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July 21 2007 picnic launch report (7/24/2007)

On Saturday, July 21st, MASA held its sixth launch of the year. This launch was held at the VFW soccer fields near Elk River in concert with the annual MASA picnic.  It was a warm and sunny day with a stiff breeze out of the south.  This resulted in a few long walks for recovery.

Thanks to the LCO/RSO volunteers:  Buzz McDermott, Jeff Taylor, and Ted Cochran.

Several people brought their "Goony" rockets that they had kitbashed from Estes Baby Bertha's as part of a recent club activity.  Jim Myers brought his "Goonyceptor", and his daughter Heather brought her "Cloud Scribbler".  Ken Jarosch brought three Goonies - "Goony Ghost", "Goonybird One" and "Der Goony Max".  Dwayne Shmel brought his "Biohazard" and daughter Elizabeth brought her "Rock-It" goony.  All very cool!  Thanks to everybody who participated in the goony kit bash fun!

A few of the flights:

MASA members - please send in your thoughts about the launch! 

Art Gibbens writes:

Phil and I flew a total of 12 flights yesterday afternoon, 9 of which were on some MRC B4-4s to help Ted gather data for the NAR on old de-certified engines. Phil also burned our last C5-3 on his first flight of the day in his Sith Infiltrator. I flew two different BOINKs (mine and Hannah's) on the B4-4s with great flights. I then flew Hannah's Freedom and Phil flew his Venture, two Quest kits, on the B4-4s, again - real nice flights. I then flew a scratch built Blue 4FNC on a B4-4 and my stretched Rascal on a B4-4. The stretched Rascal is similar to a Big Bertha and the ejection was a little closer to the ground than I would have liked but the rocket was ok. Then Phil flew his LSX Sattelite Launcher on a C6-3, which he had to walk across the road to pick up. I burnt up one mini-engine, a 1/2A3-4T in my scratch built Bugsy, named so in honor of Marvin the Martian's encounter with Bugs Bunny. I then flew my Blue 4FNC again on another B4-4 for another good flight. Phil flew his last flight of the day with his Patriot missile on a B4-4 for a good flight. My last flight was the Blue 4FNC on another B4-4. I tried to launch this same set up two more times but I suspect the launcher I was using was losing its oomph and neither time did the motor light. A great day of launching.

Dwayne Shmel writes:

The Shmel Family had a blast at the picnic. Many thanks to everyone for the good food and conversaton. Some of the rockets we launched before dinner were the inaugural flights of our two "Goony" Baby Bertha bashes, and our midnight black Executioner.

Elizabeth's "Rock-It" faux stone finished Goony rocket took off straight as an arrow on a B6-4, and my "BioHazard" sickle fin mutation leaped off the pad on a 3 engine cluster of A8-3's. The three 18mm motor tubes just fit inside the BT-60 body tube. Both bashes were recovered safely with BioHazard suffering some minor paint charring from the heat of the 3 motors.

Our Executioner lifted off slowly on a D12-3 and deployed it's 20" mylar chute at apogee. It landed hard on the dry ground and suffered a minor compression crease just above the fin that made initial contact. A little touch up paint and no one will be the wiser.

I needed some exercise so we sent a Blue Ninja up on a D12-5 and I ended up walking about 1,000 to retrieve it.

Some other launches included a Bull Pup 12D on a B6-4, a stock Baby Bertha and SR-71 Blackbird both on a C6-3's, and a Fat Boy on a C11-3. All went up and were recovered safely. We sent our StormCaster up an C6-3 and broke fin on landing. The lack of rain makes for an unforgiving recovery area. I later glued the fin back together.

We flew our FlisKits A.C.M.E. Spitfire on a D12-5 - sure do like the "corkscrew" effect as goes up.

We sent up a Snitch UFO on a C6-0 for a rather low (but fun) flight.  One of the springs came off on landing and I later epoxied them all on. I sent the snitch up yesterday as a 2 stage (D12-0/C6-5) configuration and was very impressed.

We took home many door prizes - many thanks to all who donated. Now I have even more rockets to build.

Ken Jarosch writes:

Even though I was packed at 10:00am Sat. morning I didn't get there until 2:45pm. Last minute home issues. I got set up around 3:15 and flew rockets until 4:45pm.

Because of the wind I brought the oddroc box along. I started with the Flames Saucer (Delta type) on a D11-P and the Stars & Stripes (Original type) also on a D11-P. These make great wind testers.

Next I put up the NACAL Demo (junkyard) rocket on a B6-2 for the predicted flight by RockSim. The chute really fused together even with full wadding.

I flew the 3 GOONY rockets on A8-3 because of the wind. The "Goony Ghost" is the lighter and more strealined of the 3 made a nice flight and ejected at apogee. The "GoonyBird One" did not go as high and arced over somewhat. Needs a B6-4. The "Der Goony Max" with the greatest weight and drag made about half the height of the Ghost and came about half way down before ejection. Needs a B6-2 minimum. All Goonies flew well and came home undamaged.

I like using the C11-3's for my D models in small fields or windy days. I put one C11-3 in a original colored "Fat Boy". In the hot thin air the C11-3 got to a greater height than I expected and the model drifted between several vans. Next I launched the "Minnesota Mosquito" a 5X UPGRADE using a fat boy base. This I angled more into the field for a close touch down.

I usually win one of my own donations back at the prize time and this year was no exception. But Allan offered a C to E Pyramid kit that I had been eyeing before hand.

I had a great time and the burgers and dogs were great.

Jeff Taylor writes:

Thanks to all (specially Alan) who worked to make the picnic a huge success. This was my third MASA picnic, and I am already looking forward to my fourth.

Fat Boy Mania: Alyssa flew her Mounds View High School Fat Boy and her pink and purple pastel Fat Boy. McKenna flew her new neon purple Eeyore Fat Boy and my stars and stripes Fat Boy.

My only flight of the day was on the Mark II replica that I got from Semroc at NARCON on an A8-3. Flawless. Later I heard Art talking about the Mark II and how they used to use wooden dowels as launch
rods, ending the mystery on why it has a monster launch lug on it. I built mine with a standard size launch lug nested inside the big launch lug.

As always, the food, the weather, and the door prizes were outstanding.

Andy Heren writes:

I am sure I am not the only one who had a great time yesterday. It was definitely worth the 2 hour drive. I launched the Pop Fly twice, my Semroc Little Ivan once, my Big Bertha (one of my favorites), and my Sidewinder, which was also my first Cato (Kato?). Such a full day.

Thanks to Alan and all those who helped and for all the swell door prizes.

The Details:

Full launch tally (in Adobe Acrobat PDF form, requires version 6 or newer of the Acrobat reader)

The totals were:  66  flights, 69 motors.  The cumulative total impulse was 572 Ns with an average total impulse of  8.3 Ns.  The motor breakdown follows:

(Alan Estenson)