Launch report 8/9/03--8/10/03 (or...FSSHHHH!)

Saturday the 10th dawned bright and clear and rather cool for the second week in August, with but a gentle breeze. A perfect day for flying, in other words, a real MC2 kinda day. PJ and I got our usual late start and didn't leave Lyles until 9:45, and following a stop for grunts at Kroger and for motors at Hobby Town (and something else...more later) and the usual traffic morass around Manchester we finally got to the field at about 12:30. A brief stuggle to put up our new canopy ensued, and I uttered a few choice words Peej had never heard before, but finally we were settled and got to prepping some rockets.

We knew we weren't going to be able to stay long. I'd promised PJ I'd take him to the movies too (Spy Kids 3D) so we had 3 hours or so to putz around. I figured with the crowd--surprisingly large for August and so soon after NARAM--we'd be lucky to get four or five flights in, and we managed four. We got our Big Red Bertha off on a D12, followed by a Big Daddy on an E9, then our AstroCam on a C6. We'll post a link to the pictures should any prove worthwhile.

The hybrids were the big show, as always, and there were several flying, but it was a non-flight that took the prize for most spectacular. Chuck Pierce had the most amazing CATO that took a great big bite out of one of his monsters, a real pity. I'm not sure if this was the one that lifted off the pad, then gracefully settled back down to the ground or not. In any event, they were fun to watch from a spectator's point of view anyway, and Chuck was most gracious in posing for pictures afterward. Someone also had a V2 drift into the trees just to the west of the field as we arrived, and just as we were getting ready for our last flight Walt Stafford had the exact same thing happen to his own V2! Something about V2s and conifers, I guess. He managed to retrieve his bird, fortunately. PJ was there to "supervise" the recovery, and I hope at least he stayed out of the way. He was quite amazed at how "that man just climbed right up that tree, Daddy!" Despair will do that to a man, I suppose. If it had been my rocket and my motor, I guarantee I'd have been up there too! There was also a pretty good prang of what looked like (but almost certainly wasn't) a stretched Big Daddy. It kicked the motor and went ballistic and after the rather severe impact it wasn't quite so stretched anymore...but as always, everyone took the few mishaps with good humor. I reckon it was just too nice a day to get too upset at anything.

Anyway, we finished up with our CC Express, staging a C11 to a C11. Kinda wimpy, but I did have some C11 boosters to burn. They actually did quite well in the relatively calm conditions; though the boost seemed a bit weak the sustainer did pretty well. WRASP said just shy of 900' and I reckon that was pretty close even though I don't have WRASP specs on the CC. I figured a Black Brant II would be pretty close.

Speaking of Black Brants, David Logan had a super NICE scratch built BB on the rack just as we were leaving. Wish we could've seen that one fly! DL, you'll have to let us know how it went. I'm no expert on scale models but I know what I like, and that was quite a gorgeous paint job. Also, Stymie flew his "Stormcluster", which did pretty well even though only two of the three motors lit. Someone had a Mean Machine which flew really nicely, and there was a mini (6") flying saucer that was pretty neat as well. I will have to get one of those. Also a Skywinder, which we saw flown twice, the helicopter recovery working perfectly both times. A neat little bird, that. For our part, we had our "Deuces Wild" and an ARV Condor ready to go, but we just ran out of time. Maybe next month...as it was we just made it back to Franklin as the "coming attractions" were rolling. Great timing.

After the show we were going to head back over to Hobby Town. See, we'd not only picked up motors on our earlier visit, but a Quest MMX Saturn V kit as well. I had been intrigued by these tiny things and had decided to plunk down the $16 or so for the set...it was my birthday, after all. Looking at it off and on through the day had me convinced it was kinda cheesy looking, however, and I was ready to take it back and swap it for a Comanche-3 it fact, but PJ insisted we keep it. I love it, he said, it's so cute! Really, he said that. Then the capsule and nose cone broke off the piston when we took it out of the box. The upper launch lug broke off as well. I felt a little justification in my initial assessment of "cheesy" at that point, at least so far as the rocket was concerned. The launcher, on the other hand, really WAS cute, and those tee-niny motors...no way could they produce enough power to loft even a small rocket, right? Right?

Heck, it was all out of the box anyway. No returning it now. So we glued on the broken parts, stuck a 9 volt battery in the hockey-puck sized launcher, and loaded a motor. Peej did a five count and pressed the button.

FSSHHHH! That's the sound it made: FSSHHHH! Holy spit! The little goober must've gotten 80-100 feet up. Unbelievable! And, need I add, utterly cool! The piston popped the streamer perfectly and the rocket came down gently within 15 feet of the launcher...exactly as advertised. We couldn't load a second motor fast enough.

FSSHHHH! This one wasn't quite as successful, the motor kicking out the back (probably I didn't have the retaining catch set correctly) and the rocket became a tiny little lawn dart. Prying it up out of the ground broke the nose cone back off of the piston, but what the heck, we glued it once, we can glue it again. We did, and it will fly again, as soon as we can find a source for motors (Hobby Town didn't have any). Quest really has a neat gimmick with this set; I just hope they continue to support it now that I--we--have discovered it!

James Reyome NAR 81902 Lyles, TN

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James Reyome
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James, she flew great!! Only one little bit of damage, a 3 inch scratch on one of the fins caused by one of the antennae. Nothing a paint pen can't fix. I used a 30 inch chute in her, and had thought about using a 36 inch. I'm glad I didn't. She landed about 100 yards out in the field, but the decent was so slow and graceful, I think a 36 inch would have taken her away. I wish you could have seen my last flight, a 29mm minimum diameter,

28 inch tall scratch built on an F20-7. Jason asked what I had named it, and one word popped into my head, "Gone". It lived up to it's name too!! Last I saw of it, it had reached apogee, and arched into the side of a cloud. Another flier said he saw it come out the other side, and that it had separated. I had so much chalk line powder in it, he probably just saw a huge red cloud. I was hoping for a slight chance of recovery, but, not Saturday. I'll build another for the next launch, and this time, a large mylar streamer should work a little better. I'm going to keep trying till I can recover one from 3500ft without electronics. I'm thinking of calling the next one, "Gone again" :-) David NAR#79313
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Dlogan

Try Commonwealth Displays for MMX motors At

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Mark A Palmer TRA 08542 L3

James Reyome wrote:

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Mark A Palmer

A couple weeks ago I saw some MMX sets at KB. ANd just before NARAM I finally scored some A10-P motors at Meijer. No cars in site...

Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!

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Bob Kaplow

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