June 19, 1999 Launch Report

Contributed by Tom McAtee

After getting rained out in April and May, we finally had some good weather for the June 19 launch. The partly cloudy skies, temperature in the 70's, and light breeze made for great flying conditions. This was the first launch at our new site, the new Polo Field, directly north of the old Polo Field. It looks like the new field will work out well; it's significantly bigger than the old one, with good parking next to the field.

The great weather brought out lots of rocketeers. There were 25 registered flyers and 106 flights at the end of the day. Several new folks joined us for the first time - Andy and David Oldroyd, Gardner Jones, Larry Saylor, Jonathan Holland, and Mike and Jacob Weiner. We also had our first NAR VIP visitor - NAR Trustee and Treasurer Stew McNabb joined us from Arkansas.

We also held our Summer Open meet, with Drag Race, 1/2A Streamer Duration, and 1/2A Rocket-Glide Duration events. With eleven official entrants, plus several more unofficial ones, this was our biggest contest yet. When the dust had settled, Tom McAtee took first in Drag Race with his Centuri Little Ivan clone, with Jeff McCoy and Michael Sears next.

Tim Sears led the field in 1/2A SD, with a two-flight total of 87 seconds, followed by John Buckley with 69 seconds, Tom McAtee with 65 seconds, and Jeff McCoy with 47 seconds. We had good success in the challenging Rocket-Glide event, with several good flights. Jeff McCoy came out on top with 43 seconds, followed by John Buckley, Tim Sears, and Stew McNabb. Jeff's RG victory gave him first place overall in the meet, followed by John Buckley and Tim Sears.

Along with the contest, there was plenty of sport flying. Mark McGraw had a new Viper III which made an impressive flight on 3 D12's. Mike Walsh Jr. had a perfect flight of his Junkyard Dog 4-D12 cluster. Claude Paquin brought out a very nice looking scale model of an early Russian rocket, the Rahzhumov-Shtern LRD-1; it made a good flight on F power. Paul Graf's beautiful Mars Lander thrilled everyone with a very late-opening parachute.