Wow! The weather for the first launch of the new year was unbelievable. The temperature reached a high of 57 degrees! The winds were 5 - 10 MPH from the WSW all day, but the winds aloft were considerably quicker and quite a few rockets ended up in the East woods. The warm temperatures also made for quite a bit of mud and several vehicles including the equipment trailer had to be coaxed out of it. There were 22 flyers enjoying the new waiver schedule. The morning window was moved to 10:00 am and the afternoon window was extended to two hours. 93 flights were flown and we burned a total of 5,547 Ns of propellant. This equals a 10% M motor. Today's contest was Open Spot Landing.

Launch Photos

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First off the pads today was Rick Polzello's LOC Starburst on a pair of G55-10W's. They can be seen just igniting at left. It had a great flight, but drifted deep into the woods and was lost. Osama bin Monkey served as the target for the Open Spot Landing contest. Try as they might, no one was able to put a missile into him. At right, Nathan Ouellette's Banshee lift off on a B6 while Steve Tentinger's Initiator, Dana Ouellette's Bandit and Sean Hogan's upscale Mosquito wait their turn.

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Rick Polzello gives the thumb's up for launch of his LOC 'n' Load on a high-test blend of Blue Thunder motors: a G80T, two F72Ts, and two E28Ts.  Rick is flanked by Sean Hogan's upscale Mosquito and Joey Bender's HD Swinger (both in CATO orange).  As you can see on the right, the acceleration of LOC 'n' Load was too much for two cameramen! RockSim says 31.6 g.

There goes Dana's Bandit on a B6. Next, Sean Hogan's Moquito boosts on a A8. Joey Bender's Swinger takes off on a B6 while Rick Polzello's LOC 'n Load waits. On the right, Steve Tentinger's Initiator begins it's journey on an F40W.

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Rick Polzello's Onyx boosts on a G25W. At center, Jay Calvert's X-Tra Mean 2-Stage boosts on a D12-0. The upper stage burned one of Estes new C11 motors. The C11 ignited perfectly and burned very quickly. The rocket staged as designed, but the recovery went amiss and it sampled a healthy chunk of earth.

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1) Jay Calvert's Maxi Geek, a pencil rocket, flying on one of the new Estes C11-7 motors.
2) Jay's Giga Geek, the big brother of the Maxi Geek, flew twice on D12-5s.  The second flight landed only 22' 6" from Osama bin Monkey, winning the first place prize in the OSL contest.
3) Jay's 4-29 Pumpkin boosted on a pair of H128-14Ws, airstarted twin G64Ws, dropped candy (20 Butterfinger bars) from an altitude of 2408', and returned using dual deployment recovery.  The candy was released overhead at apogee, but was not found.  Somewhere out there on the field is the Motherlode!  In this photo, only one of the H128s is up to pressure.
4) In this photo, a little over a second later, all four motors are cookin' good!

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John Atkinson, Alia Bradley, Ulf Jonsson and his son Eric load their rockets on the Estes pads. Spencer Martin's Quest Tomahawk SLMC is on the left followed by Brad Martin's Venus Probe. Alia stands behind her Athena and Eric's MK 109 is on the right. It was nice to see John and Alia back at a launch!

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Alia's Athena? starts it's run up the rod on a C6 motor. On the right, Brad Martin's Venus Probe lifts off on a C6 for a typical minimum power flight. The flight ended as designed with both chutes deploying above the ground and the pod landed alien end up! The VP is a neat rocket. Kyle Brewer's Mean Machine can be seen in the distance waiting for it's flight on an E9. The E9 is a great motor in the Mean Machine.

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On the left, John Poulin and Rob Bazinet hook up Rob's BSD Little John for an Ellis Mountain flight.  On the right, Mark Severance readies his LOC I-Roc for a Cesaroni Pro38 flight.

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1) Mark's I-Roc on a Pro38 H153 (US 2 grain).  The same rocket flew later in the day on a Pro38 I205 (US 3 grain), drifted into a tree, but was recovered.
2) Rob's Litttle John on an Ellis I150.
3) John Poulin's upgraded Estes Silver Comet on a G80 Fast White Lightning.
4) ???'s ??? off the rail on Black Jack power.

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Alex Immerman holds his modified Stovi before it's 7 motor clustered flight. The laundry list of motors includes three E9's, three C5's and a C6. Rick Polzello's 2x Heatseeker flys on a G35W at right.

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Here is Ulf Jonsson's PML Phobos. It flew on a Rattworks H70 Hybrid. The rocket used the wires from two pads. One actuates the fill solenoid and the other launches the rocket. The crowd was temporarliy distracted by John Poulin's Stiletto taking off while the NOX tank was being filled. After the tank was properly filled the rocket boosted laser straight and had a great electronic recovery. Very cool motor and set-up.

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1) Eric Jonssen supervises while his assistant Ulf rigs the Rattworks H70 Hybrid.
2) ssssssssss!BZZZZZPT!  There goes the Phobos....  Nice.  CATO''s first hybrid launch.  Recovery was by magnetic apogee detector (MAD).

Anyone wishing to contribute images please use the "upload photos" link on the CATO home page.  You can also e-mail photos or information to Rick Polzello or Jay Calvert. PLEASE limit email messages to no more than 3MB at a time!

LAUNCH HIGHLIGHTS and STATS:

Frequent Flyers: Eric Jonsson made 9 flights today. Alex Immerman and Brad Martin both made 8. Jay Calvert managed 7 flights. Six different flyers all made 6 flights.

Certification Flights: None today.

Cluster Flights: Jay Calvert flew his 4-29 Pumpkin (see below). Alex Immerman flew his modified Stovi on a seven motor cluster. Three E9's, three C5's, and a C6 did the work. Alex also flew his Micro-Archer on a pair of Micro Max motors. Brad Martin flew First Class on three C6's. Rick Polzello flew LOC 'n Load with a G80T, two F72T's and two E28T's providing power.

Multistage Flights: Jay Calvert flew his Xtra Mean 2-Stage on a D12 to a new C11. He also flew his 4-29 Pumpkin on a pair of H128's and airstarted a pair of G64's. Joey Bender flew an Estes Mongoose on C to B Estes power.

Catos: None.

Notable flights: Ulf Jonsson flew his Rattworks H70 hybrid in his modified PML Phobos for CATO's 1st Hybrid flight. Congratulations on a great flight! Mark Severance flew two different Cesaroni Pro 38 motors in his I-ROC. Rob Bazinet flew an Ellis Mountain I150 in his BSD Little John. Alex Immerman flew his modified Stovi on a cluster of 7 black powder motors.

Contests: Open Spot Landing (Target : Osama bin Monkey)

Junior Division

Name	Distance from Monkey	Prize
1) Eric Jonsson	37' 6"	Aerotech E30-7T Motor
2) Alex Immerman	58' 6"	Estes Mighty Mites
3) Dana Ouellette	76' 9"	-
4) Spencer Martin	86'  5"	-
5) Alex Immerman	92' 0"	-
6) Eric Jonsson	96' 6"	-

Senior Division

Name	Distance from Monkey	Prize
1) Jay Calvert	22' 6"	Aerotech E11-3J reload 3-pack
2) Sean Hogan	41' 11"	ASP Eggstravaganza 13 kit (sponsored by Countdown Hobbies)
3) Ulf Jonsson	64' 6"	-
4) Rob Bazinet	80' 1"	-
5) Rob Bazinet	96' 6"	-

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