockets to launch, so I didn't need
much time myself. Having a small group present was nice and
relaxing, the cold made things more difficult, though.
I lead off with my Big Daddy on A D12-3. Then Launched My
Cheeky Chip Cone Challenger on C11-3 (This is rocket made from a
British Style French fry container I received from an English
Rocketeer). The C^4 was surprisingly stable and shot up to about
500 feet. Next up was my new Edmonds EeeCee, which
unfortunately had the wrong delay motor, so the glide was a bit
disappointing. It was recovered intact though Next was the Vinyl
Pigskin of Porcine Retribution. For those that don't know this
rocket, it's a little "Vortex" football toy that
resembles a mortar round, and is equipped with a whistle. The
rocket recovers ballistic, whistling the whole way, till it
bounces about 20 feet back up when it hits the ground. This time I
rigged it for CHAD Staging, C6-0 to ½A3-4T. So it would go really
high, before screaming to earth. And if it failed to stage, no
matter, it's now a boosted dart. It did stage, and the little
crowd was treated to good show. I finished off the day with
a launch of my Big Berth on a C11-3; unfortunately, the Nylon
chute got badly toasted.
Thanks to Glenn Overby for letting me use his GSE and those who
pressed the button while I snapped pictures.
Stuart Lenz writes:
The morning started brisk with light winds and light snow
falling and the first rockets launched were of course Stomps -
Glen, Ellison and I, all on different types of engines.
Ellison's second flight was my AMRAAM 120, nice flight but no
recovery even though we saw it drift over the end of school and
land, several search attempts failed to locate the white and gray
rocket. My MicroMaxx Andromeda had a nice first flight but lost
one of the ion engines at ejection or landing, easily repaired. My
Mach 10 clone had a nice first flight and glide (see Ted, I can
get a glider to fly), I had painted it in silver with Russian
marking in keeping with the Mig 15/17 look of the rocket. My
RITSOS (Rocket in the style of Shrox) striped two fins, one at
ejection and one on landing, thus proving I have not learned every
thing required in properly orienting balsa.
Jim Myers had a Crusader clone that experienced a spectacular
CATO. Completely destroying the rocket, I believe.
Ken Jarosch had several nice flights that I remember. He was
also flying the largest rockets of the day.
Rick Vatsaas arrived somewhat after the rest of us, but still
got in several nice flights. I particularly remember the Pig
Skin II, with staging and boink recovery of the foam football nose
cone.
Ellison had the last flight of the day, trying out a new
recovery method (Slinky) but the compressed plastic body tube that
should have expanded for 10" -> 36" failed to work in
the cold temperatures and shattered the plastic tube into 4
pieces. He plans to try again in warmer weather.
The Details:
Full launch tally (in
Adobe Acrobat PDF form, requires version 4 or newer of the Acrobat
reader)
The totals were: 28 flights, 30 motors. The
cumulative total impulse was 198 Ns with an average total impulse of
6.6 Ns. The motor breakdown follows:
|
Type |
# Burned |
| MicroMaxx |
3 |
|
1/4A |
0 |
|
1/2A |
2 |
|
A |
4 |
|
B |
7 |
|
C |
11 |
|
D |
3 |
|
E |
0 |
|
F |
0 |
|
G |
0 |
|
H |
0 |
(Alan Estenson)
|
