June 28, 1997 Launch Report

Contributed by Mark Henriksen

The St. Louis Rocketry Association held its sixth launch of the year on June 28, 1997, at Creve Coeur Park. The weather was warm with temperatures around ninety and moderately high humidity. The launch officially started at 2:00 P.M. With a light turnout of only eleven registered fliers, an impressive 59 flights took place.

First flight of the day was Dave Daven=92s Estes Impulse. He flew on two d12-5 motors for a beautiful kickoff to the launch. As the day progressed, we had a couple of separations and motor catos (need to keep those motors at a moderate temperature) and just a few lawn darts.

Most notable flights included a drag race between Rob Chappie and Dave Daven. Both flew Estes Impulse rockets with D12-7 motors. Rob was first off the pad, about one rocket length ahead of Dave. However, Dave=92s duration was a bit longer.

John Sullivan showed up with a nicely crafted Estes Longshot along with an interesting tower launcher. He flew on a D12-0 staging to a B6-6 for a nice flight but a hard landing. Looks like he took some fin damage. John Buckley flew several nice competition kits, a QCR Superoc for a nice flight and a QCR Rotaroc II that also performed well. His Rotaroc won second place in the 1/2A HD event at the Regional Competition. He also flew his Estes Big Bertha modified for a parasite glider four times, adjusting trim each time for a final graceful glide into the eastern woods.

Ron Pigg brought put two wonderfully crafted rockets; an Estes Atlas and an Estes Saturn V. Both flew on D12 motors, the Saturn V with a 3 second delay and the Atlas with a 7, for magnificent flights. Bill Hrach also brought out some of his scratch builts which he flew successfully.

We also had several Estes Shadows make nice flights. The frequent flier award goes to James Hollister with 13 flights. He had his fleet of neon orange rockets with a couple of new additions that deviated from his paint scheme, an Estes Maniac and an Estes Venom. Most used engines were Ds with 23 followed closely by Cs with 21. We ran the gambit from 1/2A to F motor flights.

Highest impulse flights go to Rob Chappie with his Thoy Hawk on an Aerotech F22 and Mark Henriksen with his LOC Legacy on an Econojet F20. Both had nominal flights. I think most notable lawn dart goes to Mark Henriksen with his modified Broadsword that failed to deploy its chute. Tear down was at 5:50 P.M.