Launch
Report for Sunday, June 20th, 1999
Under
clearing skies, my father & I headed out to our usual launch
site, the huge schoolyard of Howard S. Billings Regional High
School here in Chateauguay, Quebec, Canada. I brought my Estes
Hijax, Ninja, Alpha III 02 (my second of two Alpha III's), Mini
Cobra, Sky Raider, Bandit, Maniac, Multi-Roc, Athena, Cobra 1500,
Gnome, and also my scratch built Arrow, and X-3 02 (my second of
two X-3's, the first of which I lost to the school roof in 1982).
I also brought my video camera to record each flight as well as
take digital stills of the landings. My father pressed the launch
button for all flights. All the motors I used today were Estes
motors.
Weather
was great, with the clouds clearing out and a temperature of
about 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees F). The wind was changing
direction a lot though which made for some scary recoveries.
As
firsts go, I used Estes B14-5's for my first time. What a blast!
It's really a shame that they stopped making these. The rockets
practically explode off the pad!
Flight 202, 77th flight this year
Estes Mini Cobra on an Estes 1/2A3-2T for its 1st flight
My unpainted Estes Mini Cobra was the first to go up
as single stage on a 1/2A3-2T to gauge wind direction and also to
see just what this rocket will do on 1/2A before I dare to fly
this as a two stage rocket. This was Mini Cobra's maiden flight
and this little beast scared the hell out of me on a 1/2A and
with the winds blowing perpendicular to the length of my recovery
area, I wasn't going to put this one up on a booster today.
Amazing flight!
Flight 203, 78th
flight this year
Estes Sky Raider on an Estes B6-2 for its 4th flight
Next to go up was my 1982 vintage Estes Skyraider
for its fourth ever flight. Up it went on a B6-2 in a homemade
24mm to 18mm adaptor (although I accidentally quoted it as a B6-4
on my video) and the flight was great although I probably should
have used a B6-4 since the two second delay seemed a little
short. Sky Raider is a fairly big rocket being built around a
BT-55, but it has deceptively high performance.
Flight 204, 79th
flight this year
Estes Sky Raider on an Estes C5-3 for its 5th flight
Up it
went again on a C5-3 and again, I probably should have gone with
a longer delay. It drifted a lot farther from the pad than I had
expected it to considering that it landed so close to the pad on
a B6-2.
Flight 205, 80th
flight this year
Estes Bandit on an Estes B6-4 for its 3rd flight
Estes
Bandit was up next on a B6-4. Nice uneventful flight with a
recovery fairly close to the pad.
Flight 206, 81st
flight this year
Estes Maniac on an Estes C6-3 for its 4th flight
My Estes
Maniac was up next after having replaced its shock cord, nose
cone, and parachute after last week's shock cord separation. It
went up on a C6-3 in the same homemade 24mm to 18mm adaptor that
was used for the Sky Raider flights. Everything worked perfectly
this time and it landed quite close to the pad after touching
down on the gravel covered track & field track.
Flight 207, 82nd
flight this year
Estes Multi-Roc on an Estes B6-4 for its 7th flight
Flight 208, 83rd flight
this year
Estes Multi-Roc on an Estes B6-4 for its 8th flight
The next two flights were
my Estes Multi-Roc on single stage B6-4 flights to try and get an
accurate launch angle for a two stage flight so that I wouldn't
lose it on the roof of someone's house. The first flight went
well and so did the second except that two shroud lines separated
from the parachute. I decided to hold off launching Multi-Roc
again for awhile.
Flight 209, 84th
flight this year
Estes Athena on an Estes B6-4 for its 3rd flight
Athena was
up next on a B6-4 which was a surprise flight since the igniter
obviously lit and we both heard it, but there was no liftoff.
