July 24, 2004 launch report (7/30/2004)
Picnic!
On Saturday, July 24th, many MASA members gathered at the
Elk River VFW for the annual MASA picnic and rocket launch. It
was a beautiful day with warm temperatures, blue skies and a light
breeze out of the west. Launching went from 11am to about 5pm
with the picnic following. This was MASA's biggest launch so
far this year with 155 flights.
Special note - Jim Myers flew both of the traveling Tour
de Deuce Deuce's Wild rockets as Minnesota's representative on
their adventure.
Big thanks to:
- Mike Erpelding for hauling all the gear to and from the launch
- All LCO volunteers - Stuart Lenz, Lee Frisvold, Ed Eastman,
Alan Estenson, Mark Thell, Lee Grimm, Lee Frisvold
A few of the flights:
MASA members - please send in your thoughts about the
launch!
Ted Cochran writes:
Seth and I were busy trying to test upscaled sling wings in
preparation for NARAM. I flew mine for 67 seconds, which I thought
wasn't too bad for a deliberately under-trimmed glider. That might
have been a record in C division before yesterday, but someone
else (who gets to tell his own story) soundly trounced that time
in his own record setting flight earlier in the day.
Then Seth flew his for 1 minute, 55 seconds, for a new MASA
Open record, timed by me and Lee. It actually flew two figure-8s
around the field before hitting the wall of a Biffy.
It remains to be seen whether the larger gliders will be better
overall than the smaller ones. The larger ones fly better, but
don't boost as high. They weigh as little as 11 grams, but the
boosting rocket adds more, and the drag is something awful. I
think I'm going to try reducing fin size and see if that helps.
I also flew the RingHawk for the first time on a B4-2 for a
very pretty flight. Now it's packed up to go to NARAM, where I
hope to fly it without destroying it, like I did to Tim's in 2000.
Stuart Lenz writes:
Ellison and I arrived at 1100 for the first shift LCO/RSO, Mike
E, Lee F, Ken and Paul J were already present. Most of the shared
equipment was already set up and Mike was getting ready to leave
for another launch site. Launches started a little after 1100 and
continued till around 400, weather was perfect except for an
unexpected dust devil that knocked over my pad and rocket and
stirred up most of Ken and Pauls equipment. I launch mostly Estes/Centuri
clones that I have build in the last 2 years and mostly on C
engines.
I also showed some Micro Classic models that I have for sale or
will be kitting soon if there is any interest. Many interesting
flights by many people, my Mach 10 and my Boca were my only less
that successful flights (but I get mission points for the Boca).
We had used up all of the C engines by 230 and Ellison packed up
all the rockets and equipment even though I was not quite done. We
continued to watch launches and had dinner just before 500 and
left at 510 to go to another engagement (speaking part in summer
play for Rosetown Playhouse - "Of Thee I Sing"). Hope
everyone had a wonderful time.
Mark Thell writes:
My bride, puppy and I arrived around noon, things were set up
and away we went. I flew a bunch of stuff, My Aerobee Hi went up
on a B6-4 for a good flight, My Cherokee D also went on a C11-7
Gee I like those motors, Let's see... I'm doing this from memory,
My "Renegade kitbash"went up twice on D12-5's ( didn't
get the @#$^%&% chute on the first one so I had to show him
who's boss) Anyhoo it flew well on the up part. Damian came out to
fly, Good to see him again. He hasn't forgot how to do it,he had
quite a few good flights, Kosrox Mars Lander, stuck the landing,
His Mercury Redstone went well also. I knew he was coming out so I
just HAD to bring out the Estes 2stage Saturn 1B.
Loaded her up with a D12-0 in the 1st stage and a A8-3 in the
second stage, Yeah, I know "more power" but I am a wuss,
I knew she would go really high on the 1st stage and I wanted to
see if my nomex paper chute protector would work on the booster.
Yep, it worked, the chute was fine , it separated from the elastic
line and drifted downrange while the booster came down hard again.
I WILL fix this . I figure a piece of Kevlar line will take care
of the separation aspect. I will bring it out again at a later
date. My last launch of the day was my Pathfinder on a D12 5,
Naturally the payload section ended up on the VFW roof. Had to
wait and see if I could get a big stick to get it down. Stuart was
walking by with his canopy parts and he graciously put a few
pieces together so I could get it down, Thanks Stuart.
I put all my stuff away and we proceeded with the eats and door
prizes. Good food , good prizes, a lot of fun again. BIG thanks
goes to Mike E and the rest of the gang who did a great job yet
again with the picnic. It's always fun to get together with
everybody.
Ken Jarosch writes:
Paul and I just finished our 3rd launch for July. It sure feels
good to get in some flying time.
We arrived at the field at 1040 to see the numbered sections
set up. We set up two pads near the center of the range. By
1100 we were ready to launch. Paul started to load several rockets
while I sat and watched. I mostly brought the Junkyard
Series and Contest Rockets.
I started with the Apollo 13th. Command Module on a A10-3t.
After a slow lift off it finally displayed the 4" chute for
no damage this time. Next I flew the Borg (tube) Cube for
another great flight on a C5-3. I only have 3 C5-3's left. This
was followed by the Alien Space Probe on a C6-3. I like watching
that back profile as it angles over before ejection.
Next batch of Junkyard rockets are the standard "D"
models. First the green Katysha Slim on a D12-5. Next the
multi-colored High Flying Jester on a D12-5. Finally the Solar
Warrior (2x upscale of a mini rocket) on a D12-5. Each rocket went
progressively higher and drifted further until the Solar Warrior
had its chute land on the far Town Homes next to the Highway. I
was lucky that the lines or chute didn't catch in the shingles.
Paul wanted me to fly one of our new standard rockets, the
4.77x upscale Minnesota Mosquito. I let Paul fly the
original mosquito (12 years old) on a A3-4t while I flew the MN.
Mosquito on a C11-3. (Fat Boy based). I love that C11-3 for a 1/2
D test on new rockets or windy days. Yes we even found the little
Mosquito after a very short search. I almost stepped on it on the
first few steps in the likely area.
Finally I finished the day with my Small Profile (tube) Pyramid
for it's 2nd flight with great results. As a matter of fact the
2nd flight mirrored the 1st flight.
But the fun wasn't over. Just after Jim Meyers launched one of
his Deuces Wild rockets we were hit by a blast of straight line
winds followed by a strong Dust Devil which lifted boxes of our
rockets, box covers and my hat. It even took a package of my
igniters. It made a mess of some flyers layouts. I was told that
the motors Jim used are a secret but could not have caused the
vortex. Ya right , another government story.
In all a great launch day.
Two rockets left in our Junkyard Series to be launched are the
90" Junk Machine and the Luna 2. Also the the future
"F" and "G" Medium and Large Profile (tube)
Pyramids.
The Details:
Full launch tally (in
Adobe Acrobat PDF form, requires version 4 or newer of the Acrobat
reader)
The totals were: 155 flights, 175 motors. The
cumulative total impulse was 1984 Ns with an average total impulse
of 11.3 Ns. The motor breakdown follows:
|
Type |
# Burned |
| MicroMaxx |
0 |
|
1/4A |
0 |
|
1/2A |
2 |
|
A |
22 |
|
B |
25 |
|
C |
78 |
|
D |
40 |
|
E |
4 |
|
F |
4 |
|
G |
0 |
|
H |
0 |
(Alan Estenson)
|
