Quote from Eric Becher on March 4, 2024, 4:39 pm

March 2024 Launch Report

One of the best days for a launch in recent memory! Light winds, clear skies, and mild temperatures. Plenty of folks came out to watch and to fly.

Engine totals:

0 – 1/2A Engines

16 – A Engines

17 – B Engines

38 – C Engines

15 – D Engines

11 – E Engines

24 – F Engines

4 – G Engines

Total of 125 engines on 115 flights. I only have stats back through 2022, but both of those numbers are records! 38 C motors is also a record high, for any class motor in fact. While we don’t count attendance, it looked like a record crowd as well, with another handful of new attendees. Welcome all!

View Launch Statistics

Again, the ARC teams were out in force. Their competition season ends in April, so it is getting to be crunch time and they are getting in their last practice or qualifying flights. Another stat for those that are counting – of the 24 “F” flights, 17 were ARC flights. I think there were 4 teams flying with us. Good luck to you all! More improvements were noted as nearly all of their flights were more stable and higher fliers that earlier in their season.

The perfect weather brought out a few boosters, some clusters, and a bunch of high fliers. It was a good day for it. Top cluster goes to David B. with his “Fireball XL-5” with it’s 5 engine cluster (all C6’s). Honorable mention to Dan with a 3-stage flying saucer using a D12, C6, and A10 engines. The best part of all this is that I believe everyone got all their rockets back. None lost to the trees or lakes that I am aware of. A few were returned in more pieces than planned however.

So yes, there were a few spectacular CATO’s, but I don’t think any were via the infamous Estes E12’s. If you stayed late, you saw Jeff’s nice Katana Jr. light off in a pretty big fireball. (sorry Jeff) A few others suffered “rapid unplanned disassembly” as well. Sometimes you can’t foresee these things and never find out why it happened.

But we did also see a handful of separations after ejection. Note: these events can be hazardous to cars and people. We should do what we can to ensure this is not something that happens often. Check your shock cords before flight. Give them a little pull to make sure they are anchored at both ends and knots are secure. If they are elastic, check the condition of the cord and don’t launch if they seem to be too brittle or coming apart. Finally, for you higher power fliers, note that nylon cords, often supplied in kits, is not very fire/heat resistant. Either shield the cord from ejection gasses, or use Kevlar. Remember – you don’t want to pay for damage to anyone’s car, or their noggin, because you didn’t take a few seconds to check something as easy as the shock cord or eye bolt.

Another observance, and potentially even more damaging, was a smaller handful of lawn darts. This can happen for several reasons. Some causes are preventable. Make sure the nose cone and parachute is loose enough to eject easily. For most of us that use single deploy via engine ejections, the timing is critical. Be careful when using delays over 5 seconds, as many flights don’t coast much longer than that before hitting the ground. The goal is to eject at apogee where the speed is low and doesn’t result in separations or ejection after landing.

But there were plenty of great flights all afternoon, on a wide variety of rockets. Neil brought some really cool rockets, as usual, including his large Saturn V and Mercury Redstone. Neil also entertained us with a pair of new chutes he was trying out – shaped like a dinosaur skull and a Christmas tree. Very cool Neil!

Thanks to Joe at Rocketship Games, who kept us well supplied, and offered some nice options to replace any damaged rockets. FYI, there is a good chance we’ll see Joe at the next launch too.

Pictures are in the Gallery.

Next launch COULD be April 7^th. That is the last day for ARC competition, so we want to offer that opportunity. It is also close to the big solar eclipse on April 8^th, which a number of Club leadership is traveling to observe. And of course, there is weather to contend with. Stay tuned!