Launch Report for Sunday, July 12th, 1998
(Written on Saturday, December 5th, 1998.)

My first flights since 1987!!! It was a bright sunny cloudless day and it was about 23 degrees Celcius when we started launching and about 26 degrees when we finished. My father came with me to the launches and pressed the launch button while I tried to videotape the launches. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge the battery the night before and I only got the two Challenger I flights on video before the battery ran out. For these launches, I used up a number of motors from an Estes Blast Off Flight Pack that I bought sometime in 1986 as well as a few other old motors. The rocket I brought were the Estes Challenger 1, both my Alpha III's, Gnome, Reliant, X-Ray (the new design), Ninja, Nike Arrow, Scout, and both my Scamps. I also brought my Centuri Moonraker as well as a homebuilt rocket that I call the X-1 Grey Ghost. These flights were maiden flights for most of these rockets plus I was launching in a small on the corner of Hope & Stanton here in Chateauguay, Quebec, Canada so I had to fly on 1/2A's and A's for the most part. We were originally hoping to launch at the school yard at Howard S. Billings Regional High School, but there were football games going on at both ends of the field so launching there safely was impossible.

Flight 94, 1st flight this year
Estes Challenger 1 01 on an Estes 1/2A6-2 for its 6th flight
My first BAR flight!!!  After changing the batteries in my Quest launch controller, Challenger 1 finally took to the air on a 12 year old 1/2A6-2. The flight lasted exactly six seconds mainly because the 17 year old parachute didn't open, but there was no damage to the rocket.

Flight 95, 2nd flight this year
Estes Challenger 1 01 on an Estes A8-3 for its 7th flight
Before sending Challenger 1 up again, I aired out the parachute and sent it up on an A8-3. This time the chute opened without any problems.

Flight 96, 3rd flight this year
Scratch built X-1 Grey Ghost on an Estes A8-3 for its 1st flight
My X-1 Grey Ghost went up for its maiden flight on an A8-3. It was actually my friend Andre who named this rocket since it was originally just called the X-1 and I was looking for a new name for it. It flew perfectly.

Flight 97, 4th flight this year
Estes Alpha III 01 on an Estes A8-3 for its 12th flight
My first Alpha III flew for the first time since 1982 on an A8-3 for its 12th flight. Alpha III's shock cord was changed since like Challenger 1's rubber shock cord, it was rotten. The flight was perfect although it ended up landing in someone's front yard.

Flight 98, 5th flight this year
Centuri Moonraker on an Estes 1/2A6-2 for its 2nd flight
Moonraker was next and the first time I flew it back in 1982, it went unstable. I flew it again today and it flew perfectly. I believe it went unstable in '82 due to wind caused instability since it was a bit windy that day. This occurs when the force of the wind blowing against the sides of the fins exceeds the force of the air rushing past them as it's traveling upwards, so the rocket is deflected off its straight path, loses speed and stability.

Flight 99, 6th flight this year
Estes Nike Arrow on an Estes 1/2A3-2T for its 1st flight
Nike Arrow was one of the first rockets that I bought as a BAR back in November of 1997. I was a bit concerned about stability because of those forward fins, but it flew beautifully. The nose cone came off the payload section when the ejection charge blew because the adaptor connecting the payload section to the airframe wasn't sealed and there was no mention in the instructions to do so. Before I fly this rocket again, I'll need to seal the hole at the base of the adaptor to prevent the ejection charge from pressurizing the payload section and blowing off the nose cone.

Flight 100, 7th flight this year
Estes X-Ray (New) on an Estes 1/2A3-2T for its 1st flight
The next bird to fly was the newly redesigned X-Ray. For those who don't know, there used to be an older version of the Estes X-Ray that flew on 18mm motors and had a balsa nose cone and fins which was only discontinued a few years ago. This rocket was replaced with a 13mm version which is much easier to build and more colorful. It flew beautifully, but suffered from the same payload section problem that Nike Arrow suffers from and again, there was no mention of needing to seal the hole at the base of the adaptor connecting the airframe to the payload section. This hole will need to be sealed before I can safely fly this rocket again since like Nike Arrow, the motor's ejection charge pressurized the payload section and forced the nose cone off the top of the rocket.

Flight 101, 8th flight this year
Estes Ninja 01 on an Estes 1/2A3-2T for its 1st flight
Ninja was another rocket I was a bit concerned about for stability since during construction, the motor mount seized about a half inch too far back as I was sliding the motor mount into the airframe. It flew fairly well, but it seemed a bit neutrally stable since its flight path was a bit wavy on the wavy side.

Flight 102, 9th flight this year
Estes Gnome 001 on an Estes 1/2A3-2T for its 1st flight
Gnome's maiden voyage came next and what an amazing flight! It flew nearly out of sight even on a 1/2A3-2T and the flight was picture perfect.

Flight 103, 10th flight this year
Estes Scamp 02 on an Estes A8-3 for its 1st flight
My second Scamp rocket made its first flight with me as the owner. It originally belonged to the Howard S. Billings Rocket Club before the club disbanded and the club's president who was my computer science teacher in high school at the time gave me a number of the rockets that were left over from the club since he knew that I had a keen interest in rockets. I have no idea how many times it has flown before, but it may never have flown before since it didn't have the characteristic ejection charge smell that is present even if a rocket has only been launched once. It was a perfect flight. Thanks Mr. Visser!!

Flight 104, 11th flight this year
Estes Scamp 01 on an Estes A8-3 for its 2nd flight
My first Scamp rocket which also came from the HSB Rockety Club flew beautifully. Again, I suspect that it never flew before with the rocket club since the characteristic ejection charge smell was never present at any time until I flew the rocket myself.

Flight 105, 12th flight this year
Estes Scout 01 on an Estes 1/2A6-2 for its 3rd flight
Scout made it's third ever flight with a fast spin which it always seems to do. I gave this seventeen year old rocket a new paint job to make it look like it did in the older Estes catalogues. It flew nicely, but the motor casing blew right out of the rocket and Scout slammed nose first into the grass below. There was no damage.

Flight 106, 13th flight this year
Estes Reliant on an Estes A8-3 for its 1st flight
Reliant was next and I sent it up on an A8-3 for its maiden flight and it flew amazingly high and came down not too far from pad.

Flight 107, 14th flight this year
Estes Reliant on an Estes B6-4 for its 2nd flight
With such a great first flight, I decided to send Reliant up on a B6-4. Again, another perfect flight.

Flight 108, 15th flight this year
Estes Reliant on an Estes C6-5 for its 3rd flight
I decided to try Reliant on a C6-5 since the first two flights were so great and the rocket came down well within the recovery area. Reliant flew incredibly high and the only reason I was able to track it was from the smoke in the delay charge.  Reliant landed near the edge of the recovery area and just cleared the upper branches of a tree by just about three feet. Something I noticed after this launch was that the heat from the motor seemed to have slightly melted the glue holding the fins on since looking at the rocket from the rear, I could see that the cross formed by the four fins was no longer perfect.  For this reason, I'm building all my rockets big & small with epoxy since I also want to be able to use my Aerotech reloadable motors with these rockets.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Just to say Hi?

E-mail: kbedard@rocketryonline.com

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