Launch report for Feb. 16^th/17^th 2002 at Bong Recreation Area, from Mike Henke.

 

The sixteenth started out windy and snowy. It did not get much better. The snow stopped but the winds stayed up, keeping most rockets down. I launched my PML Mini BBX on a G80-4T in a sort of drag race with Brent’s Mini BBX on a G64-W. They both went up and down about the same, landing within 40 yards or so of each other. That was the only flight I risked in the wind for the day. The Tiny PT drag race was attempted, but there were ignition (or lack of ignition) problems with Brent’s. Scott’s blue crayon flew nicely on an H238T. Fred lost a casing out the back of one of his rockets while in the air (the rocket, not Fred) which Brent walked right out into the knee high weeds and picked up. Mark flew a tiny little saucer on a tiny little motor, which was almost as stubborn to light as Brent’s Tiny PT.

 

The seventeenth started out beautiful and stayed that way. Winds were low, the ski was bright and by midday it was almost warm out. I arrived at about 9:30am and set up my launch controller and launchers. Thought it was funny that on Saturday in the snow and wind I was fifth to the range at 9:30am, and on the nice day I’m second to the range at about the same time. This would be the first real test of my launch controller’s ability to launch all day. In the past it has been used for only a dozen or so flights at a time while hooked up to a car battery. It now uses my lawnmower battery. It seemed to work fine except for only having one plug for ignition wires to the pads. Also the “system armed” light cannot be seen from the pads, which is not good. I have a new light that can be seen from anywhere, and a second outlet with selector switch that will be installed before the next use. It was originally built for personal use, so it was not quite up to snuff for public use. My rail launcher also needs some modifications to make it friendlier to users unfamiliar with it. Both need instructions printed on them and will have for the next launch. The ¼” rod launcher worked OK for something I threw together in under two hours without a tape measure.

 

The day got off on an ominous note when a very nice looking LOC Stovi (I think) made like a pinwheel and burned. That turned out to be the only real destruction of the day. My first flight of the day was the Mini BBX on a H97-J med. I think it took longer to clean the Blackjack gunk out of that long skinny 29/240 case than it took to build the rocket. This rocket has flown seven times without fail.

 

I put an F20-7W Econojet into my boys (Jeff) new Arreaux, for it’s first flight. He built it himself and did a fine job for an eight year old. Unfortunately we have had terrible luck getting his rockets to fly. I would gladly crash and burn any of my rockets if it meant he would have more success. Anyway I figured use an Econojet and we can’t go wrong. The motor chucked the nozzle at ignition. The rocket made it just to the top of the rod, stopped and ripped the launch lugs off. I glued the lugs back on for him and later tried it again, and chucked the nozzle again. Being a glutton for punishment I tried my daughters (Jensen) Barbie rocket (LOC Lil’ Nuke) on an F20-7W EJ and low and behold it worked fine for a good flight. Tried to put Jeff’s Onyx up on a F12-J, 5 and chucked the rear closure. Then to add insult to injury it popped the nosecone off while sitting on the rod. Murphy rears his ugly head almost every time Jeff has a rocket on the pad. He is overdue for one long streak of good fortune.

 

My wife’s (Janet) Minnie Mag suffered another separation, this time breaking the bottom of the nose cone. The nosecone looked kind of cool tumbling out of the sky. Other than that it was undamaged. It flew on an I-161W-med. I think the delay was actually too short, even though the altitude predictors said ten seconds was plenty long.  Janet is taking the three ounces of added nose weight out. Her theory is too heavy a nosecone, mine is not enough delay. I flew it with the weighted nosecone successfully in Van Orin on an H-242T-med.

 

My highest power flight of the day was the stretched Miranda on an I-211W medium delay. The up part was real nice, with much smoke and fire. The down part was nice also. I think the apogee part was not so good. The rocket came back with a fin missing, which I think was caused by the top half of the rocket slamming into the bottom half. There is a huge nasty scuff on the top half that is about the size of the tip cords of the fin. Eagle eye Brent saw the fin falling out of the sky while retrieving one of his rockets. Janet went to look for it but had no luck.

 

The nicest flight I had was a PML Quasar on a H-123W-med. It wasn’t the straightest flight that rocket had ever flown but I liked it. It seemed to be a good motor for the Quasar. This rocket has never failed me and I have retrieved it undamaged every time it has flown.

 

Had two misfires trying to fly my reincarnated Barracuda on an F40-7W. Then I put in a real igniter and it went for a nice flight. I wanted to use this reload in Jeff’s rocket, but when I put it together I heard a crack tightening down the aft closure. Not wanting to destroy his rocket, I put it in mine. The reload kit I was unsure of worked fine, the single use motors I was sure of, blew apart. Go figure. Almost forgot, flew a Quest Big Rage on a D21-7T. It had some get up and go. (And a separation)

 

We had some good flights, some not so good flights, and some not flights at all. But we did have fun, and the weather could not have been better in February. We totaled four nominal flights, two separations, one aft closure failure, two failed Econojets, and one broken fin on the day. That made for a total of 1405 N-Sec that made it to the air and 173 N-Sec that spit out on the ground.

 

There were so many flights made by others on Sunday, I can’t begin to describe the half of them. There were all shapes and sizes of rockets hitting the air and it seemed like there was always a rocket ready to go on the pads. Surprisingly I think no rockets were lost, although one stuck high in a tree. It was retrieved with a climb, a pole, and a brave owner. A blue Asp (I think) made it to the other side of the road, but was found after a time. What little wind there was, blew in different directions at different altitudes so most rockets landed relatively near the pads. Even one that was quite high, and had the main open at apogee, landed near the launch area. All in all it was a good launch with a nice turnout of flyers. Thanks to all who let my kids press the fire button, they had a blast.

 

I took a few pictures and some even turned out decent. But the developer stained the negatives so some have wash marks. The pictures are squeezed down to be modem friendly, so if you see one of your rockets pictured and would like a good picture, let me know and I can burn a nice scan onto a CD or have a reprint made.