Launch Report for Saturday, December 12th, 1998

I was up until 3:00AM last night in anticipation of the flights I was planning if the weather was right for today. It was, and at around 8:00AM, I gave my father a call to see if he was still up to launching today and we headed out to the schoolyard at Howard S. Billings Regional High School here in Chateauguay, Quebec, Canada. I was especially excited about these flights, because I was going to send up some big stuff today (big stuff as far as model rocketry goes anyway).

The weather was good, visibility excellent, and there was a slight breeze coming in from the southwest. Temperature was pretty cold being around 7 degrees Celsius.

I used my Estes Porta Pad that came with my Airwalker starter kit since there was a bit of wind and I needed a launch pad with a tilter to adjust the launch angle. As with previous flights this year, I tried to exhaust the remaining motors in my twelve year old Estes Blast-off Flight Pack as well as other motors that I still had left over from that era. I brought my video camera to record every flight and I'm finally starting to get better at getting decent footage.

Despite my excitement, there was more damage caused to my rockets today than in any other launch I've ever done. Only one rocket escaped damage completely and the rest of the damage was minor except for two rockets which unfortunately will never fly again. More on that later...

Flight 116, 23rd flight this year
Estes Black Brant III on an Estes 1/2A6-2 for its 2nd flight




The first rocket to go up was my Estes Black Brant III on an Estes 1/2A6-2. It flew beautifully and although I accidentally angled the rocket to fly with the wind, it didn't drift too far from the pad. No damage occurred during the flight, but I managed to accidentally step on a fin at the end of the launch day while it was laid flat on the grass and I was putting things away and cleaning up the launch area. Black Brant III was only my second rocket and I didn't use glue fillets for it since I was too impatient to get it into the air when I was that age. I built it when I was 14.





My 17 1/2 year old Scout flew next and it shot up out of sight on a Quest A6-4. Although this isn't one of the recommended motors for this rocket, I felt this would be a good choice of motor since in my original instructions, one of the recommended motors was an A5-4 which of course Estes had stopped making even before I started flying! Unfortunately, I lost Scout and despite my father searching for it between flights, he only found the motor casing which had popped out of the rocket. I returned at about 1:30PM to resume the search. The photo at left shows all that remains of my poor Scout after finding it more than two hours later.

Flight 118, 25th flight this year
Estes Gnome 001 on an Estes 1/2A3-2T for its 2nd flight




The next rocket to go up was my Estes Gnome for its first flight which nearly sailed out of sight on an Estes 1/2A3-2T. The shock cord separated from its plastic shock cord mount and the nose cone tumbled to the ground with the shock cord, the streamer fluttered away, and the airframe nosed over and tried to core sample, but luckily, no damage was done. While searching for Scout, my father found the nose cone for Gnome. After the launch day, I found the streamer in the schoolyard of the adjoining St-Willibrord's Elementary School. All I have to do is put the pieces back together again, except that this time, I'll use the more traditional Estes style paper shock cord mount. It'll be a tight fit in there though since it's a BT-5 rocket.





Big Rage was my first flight of a Quest rocket and it flew great although it seemed a B6-2 might have been better suited for this rocket than the B6-4's that came with the starter set. I used an Estes B6-4 for this flight (since I'm trying to get rid of all those 12 year old motors). The only damage that occurred to this rocket was that two shroud lines separated from the payload section's chute. I was a bit surprised at this since the adhesive fasteners that came with the parachutes seemed to stick really well when I was building the rocket. I suspect that the adhesive might not work so well in colder weather.







My Estes Sky Raider finally went up on its first flight after sitting idle for over 16 years. I used a Quest B6-4 (one of the ones that came with Big Rage) using my 18mm adaptor since Sky Raider was designed to use "D" motors. It was an amazing flight and there was no damage to the rocket at all. I must have had the angle right because it landed about twenty feet from the pad even on its 18" Estes chute.

Flight 121, 28th flight this year
Estes Maxi Alpha 3 01 on an Estes D12-3 for its 4th flight





I was so impressed with the flight my Estes Maxi-Alpha 3 made last week, I just had to fly it again. Its flight on an Estes D12-3 was just as impressive as the week before, but amazingly it landed and stayed straight up! That was a first for me. The fin tips on the trailing edges took a bit of a beating though since it landed on the pavement in St-Willibrord's schoolyard.

Flight 122, 29th flight this year
Estes Maxi Alpha 3 01 on an Estes D12-3 for its 5th flight






I really wanted to try and send Maxi-Alpha 3 up on an Aerotech E15-4W, so I increased the launch angle a bit to about ten degrees and I sent it up again on a test flight using another Estes D12-3. The wind had to have picked up in that time since despite the launch angle increase, it landed in roughly the same spot as it did on the previous flight. I couldn't launch it on an "E" without probably losing the rocket. The fin tips eroded a bit more and about a quarter of an inch even broke off one of them.









Since Aurora comes down by twin 48 inch streamers, I decided to try for a high speed flight on a 12 year old Flight Systems Inc. E60-8 motor. I used an Estes Solar Igniter to light it since I wanted to try for a longer burn time by igniting the lower part of the propellant first instead of igniting the whole core with an FSI igniter. About a half second after Aurora streaked off the pad in what was probably my fastest liftoff ever, the motor CATOed. The motor assembly tumbled rapidly as the upper airframe and payload section (still attached!) gracefully arced over and lawn darted into the soft grass below. Needless to say, this was Aurora's final flight. I've already been working on its successor, Aurora II which will run on 29mm motors instead of the now out of production 27mm motors and it will be able to fly on an Aerotech H238 which should give it a conservative top speed of about Mach 1.4. wRASP projections give it a top speed of 1189.7mph or Mach 1.60. Aurora's top projected speed on an FSI F100 was a little over 500mph. Aurora II will still be able to use my remaining 27mm FSI motors using a 27mm adaptor that I'll be building.

Flight 124, 31st flight this year
Estes Rampage on an Estes B6-4 for its 2nd flight

Flight 125, 32nd flight this year
Estes Sky Raider on a Quest B6-4 for its 2nd flight

After my flights were done and I had cleaned up and stuffed everything back in the car, I continued to look for Scout for another half hour or so. I found wreckage from Aurora's explosion and Gnome's streamer, but nothing else. I returned at about 1:30PM to resume my search. Two hours of searching turned up Rampage's lost fin and more of Aurora's wreckage, but still no sign of Scout. I decided to search outside the schoolyard and along the adjacent street (Bell St. for all you Chateauguayans out there) and I found the crushed remains of the airframe, the splintered nose cone, and only two of its three fins. The third fin and the metal retainer hook are gone forever. The photo at left shows all that remains of my poor Scout.

Time at Liftoff:
Flight Duration in Seconds:	11
Distance from Launch Pad in Feet:

Time at Liftoff:
Flight Duration in Seconds:	~9
Distance from Launch Pad in Feet:	~300

Time at Liftoff:
Flight Duration in Seconds:	~10
Distance from Launch Pad in Feet:

Time at Liftoff:
Flight Duration in Seconds:	11
Distance from Launch Pad in Feet:

Time at Liftoff:
Flight Duration in Seconds:	26
Distance from Launch Pad in Feet:



	Rampage was up next on an Estes B6-4 and it flew quite nicely, considering it lost one of its three fins on the way up. Other than that, there was no other damage to this rocket.





For my last flight, I just had to send Sky Raider up again since it was such a great performer on a B6-4. I used the second Quest B6-4 that came with Big Rage and it was another picture perfect flight with no damage.