The weather was pretty good - sunny and cool all day with a moderate north wind in the morning that diminished somewhat and shifted to the west in the afternoon. We had 53 flyers make 118 flights. We burned a total of 8,716 Ns of propellant equal to a 70% "M" motor.

---

John Poulin flew his NOS Cruiser twice on Hypertek hybrid motors.  The first flight used a standard grain (J250), and the second one used a special effects grain (J270, note the white smoke).

---

1) Todd Harison's Rocketman Wahoo in the foreground, John's NOS Cruiser behind.
2) The Wahoo flys off the rail on a Cesaroni Pro38 H153.
3) Jason Hicks and his LOC Warlock, which flew on a Pro38 I285.

---

1.  Jason's Warlock boosting on a Pro38 I285.
2.  John's NOS Cruiser on a Hypertek J250.
3.  NOS Cruiser about to touch down after dual deployment.
4.  Jay Calvert's 3FN streaking up on an Aerotech H268-14 Redline.  This one went over a mile high and well over mach 1, and was recovered intact.

---

Todd Harrison's "Stud" flew on a Pro38 I285, and landed safely.

---

1. Jay Calvert's "Unholy Alliance" ready to launch.
2. Oops! That thing moved out fast!  I caught part of the blue flame from the I435T booster, at least.
3. 1.5 seconds later, and  at least one of the G80 Fast White Lightning motors in the sustainer is cooking good.  In this enhanced photo you can see the booster section emerging from the upper stage's contrail, after chasing behind it for several hundred feet.  It must have been following close, because the booster airframe and fins were covered with residue.
4.  Another 1.5 seconds, and the sustainer is still going... The G-wiz Deluxe LC  Accelerometer/Altimeter measured 3066', and executed a perfect dual deployment recovery.

---

The scouts are coming! The scouts are coming!  LCO Sean Hogan did a great job of coaching the fine young men of Pack 55 through the pad assignment process and the safe launching of their boost gliders.  Jay Calvert helped out with the prepping and loading.  The Cubs had a lot a fun flying gliders and wathcing the larger rockets, and learned a little science along the way.

---

1.  The McMillins relax between racks.
2.  The Weblos den project, a Deltie Thunder, takes off on a D12-3.
3.  The Wolf/Bear den project, a DeeCee Thunder, launching on a D12-3.  A CiCi waits for launch on pad red 3.

---

1. Tim Hetland's "Apache" on an Aerotech I211W.
2.  Jay and Cody Calvert's "Deep Six" begins its long ascent into oblivion.  This light weight, minimum diameter rocket fired a stack of six Estes C6 motors in sequence (more details below).
3.  Jay Calvert's "X-tra Mean 3-stage", a modified Mean Machine.  The D12-0s in the first and  second stages worked great, but the D12-5 in the upper stage cato'ed and burned the lower airframe badly.
4.  The Wolf/Bear Den's DeeCee Thunder starting to move on a D12-3.  A Deltie, a Tomahawk missile, A scratch built rocket, and a Big Daddy  stand by for launch.

Frequent Flyers:
Eric Weaver with 11 flights, including three flights of his Estes Eliminator on D12-5s. Chris Massullo made 8 flights. Brian Bassett made 7 while Len Haze made 5.

Multistage Flights:
Jay Calvert started off the day's launch with "Unholy Alliance", a 2-stage, clustered, high power vehicle.  The booster (a PML Ariel) burned an I435-6T, while the sustainer (a stretched LOC 4-29SS) used a G-Wiz Deluxe LC to fire a pair of G80-10FW motors.  Good vertical boost, good staging, good dual deployment with both stages landing side by side on the grassy hill.  Altitude of the upper stage was 3066'.

Jay Calvert flew his "X-tra Mean" as a 3 stager (D12-0 -> D12-0 -> D12-5).  Good flight until the upper stage cato'ed and blew out the lower airframe.

Len Haze flew "Lil' Augie II" (B6-0 -> B6-6) and "Scott B" (B6-0 -> B6-6).

Chris Masullo flew "Steleto" on a C6-0 -> A8-5 combo.

Cody and Jay Calvert flew "Deep Six", a 6-stage stack rocket with carbon fiber support rods.  All six of the Estes C6 motors fired for a 9 second burn time.  The flight started out nearly vertical, but did a gradual gravity turn to the west, approaching horizontal by the time the last motor (a C6-7) ignited.   The rocket suddenly went totally unstable it this point, about 3000' high and about 3000' uprange.  The rocket, which only weighs 1 ounce empty, would have accelerated to almost 500 mph and probably stripped the balsa fins.

Cluster Flights:
Josh Drummond flew "Jupiter 2" for a great high power cluster flight, using a central Pro38 I360 (5 grain) and two Pro38 I205 (3 grain) motors.  The rocket landed in a tree and took some airframe damage as Josh, Jason, and Jay were finally able to pull it down.

Todd Harrison flew "Z24" on a cluster of two D12s.

Brad Martin flew "First Class" on a cluster of three C6-7s.

Classic Kits:
Chris Masullo flew his Estes Goblin twice on C6-5s, and brought out a classic Mars Lander (only flown once before) for a perfect C6-3 flight.  It even landed upright!

Other Notable Flights:
Sean Hogan flew his ever-popular "Ring Thing" on an F24-4W.

Josh Drummond flew his "Intruder" on an I357-10T, but had to pay the Tazmanian Devil to get it out of a tree.

Todd Harrison flew his Rocketman Wahoo on a Pro38 H153 (2 grain) and  his "Stud" on a Pro38 I285 (4 grain).

Tim Hetland flew his LOC EZI-65 on an I161W, and his "Apache" on an I211W.

Jason Hicks also flew an EZI-65 (on a G75-6J), and made his first "I" impulse flight with a Pro38 I285 (4 grain) in his LOC Warlock.

John Tentinger put his X-Calibur up on a G64-7W with an altimeter on board.

Jay Calvert ripped his "3FN"  to over a mile at supersonic speeds on an H268-14R.  The simulations say the 1.6" diameter, 12.5 ounce dart hit mach 1.18 and 5430'.  The rocket was plucked undamaged from a tree an hour later for a successful recovery.

John Poulin's two Hypertek flights (see above)!

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

(c) 2000 Tripoli SE CT and High Power Graphics