April 6 Night Launch

Reported by Kevin Souers

Saturday, April 6 8:30 PM was the official start of St. Louis Rocketry Association’s second night launch. As the daytime turnout was quite light we only had three flyers for the night launch. What we lacked in numbers we made up for with show and creativity.

Kansans Nick Stich and Jerome Tonneson again visited us. Both had Estes Fat Boys modified for night flight. First up was Nick with Glow panels on each fin side. He called his rocket EL Boy for electro-luminescence. Obviously, he paid attention to the last night launch and flew on Aerotech White Lightening power.

Jerome took a different tack. He mounted yellow, red and green LEDs in the fin tips and roots. The yellow LEDS in the upper fin tips were canted toward the nosecone displaying an impressive pattern of light and shadow. The red LEDs were in the lower fin tips and green was in the lower fin roots. The narrow viewing angle of the LEDs played interesting color patterns during descent as the rocket swayed back and forth. His choice of Aerotech Blue Thunder power did not detract from the light show.

Rob Chapie went for the KISS principle. He had a simple strobe with a chemlight taped to the side of the rocket. The reason for the simplicity was apparent once we discovered it was powered by an H128. Side bets were taken as to what altitude the chemlight would strip off. Once the motor lit the whole launch area was bathed in intense yellow-white light, with the motor exhaust being almost too bright to look at. With such an impressive display from a high power motor I’m curious to see what a two-stage flight would look like at night.

As always, a hearty thank you to all the participants. Without you guys it would not have happened. The creativity shown by the rocketry community is always an inspiration. Thanks again, you made an impressive show in the Missouri night sky.