KCAR Launch Report: Contest Launch — September 2003

First and foremost, the club would like to thank James and Trisha for hosting yet another launch, and for going the extra mile and grilling hamburgers and hot-dogs for us on Saturday. James asked that the partakers donate a modest fee to the club.

Photo by Tim Burger

The club also thanks those who helped run the range, roust-about the equipment, and with special thanks to Randall for spending at least a full hour tracking rockets for the competitors, and Christian for relieving Dave L. at one of the stations in order for him to get in his second altitude flight. Neither of these two individuals were competitors this time around and the support is greatly appreciated by all concerned! Thanks, gentlemen!

Also, the club would like to thank Art Applewhite for a very generous $50 donation in kits for prizes! These are particularly neat saucer rockets that were very popular when the prizes were being chosen. Klassic Kones also donated a Drifter kit which went in the first round of choices.

Now for the report. The weather was not particularly kind on either Saturday or Sunday. Those competitors that waited for Sunday in hopes that the wind would be lighter were in for a disappointment since the wind was even higher if anything. Despite that, there were a large number of flights made, both sport and competition. We were also a bit disappointed in the number of competition fliers. No other NAR section made an appearance, and without the out-of-towners (so to speak) we weren’t able to qualify for an open meet. As it stands we had only four NAR competitors plus one club member who “ran for the prizes.”

We did have a pretty good turn out, though, with a lot of active sport fliers on Saturday. There were several interesting rockets. Bill and Zoron Hensley were there with an accompaniment of very interesting scale rockets; Bill is a skilled builder and debuted a scratch made model of a Russian missile that is very impressive with a large number of shrouds and cones. Mark B. was there with a very nicely done BSD Sprint. Also seen were some very impressive models by Blair Clark who was there with his daughter, Courtney, and her friend, Andrea, and they put in some very nice flights with largish motors despite the wind. There were also some folks we have not seen for some time, the Brown family for example, and Kim Wong who took photos on Saturday and returned on Sunday with some water propelled rockets on Sunday.

George was also making some flights with vintage kits, and attempting to burn up a pile of A10-0 motors before they loose general use status at the end of the year by putting them in an adapter and staging. Unfortunately one of the flights didn’t light the sustainer with the resulting unpleasant “thud.” He also worked up his courage by the last of the day on Sunday and flew a glider.

A new father/son team launched their one rocket many times during the day on Saturday and were clearly having a good time together.

Randall and grandson Taylor put up their standard large number of a wide variety of rockets. James and Paul also made several good flights, but they had one catastrophe on Saturday with their Estes V2. It was just a little too windy for a marginally powered rocket but it did survive with just a minimum of damage to the main body tube.

Randall and Taylor get ready for another flight (Photo by Tim Burger)

The competition got off to a slow start; Dave Lucas got the ball rolling in the mid-afternoon on Saturday with a streamer duration rocket and respectable time with a matching long walk! Your’s truly followed that action with an even longer flight and walk. My second flight wasn’t so handsome, though, with a streamer stuck in the throat of the rocket and a DQ. The only other competition flights made were by me with two qualifying Eggloft duration flights.

This changed on Sunday though, with Dave L. putting in a second streamer duration flight that was over two minutes in duration; it eventually drifted out of sight. Dave Bucher also had some successful launches of both eggs and streamer duration flights. Bob Wingate was able to get in a few qualifying competition flights as well. Alan Shaffmaster tried his hand at those events with only a modicum of success. The eggs were somewhat worse for the wear after he’d made his attempts at launching them due to difficulties in deploying six (6!) Mylar ’chutes. His luck with payloads wasn’t any better, either, we’re sorry to report.

