April 2024
April 2024 Launch Report
A crazy day of flying! The weather forecast was for light winds. WRONG! It was a pretty solid breeze around 15mph most of the time. It also took a few direction shifts, and at times seemed to melt away for a few moments. So those of us that came to fly some large rockets were disappointed. The ARC kids however put on quite a show!
Engine totals:
10 – 1/2A Engines
17 – A Engines
25 – B Engines
11 – C Engines
3 – D Engines
3 – E Engines
35 – F Engines
3 – G Engines
Total of 107 engines on 104 flights. A record high for F motors, thanks mostly to the ARC flights.
Once again, the ARC teams were out in force. Their submission deadline is Monday, so this day was their last chance to qualify. Not much was going to stop them, including a little wind. We saw some interesting “concepts,” but they were trying, so I give them credit. Looking at the cards, I think there were 10 teams flying. 30 of those F flights were for ARC. 7 flights were disqualified for various reasons, which isn’t bad considering the conditions. At one point, they decided the rocket-eating trees were too close, so they moved the pads across the field. Then the wind shifted and some rockets went into the bramble. So it was hard to win, but there were a few nice looking flights. I didn’t see any numbers, but wish them all luck in the final rankings.
In other news… It was our Easter celebration as well. The Easter Bunny made his appearance and had a basket of eggs with goodies inside. One lucky “kid” took home a rocket kit! Many others took home some candy. Thanks Mr. Easter Bunny! In tribute to Mr. Bunny, Eric converted a Leaper into an “Easter Bunny Leaper.” It flew just as well as any other Leaper. We’ll leave it at that.
Other flights of note: Spencer and Lainey both flew a few different rockets a bunch of times, and to fairly great success. Nice going kids! Eric flew 4 out of his 6 new Pirate Max series of rockets. That curse’d wind a-blowin’ left him shakin’ to his keel, so the larger 2 will have to await a more favorable weather glass. Brian C. risked (or was dared) to fly his Der Rust Max on a G motor. He didn’t lose the rocket. Knows right where it went. Unfortunately, it is resting at an elevation that is unreachable to mortal man. But it’s not alone. The trees were well decorated with flying paraphernalia.
Neil’s “Bullet Bobby XXL” took to the sky in an effort to test some special parachutes that Neil had made. The Kermit chute looked nice, even if he wouldn’t face the crowd. The second flight took a little wind direction and unfortunately didn’t get high enough for deployment to happen before hitting the ground with a big thud. (There is no way it could have been an earthquake, right?) But Neil showed off the Happy Meal fries chute, and a large green round chute anyway. I look forward to seeing these and others that Neal has at LDRS in June.
Thanks to Joe at Rocketship Games, who braved the winds to pitch his tent and store. Always nice to have the store on the field. Joe also helped on some search and recover missions. He reports the remains of at least 8 rockets were located, besides the ones he was hunting. The bramble takes good rockets, and returns parts. Sometimes.
2 special shout outs: Brian aka “Poohbah” for being able to attend despite his discomfort from recent surgery. This took some extra effort on his part, as well as assistance from Brian’s wife Martha and son Kevin (thanks to both as well). Brian was able to assume most of the MC/LCO duties, and offer up his expert advice to many. Always appreciated, but especially under this circumstance.
A special thanks also goes to Charlie. I can’t even tell you how much time and effort that Charlie gives to the ARC teams each year (which grows every year). I can’t tell you because much of his time is given outside of the launches when no one else is involved. But I do know it must be many hours, plus miles traveled to various locations to support teams that have a field, but need a NAR witness or guidance. And those in attendance the last few launches see how his time on the field is spent almost entirely devoted to helping these teams with their flights. This kind of support is invaluable to the kids competing, and there aren’t too many others in the state that they can turn to. Without Charlie, most of these teams that we see this time of year, and some that we don’t see, would not be able to participate in ARC. Not only does this seed the future for these kids, but also the future of CENJARS and the hobby of rocketry in general since some of these kids and families continue on with the hobby after the competition. So again – Thank you Charlie!!
Pictures are in the Gallery.
Note that we have some outreach events coming up in April and May. It's always fun to work with the kids, and all are welcome. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the website, or directly if you have those addresses.
Next launch should be May 5th. Lots to celebrate then. Cinco de Mayo. Star Wars Day (“May the 4th be with you”). Mother’s Day. And hopefully, much better flying conditions!
Well, that's different... Usually the "C" motor dominates our launches, but not this time around. (T)hanks to the (T)ARC teams, the F motor dominated this day, which is much different from our usual launches. But the rocket carnage was evident if you looked up at the trees. We have 3 days of rain coming up, I predict my "Der Rust Max" will be thrown from it's current perch if the rain comes down with sufficient force.
And it is with great irony that I *will* be in the neighborhood next weekend for Vintage Computer Faire, so I'm going to check and see if Der Rust Max is on the ground, or at least halfway down when I hit Infoage.
