KCAR Launch Report: Polar Bear/TARC Launch

Launch date and time: February 21, 2004; 11:00AM
Launch location: Tickwood Ranch near Drexel Missouri
Launch wind and weather: Warm, mostly sunny, and light winds

The club held our second launch of the year this Saturday at the Tickwood Ranch. The weather was perfect! It was nearly calm most of the day, and the big motors were brought out. The temperature was cool but not cold and combined with lack of wind and the sun it was actually quite nice. The drive in was a bit of a problem, though, with a couple of drivers getting stuck in the mud and a couple of others nearly getting stuck. Hans was able to get everyone moving again with his Jeep Cherokee and a pair of heavy chains. No one had problems getting out when the flying was over, thankfully. We had a particularly good turn out for a Polar Bear launch. Generally people show up, fly a few, shiver a bit and wander off. Today was much more like a standard launch with a pretty good crowd all day.

Photo by Christian Bruggeman

We broke tradition again this year by flying at Tickwood as apposed to New Mark, and a added little more formality to allow for TARC rockets that might weigh more than 16-ounces. Alas, not a single team chose to come to the launch so the closest we came to having a TARC flight today was with my answer to the challenge. No, I’m not qualified to enter the contest, being long out of high school, but figure if I’m going to mentor teams I should try it once at least. I was a bit concerned that maybe the fins on my design are too small, but the nearly perfect flight allayed that fear. Indeed, the flight profile was very straight without a hint of wobble despite one of the motors in the three motor cluster not igniting.

Because the wind was so light, a lot of gliders came out of the boxes for flying. Dave Bucher demonstrated his sliding wing “C” rocket and boost gliders. By the end of the day he had managed to get a pretty good trim on at least one of them which put in a really good glide. Also displaying some absolutely flat gliding was Christian’s Edmunds’ model.

Dave Lucas and I had a couple of Sunward models to fly — Dave’s are finished in typical excellent fashion complete with a chrome tail section and USA markings. We compared notes on Sunward kits — they are worth the time and effort if a bit of a pain to build. My Phoenix flies a bit funny; it must be due to all the shroud. Dave’s Liberator flew quite nicely, though. It’s a neat kit, reminiscent of the old Centuri jet-fighter products. We both flew our models in the same few minutes; I don’t know why we didn’t think to drag race. Dave also had a huge glider made in his standard technique with art and craft board, etc.

Lance and AJ flew a wide variety of rockets and motors and were clearly having a good time flying and spending time together. These two were the top fliers for the day, getting in not less than 16 flights. The Jessee family were also very active, launching a lot of models, and their Initiator more than once. If you combine Taylor and Randall’s flights they would tie with Lance and AJ — not that we’re counting. Mark Bazinet was also getting some good air-time on his Initiator and that seriously big BSD Sprint as well. George came, got stuck in the mud, flew one rocket, and went! We did get a chance to catch up a little though.

Bill Hensley with the “Lockheed X7” Photo by Tim Burger

If you haven’t noticed yet, there are two very skilled, scratch-building, scale modelers in the club that come up with some interesting things to model, and have the ability to make truly nice scaled models that still fly as well or better than the original. Bill Hensley brought and flew his Lockheed rocket — take it from me it flies just as well as it looks. Also seen on the range today was a boilerplate model to test the design for an all out scale N1 being planned by Dave Bucher. Even the centering rings are beautiful to look at — with cleanly cut lightening holes spaced around the edges (and this is just the boiler-plate model). It flew pretty nice too, though I was distracted taking photos and didn’t fully appreciate the flight. All I got for my trouble was a photo of the smoke trail, rats! It’s amazing that a fin-less rocket such as that flies so beautifully.

Classic kits from the Wondrous Days of Yore are becoming increasingly popular with many of the club members. Scratch made clones and re-manufactured kits from the 60’s, 70’s, and (dare I say) 80’s are seen on the field a lot these days. Upscaling them is very popular, too. A unique twist seen today was a scaled down version of the old Mike Dorrfler design Sprint made and flown by Bob Wingate. And it flew quite as nicely as the normal size ones do. Bob says he was looking for performance on a small airframe and certainly found it! Also seen were not less than two scaled up versions of that same design; the previously mentioned BSD model flown by Mark (I believe that’s a 3-inch diameter), but also my 2.6-inch scratch made version. Both flew quite nicely. Mark’s on a “G” twice, and mine on an F21. Another favorite is the Estes Drifter; Dave Bucher’s model flew again today. I believe this is the same rocket that suffered a CATO last month and survived to fly again. What’s your favorite?

The club wishes to thank Dave and Carol for making the field available again; it’s a great field and we’re lucky to be allowed access — thanks! We appreciate the FAA being so helpful with getting our paperwork filed, too.

