After a rainout on August 31st, we rescheduled this event and flew last Sunday, Sept. 21, from the city airport of Ellinwood, Kansas (110 miles northwest of Wichita). This is a little grass/ gravel field (FAA ID 1K6) with great town backing that we've been using for 5 or 6 years now. The waiver was for 10,000 AGL.
My hat is off to our friendly airspace staffer in the FAA Central Region office in KC, Donna O'Neill. She turned around a new waiver for a rescheduled HPR launch in record time - only about
2 weeks. We were kind of thin on flyers but had a good time, flew everything from 1/4A to J power. Just to prove that NAR trustees actually fly rockets, I made 7 launches myself - which is more than I've done in a single day of fun flying since at least 1987 - I have logbooks going back that far. Had great fun with my goofy-looking FlisKits Acme (the crooked rocket) which flew straight as a string 3 times, on C11-3 and D12-3.Other highlights:
- The weather. Anybody who's been to or through Kansas knows that there's not much here to stop wind except for barbed-wire fences on the Oklahoma and Nebraska borders - and the Oklahoma one is down. Despite that reputation, we had near dead-calm conditions Sunday morning, topping out at about 3 mph. In the afternoon, the skies cleared and we traded overcast for about 10 mph winds. Temperature around 70 made it a nearly perfect day for rocket flying.
- Duane Lanterman of Great Bend flew a series of HPR or near- HPR flights, including:
- A flawless cluster of 4 E9-6's.
- A really nice 4" model on an I205.
- A Mini-Mag on a Pro-38 Smoky Sam motor that really moved. I was surprised at how fast it ignited and headed out.
- Tom Freeman of Wichita flew a 4" Patriot on a Pro-38 J330 that registered 4515 feet on its altimeter. Very nice flight! It landed behind some hay bales about a half mile from the pad.
- We flew two classes of "Kansas Rocket Drags" with 2.6" models on E9s and 1.6" models on D12s. Can't remember who won, but there were 6 entries in the E9 class and a small field of 3 in the D12 class. What's different about Kansas-style rocket drags, you ask? Well, here's the story:
- Scoring is different - it's still 3 points, but it's one point for
- We have developed a "Christmas Tree" for starts. It is equipped with first-off and foul (jump start) detection, courtesy of club member and electronics tech Keith Ravenstein.
Next Ellinwood Airport Launch: Probably March 2004 - not yet scheduled.
Next KOSMO Wichita Launch: October 5, 2003 at Lake Afton Park. 2700 AGL, 3.3 lbs, 125 grams propellant.
Mark Johnson KOSMO Advisor