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Sunday August 30, 1998
Durham, CT
This was our last scheduled launch of the year at the Durham site. On Oct. 4 we reconvene at Clarks Falls.
The weather was good, with light and shifting winds. It was warm but not too hot. We had a very brief rain shower in the afternoon, but not enough to cause nay real problems. Due to a scheduling misunderstanding (on their part), hundreds of indian Pow Wow enthusiasts parked their vehicles in and around our launch site in the mid afternoon. This slowed us down a little, and caused us to limit the impulse of our rockets for a while. The Durham Parks Commissioner was very helpful in getting the situation under control again.
(photo #1) - Jay Calvert's Estes Mean Machine on a CHAD-staged flight (D12-0 to D12-7). Worked great! Altitude to about 1000 feet. Anyone claim the other rocket?
(photo #2) - Jeff Thomas' Astron Cobra Cluster boosting on four B6-4 engines. This rocket flew again on four C6-3s later in the day. To the right is an Estes Comanche3 (Chris Adams'? Paul Welling's?), and to the far right is an Estes Silver Comet (Aaron Welling's? Dave Sousa's? Chris Adams'?).
(photo #3) - Jim Stuckman and his son Brian (who turned six years old on the day of the launch!), and LCO Mark "Ribsy" Ribchinsky watch Jim's Atlantic ADR 4.0 pushing skyward under the power of an NCR F62-4 DarkStar. The other rockets include an Estes Big Bertha on Red pad 1 (Emily Penistan's? Amanda Toner's? Sandy Alonzo's?), Cody Calvert's tiny "Tin Man" ready to fly on a 1/2A3-4T from Red 2, Alysia Hogan's Estes Yellow Jacket on Red 3, Paul "Lud" Ludwig's 2-stage "CDC X-1" on Red 4, Brian's Vaughn Brother's Sputnik ready to fly on an A10 mini engine on Red 5, Lud's Estes Bull Pup about to make its 40-something flight on Blue 1, and (the same?) Silver Comet on Blue 5.
(photo #4) - There goes Lud's "CDC X-1" 2-stage design on a D12-0 -> D12-7 combination. Notice how Ribsy was wearing a simple baseball cap for the "F" powered rocket in the previous photo, but has put on a hard hat for Lud's "D" rocket. Hmmm...maybe he knows something about Lud's rocket that we don't? Anyway, this rocket flew great, twice.
(photo #5) - A 1/4 scale Patriot takes off on an F62-4 DarkStar. It's either Jim Stuckman's or Kevin Toner's. To the right is Paul Schoen's LOC V2 and to the far right is an Honest John (Paul Welling's or Rob Larson's?).
On the front line we have:
- Red 1 - Estes Spitfire - Mason Smith
- Red 2 - Estes Goliath - Mason Smith
- Red 3 - Estes Intruder - Sandy Alonzo
- Red 4 - another upscale Estes Mosquito - could be almost anyone's...
- Red 5 - Vaughn Brother's Blobbo - Sandy Alonzo
- Blue 1 - Estes Quark - Jeanne Hogan
- Blue 2 - one of Jeff Thomas' creations, I think
- Blue 3 - Estes Raider - Jeff Thomas
(photo #6) - There goes the Honest John. If it's Paul's, it's a G64-4W reload. If it's Rob's, it's an F40-4W reload.
(photo #7) - ...and there goes Paul Schoen's LOC V2 on an H180-6W. Great flight!
Some flight stats and highlights:
- 28 registered rocketeers flew...
- 84 different rockets, making...
- 128 flights, burning...
- 156 motors.
- Most flights for the day: Sandy Alonzo by a long shot with 24. The Hogans (Alysia, Sean, Jeanne) flew 16, while the Stuckmans (Jim & Brian) flew 13.
- Most flights for a single rocket: Sandy's Tri-F-0 with 7 flights, followed by Michael Carlin's Scorpion and Alysia Hogan's Ninja (5 flights each).
- 2-stage rockets were flown by Jay Calvert and Paul Ludwig.
- 3-stage rockets were flown by Chris Adams, Jay Calvert, and Paul Welling.
- Black powder clusters were flown by Jay Calvert, Jim Stuckman, and Jeff Thomas.
- The most complex black powder rocket was Jay Calvert's Custom Equinox with a D12-7 as the top stage and a specially built 5-engine booster stage with D12-0 core, 2 D12-3 outboards, and 2 C6-0 outboards. The boost was straight and strong, but about 2 seconds into the flight it became clear that staging had not occurred. The doomed rocket arched over and began a 1000 foot free fall into oblivion. The height of the rocket was reduced from over 6 feet to less than 6 inches in a matter of milliseconds. A postmortem showed that 4 of 5 motors in the booster fired, but the one that didn't was (of course) the D12-0 core engine. Murphy strikes again!
- The only complex composite rocket was Jay Calvert's 4" Public Enemy Patriot. This was it's 8th airstart. The four 24mm outboards were lit on the pad (two F72-10Ts and two E28-0T reloads). The core engine was an F62-6 DarkStar, airstarted at 0.5 seconds after liftoff using a Transolve T2 timer and tungsten Fire-in-the-Hole igniter. Total impulse was 320 Newton-Seconds, and estimated altitude of the 5 pound rocket was about 1500 feet. The flight appeared perfect, but post-flight analysis showed that one of the E28s had caused one of the RMS 24/40 cans to blow out its aft closure. Aerotech is examining it now.
- There were a number of high power flights. President Lud flew his newly designed "CDC X-7 Viagra" on its maiden flight boosted by an H123-6W reload. The rocket flew straight and high, but kicked both the nose cone and the motor can, then proceeded to drift a long way into someone's front yard. Believe it or not, all parts were recover! Paul Nastahowski flew his LOC Minnie Magg twice on H220-6T reloads, and Paul Schoen flew his LOC V2 on an H180-6W reload.
- Jeff Thomas' rocket "101 Dalmatians" attacked a family and chased a car, and his "Martian Madness" gave Marvin the Martian a headache, but his upscale Astron Cobra flew great on four Bs and on four Cs.
- The Welling kids (Aaron, Nicole, and Rachel) ended with a 3-way Estes Alpha drag race on C6-7s.
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