There were 4 staged flights (30 60 65 70 ), 5 clustered flights (3 30 36 60 67 ), and 2 that were both clustered & staged (30 60 ).

Flight Log

Flight #	Flier	Rocket	Motor(s)	Comments
1	Lance & AJ Fischer	Mini Patriot	A10-3
2	Bill Hensley	Little Bertha	D12-7
3	Mark Bazinet	Tre	3 x B6-4	Return to top
4	Bill Hensley	Big Daddy	E9-8
5	Christian Bruggeman	Fiesta	C6-5
6	Bob Wingate	Flying One Ring of Power	C11-0
7	Lance & AJ Fischer	Alpha	B6-4
8	Tim Burger	Maxi-Alpha	C11-3	Low and slow
9	Lance & AJ Fischer	Flash	C6-5
10	Mark Bazinet	Seriously Big Sprint	G64-7
11	Tim Burger	Sprint	B6-6	Nice high flight
12	Mark Bazinet	Initiator	F20-4
13	Bill Hensley	Lockheed X7	F20-4
14	Tim Burger	Airspike	F40-10	Fast and high, ejected a second past ap.
15	Lance & AJ Fischer	Pipsqueak	C6-7
16	Christian Bruggeman	Cosmic Cobra	C6-5	Separation
17	Mark Bazinet	Initiator	G38-4
18	Taylor Jessee	Airspike	E9-4
19	Dave Lucas	Wild Goose	D12-3	Party horns heard — lawn darted
20	Lance & AJ Fischer	Cheetah	G35-4	Igniter wire hung onto nozzle, but it flew OK
21	Tim Burger	Phoenix	C6-3
22	Bill Hensley	Big Brute	G35-7	Beautiful flight
23	Dave Lucas	Liberator	C6-3	Nice flight
24	Dave Lucas	Nemesis	F21-6	Nice
25	Randall Jessee	Mean Machine	D12-5	Nice flight, slight “wiggle”
26	Taylor Jessee	Initiator	F20-4
27	Tim Burger	F104	B6-2	Little short on the delay, nice flight anyway
28	Tim Burger	Phoenix	B6-2
29	Dave Lucas	Nike Smoke	C6-5	Very nice flight
30	Tim Burger	Discover TARC	3 X C11-0 to C11-3	Nice first flight, fast boost, staged OK, and flew straight despite one booster motor not lighting Return to top
31	Bill Hensley	Airspike	F12-5	Nice & smoky
32	Lance & AJ Fischer	Recoil	A6-4	Didn’t eject — lawn dart!
33	Mark Bazinet	Sumo	G80-4
34	Randall Jessee	Mean Machine	E9-6	Cato!
35	Lance & AJ Fischer	Falcon	B6-4	Perfect! Almost landed on the pad
36	Mark Bazinet	Tre	3 X C6-3	Return to top
37	Dave Bucher	Extreme Drifter	E9-4
38	Lance & AJ Fischer	Big Daddy	D12-3	Cato!
39	Taylor Jessee	Airspike	E9-4
40	Bill Hensley	Spool	F20-4	Nice flight, hard landing
41	Randall Jessee	Super ?	C6-3
42	Dave Lucas	Glider Red Dragon	G35-4	Lawn Dart (see the photo!)
43	Tim Burger	Sprint Magnum	F21-6
44	Lance & AJ Fischer	Sizzler	A8-3	’Chute didn’t deploy fully
45	Bob Wingate	Kit Bash X-Ray	B6-4
46	Mark Bazinet	Seriously Big Sprint	G35-4
47	Alan Shaffmaster	Astro Cam	C6-7
48	Dave Bucher	C Rocket Glider	C6-3	Nice glide
49	Lance & AJ Fischer	Mini E/X	A10-3
50	Alan Shaffmaster	Fat Boy	C6-5
51	Dave Bucher	Brighthawk	G38-4	Nice
52	George Scheil	DSP	C5-3
53	Randall Jessee	Screaming Mimi	D12-5
54	Taylor Jessee	Initiator	F20-4
55	Alan Shaffmaster	Astro Cam	C6-7	Landed in pond
56	Alan Shaffmaster	Astro Cam	C6-7
57	Alan Shaffmaster	Astro Cam	C6-7
58	Lance & AJ Fischer	Star Dart	C6-7
59	Mark Bazinet	Big Daddy	E9-8
60	Dave Lucas	Awesome	2 X E9-6 to 2 X D12-5	Airstart of D12’s Return to top
61	Bob Wingate	Eliminator	D12-5	Separation
62	Alan Shaffmaster	Black-Brandt II	D12-7
63	Tim Burger	Interceptor G	G80-7	Landed in the pond
64	Lance & AJ Fischer	Patriot	B6-4
65	Taylor Jessee	April Star	C6-0 to C6-7	Return to top
66	Christian Bruggeman	Deltie	A10-3T	Nice flat glide
67	Dave Bucher	Super Mega Big Bertha	4 X D12-5	Return to top
68	Randall Jessee	Hot Tamale	C11-5
69	Lance & AJ Fischer	Heat Seeker	B6-4
70	Alan Shaffmaster	Magnum	D12-0 to B6-4	Return to top
71	Alan Shaffmaster	Shuttle	B6-4
72	Taylor Jessee	Silver Streak	C6-5
73	Alan Shaffmaster	Initiator	G33-5J
74	Mark Bazinet	Initiator	G38-4
75	Lance & AJ Fischer	Thunder Hawk	A8-3
76	Randall Jessee	BLU 97B	C6-3
77	Bob Wingate	Small Wonder	1/2A3-4T	Excellent!
78	Taylor Jessee	Silver Streak	C6-5	Loop-the-loop!
79	Tim Burger	Loc Lil’ Nuke	E18-4	Fast, loud, straight, cool!
80	Lance & AJ Fischer	Fat Boy	C6-3
81	Randall Jessee	Mach 12	C6-3
82	Alan Shaffmaster	Initiator	G40-4W
83	Tim Burger	Bertha Magnum	F21-6
84	Bob Wingate	Flying One Ring of Power	D12-0
85	Lance & AJ Fischer	Sky Writer	B6-6
86	Randall Jessee	Very Hot Tamale	E9-6
87	Dave Bucher	N1 Boilerplate	G38-4
88	Dave Bucher	Extreme Drifter	F32-10
89	Taylor Jessee	Maxi-Alpha III	E9-4
90	Tim Burger	Maxi-Alpha	D15-7	A bit long on the delay
91	Dave Bucher	C Rocket Glider	C6-3
92	Tim Burger	Maxi-Alpha	E9-6
93	Dave Bucher	C Boost Glider	C6-3

