October 10, 1998 Launch Report

Contributed by Tom McAtee

The Rocket Gods favored our October 10 launch with great weather - clear skies, low winds, and temperatures in the 70's. Twenty-five flyers joined us to put up 141 flights, a record total for a Polo Field launch. Most frequent flyers were Tim and Michael Sears, with 17 flights between them; Jeff, Greg, and Amanda McCoy, with 13 flights; Steve McAtee, with 11 flights, and Mark and Matt McGraw, who combined for 11 flights. C engines were most popular, powering 42 flights. By motor class, there were:

1/4A - 3 flts
1/2A - 5
A - 28
B - 30
C - 42
D - 16
E - 12
F - 4
G - 1

New member Terry Robinson brought a well-built AT Warthog in Navy gray paint, and made a good first RMS flight with it. Paul Graf returned with his impressive Gemini Titan, a clone of the classic Estes two-engine cluster, and made a great flight with it. Unfortunately, Paul's beautiful Mercury Atlas suffered a heartbreaking crash. A post-mortem showed that the ejection charge on its D12 had not fired. (Postscript: Paul contacted Estes, and they have replaced the kit and engines.) Paul's brother(?), Jim, also joined us for the first time, and put in five flights with his Athena.

Jack Hollister entertained the crowd with his modified, two-stage Quark, the Super Quark. Three successive flight attempts ended with the upper stage lawn darting after failing to ignite. Finally, attempt #4 delighted us all and worked as intended. On the high-impulse end, Mark McGraw, James Hollister, Terry Robinson, and Mark Henriksen put in good F flights. On a personal note, I was able to make my one thousandth rocket flight since returning to the hobby in 1992. (Yes, I do keep a log of all my flights, guys!) The first rocket I built in '92, my Estes SPEV, was brought out of retirement to make the flight.

This was also the occasion for our our fifth club contest, with Open Spot Landing, A Streamer Duration, and C Eggloft Duration events. There were nine official entries, plus several more unofficial ones - thanks for turning out, guys!. After the dust settled, contest director Tom McAtee was first in the hotly-conested Spot Landing event, at a distance of 16.5 ft. (No, I didn't cheat - I've got witnesses!!) Second place was the CD's brother, Steve McAtee, at 18 ft from the target. Next were Jeff McCoy and John Buckley.

Both of the duration events were won handily by the club's BTC (big-time competitor), John Buckley. Michael Sears made good flights for second in both events, followed by Jeff McCoy and Tom McAtee. John's two firsts gave him first place overall in the meet; ditto for Michael. Congrats, guys!

We'd like to express our to Bob Daniel of All Seasons Hobbies, and also to Aaron Edwards, who donated prizes for our contest winners. Thanks for your support!

Open Spot Landing
1. T. McAtee
2. S. McAtee
3. J. McCoy
4. J. Buckley

A Streamer Duration 1. J. Buckley
2. M. Sears
3. A. Edwards
4. T. McAtee

C Eggloft Duration 1. J. Buckley
2. M. Sears
3. J. McCoy
4. T. McAtee

Overall: 1. J. Buckley - 248 pts
2. M. Sears - 148 pts
3. T. McAtee, J. McCoy - 88 pts
A. Edwards - 36 pts
S. McAtee - 24 pts
M. Henriksen, J. Hollister, B. Weidner - 4 pts.