Assuming a misfire, I shut off the video camera and we started to
wait out the mandatory one minute. Good thing we did since the
damn thing took off like a shot about ten seconds afterwards! I
got video footage of it at its final coast near apogee and also
its recovery. At apogee, it arced over the top and it took awhile
before it ejected. Definitely a bonus delay on that motor.
Flight 210, 85th
flight this year
Estes Multi-Roc on an Estes B6-0 staging to an Estes B6-6 for its
9th flight
The winds were starting to
blow in my favor, so I decided to temporarily pirate Athena's
chute to go for a two stage flight on Multi-Roc using a B6-0/B6-6
combination. A great flight, but the winds shifted again while
the rocket was descending and it started drifting northeast and
it landed just within the recovery area.
Flight 211, 86th
flight this year
Estes Multi-Roc on an Estes B6-0 staging to an Estes B6-6 for its
10th flight
I decided to try another
flight with B6-0/B6-6 motors again, but I adjusted the launch
angle so that it would land closer to the pad and it did after a
perfect flight. I was tempted to go with a C6-0 in the booster,
but I didn't have any B6-6's left for the upper stage and I
didn't want to push my luck by putting a C6-7 in the upper stage
and risk losing my beloved seventeen year old rocket.
Flight 212, 87th
flight this year
Estes Cobra 1500 on an Estes C6-3 for its 7th flight
My eighteen
year old Cobra 1500 was up next on an Estes C6-3. It wasn't as
much of a pain to keep steady on the launch rod as it was last
week since the winds weren't quite as gusty. A bystander was
rather impressed with Cobra 1500's flight and he started asking
me questions about model rocketry in general.
Flight 213, 88th
flight this year
Estes Hijax on an Estes B14-5 for its 3rd flight
Hijax was up next with my
first ever use of a B14-5. This motor had just been discontinued
when I first started in the hobby back in 1981 and thanks to Jim
Stuckman's auction page, I was lucky enough to find a pack of
1973 vintage B14-5's. Watching this baby take off was like
watching that old U.S. Air Force footage of a Sprint missile
launch! The speed of motion to move the camera from ignition to
coast phase was virtually instantaneous. I literally couldn't
move the camera faster if I tried! I managed to keep the whole
flight in frame though. And this sucker was LOUD too! Louder than
a D12.
Flight 214, 89th
flight this year
Estes Gnome 001 on an Estes A10-3T for its 4th flight
My Estes Gnome was up for
the thirteenth and most disastrous flight of the day. It went up
on an A10-3T, but the nose cone didn't come off at ejection and
it came in for a very high speed lawn dart. The nose cone was
pitted from landing on gravel and the body tube was severely
dented in two places. The fin unit blasted forward up the body
tube over two inches and the motor plowed itself about half an
inch into the body tube along with it's motor retaining hook.
This isn't an Estes motor problem. I packed the wadding too tight
and I knew it, but I decided to go ahead with the anyway. Believe
it or not, Gnome will be able to fly again, despite the severe
damage.
Flight 215, 90th
flight this year
Estes Bandit on an Estes B14-5 for its 4th flight
Some
kids were starting to set up pylons & stuff for soccer
practice so I decided that for the last flight of the day, I just
had to see how Bandit would fly on one of my vintage B14-5's.
Another blast of a takeoff, but the winds carried it into
someone's yard and nearly into their inground swimming pool.
While no one was looking (or so I hoped) I hopped the chain link
fence with great effort (God, I'm in such lousy shape!), ran to
get my rocket, threw it over the fence, hopped back over, again
with great effort, and walked back to the launch site quite out
of breath.
Arrow
& Ninja didn't get to fly today since the day's flying was
cut a little short by soccer practice. Also, my scratch built X-3
02, a replacement two stage rocket that I originally designed and
built in 1982 (X-3 01) didn't get to fly today because in
finishing it the night before, I forgot one important part... THE
LAUNCH LUG!!! DOH!!! :-)
Questions?
Comments? Suggestions? Just to say Hi?
E-mail: kbedard@rocketryonline.com
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