AJ & Lance Photo by Tim Burger	Flights by Rocketeers: Flights Rocketeer(s) 16 Lance & AJ Fischer 13 Tim Burger 10 Alan Shaffmaster 9 Mark Bazinet 8 Dave Bucher Randall Jessee Taylor Jessee 6 Bill Hensley Dave Lucas 5 Bob Wingate 3 Christian Bruggeman 1 George Scheil
Bob Wingate with his mini-Sprint Photo by Tim Burger	Rockets Making Multiple Flights: Flights Rocket Rocketeer 4 Astro Cam Alan Shaffmaster 3 Initiator Mark Bazinet Maxi-Alpha Tim Burger 2 Seriously Big Sprint Mark Bazinet Tre C Rocket Glider Dave Bucher Extreme Drifter Phoenix Tim Burger Mean Machine Randall Jessee Airspike Taylor Jessee Initiator Silver Streak Initiator Alan Shaffmaster Flying One Ring of Power Bob Wingate
Dave Lucas readies his “Glider Red Dragon” Photo by Tim Burger	Totals by motor: Motor Number Flown Impulse (Newtons) 1/2A3 1 1.09 Total 1/2A’s: 1 1.09 A10 3 6.00 A6 1 2.00 A8 2 4.64 Total A’s: 6 12.64 B6 14 60.62 Total B’s: 14 60.62 C11 7 61.60 C5 1 9.10 C6 27 238.14 Total C’s: 35 308.84 D12 15 252.60 D15 1 18.96 Total D’s: 16 271.56 E18 1 36.54 E9 11 306.57 Total E’s: 12 343.11 F12 1 43.20 F20 5 302.25 F21 3 181.35 F32 1 79.20 F40 1 78.09 Total F’s: 11 684.09 G33 1 98.39 G35 4 403.28 G38 4 350.72 G40 1 113.74 G64 1 118.80 G80 2 232.50 Total G’s: 13 1317.43 Total: 108 2999.38 (L)
Dave Bucher with his “boiler-plate N1” Photo by Tim Burger
Bill’s “Big Brute” goes for a spin Photo by Tim Burger	Randall (center) assists Hans (right) with their “Meaner Machine” while Bob looks on (left). That’s Bill walking by. Photo by Christian Bruggeman
Tim logs Mark’s Sumo after it’s been checked. Photo by Christian Bruggeman	Mark’s Sumo launches. Photo by Christian Bruggeman

Submitted by Tim Burger NAR 78486 L1

Return to reports index.
Return to home page.

Page created on February 27, 2004.
Last updated on May 3, 2004