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Sunday, Oct. 3, 1999
Clarks Falls, CT
Welcome back to the Clarks Falls launch site, and welcome back to High Power! It feels good to be flying H's, I's, and J's again after the summer model rocket season at Durham. The corn was down, and the field was dry. The day started out mostly cloudy and a little breazy, but conditions improved into the afternoon. All the away pads had shiny new alligator clips (thanks guys)!
The theme of the launch was "Clusters!", and the contest was "Open Egg Loft Efficiency - Duration".
(photo#1)Victor Mirabito's LOC V2 blasts off on a J570W. This beast contained twin Adept altimeters, a recording accelerometer, a video camera,and was launched from a magnetic launch rod! The onboard video can be viewed from Arnold Roquerre's web site.
(photo#2) This is a still image captured from the onboard video. A view of the CATO launch site at Clarks Falls as viewed from 2000 feet. See the smoke trail from the V2?
(photo#3) John Hogan with his level 1 certification rocket, an LOC Minnie Magg painted to look like a dairy cow (how appropriate)! It's flying off a rail, donated to CATO by blacksky. The motor is an Aerotech H124-5FJ single use.
(photo#4)There goes the Minnie Magg! Love that fast blackjack smoke. The flight was completely sucessful, and John is now an NAR certified flyer of high power rockets. Congrats!
Russell Taragan learns the hard way that a D12-3 is not enough to lob a Graduator, in spite of what Aerotech says. In fact, the ejection charge was too weak to blow the nose.
(photo#5)Ribsy grins and says "Repeat after me: The LCO is not a target"!
(photo#6) Cody Calvert (left), Robert Lee (center), and Sandy Alonzo (right) with Sandy's 5" diameter upscale Mosquito.
(photo#7) The first flight of Sandy's big Mosquito, on an I211W.
(photo#8)...and again, later in the day, on another I211W.
(photo#9)This is Ricky Walmsley's NCR Archer on an F62-4 Darkstar.
(photo#10)Jay Calvert has just powered up the Transolve T2 timer and is preparing to close the hatch on "Shadow Technology". The P5 altimeter is already happily beeping from the upper avionics bay. This will be a double airstart, all White Lightning: J350W -> 2xG64W ->2xE18W.
(photo#11) Everything looks good as Shadow Tech clears the 1/2" launch rod powered by a J350W, but the rocket is doomed...
Both of the G64W motors that should have ignited at 2-3 seconds into the flight failed to fire (one igniter failed to burn, the other burned without firing the motor). Five seconds later, the rocket had arched over into a nearly horizontal attitude after reaching a peak altitude of 1150 feet. At that point, one of the E18W motors fired. The rocket began accelerating horizontally across the sky. The altimeter sensed that it was past apogee and deployed the 44" drogue chute. The resulting high-speed deployment was more than the 3/4" nylon strap shock cord could handle - it ripped. The upper half of Shadow Technology (including the altimeter) drifted safely down to the ground. The lower half of the rocket (about 12 pounds, including the timer and 5 reloadable motors) came in ballistic from over 1000 feet.
(photo#12) OUCH! Cody Calvert removes "chunks" of the T2 timer from the bottom of a 1-1/2 foot deep crater. The booster section of Shadow Tech missed a stone wall by about six inches. Amazingly, the fins and lower portions of the motor tubes were undamaged. Shadow Technology will fly again.
(photo#13) Robert Lee's flying "Shithouse" on an E15W.
(photo#14)This is the second flight of Robert Lee's "Ultimate", which can handle a cluster of up to seven 29mm motors. This flight used seven F50-9Ts. Wow! The first flight of this rocket was even more impressive: three G125Ts and four F50Ts. This is equivalent to a J575 (the flight was a joint effort with level 2 member Sandy Alonzo).
(photo#15) Larry Hardin's PML Black Brant X on an I300T. This bird also flew on an I357T.
(photo#16)Graydon Pihlaja's Sentinal, by Binder Design, flying on a J570-14W. The Transolve P3 altimeter provided dual recovery. Altitude was about 3500 feet.
(photo#17)An Estes Saturn V takes to the air on a D12-3. This one belongs to either Rob Schwartz or Jon Stevenson.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- CLUSTERS! In addition to Robert Lee's Ultimate and Jay Calvert's Shadow Technology, clusters were flown by Sandy Alonzo (two E30-7Ts in an LOC Starburst), John DeLuca (four D12-7s in an Estes Pro Series Patriot), John Hogan (ARC 1318 with an A8-3 and four strap-on A3-4T boosters), Chris Natale (four A3-4T in "B&E", and a C6-3, C6-5, and C6-7 in "Dr. Awkward" , which was an entry in the Egg Loft competition), Bill Piedra (see the details of his "T-3" below), Jon Stevenson (two D12-0 and one D12-3 in "Atlas X"), and Ricky Walmsley (two D12-5 in his AIM 54, and three D12-5 in his "No Name").
- Bill Piedra's T-3. This is the most complex black powder rocket I've ever seen. It has 3 stages. The first stage uses seven (7) D12-0 motors, the second stages uses three (3) D12-0, and the third stage uses three (3) D12-7! After several "less than optimal" flights at previous CATO launchs, the T-3 performed perfectly this time. It appeared that all motors fires on cue, the boost was straight, and the stagings were clean. Total impulse from the 13 D12 motors was 221 Newton-seconds. Well done Bill.
- Paul Welling's 12" Die was quite a sight. This is a 1 foot square cube with 4 dowel rod legs. When not being flown it doubles as a coffee table. It flew twice, once on an H123-6W, and once on an I211-6W.
- Gene Costanza and Lew Garrow flew a modified Estes Black Brant an a G125-15T. Whoa!
