January 20, 1996 Launch Report

Contributed by Tom McAtee

Our first launch of the year, on Saturday, January 20, took place in a fairly heavy snowstorm. Snow started to fall as the equipment was being set up, and was falling heavily by the time we started flying. It takes a serious rocket flyer (or seriously deranged?) to fly in this kind of weather, and we had several show up: Chad Rogers, Jack, Joe, and Peter Hollister, Dave Kuntzman, and Tom McAtee.

We put up a total of about 17 flights, from 1/2A Scouts to a D-powered Shadow. With the temperature at about 27 deg., plastic parachutes were not recommended, but streamers, nylon chutes, and tumble recovery Scouts worked fine. Visibility was adequate as long as altitude was kept to under 300-500 feet.

Dave Kuntzman had an original tube-stabilized rocket which amazed all of us by being only marginally unstable. Dave pushed the edge of the altitude envelope with a C5-3 powered Space Racer, resulting in an out-of-sight flight. We tried to find it but were unsuccessful; it may have been covered up by falling snow.

The Hollisters confounded the laws of probability again with their A10 - powered Mosquito; again it disappeared from view but was spotted on the ground by Chad Rogers. Chad's own ring-fin rocket, repaired from its last outing, didn't like the weather and suffered a structural failure at ejection.

Our next launch is February 17; site is TBD.