Mimmal wind... no rain... lots of rockets... a great day for a CATO launch! Today we had two windows to 6000 feet, and some good sized rockets were lofted. Two Level 1 certification flights were held, both were successful. Today we flew from the middle of the field, and overall very few rockets were lost. A significant amount of AP was burned today, over 9300 Newton Seconds.

John Poulin with his Project ADS, Rick Polzello's Mile with a Smile and John Atkinson with his Black Brant X.

Series showing Shadow Technology doing an arcing double airstart.
Photos by Jay Calvert

Anyone wishing to contribute images please e-mail them to Joe Roberts

LAUNCH HIGHLIGHTS and STATS:

Today's launch had 23 registered flyers and a total of 136 flights. The total impulse for the day was 9305 Newton Seconds. If averaged over all flights, the Newton Seconds per flight was about 68, equal to a mid F! .

Clusters: There were a number of cluster flights today. Rick Polzello's modified LOC IV flew on an F and two E motors and Rick also successfully flew his LOC Starburst. Conner Pallone's home built shuttle flew on 8 C motors (the rocket ship was just slightly unstable however!).

Classic Kits: Jay Calvert flew a clone of the Estes Gyroc (this rocket was unfortuinately lost). Steve DeStefano flew his Mean Machine. Paul Welling flew a modified version of the classic Estes Honest John (modifications inlcude improvements so that the rocket can handle large motors). Michael Landquist flew his Alpha III.

Multi-Stage Flights: Several multi stage flights today. Jay Calvert flew a Wac Corporal / Tiny Tim combo with gap staging (unfortunately the top stage failed to ignite). Chris Landquist flew his Sam-X. Brian Sullivan flew his Freedom several times with good success using C6-0 to C6-7 motors. It was a good day for staged flights with the wind so low!

Certifications: John Atkinson successfully certified Level 1 using his Black Brant X on an H124 motor. Also, Soo Kim certified Level 1 with his scratch built Nike Apache with an H70 motor. Congratulations to both!

Notable Flights: Several notable flights. Jay Calvert's Shadow Technology was to be the most powerful flight of any rocket at a CATO launch, unfortunately a number of the motors did not ignite. The flight turned out OK after seemingly headed for disaster at first. George Boulas had the worst crash of the day with his Exocet. This rocket did more or less what the real thing is designed to do! Conner Pallone had a Home Built Shuttle flying ("flipping" might be a better word!) on eight C6-3 motors... the rocket ship needs some addional stability! Jay Calvert did a candy drop from around 3000 feet using his I300 powered Great Pumpkin (actually it's a PML Ariel). There were also some interesting entries and flights in the helicopter duration contest... one of Jay Calvert's helicopter entires kept flying "upside down" and another of his entries shredded to destruction! Rick Polzello's Mile with a Smile was probably the highest flying rocket of the day, so high in fact that it will probably never be found. With something like an 8 second burn, this rocket was gone!

Motor CATOs: At leat one. An Aerotech D21T motor blew its casing, the AP core was found on the ground. No other obvious motor CATOs noted..

Contest:

OPEN HELICOPTER DURATION CONTEST

SENIOR DIVISION
DURATION (SEC)	NAME	ROCKET	MOTOR	PRIZE
107.63	Jay Calvert	Rotoroc 13 (Apogee)	C6-7W (Apogee 13mm)	1st Harpoon AGM-84A kit Donated by The Launch Pad
82.72	George Boulas	High Rotor (QCR)	B4-4	2nd 5 tube assortment Donated by Totally Tubular
42.93	Jay Calvert	Rotaroc 11 (Apogee)	A2-5 (Apogee 10.5mm)	-
40.68	Jay Calvert	Gyroc (Estes clone)	C6-5	-
31.05	Jay Calvert	Rotaroc 13 (Apogee)	A10-3T	-
30.53	Jay Calvert	Heliroc (Apogee)	A10-3T	-
16.45	Rick Polzello	Skywinder	C6-5	-
10.44	John Atkinson	Ugli-Rock (scratch)	A10-3T	-
4.38 (shred)	Jay Calvert	Whirl-a tron (Apogee)	B6-4	-
JUNIOR DIVISION
DURATION (SEC)	NAME	ROCKET	MOTOR	PRIZE
21.19	Alia Bradley	Twister	C6-5	1st Estes Star Wars pad and launch system Donated by  Dale Murdock
19.13	Jesse Zamecnik	Twister	A8-3	2nd eHobbies T-shirt
16.00	Austin Pallone	Phantom Helicopter	C6-3	-