Launch Report for Friday, August 5th, 2005

Location: Schoolyard of Ecole Polyvalente Louis-Philippe Pare in Chateauguay, Quebec, Canada

Local Temperature at Ground Level: 30.0 degrees C
Humidity: 49%
Wind Speed: ~15km/h
Wind Direction: NW


Some Interesting Statistics For This Launch...

Total Number of Flights Today: 11
Total Motor Power Used: 56 N-s
Most Powerful Motor Used Today: Estes C5-3 (9.5N-s)
Least Powerful Motors Used Today: Estes A8-3 (2.5N-s) and Quest A6-4(2.5N-s)
Number of Non-Estes Motors Used Today: 6
Number of Landings Outside Recovery Area: 1

 

 

 

Flight#
741

1st flight this year

Estes Challenger I 01
on an Estes A8-3 for its 16th flight

Time at Liftoff::

16:37:02
Flight Duration in Seconds: 14
Landing Distance in feet from the pad: 64 southeast
As is traditional when I start the flying year off, I launched my original Estes Challenger I on an Estes A8-3 just as I did back on May 22nd, 1981 during my first ever model rocket flight.  While prepping the rocket for flight, I noticed that some of the scotch tape that I had used 24 years ago to keep one of the decals from peeling had itself started peeling.  I stuck a piece of masking tape over it temporarily to secure it for the flight.  Now that I can easily reproduce the Challenger I decals, I'll take off all that old dried up tape, and I'll prime & paint its old & yellowing "no painting required" body tube after I reinforce the tube with some thin CA.  As always with this rocket, it was a nice flight although altitude was a little lower than I usually get out of this bird on an A8-3.

 


Flight#
742

2nd flight this year Estes Maniac
 on an Estes C5-3 for its 26th flight
Time at Liftoff::

16:46:55
Flight Duration in Seconds: 12
Landing Distance in feet from the pad: 74 northwest
Next up was my Estes Maniac on a C5-3.  Maniac was one of my early BAR rockets and its still one of my favourites.  I used a newly built 24 to 18mm adaptor since my old one has been long in the tooth for replacement.  The flight was nice as always, but an early ejection caused a small zipper in the upper body tube and the parachute lines tangled around the shock cord which made for a fast descent causing the motor retaining hook to dent inward on landing.

 

 

Flight#
743

3rd flight this year Estes Rampage
 on a Quest B6-4 for its 10th flight
Time at Liftoff::

16:53:49
Flight Duration in Seconds: 30
Landing Distance in feet from the pad: ~300 southeast
Another early BAR rocket to go up was my Estes Rampage on a Quest B6-4.  The higher initial thrust of the Quest motors reduced the weathercocking, but this was disadvantage in this case since the rocket drifted far on its chute right onto the school roof.  To date, this rocket has not been recovered yet.

 

 

Flight#
744

4th flight this year Custom Razor
 on a Quest A6-4 for its 6th flight
Time at Liftoff::

17:01:32
Flight Duration in Seconds: 14
Landing Distance in feet from the pad: 81 southeast
My Custom Razor hadn't flown in a few years so it was nice to send it up again.  A beautiful flight on a Quest A6-4.  Since the only 12" chute I had with me was now on the school roof, I switched to an 18" streamer which was a better choice for this rocket anyway.

 

Flight#
745

5th flight this year Custom Razor
 on an Estes B6-6 for its 7th flight
Time at Liftoff::

17:07:57
Flight Duration in Seconds: 20
Landing Distance in feet from the pad: 140 east
I decided to send up the Razor again, this time on an Estes B6-6.  Nice high altitude, uneventful flight.


 

Flight#
746

6th flight this year Custom Razor
 on an Estes B6-6 for its 8th flight
Time at Liftoff::

17:17:13
Flight Duration in Seconds: 21
Landing Distance in feet from the pad: 140 west
I sent the Razor up again on the same motor, same launch angle and this time it landed the same distance from the pad, but in the opposite direction!  Quite some screwy winds I had to work with today!

 

Flight#
747

7th flight this year Custom Razor
 on a Quest C6-5 for its 9th flight
Time at Liftoff::

17:25:32
Flight Duration in Seconds: 2
Landing Distance in feet from the pad: ~2 northwest


I decided to try for some altitude this time and I loaded my brand new Pratt Hobbies Microbeacon beeper into the rocket so that I'd be able to find it wherever it landed.  Unfortunately, my Quest C6-5 blew the back end of the rocket apart and severely damaged my new Microbeacon.  Good thing I bought two of them.


Flight#
748

8th flight this year Estes Rattler-7
 on a Quest A6-4 for its 9th flight
Time at Liftoff::

17:39:37
Flight Duration in Seconds: 10
Landing Distance in feet from the pad: 49 north
With the Custom Razor out of commission, it was time to move on to another rocket.  With the same streamer I used on the Razor, I sent up the Rattler-7 on a Quest A6-4 for a nice low altitude flight.

 


Flight#
749

9th flight this year Estes Rattler-7
 on a Quest B6-4 for its 10th flight
Time at Liftoff::

17:44:44
Flight Duration in Seconds: 19
Landing Distance in feet from the pad: 108 southeast
In my quest for my more altitude, I tried a Quest B6-4 next in the same rocket.

 

 

Flight#
750

10th flight this year Estes Rattler-7
 on an Estes B6-4 for its 11th flight
Time at Liftoff::

17:56:07
Flight Duration in Seconds: 17
Landing Distance in feet from the pad: 127 south southeast
I decided to try an Estes B6-4 to compare flight characteristics & flight times.  Not really a fair test though due to fluctuating wind conditions.  The flights ended up being close to the same length though.  The delay on the Estes B6-4 was probably about a second less than on the Quest motor.


 

Flight#
751

11th flight this year Estes Rattler-7
 on a Quest B6-4 for its 12th flight
Time at Liftoff::

18:04:33
Flight Duration in Seconds: 18
Landing Distance in feet from the pad: 140 southeast
To finish up this late afternoon of flying, I sent up the Rattler-7 again on another Quest B6-4.  Another nice flight.

 


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