'Largs' International Rocketry meeting 1999

(August 26th - 30th)

We have now become regular visitors to the rocket weekend in Scotland. (My first visit was in 1995). The weather the last few years had been good and the forecast looked promising. Myself (Dave Thomson) and my son decided to goto Larg's Thursday before noon. We had bought a new (larger tent this year and decided to get set up tent and get an evening flight in to start off the event. I hopped to pass my level 2 cert. flight and RSO ( range safety officer) exam.

THURSDAY 26th

We arrived at the Kelburn centre at 5:30 and set up camp. I met up with John Bonsor and Bobby Walk (event organisers) and then got David's Tidal wave rocket (a ready made Estes kit) to fly on a C6-3. The light was fading fast and the rocket was launched in the main field next to the pavilion. The motor delay was too short as the rocket was still climbing when the nose cone and parachute ripped off! Luckily the BT landed back in the field and the nose cone could be seen landing in a field of cows back up on a field behind us. I managed to sneak up and retrieve the NC before the cows saw me. Inspection showed that the shock cord had failed. This is a common failure with Estes kits but I feel a longer delay would have been better (C6-5).

We went into Larg's to sample the local fish and chips. These taste much better than at home. We then headed back to the tent to fix the Tidal Wave rocket and revise for my exam tomorrow. During the fixing of the rocket I accidentely flicked CYNO into my eye while cutting off the top with a knife!!! Luckily only a small amount went into my eye and washing out with water soon soothed the eye. But it felt somebody had thrown sand into it. WARNING... you cannot be too careful with this stuff!!

FRIDAY 27th

We awoke with Sean O'Neill beeping his horn to wake us up. As Sean set up camp I arranged with Liz Perman to take my level 2 exam. This time I passed with 100% score. Now I could fly the J350W. The safety officers exam would be taken after a successful level 2 flight. We then got some model rocket ready to fly before going to the remote HPR site. Sean had his Estes 'Thunderhawk', a regular at this event, and his Estes 'Shadow' . David had his modified 'Haribo' rocket.

Above image shows my David's (my son) modified 'HARIBO' rocket

Sean launched his 'Thunderhawk 'on a C6-5. The flight was straight and high and recovered within the field. The 'Shadow' was launched on a Aerotech single use E15W. This flight was great and this motor is much better than staging Estes motors on the 'Shadow'.

David launched his 'Haribo' rocket. He had built this rocket himself (with only a small amount of help from me for safety) while on holiday and had been itching to fly it for weeks. The rocket had a nylon chute and flew on an Estes D12-3. Centre of gravity was achieved by putting a 'lump' of epoxy in the nosecone and setting in a bolt at the same time to attach the shock cord to the main body. Flight was not that high but slow and impressive. A great rocket for a younger rocketeer.

Above image shows my son (David) launching Sean's Estes 'Thunderhawk

Many other good model rockets also flew before we packed up to goto the HPR site. The afternoon was spent at the away HPR site at Birtlebog farm. This takes about 15mins drive from the Kelburn centre and is kindly offered to us by the farmer for high power flying. The only problem with the site is the location of a Fir tree plantation in which rockets have been lost before and will do so again.

Because of the wind direction we moved further down the launch site field to reduce the chance of drifting into the fie tress. Launching began under NOTAM and flight windows from Glasgow Air traffic control, two 10 minute windows per hour. This may not sound a lot but we managed to launch nearly all rockets destined to fly. All where prepped and loaded on the pad prior to launch. When the window was open then flying commenced from left to right. If you had a ignitor failior etc. then you had to wait until the next window. Pain in the butt but only fair and safe!

Lots of HPR flights took place (too many to mention) including many level 1 and level 2 certification flights. One excellent was by Lawrence Tettly with his half scale Patriot on a J415W. Lots of noise and smoke, very impressive until deployment. The booster chute opened ok but the nosecone chute did not unfold. It landed back in the field with a bump but only suffered from a few cracks after it's 1500 foot free fall. The chute had its shroud lines wrapped around tightly twice. This is how it had been packed. Myself and others said that we pack ours with a single turn. It appears as though the lines had tightened during ejection and during decent.

Sean had his Thunderhawk ready with home-made ignitor. Unfortunately in the field they did not work. Sean had tested them many times at home without failure. The rocket was removed and I loaded the camera rocket for my level 2 attempt with a J350W. There where a few aborted attempts to launch due to copperhead failures before launch. When it ignited it leapt of the pad with a terrific ROOAAARRRRRRR. The flame was a decent size and it accelerated much faster than I had expected. The delay was a short delay and the chute deployed as it was still going up. This caused one of the chutes to be ripped off. Luckily the other stayed on and it came down fine on one chute without any other damage. Unfortunately this did not class as a pass so I would have to try again tomorrow.

Sean Loaded his Thunderhawk back on the pad for a three rocket drag race. One of the rockets was a V2 of Ben Jarvis, can't remember the other one. At launch they all went together. The V2 crossed the path of the Thunderhawk on the way up. The Thunderhawk was still motoring when the chute deployed and was ripped right off (or was it even attached?) . The rest of the rocket headed for a massive core sample while the NC and chute drifted miles away into a forest. The back end of the rocket including engine cell and fins where recovered ok.

Above images shows Sean preparing the rocket ignitor prior to its first and last flight. Sean had trouble with his own ignitor's even though they had worked fine at home during testing. The copper heads did not work well either and the rocket launched at the FIFTH!! attempt. This included a removal from the pad to enable me to launch seperately.