We finally managed to get the group of B payload altitude flights flown late on Sunday. This was the first time the club sponsored an altitude event. The theodolites were made by Dave Lucas and work every bit as good as they look. Thanks again to those who manned the tracking stations! The trackers did quite well; there was only one lost track and no opens. (All that practicing at previous launches paid off.) The numbers crunched beautifully (thank-you for running the program, George) and most had less than six percent of error. We were able to rack ’em and launch ’em in pretty rapid succession, but there were still a lot of delays for the trackers to put up with. There were a very few minor problems with the radio communications but nothing to cause a lot of grief. All in all it went pretty well from a working standpoint and every one was able to get in at least two flights. Dave B. experienced a lot of trouble with motors; he had two blow out at ejection. One of the charges was so forceful that the main body tube unspiralled! The payload survived, though, and it was counted as qualifying flight since Dave was out of rockets to use (and motors). The wind had calmed somewhat by 5:00 so the flights were more straight up and therefore higher. We had several rockets separate, but after doing our best pink-book lawyering impression decided that as long as the payload was still in the payload compartment and intact that it would count. This did help a lot of fliers, but Dave B. as previously mentioned had a lot of problems with motors, and Alan just couldn’t keep the nose cones out of the dirt! I think everyone managed to get in at least one qualified flight, anyway. In the end, this reporter’s self-designed model (a derivative of the Sparrow series for those who know them) won the day with 157-meters (term reporter used loosely). I should add that all of us but Bob W. were using California Dave’s tower launcher for this event.

Several flights were made after the contest wound down, one of which was a drag race of two old Estes’ classic Drifters on B6-4s. We were having such a good time that we continued right past the normal range shutdown on both days, and even continued until after 6:00 on Sunday. The range was wound down, the equipment packed away, and everything carried back up to the loft. An awards ceremony was held. We had intended to hold a Future/Fantasy event, but had to cut it from the event list due to the poor turn out. We went ahead and ran the event in “unofficial” mode and since that was the most challenging event the winner, California Dave, chose the first prize. We decided that first place winners would choose first in descending challenging event order, then second place winners would select a kit in the same order. Photos were taken, and ribbons handed out and we all hung around for a while talking rockets. The sun was beginning to set and James offered a peek through the observatory to anyone who wanted to hang around. The sky was perfectly clear and it looked as though the evening would be perfect for looking at the stars. So here’s some statistics. There was 1 cluster flight (number 42) and 4 staged flights (flights 1, 35, 43, 67). We flew a total of 68 flights, burning 74 motors in the process. Our combined impulse was 711.99, that’s about a ‘J!’ We did have some new fliers and few who are interested and just came to watch. Competition data follows the log (when the CD provides the data) and a summary of all flights can be seen on Sunday’s page.

