SLRA Launch Report – May 20, 2000 – Buder Park
Contributed by Claude Paquin

 

Light breeze and a comfortable temperature of 80°F made this a great day for flying rockets.  We had 31 flyers present, who cumulated 84 flights.  The first flight of the day belongs to Michael Sears who launched an Estes Fatboy on a C6-3 for a nominal flight.

 

Lane Douglas flew his trusty Aerotech Initiator on various motor combinations, including an Aerotech G80 for a loud flight. Lane was not so lucky with his Quest X-30, which caught fire on the pad.  Rob Fisher was the most frequent flyer, putting up 9 flights during the day. Rob flew an old Estes Comet built in 1985 several times on C6-7 motors.  He also flew his Astrocam twice. He was followed by Katyee Buckley with 7 flights, most of them on an Estes Fatboy.

 

David and Michael Oldroyd were also busy, logging a total of 9 flights on a variety of rockets.  Lewis Robinson flew several scratch-built rockets on Estes motors

 

There was no official contest that day, but James Hegarty got the “Closest to the LCO table” award by landing his Estes Yankee only two feet from the table.

 

Motors burned during the day:

 

Micro Maxx                 1

1/4A                            1

1/2A                            7

A                                 25

B                                  10

C                                 25

D                                 9

E                                  2

F                                  2

G                                 2

 

For a total of 1,016 n-s.  Lane Douglas contributed 320 n-s to this total, earning him the first place in propellant consumption for the day.   Michael Ludwig brought some his creations, including a “Saturnian”, which he built using old Estes Plans and the “Zeta Phi Beta” built from Centuri plans.  Both rockets had good flights. 

 

Mike Walsh Sr. had the only two-stage flight of the day, launching a rocket called “BB Rocker plus two” on a C6-0 staging to a C6-3.  John Buckley flew his Edmonds Aerospace rocket glider twice under A power.  On his second flight the glider looped into the ground but fortunately it survived the incident.  John returned later in the day to fly an Estes Shadow on an E18 motor (John, that’s almost high power!).

 

Yours truly launched his sub-mosquito for the third time on a micro Maxx motor.  We all lost track of the rocket but fortunately someone found it later in the afternoon. Thanks for not stepping on it!

 

The range shut down at 5:40 PM after a great afternoon of flying. Thanks to all who participated for a real fun event.  It is always inspiring to see the craftsmanship and creativity displayed during these launches.

 

 

Flight Cards Summary:

 

Name

Flight #

Manuf.

Kit/Rocket Name

# of Motors

Manuf.

Designation

Michael Sears

1

Estes

Fatboy

1

Estes

C6-3

Tim Sears

2

Estes

AMRAAM

1

Estes

B6-4

Mary Kate Douglas

3

Custom

Big Betty

1

Estes

B6-4

Claude Paquin

4

Estes

Moondog

1

Estes

C6-5

Mary Kate Douglas

5

Estes

Mach 12

1

Estes

B6-4

Mike Walsh Jr

6

Estes

Gemini DC

1

Estes

C6-3

Mary Kate Douglas

7

QCR

Bat Ball

1

Estes

D12-3

Claude Paquin

8

Scratch

Sub Mosquito

1

Quest

Micro Maxx

Tim Sears

9

Estes

Bull Pup

1

Estes

C6-5

Mary Kate Douglas

10

Estes

Mach 12

1

Estes

B6-4

Michael Sears

11

Estes

Broad Sword

1

Estes

D12-5

Michael Barnes

12

Scratch

Blue Dragon

1

Estes

C6-5

Tom Flaspoler

13

Estes

Venom

1

Estes

C6-5

Hannah Wiedner

14

Estes

Jinx

1

Estes

A3-4

Kevin Maffitt

15

Estes

Quark

1

Estes

A3-4

Tyler Disch

16

Estes

Ninja

1

Estes

A3-4

Aaron Zaggy

17

-

Silver Spicer

1

Estes

A3-4

Jacob Cann

18

Estes

Quark

1

Estes

A3-4

Marcus McCray

19

Estes

Quark

1

Estes

A3-4

Steven Aronberg

20

Estes

Quark

1

Estes

A3-4

Mike Walsh Sr

21

Estes

Silver Comet

1

Aerotech

D9-7

Dan Schneider

22

Scratch

Lunar Lander

1

Estes

C6-5

Caleb Weidner

23

Estes

Jinx

1

Estes

A3-4

Gary Bievenue

24

Scratch

Falcon

1

Estes

D12-5

David Oldroyd

25

Estes

Alpha

1

Estes

A8-3

Michael Oldroyd

26

Estes

Gnome

1

Estes

1/2A3-2

John Buckley

27

Scratch

Sputnik

1

Apogee

1/4A2-2

Mary Kate Douglas

28

Custom

Little Lady

1

Estes

B6-4

James Hegarty

29

Estes

X-ray

1

Estes

1/2A3

Tim Sears

30

Estes

Gemini DC

1

Estes

C6-5

Lane Douglas

31

Aerotech

Initiator

1