Quite a few <A, A's too. Not so many D & E's. That's all a sign of high winds.
I launched a medium high small rocket on a streamer that went straight up, and still landed over by the trees. Crazy.
If I get a chance to get down there, I'll have a look. I fear that if it hits the grass, it will soon be in the trash.
Quote from Brian C. on April 8, 2024, 9:21 pmWell, that's different... Usually the "C" motor dominates our launches, but not this time around. (T)hanks to the (T)ARC teams, the F motor dominated this day, which is much different from our usual launches. But the rocket carnage was evident if you looked up at the trees. We have 3 days of rain coming up, I predict my "Der Rust Max" will be thrown from it's current perch if the rain comes down with sufficient force.
And it is with great irony that I *will* be in the neighborhood next weekend for Vintage Computer Faire, so I'm going to check and see if Der Rust Max is on the ground, or at least halfway down when I hit Infoage.
I haven't been to InfoAge/VCF in ages. After MARCH was absorbed into VCF, it became much to dweebish for me. Too many 8-bit toy and gamer aficionados for my liking. They personally hurt me as I had given MARCH Andy Goldstein's MicroVAX-II from the DEC museum and it went from display to mothballed to cannibalized. There was too much DEC history destroyed there. Sorry but I can't forgive them that.
Quote from Admin on April 9, 2024, 9:40 amI haven't been to InfoAge/VCF in ages. After MARCH was absorbed into VCF, it became much to dweebish for me. Too many 8-bit toy and gamer aficionados for my liking. They personally hurt me as I had given MARCH Andy Goldstein's MicroVAX-II from the DEC museum and it went from display to mothballed to cannibalized. There was too much DEC history destroyed there. Sorry but I can't forgive them that.
Not get off-topic, but I'm not a big fan of the current group running VCF either. It's (ironically) getting too mainstream as the retro-computing crowd has gotten big, as a result, it's lost its "club" feel, and has become too rigid, and there's few people left that I know. That said, I do like seeing the displays, and I used to sell some of my stuff. This year however, I'm just going to give away some early DOS software crap I have sitting in the basement just to clear up some space. To "sell" anything, I have to register in advance and list all my items in an online database. Too formal. If I'm doing all that work, I might as well eBay it and get double the money.
But that's a story for another time.
I also wanted to commend Charlie for putting in such a significant effort with the ARC teams. Rarely in history has one person worked so tirelessly to help so many young people separate their nosecones from their rockets!
Thank you Joe. It is just something that I enjoy doing. I hope to be better at it next year.
So with the heavy rain and wind that passed through last night, I went rocket hunting at the field a little while ago. I found and recovered the pictured rocket parts. The rusty rocket looks like it may fly again. The red one, ahhh... no. It's a soggy mess. The yellow one is also soggy, but with some glue and a nose cone, it might fly again. Depends on how it dries out.
I could not reach what was in the trees, but can report the presence of the following:
- 2 ARC rockets, complete.
- 1 orange streamer and nose cone (above the pictured yellow rocket)
- 1 yellow parachute and nose cone (above the pictured red soggy mess)
- 1 neon green parachute (in the tree of the front yard of the house where the rusty rocket was found)
- 1 Red parachute and white/red nose cone belonging to "Snarky v1.0" that has been in that tree for the last 2.5 years
I had my high reach retrieval pole, and a 6ft bamboo extension, but I was about 20ft too short for reaching all this stuff.
You may pick up your retrieved debris at the next launch, or by prior appointment with me.
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Quote from Eric Becher on April 12, 2024, 2:14 pmSo with the heavy rain and wind that passed through last night, I went rocket hunting at the field a little while ago. I found and recovered the pictured rocket parts. The rusty rocket looks like it may fly again. The red one, ahhh... no. It's a soggy mess. The yellow one is also soggy, but with some glue and a nose cone, it might fly again. Depends on how it dries out.
I could not reach what was in the trees, but can report the presence of the following:
- 2 ARC rockets, complete.
- 1 orange streamer and nose cone (above the pictured yellow rocket)
- 1 yellow parachute and nose cone (above the pictured red soggy mess)
- 1 neon green parachute (in the tree of the front yard of the house where the rusty rocket was found)
- 1 Red parachute and white/red nose cone belonging to "Snarky v1.0" that has been in that tree for the last 2.5 years
I had my high reach retrieval pole, and a 6ft bamboo extension, but I was about 20ft too short for reaching all this stuff.
You may pick up your retrieved debris at the next launch, or by prior appointment with me.
None of that is mine but thanks doing this!
Did you encounter any of the property owners while you recovering this stuff?
No, I avoided the humans. I had on my ghillie suit and moved about the brush making 10ft per hour. No one ever saw me. 2 dogs did pee on my arm, and a racoon took a nap on my butt... but I don't think they even knew I was there!
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