Launch Report

Launch	Fliers Name	Rocket Name(s)	Motor	Comments
1	George Scheil	Zenith II	A10-0 to A8-3	Good flight, landed close
2	R. Christian Bruggeman	California Dave’s Surfin’ Nose Cone Rocket	B6-4	More motor!
3	Harrison Cullom	Ionizer	B6-4	Good first flight for both the rocket and the rocketeer
4	Harrison Cullom	Ionizer	B6-4	Another good flight
5	Tim Burger	Tangent	C6-5	Long walk! Hanging on a fence across the road.
6	R. Christian Bruggeman	Cosmic Cobra	B6-4
7	R. Christian Bruggeman	California Dave's Surfin’ Nose Cone Rocket	C6-3	Much better
8	Harrison Cullom	Ionizer	B6-4
9	Tim Burger	Astra	A8-5
10	Courtney and Andrea	Mean Machine	E9-4
11	Paul Case	V2	E9-4	Ouch! Too windy!
12	Tim Burger	Fiesta	B6-6	Good high flight
13	Harrison Cullom	Ionizer	B6-4
14	Dave Lucas	A Little Voodoo	1/2A3-2T	Didn’t deploy rotors
15	Tim Burger	Sprint	B6-6
16	Harrison Cullom	Ionizer	B6-4
17	Paul Case	AMRAAM	B6-4
18	Courtney and Andrea	Patriot	F40-4
19	Dave Lucas	Hawq 205	A3-4T	Competition: Streamer Dur 48.79S
20	Paul Case	Big Bertha	B6-4
21	Harrison Cullom	Ionizer	C6-5
22	Harrison Cullom	Ionizer	B6-4
23	Randall Jessee	Ski-Writer	B6-4
24	Taylor Jessee	Fat Boy	B6-2
25	R. Christian Bruggeman	Sizzler	A8-3
26	Harrison Cullom	Ionizer	B6-4
27	Harrison Cullom	Ionizer	B6-4
28	Taylor Jessee	Tubular	B6-4
29	Randall Jessee	Hot Tamale	C11-3
30	Blair Clark	Norad	F23-4FJ
31	Tim Burger	Sparrow A	A3-4T	Competition: Streamer Dur. 1:14
32	Randall Jessee	Airspike	E9-4
33	Taylor Jessee	Death Star	B6-2
34	Blair Clark	Norad	F20-4
35	George Scheil	Zenith II	A10-0T to A8-5	Staged OK
36	Bill Hensley	Baby Bertha	C6-3
37	Zoron Hensley	Banshee	B6-4
38	Taylor Jessee	Screamin’ MiMi	C11-3
39	Tim Burger	Sparrow A	A10-3T	Competition: DQ
40	Randall Jessee	Yellow Bird	B6-4
41	Bill Hensley	Baby Bertha	C6-3
42	Taylor Jessee	318 Asteroid Prospector	3 X B6-4
43	George Scheil	Zenith II	A10-0T to B6-4	4 lifesaver payload
44	Taylor Jessee	Super Big Bertha	D12-5
45	Randall Jessee	Super Nova Payloader	D12-5
46	Tim Burger	Sr. Elite	B6-2	Competition: Eggloft 16.10S Egg survived!
47	George Scheil	Wacky Wiggler	B6-4
48	Taylor Jessee	Fat Boy	B6-2	Impact!
49	George Scheil	DSP	C5-3
50	Taylor Jessee	ALCM	A10-3T
51	Bill Hensley	X-7	C6-5
52	Blair Clark	Norad	F20-4
53	Tim Burger	Sr. Elite	B6-2	Competition: Eggloft 24.91 S Egg Survived!
54	Taylor Jessee	Fat Boy	C5-3
55	Taylor Jessee	Nike Smoke	A8-3
56	James and Paul Case	Gemini DC	A8-3
57	James and Paul Case	Big Bertha	B6-4
58	George Scheil	Interdictor	C5-3
59	Dave Bucher	A Streamer	A3-4T	DQ — Didn’t deploy
60	Taylor Jessee	Fat Boy	B6-2	Good!
61	Randall Jessee	Hyper X	B6-4	Separation
62	Dave Bucher	Holy RPG	D12-3	Squirrelly at the top, but OK
63	Taylor Jessee	Fat Boy	B6-2	No deploy
64	George Scheil	Wacky Wiggler	B6-4
65	Alan Shaffmaster	A Streamer	A8-3	Marginally Stable 6.31S
66	Alan Shaffmaster	Astro Cam	C6-7
67	Alan Shaffmaster	CC Xpress	D12-0 to D12-3	Staged well!
68	Dave Bucher	C Rocket Glider	C6-3	Stuck on the rail

	Flights by Rocketeers Flights Rocketeer(s) 12 Taylor Jessee 9 Harrison Cullom 8 Tim Burger 7 George Scheil 6 Randall Jessee 4 R. Christian Bruggeman 3 Dave Bucher Paul Case Blair Clark Bill Hensley Alan Shaffmaster 2 Dave Lucas Courtney and Andrea James and Paul Case 1 Zoron Hensley
Blair, Courtney & Andrea wait for the range to open. (Photo by Tim Burger)

Rockets Making Multiple Flights:

Flights	Rocket	Rocketeer
9	Ionizer	Harrison Cullom
5	Fat Boy	Taylor Jessee
3	Norad	Blair Clark
	Zenith II	George Scheil
2	Sparrow A	Tim Burger
	Sr. Elite
	California Dave’s Surfin’ Nose Cone Rocket	R. Christian Bruggeman
	Baby Bertha	Bill Hensley
	Wacky Wiggler	George Scheil

