| |
June 2003 launch report (6/28/2003)
STS-107 Memorial Launch
In honor of Rick Husband, Commander (Col., USAF).
Hey, a nice day!
On Saturday June 28, a small group of MASA members and visitors
gathered at the VFW soccer fields near Elk River. It was darn
near perfect flying weather - partly cloudy skies, warm
temperatures, and only a light and variable breeze. There
wasn't a large turnout of people for this launch, but they still
chalked-up 115 flights. With a FAA notification filed for the
first time at this site, the soccer fields saw their first G motor
launches.
Big thanks and applause to:
- Mike Erpelding - for filling his truck with gear
- LCO / RSO volunteers: Glen Overby, Stuart Lenz, Mike
Erpelding, Lee Frisvold, Ellison Lenz, David Whitaker
A few people flew Super Rocs built at or since the June
meeting. Download the
results (pdf)
A few of the flights:
MASA members - please send in your thoughts about the
launch!
Stuart Lenz writes:
The launch day started gray and overcast and now it is raining.
In between, we had 10 pads and 5 hours of launching. Glen took the
first LCO/RSO shift, and Ellison flew the first rocket a new Estes
Swing Wing that only partially deployed.
I flew the second rocket the Estes Space Shuttle (of Doom) in
memory of the Columbia and Crew (Rick Husband, Commander). My
second rocket was the scratch built Goddard 1 (as seen at the MASA
LCO/RSO training meeting) with only the top engine, not as
dangerous as Ellision predicted. I tried two 1/4A Super-Roc's
designed to backglide, neither of which actually did. Ellison
tried to get several other of our gliders to work, pretty funny
unless you are the one who has to fix/rebuild them. I switched to
some of my regular fleet, the Luna 3, Luna 2, Baby Bertha, and
Patrol Crusier Excaliber. Then switched to some of the winter
build and not yet painted ships. Estes and Centuri clones,
including the USS Alantis, a Hyperion, and several others that I
can not remember the names of at this time. Both Ellison and I
took shifts of LCO/RSO and started packing up around 2:00. Every
one ran out of omph, rockets or engines at about this time and we
stayed to help pack up and sweep the field for engine casings.
Must have left by 2:50, home by 3:30. I remember Dave W
launched his repaired AT SUMO, I drag raced Mean Machines with Lee
F, Mike E drag raced Stars& Stripes (with himself), Ellison
launched one of our spool rockets on a D21-4 and help launch a
MonoCopter (twice) for memorable flights. A Little John (portapotty)
rocket attempted to fly twice for memorable loops and crashes (and
Massy nominations) and a Jupiter II (Original Lost in Space
series) attempted to take the launch pad with it (for another
Massy nomination). Several people flew Super-Roc (Stupid-Roc)
flight, I know that Dave W made it over the buildings and into the
parking lot (probably can't nominate Stupid_Roc's for Massy).
One new Junior Rocketeer arrived with his father and a new
Estes Rocket and made his first 6 flights on A and B engines, all
the engines they had with them. Oh yes, there was a spectacular
flight of a Radio Controlled Rocket Glider that circled for what
seemed like 10 minutes. Now on to the new field, Thanks Rick V.
The Details:
Full launch tally (in
Adobe Acrobat PDF form, requires version 4 or newer of the Acrobat
reader)
The totals were: 115 flights, 123 motors. The
cumulative total impulse was 1621 Ns with an average total impulse
of 13.2 Ns. The motor breakdown follows:
|
Type |
# Burned |
| MicroMaxx |
0 |
|
1/4A |
2 |
|
1/2A |
1 |
|
A |
11 |
|
B |
32 |
|
C |
33 |
|
D |
34 |
|
E |
5 |
|
F |
3 |
|
G |
2 |
|
H |
0 |
(Alan Estenson)
|
 |