- Tom Abran flew a 25 year old Centuri Flying Saucer on a C6-0.
- Joe Roberts flew his "Ultimate 99" on its maiden flight with an H220T. This is a new and improved version of his "Ultimate", which crashed at a CATO launch this past spring. A beautiful flight with rear ejection (two chutes) to protect the large fins on the booster secton, and a third chute for the upper half of the bird.
- Keith Smith showed up with a Space Needle from Rogue Aerospace. This 10 foot tall super roc flew great on D12-5s (twice), and even held up to an E15-7W without crimping.
- Paul Schoen flew his LOC Warlock on an I284W and his Rocket R&D Jayhawk on a G80-4T. Nice spin on the Jayhawk.
- We had 51 registered flyers.
- We logged 184 flights.
- We burned 230 motors.
| Micro Maxx | 0 |
| 1/4A | 0 |
| 1/2A | 4 |
| A | 19 |
| B | 26 |
| C | 31 |
| D | 65 |
| E | 13 |
| F | 25 |
| G | 25 |
| H | 10 |
| I | 9 |
| J | 3 |
| K | 0 |
| Total | 230 |
| Sandy Alonzo | 1662 NS | 2xI211W, 3xG125T, 4xF50T, 2xE30T, D12 |
| Robert Lee | 1302 NS | I161W, H242T, G80T, 7xF50T, E15W |
| Jay/ Cody Calvert | 1229 NS | J350W, H238T, 2xG64W, 2xE18W, D12, 2xC6 |
| Victor Mirabito | 1043 NS | J570W |
| Graydon Pihlaja | 1043 NS | J570W |
| Lew Garrow | 930 NS | I211W, H123W, G125T, F40W, E15W |
| Paul/ Aaron/ Stephanie/ Nicole/ Rachel Welling | 837 NS | I211W, H123W, G35W, C6, 3xB6, 3xB4 |
| Larry Hardin | 800 NS | I300T, I357T |
| Paul Schoen | 716 NS | I284W, G80T |
| John DeLuca | 710 NS | H220T, H180W, G35W, F62DS, 4xD12 |
| EFFICIENCY SCORE | NAME | ENTRY | PRIZE |
| SENIOR DIVISION: | |||
| 7.714 | Jay Calvert | (1 egg) x (69.43 sec.)
9.0 Newton-seconds C6-3 in "The Yoke's on You!" |
1st place senior:
$35.00 Certificate for Fire in the Hole igniters from Trailing Edge Technologies |
| 4.335 | Jay Calvert | (1 egg) x (73.70 sec.)
17.0 Newton-seconds D12-5 in "Egg Tube" |
- |
| 3.278 | Paul Welling | (1 egg) x (16.34 sec.)
5.0 Newton-seconds B4-2 in Custom Elite |
2nd place senior:
ASRAAM kit from The Launch Pad (TLP) |
| 1.806 | Paul Welling | (1 egg) x (9.03 sec.)
5.0 Newton-seconds B4-2 in Custom Elite |
- |
| 0.992 | Jay Calvert | (6 eggs) x (29.51 sec.)
178.4 Newton-seconds H238-6T in stretched NCR Archer (8 eggs launched, 6 survived) |
- |
| 0.899 | Les Kurz | (1 egg) x (44.94 sec.)
50.0 Newton-seconds F24-7W in LOC Aura |
3rd place senior:
$5 Gift certificate from Aerospace Specialty Products (ASP) |
| JUNIOR DIVISION: | |||
| 7.432 | Jock Fullmer | (2 eggs) x (63.17 sec.)
17.0 Newton-seconds D12-5 in "Eggstravaganza" |
1st place junior:
Folgore kit from The Launch Pad (TLP) |
| 5.481 | Aaron Welling | (1 egg) x (43.33 sec.)
9.0 Newton-seconds C6-3 in Custom Elite |
2nd place junior:
Custom Matra kit donated by A2Z Hobbies |
| 5.136 | Aaron Welling | (1 egg) x (25.68 sec.)
5.0 Newton-seconds B4-2 in Custom Elite |
- |
| 4.181 | Jeremiah Portman-Owens (Hogan) | (2 eggs) x (35.54 sec.)
17.0 Newton-seconds D12-5 in "Egglofter" |
3rd place junior:
$5 Gift certificate from Aerospace Specialty Products (ASP) |
| 3.118 | Jock Fullmer | (1 egg) x (53.00 sec.)
17.0 Newton-seconds D12-5 in "Eggstravaganza"
|
- |
| 2.834 | Stephanie Welling | (1 egg) x (14.17 sec.)
5.0 Newton-seconds B6-2 in Custom Elite |
- |
| 2.222 | Cody Calvert | (1 egg) x (20.00 sec.)
9.0 Newton-seconds C6-3 in Estes Omloid |
- |
| 1.886
|
Claire Schwartz | (1 egg) x (16.97 sec.)
9.0 Newton-seconds C6-5 in Quest Courier |
- |
Chris Natale had some very good times in the Senior division, but he was plagued by broken egg DQs. He would have had an efficiency score of 5.540 from his "Egg on my face" (94.18 seconds with a single egg on a D12-3), and an efficiency score of 4.874 from his "Dr. Awkward" (131.60 seconds with a single egg on a cluster of three C6 engines).
Aaron Welling had one of his flights DQ'ed after the launch. He would have had an efficiency score of 1.440 with his stretched LOC Onyx, which sucessfully flew 3 eggs for 50.40 seconds on a G35-4W Econojet. Only one problem...Federal law says you must be 18 years old to legally purchase or possess a "G" motor, so you need an adult co-flyer. I don't think we can allow "G" motors in junior division contest flights. Sorry for the confusion Aaron - my fault - and congrats on your second place entry!
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