KCAR held the first launch of the new year on Saturday, January 25th. The weather was quite cool and a tad windy, but it wasn’t unendurable. The winds, while not light, were not so strong that rockets were carried far.
The Jessee family arrived first, and flew their standard large variety of rockets, only modifying their flight strategy by keeping the motors in the D and E range. A very nice tube-fin rocket was flown, along with a three motor cluster rocket on B6-6 motors. Both flights were quite nice. A slightly modified Mean Machine was flown by Randall. He also flew a Mosquito on a 1/4A3; it did the normal flight profile of the common Mosquito: it instantly teleported itself into another universe. It was found as we were packing up to go.
Andy flew a tough-as-nails rocket with plywood fins on D12s several times. It performed admirably each time.
A father and son happened to see us while driving by and stopped to chat. They had a good time talking with us while watching us burn motors. They eventually were driven back into their vehicle by the cold. They returned about 30 minutes later with several rockets, set up a pad, and flew with us. Unfortunately, they broke fins off of two out of three rockets. They had a terrific time; we enjoyed swapping stories with them as well.
Tim arrived at some point with a few rockets already set to go. The Maxi-Alpha was first on a C11-3 for a good flight. He followed that with a well worn and often flown Tangent (the original balsa fins and nose version) on a B6-4. This was followed with the Silver Comet on a D12-5 (getting a little braver) which flew great, and didn't drift too far. The Long Shot was next, also on a D12-5. The recovery was a little dicey as it separated; the nose popped off the forward payload tube and all parts landed close together only 50 feet or so from the pads.
The farthest landing from the pads was Taylor Jessee’s rocket (sorry didn’t catch what it was) that was recovered with a trash bag type parachute. As far as I know, no rockets were lost and the most serious damage was some broken fins.
Submitted by Tim Burger, NAR 78486 L1
Last updated: January 28, 2002
