KCAR Launch Report: Civil Air Patrol Rocket Bivouac Launch

Launch date and time: May 13, 2006 at 2:00PM
Launch location: Camp Naish, Kansas City, Kansas
Launch wind and weather: Warm and Windy

The Civil Air Patrol unit located in Waverly, KS, invited us to return this year to their Rocketry Bivouac to assist the cadets with the rocket launch requirements. The club is too happy to help (and fly rockets of course) to the point of switching our meeting to the launch site.

I arrived on site first, a little early, and found where the CAP was camping. After a short discussion with the commanding officer, I unloaded a few items from the car while the cadets finished their first-aid training. A few minutes later Dave L. and Martin arrived. They were followed shortly by Alan and Cory. The cadets by this time had finished their instruction and we began helping them prepare their newly made rockets for flight. Some of the cadets had already built and flown rockets and assisted those who hadn’t. Some of the new cadet’s rockets needed a bit of mending prior to being ready. The kits are Estes kits with card-stock fins and the fins had a habit of coming off.

Getting Ready

The parents of some of the cadets were also invited to launch and while we waited for them to arrive, the cadets broke camp and loaded their gear into vehicles while we had a brief on-field meeting.

Dave and the company commander went looking for the launch field among the trees — Camp Naish is located in the heart of a forest, and clear fields are a bit scarce. It was finally determined that the best field was the one we were already on. The wind was pretty strong, and between the wind and trees a large number of the rockets were lost. This is a problem, since one of the requirements is to launch twice. In order to keep the losses to a minimum, the pads were placed as near to the edge of the windward side of the field as possible as can be seen in the photos. Yes, it looks like we’re close to the trees because we are close to the trees!

At the pads

The cadets started launching using A8-3 motors. The first rocket landed in a tree. The second also landed in a tree but within a few feet of the ground and was shaken loose by the cadet. The next couple of flights managed to find the ground luckily. One of the cadets put a large motor in another rocket that he had and lost it to the trees. A couple of the cadets launched again, and again were successful. I lent an Estes Alpha to one of the cadets for her second flight, and she was successful, too, and the rocket even survived!

Martin flew his micro-max powered scratch built model, and nearly lost it to the trees. A great performer! Dave L. also slapped a D21 in a small rocket and flew it to a very high altitude. So long!

The company commander has requested that we help with a Make-Take build in the near future. We’d be glad to help! We had a great time talking with and helping the cadets. No launch records were kept for this launch.

5..4..3..2..1

Report and photos submitted by Tim Burger, NAR 78486 L1.

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Page created on May 18, 2006.