Sean uses elastic strap of the shock cord and discussion ensewed back at the Pavilion about if you should use shock cords or not and if so what type. Checking the web info there appears to be two types of elastic strap. Knitted and braided. Knitted is one piece of thread woven back and forth. If you damage the edge even slightly or get Cyno on it IT WILL FAIL even though it does not look damaged. Other information seems to suggest that elastic should not be used but a long length of kevlar rope instead. The principle is that the NC comes off and the time taken for the rope to deploy fully and aerobraking by the BT should be ok. Elastic stores energy and can release itself back into the airframe causing trouble. Myself, I will continue to use a long length of thick elastic round cord.

That night we went into Largs again for fish and chips and another go on the bumping cars.

SATURDAY 28th

Flying started late morning in the main flying field. Sean had his Estes Phoenix ready to launch on a single use Areotech E15W. Andy had an Estes ready made rocket flying on a C6. David had his Haribo rocket flying again on a D12. The Phoenix refused to ignite on a few different ignitors and eventually went on one made by Pete Davy. The motor spluttered a few times and then roared off the pad. It was a bit overpowered and corkscrewed a bit across the sky. We packed up and headed for the high power field.

Above image shows Sean wiring up the E15W single use Aerotech in the Estes Phoenix

We arrived in good time at the HPR field and everybody set up pads. There was around 15 pads and lots people. This would turn out to be the largest single HPR launch day in the UK to date. Many F, G, H, I, and J flights plus Ben with Kev Bullit on a J350 and I think 6 x I211 motors.

Many people ended up in the forest and had great trouble in recovering them, me included. Most if not all with beepers where recovered. Most without where not....

My camera rocket launched again this time without any problems. Launch was again spectacular and this time a had put a medium delay grain. Apogee was much higher than the day before and looked really high. The parachute also came out just after apogee. A perfect flight and recovery. The camera worked fine too. The pictures can be seen below. The rocket came down around a third of a mile away in a clear field and was recovered undamaged. Sean and Andy prepped the Patriot for a I211W flight and the Delta clipper for a G35W flight. Andy launched his Aerotech Arreaux on an F25W.

Pete Davy and Lawrence Tettly both launched their quarter scale Patriots on J415W power. Lawrence's certified to level 2 but came down in the forest and was not recovered until the next day. Pete's had CPR recovery and came down close to the launch pad.

Above image shows myself  (Dave Thomson) and my son David next to the rocket loaded with a J350W and camera payload. See below for launch images and camera photo's.

Image above show the launch of the camera rocket on Friday and Saturday. The friday launch had a recovery failure (lost one of the chutes). Saturday was flawless, the rocket recovered undamaged.

Above is a great image taken by Bob (thanks Bob)

These images below where taken from the on-board camera within the rocket. The images show from launch to chute deployment. Other images not displayed show the parachute in different positions during decent but the ones shown are the 'pick of the bunch'. The originals show a lot more detail than these web images. The receding plantation (forest) where so many rockets where lost (and are still living in) can be seen on the last few images. The Clyde and distant Largs ( a fuzzy blob) can be seen on the second to last image from an apogee of around 2500 feet AGL. Note the smoke trail shadow on most of the images running from the launch tower to the lower right of the image. Some of the cars at the launch site can also be seen. Next modification is to change the camera to 35mm format not 110, and also to widen the field of view. This will require a larger first surface mirror to replace the prism on the outside of the nose cone.

The good old PATRIOT being launched again on it's highest power to date, an I211W. This is it's 7th flight. It has flown on motors ranging from 19xD12 to 2xG40W, H123W and now I211W. During the decent of this flight it was lost in the forest (which can be see above in the ariel photo's) for a few hours. Luckily it had a beeper and Andy Issot and Marcell managed to locate and retrieve the rocket before sundown. Sadly Marcell did not recover his, along with a few others .One point to note was that the ones lost did NOT have a beeper!!

Above image shows the MARS crew prepping KEV BULLIT with many  other familiar faces in the background (can you see yourself ?). Image also shows some of the cars in the background.. A good turn-out and display of high power!!

SUNDAY  29th

Rain.....wind........rain......more wind........NO flying all day!! Until later on that evening.This flying session was a combined competition and open flying event. Boost gliders, odd rocks and normal. The boost gliders did not fail to entertain with many going very wrong. Hugh's went over the tree's and hit something, I don't know what but it made a crack sound. Bens had a nice red flame but lawn darted while the motor was still going. Best flight was a three pronged odd rock. Sean ran out of time to fly his Estes Shadow on an F25W (good job in a way as I think he would have lost it). I launched the Delta clipper on an F25W. It looked good against the dusky sky but deployed late and landed in nearby trees with the beeper going. It had to be left in the trees until the next day as it was now almost dark.

Again we went into Largs for even more fish and chips etc..

Above shows myself and David having a great time on the Dodgems at Largs after a good days flying.

MONDAY 30th

Monday was spent recovering the Delta clipper from the trees and packing up to go home. The weather was not improving and it did not look as though there would be any flying. Andy Issot myself and another kind rocketeer help me get down the rocket by connecting together pieces of wood and a tree branch lopper. It took a few hours but we did it in the end. THANKS to all who helped.

I had come to Largs and I had achieved all I had set out to do. Level 2 exam, certification flight and safety officer exam.

A SPECIAL THANKYOU to JOHN BONSOR and BOBBY WALK for again organising such a great event. It cannot be easy and you efforts are much appreciated by all who took part. We WILL be back next year!! Now...what motor shall I go for next time?? a K something or perhaps a..... humm.....

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