St. Louis Rocketry Association Launch Report

15 June 2002

Buder Park

By Jeff McCoy

On June 15, the St. Louis Rocketry Association held it 3rd annual Wilbur Souers Memorial Fathers’ Day Picnic and Launch. The weather gods blessed us with mid 80’s, moderate winds and all the sun one could ask for.  Food and drink was plentiful and so was fellowship.  Sub sandwiches, chips and soda were on the menu.  There was a light turn out overall, but all had a great time. 

            There were 39 flights from 12 flyers.  Motors ranged from 1/4 A thru F.  Frequent flyer goes to Dave Welch with 11 flights.  The Chapie family (Rob & Alex) was next with 6 flights.  The flyers traveling the farthest were the Hales (Ron, Jessie, Courtney) coming up all the way from Cape Girardeau. Other flyers included John Buckley, Jack & Peter Hollister, Michael Ludwig, Dan Schneider, John & Jacob Sullivan, and our own Bruce Weidner.

            Dave Welch Started things off with the first flight with an Estes Blue Ninja flying on a C-11-3.  This is a new 24mm Estes motor, great for those medium rockets on smaller fields.  Rob Chapie helped kick things up a notch flying an Aerotech Arreaux on an E-15 and then back again on an F-22.  Jack Hollister flew an Estes Silver Comet on that new C-11-3 for a nice flight. Bruce Weidner even brought out “Ugly Space Junk” for a flight on a D-12.

            There was an Open NAR Contest at this launch with events including 1/4 A BG, B PD and F/F SpSc.  These flights entertained the crowd with there great performances.  Dan Schneider flew a scratch built Zues Explorer, the comments on the flight card read, “ HUH ? You call that a flight.”  John Buckley came with his bags of tricks including piston launching both a 1/4 A BG as well as his B PD, both nice flights. Both Michael Ludwig and John Sullivan flew contest flights to round out the field. 

            Special thanks to all the helped make the day a great experience.  Chris Kallaos, Jeff McCoy and Kevin Souers, for planning and pulling off another fine picnic.  Thanks to Bill Meyer for the drinks and ice, that kept everyone going in the late afternoon.  Thanks always to Bruce Weidner for the registration work and all his behind the scenes work he does at all SLRA events.  Thanks to the LCO team of Kevin Souers and Jeff McCoy for running the controls for the day.