Totals by motor: Motor Number Flown Impulse (Newtons) 1/2A3 1 1.09 A10 5 10.00 A3 3 6.66 A8 7 16.24 B6 33 142.89 C11 2 17.60 C5 3 27.30 C6 8 70.56 D12 5 84.20 E9 3 83.61 F20 2 120.90 F23 1 52.85 F40 1 78.09 Total: 74 711.99 (J)

Blair, Courtney, and Andrea ready their LOC Norad (Photo by Tim Burger)

Contest Data:

Contestants display their prizes, ribbons, and smiles. Photo by Tim Burger

Future Fantasy Scale Entries - Dave L’s left; Dave B’s; right Photo by Tim Burger

Contest Data is unofficial!

A Streamer Duration Place Flier Rocket Times Result Score (points) First Dave Lucas A Streamer48.79S 129.24S 178S 80 Second Tim Burger Sparrow A 74.72S NDP 75S 48 Third Bob Wingate A streamer 18.27S 41.46S 60S 32 Fourth Alan Shaffmaster * A Streamer 6.1S N/A 6S N/A Fifth Dave Bucher A Streamer SEP NDP DQ 0 * Alan, being a non-NAR member, was running for prizes only B Payload Altitude Place Flier Rocket Flight East West Average Altitude Percent Error Result Score (points) Azim Elev Alti Azim Elev Alti First Tim Burger B Payload 1 36.0 60.0 112.9M 21.5 50.5 126.8M 119.9M 5.80% 157M 150 2 60.0 47.0 148.4M 56.0 49.0 166.3M 157.3M 5.69% Second Dave Lucas B Payload 1 89.5 44.0 114.4M 38.5 35.5 135.8M 125.1M 8.53% 125M 90 2 63.0 50.5 N/A OPEN N/A Third Bob Wingate B Payload 1 80.0 46.0 124.4M 42.5 36.5 129.6M DQ 2.04% 109M 60 2 85.0 44.0 113.7M 40.0 30.0 105.3M 109.5M 3.81% Fourth Dave Bucher B Payload 1 60.0 45.5 113.0M 45.5 37.5 103.4M 108.2M 4.41% 108M 30 2 53.0 23.0 39.6M 38.5 18.0 38.9M 39.3M 0.91% Fifth Alan Shaffmaster B Payload 1 Data not provided Data not provided DQ 0 N/A * 2 Data not provided Data not provided DQ Notes: * Alan, being a non-NAR member, was running for prizes only ** 150 Meter baseline B Eggloft Duration Place Flier Rocket Times Total Score (points) First Tim Burger Sr. Elite 16.1S 2491S 25S 170 Second Dave Bucher Eggloft Rocket 10.05S 10.57S 11S 102 Third Dave Lucas Eggcellent 10.54S DQ 11S 102 Fourth Alan Shaffmaster Egg Rocket DQ DQ 0 N/A * * Alan, being a non-NAR member, was running for prizes only Future Fantasy Scale (Unofficial event) Flier Rocket Score Dave Bucher Von Braun Concept 675 Dave Lucas SLAM 555 Standings (NAR) Place Flier Streamer points Eggloft points B Payload points NAR Points First Tim Burger 48 170 150 368 Second Dave Lucas 80 102 90 272 Third Dave Bucher 0 102 30 132 Fourth Bob Wingate 32 0 60 92 Section points for NAR 505 864 Standings (Local) Place Flier Future/Fantasy points Streamer points Eggloft points B Payload points Points First Dave Lucas 555 80 102 90 827 Second Dave Bucher 675 0 102 30 807 Third Tim Burger N/A 48 170 150 368 Fourth Bob Wingate N/A 32 0 60 92 Fifth Alan Shaffmaster N/A 6 DQ DQ 6 Submitted by Tim Burger NAR78486L1 Sunday’s Report Return to reports index. Return to home page. Page last updated on March 31, 2006.