KCAR Launch Report:
October Sport and RocketOberfest Launch
Launch date and time: October 21st at 10:00
Launch location: The Roosterville Airport, MO
Launch wind and weather: Cool and windy!
The club held our annual Fall contest for 2006 at a previously unused (by us) field in the Northland. The field is the Roosterville Airport located North and West of Liberty Missouri. It’s a pretty good sized field but is, alas, not without hazzards.
The contest was originally scheduled for the previous month, but the weather was awful and no one was willing to risk scale models to the wind and rain.
The weather on this, our alternate date, was decent if a bit breezy and a little cool but sunny. The range was already set up when we arrived and Dave and David were launching. Alan came along a bit later, but wasn’t prepared to fly anything. Bob also happened along and entered the competiton with some interesting flex-wing gliders and the regular assortment of duration models.
After some chatting and messing around with the clips on one of the pads I was finally able to get in a sport flight or two. They were OK flights with a bit of drift. Also flown was my Astro-Cam 110 with film that Alan managed to find on e-Bay. I was able to fly it three or four times on C6, C11, and D12 motors. I’ll let you know how the photos come out!
It was time to get in some competition flights; parachute duration flights on a breezy day, oh boy! The first B duration flight went OK flying a home-brew rocket with a garish paint job using a smallish Mylar(tm) ’chute. The Super-Roc flight went OK, too. The idea was to fly with small ’chutes and get a return in these events. Then launch the same rocket with a ’chute so big it will just fit into the airframe and wave “So long” to the vanishing rocket. The purpose built B duration rocket was successful making good its first, follwed by its second and last flight. The second flight was very long; we followed it until it was so far away that it faded from sight, still quite high. The strategy was the same for the superoc event, but here’s the strangest part of the day — while the first flight was typical and expectedly short, the second flight was really disappointing even though it was the same rocket, with an engine the same size and from the same package and even the same lot number. The rocket weight was probably about 10-grams heavier (all of that due to the much larger Mylar ’chute.) The ’chute opened OK, and the descent rate was terrific. The problem was that it made very little altitude; much less than previously. Perhaps it bound on the rod or something — the flight profile was much the same as the earlier flight. Dave B. said he felt that the engine was a dud. All I really know is that the second flight was actually several seconds shorter than the first one. So the throw-away rocket returned to fly another day. Guess the rocket gods have enough Superocs! My long time and many contest winning Mercury/Redstone made a quick flight after beging judged to complete my competition flights.
In the mean time, Dave, David, and Bob were making flights, and it was interesting observing the various flex-wing gliders that Bob and David L. were flying with some success despite the wind.
We had some observers from the local hanger stop by to chat for a few minutes. He was very interested in our activities and mentioned that he had flown model rockets when he was younger.
The flying was pretty good and we enjoyed using the field; the wishes to express our thanks to the airport for allowing us to fly here.
There were no clustered or staged flights.
| Flight # |
Flier | Rocket | Motor(s) | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dave Bucher | St. Louis Arch | C6-3 | |
| 2 | Bob Wingate | 1/2A Superoc Dur. | 1/2A3-4T | Contest |
| 3 | Dave Bucher | Spot Max | C6-5 | |
| 4 | Dave Bucher | Patriot Clone | C11-7 | |
| 5 | Tim Burger | 1/2A Superoc Dur. | 1/2A3-4T | |
| 6 | Tim Burger | Astrocam | C11-3 | Sky shot |
| 7 | Dave Lucas | B Flexwing | B6-4 | |
| 8 | Bob Wingate | B Flexwing | B6-4 | Hung up in tube |
| 9 | Dave Bucher | 1/2A Superoc Dur. | 1/2A3-4T | Separation |
| 10 | Dave Lucas | B Flexwing | B6-4 | |
| 11 | Bob Wingate | 1/2A Superoc Dur. | 1/2A3-4T | |
| 12 | Dave Bucher | 1/2A Superoc Dur. | 1/2A3-4T | Separation |
| 13 | Tim Burger | B-PD | B6-4 | Swell time — out of site |
| 14 | Tim Burger | Astrocam | C6-7 | Picture of pond? |
| 15 | Dave Lucas | B-PD | B6-4 | |
| 16 | Dave Lucas | B-PD | B4-4 | |
| 17 | Tim Burger | B-PD | B6-4 | |
| 18 | Tim Burger | 1/2A Superoc Dur. | 1/2A3-4T | |
| 19 | Bob Wingate | B-PD | B4-4 | |
| 20 | Dave Bucher | B-PD | B6-4 | |
| 21 | Tim Burger | Astrocam | C6-7 | |
| 22 | Tim Burger | Trident | B4-2 | |
| 23 | Tim Burger | Astrocam | C6-7 | |
| 24 | Dave Bucher | B-PD | B6-4 |
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Submitted by Tim Burger NAR 78486 L1.
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Page created on July 29, 2007.
Page last updated on August 7, 2007.
