May 16, 1998 Launch Report

Contributed by Chris Gillham

The St. Louis Rocketry Association held a model rocketry launch at the Creve Coeur Polo Field on Saturday, May 16th, 1998. It was decided early on that this would be an informal launch run by the club due to the fact that we had to park on one end of the Polo Field and walk all the gear to the other end due to wind conditions. New landscaping along the bike/running path prevented anyone from parking at the launch end. Never the less, quite a few people made the trek and it was well worth it. The wind a little breezy in the early afternoon but died down to almost nothing by three or four o'clock. Bruce Weidner and Chris Gillham manned the launch controller and barked out rocket launches as the PA was also forgone.

There were several new flyers, young and old. Farthest travelled was probably the folks from Rolla, MO. Bruce said that they routinely drive the distance to attend our launches. Thanks for coming up and I know they had a great time. We chose not to use flight cards but still managed to put up over thirty flights I am sure. I brought a new AstroCam which on the first launch hit the ground by the railroad tracks and busted into a bunch of pieces. Many thanks to Dave Daven for finding the film advance wheel in the rocks! I managed to CA-ZAP the camera back together for five more flights. I have four good pictures. Mostly of the bean fields but I did get the road in one and the bike path in another. I just missed getting our launch site. Maybe next time.

Best named rockets go to Bill Souers who put up several great flights on his Shitawkwa Charlie and Red Pagoda rockets. There were so many new, pre-built kits out Saturday that many of us veterans didn't recognize them and had trouble calling them during launching but they all flew great. Some of them included: Estes Tidal Wave, Sizzler, Death Star (Bruce loved that one) and more... Craziest rockets were a Sizzler with an Apogee D motor. It proved to be very unstable and went on a wild ride in the field looping and jerking, bouncing off the ground and looping some more. The seven second burn lasted forever it seemed. Also, there was a scale missile of some kind that went ballistic and blasted through the big trees just over the road and railroad tracks. One small rocket came in fast and struck a passing Honda. The Honda kept going and didn't seem to notice but I don't think the rocket flew again. Great flights for the three Astrocams, the Fatboys, Rob's big camo missle and the one rocket with a load of baby powder in it. It was unique at deployment. :) Sorry I can't recall all the names. Again, many thanks to everyone who attended.

It was a great day. The streamers shown brightly and the tracking smoke was clearly visible. Hopefully the weather will be as good for next month's contest and launch. I have attached a photo of Bruce launching a rocket. I happened to get both him and the rocket in the same photo during launch. I think it turned out great and Bruce was great to do most of the LCO duties.