Launch Report for Tuesday, July 20th, 1999

Being the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing (and since I'm on vacation this week), I wasn't going to let today go by without sending something up. The weather was the best for flying that I had seen this year. The sky was cloudless, temperature about 19 degrees Celsius (64 degrees F.) and the wind was very calm. My father & I went to our usual launch field on the school grounds of Howard S. Billings Regional High School here in Chateauguay, Quebec, Canada for our usual time of about 8:15 in the morning.

Today, I brought my Estes Challenger 1 02 (my second of two Challenger 1's), Maniac, Multi Roc, Quark, Mosquito, Dagger, Red Storm, Flash, Manta, and Athena, as well as my MRC Firefighter, and my scratch built Pyramid, and Arrow rockets.

As usual, my father was at the launch controls while I videotaped each flight. All motors used today were made by Estes unless otherwise specified.

Flight 245, 120th flight this year
Estes Challenger 1 02 on an Estes A8-3 for its 1st flight



Neither of my Saturn V's were completed, so I felt it was fitting to send up a new example of the first rocket that I'd ever flown, the Challenger 1. I was lucky enough to find a vintage Challenger 1 starter kit at Countdown Hobbies and haven't seen one before or since. It's boost was straight as an arrow on an A8-3 and recovery was perfect with no damage for its first ever flight. The two spectators that were present were quite impressed.

Flight 246, 121st flight this year
Estes Maniac on an Estes C6-3 for its 6th flight



Maniac was up next on a C6-3 in a homemade 24mm to 18mm adaptor for its sixth flight. About a dozen or so pre-teen kids arrived on bikes to watch this flight. It seems I get more & more spectators every time I come here to launch! :-) Maniac impressed everyone with its noisy "C" flight and recovery was perfect and close to the pad. Again, no damage.

Flight 247, 122nd flight this year
Estes Athena on a Quest A6-4 for its 4th flight



Athena took to the skies next on a Quest A6-4 for its fourth flight. I had to peel the label off just to fit the motor into the rocket. Another great flight although the ejection charge fused my parachute slightly in several places. The liftoff was noisier than most "A"'s I've heard before. When I got home, I checked the thrust/time curve of the Quest A6 and I found out that it actually does have a higher initial thrust than the Estes A8's. I guess that's why A6's sound more like A10's!

Flight 248, 123rd flight this year
Estes Multi-Roc on an Estes B6-0 staging to an Estes B6-6 for its 11th flight



One of the kids asked me "Could you launch this one next?" so Multi Roc was next with a B6-0 in the booster staging to a B6-6 in the upper stage for its 11th flight. The kids were really impressed to see a two stage rocket. The booster landed about three feet away from the pad and the upper stage landed quite close as well. Another great flight with no damage.

Flight 249, 124th flight this year
Estes Red Storm on an Estes C6-5 for its 5th flight



Someone asked me to launch Red Storm next so up it went on a C6-5 for its fifth flight with a really cool boost with the smoke trail blowing over and past me and the camera for a really cool effect. Nice recovery a hundred feet or so from the pad followed by about half a dozen youngsters chasing it! :-)

Flight 250, 125th flight this year
Scratch built Pyramid on an Estes C6-3 for its 3rd flight

My scratch built Pyramid was a design that came out of the December 1981 issue of Model Rocketeer and I built it in 1982. Today, it went up on a C6-3 for only its third flight and it left an incredible smoke plume from the base drag. With the whole rocket painted in bumper chrome paint, the whole rocket gleamed like a jewel as it went up, including the base giving it an eerie UFO style glow to the base. Very cool flight with no damage and a landing about thirty feet from the pad.

Flight 251, 125th flight this year
Estes Flash on an Estes B6-4 for its 3rd flight


	Flash went up on a B6-4 for its third flight with a great boost and a nice soft landing... in an Austrian pine tree (the pine trees with those really big long porcupine style needles)... DOH!!! Two of the kids that were chasing the rocket downrange immediately started climbing the tree (wish I could still do that) and one of them actually managed to get the rocket back! Thanks Mark!

Flight 252, 126th flight this year
MRC Firefighter on an Estes 1/2A3-2T for its 1st flight



My audience (and my recovery crew, apparently) had to leave since they were called by their group leader. I'm not sure what kind of group they were part of, but they had to leave at any rate. With only the two adult spectators that were there from the beginning, I launched my still unpainted Firefighter on a 1/2A3-2T in a homemade 18mm to 13mm adaptor for its first flight and my first ever flight of an MRC (Model Rectifier Corporation) rocket. Very straight boost and a perfect streamer recovery about fifteen feet from the pad with no damage.


	Mosquito was up next on a new 1/4A3-3T for its second flight. It's so nice to now be able to get this rocket back without having to search three hours for it! :-)

At this point, we had to pack and leave since that group leader came back with the kids (without the bikes this time... I guess they went to lock them up somewhere) and a bunch of hula hoops and they were going to have some kind of Olympics thing in my recovery area with over 200 kids. Too bad since I really wanted to try and send Multi Roc up again with a Cox D8-0 in the booster and an Estes C6-7 in the upper stage. Would have been great!! :-)

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