SLRA Launch Report - Feb. 19, 2000
Tom McAtee

Overcast skies and a westerly breeze (toward Creve Coeur Lake) were the rule for the February 19 launch. The field was soggy due to heavy rains earlier in the week, and low-lying areas had standing water. Despite the conditions, we had a good turnout, with around 25 flyers, who made a total of 75 flights. The day also marked our first competition of the year.

We had a couple of new flyers join us for (I think) the first time, Dave Aston and Matt Mahoney. Welcome, guys! Troy Manzella also made an appearance and put in several good flights with his Banshee. Lane Douglas was the most frequent flyer, putting up 8 flights during the day. Mitchell Walsh made several good flights with his Snitch UFO. Mike Walsh Jr. flew the day's smallest rocket, his Micro-Maxx Saturn, along with his Barracuda.

Dave and Emily Mulawa also put up several flights, including the old standby Fat Boy. Kevin Souers wins the cluster award for a good flight of his modified Phoenix with a D12-5 plus four C6's - spectacular! Chris, Matt, and John Pennington all put in flights. John added to his fleet of scale models of Orbital Sciences rockets with a good-flying Pegasus XL. RMR regular Dan Schneider brought out a new Tomahawk Cruise Missile for a good flight. Along with their contest flights, the McCoys (Amanda, Greg, and Jeff) and the Sears family (Peter, Timothy, and Michael) put up several good sport flights.

The contest began with selection of a target time for Random Duration, by drawing a number from a hat. The target time of 65 seconds caused some groans, since it looked like a 65-second flight might go for a swim in Creve Coeur Lake. Paul Graf put up a promising flight, but was disqualified due to ejection of his engine. Newcomer Lane Douglas made a great flight of 73 seconds to take the gold medal.

Krista Brown and Chad Ring, flying as the Two Launch Crue team, joined us from Indiana. They put in a good showing, taking second in Random Duration, as well as first in B Streamer with a fantastic 313-second flight. (That's right, over five minutes.) This may set a new U.S. record in Team Division. This flight, as well as many of the other good ones, ended up in the lake. John Buckley took second in B SD with two consistent flights, also losing a model to the lake. Jeff McCoy and Timothy Sears followed up in third and fourth place. Ron Hale put up a good qualified flight for contest points.

Paul Graf had a nice looking clone of the old original Flat Cat design, and put up a good flight for A Boost-Glide. Unfortunately, the lake claimed it, so Paul could only get flight points. Tom McAtee lost his foam-wing Delta Sierra to the lake on a 133-second flight, but was able to fly a backup model for a returned flight to take first place. John Buckley again made two consistent flights for second place, with Michael Sears third with his veteran Mini Golden Girl. Jeff McCoy put in a good first flight with his Deltie, but was shot down by the Red Baron on his second flight (i.e. the glider tangled with the pod streamer), resulting in fourth place. Lane Douglas improvised well, flying his ARV Condor with a single glider for a good qualified flight.

Contest Results
Random Duration - (Target = 65 sec)
                                        Time         Error
1) Lane Douglas                    73              8
2) 2 Launch Crue                  40             25
3) John Buckley                   39             26
    Jeff McCoy                    39             26
4) Timothy Sears                 34             31
Mark Geislinger                   34             31
FP (Flight Points) - Tom McAtee, Michael Sears, Bruce Weidner
WF (Weighting Factor) = 10

B SD                                         Flt 1        Flt 2     Total
1) 2 Launch Crue                         313*         4        327
2) John Buckley                          152         77        229
3) Jeff McCoy                             65         65        130
4) Timothy Sears                          37         37          73
* Possible U.S. Record, Team Division
FP - Lane Douglas, Ron Hale, Tom McAtee
WF (Weighting Factor) = 9

A BG                                                 Flt 1     Flt 2       Total
1) Tom McAtee                                  130       25          155
2) John Buckley                                  79       31            110
3) Michael Sears                                 57       38           95
4) Jeff McCoy                                     70       20           90
FP - Timothy Sears, Lane Douglas, Paul Graf, 2 Launch Crue
WF (Weighting Factor) = 18

                                    Overall Points
1) John Buckley                 404
2) Tom McAtee                 398
3) 2 Launch Crue               336
4) Lane Douglas                 254
Jeff McCoy                        224
Michael Sears                    164
Timothy Sears                    112
Mark Geislinger                    40
Paul Graf                              36
Bruce Weidner                     20
Ron Hale                              18

SLRA Total 1632
(Includes only top 8 SLRA scores)