SLRA Launch Report - August 19, 2000

by Tom McAtee

The weather was cool and cloudy for our August 19 launch at Buder Park.

Light rain fell a few times during the afternoon, but wasn't enough to shut

things down. Wind was intermittent, and in a favorable direction, so most

rockets were successfully retrieved. Ring Rocketry made the trip from

Indiana to provide on-site vending. (Good to see you, Chad!) Also, a big

thanks to Kevin Souers, who always shows up to help with range duty, whether

he has anything to fly or not.

A total of 30 flyers showed up, making 86 flights. Motors flown ranged from

1/2A to G, with C motors being most popular with 26 flights. There were 3

1/2A, 17 A, 21 B, 26 C, 10 D, 2 E, 5 F, and 2 G-motor flights.

Steve Mizerany made the first and last flights of the day, with his Oddball

and Secret Weapon respectively. Candice Turner was the most frequent flyer,

putting up 13 flights with her Ninja, Snitch, Astrocam, and Gemini DC.

Leo, Kayla, and Jonathan Diehl put up several good flights. Their

D21-powered Space Shuttle was especially impressive. Mike Walsh Jr. also put

a D21 to good use, with his EZD-21, a scaled-down EZI-65. This blasted

nearly out of sight, but Mike recovered it successfully about a half mile

away. Claude Paquin had a new ring-stabilized design which made a good

has been having trouble getting this to work. This time it did a half-loop

Lane and Mary Kate Douglas put up 10 flights. Five of these were Lane's

Initiator, flying on E23, E16, F40 (twice), and G80 motors. Mark Geislinger

also flew his Initiator multiple times, on F25 (twice) and F50 motors.

Dan Schneider had a unique cluster-engine variable-geometry glider which he

tested. It looks like it has a lot of potential, but the first flight

attempt showed it has a few bugs left.