LAUNCH! 10/2/10 R.O.C.K. Section Monthly

Love Bugs were everywhere!
Heres the bugs "congregating" on Club President Brian Coyle's tent post.

Weather was great, not too hot and winds were mostly calm. We hosted a good sized group with some excited kids flying for the first time.
A busy day for me, I got 8 rockets in the air.

Roger Smith (Jonrocket.com) is our section's "go-to" man for great launch pictures. He caught my MARTIAN PATROL CATO on an old Quest C6-3. It fireballed through the middle and blistered the paint a bit. Other than that, it'll fly again. Enlarge the picture and you can see the engine falling underneath the rocket. As much as we searched, the casing wasn't found. Not a great start - my luck would change.

Here, Brian Coyle shows off the world's smallest tri-fold shock cord mount (look right in the center) on his carded MMX SKYWRITER Downscale. We tried a drag race with my SkyWriter, but his didn't ignite. Brian did some quick calculations and estimated my SkyWriter went 90 feet. I still say it went higher!

Tom Dennon and Brian work out details on Tom's NIKE HERCULES two stage test. A D12 booster was ignited while still locked down to the launcher. The second stage test rocket ignited and flew right on schedule. Tom plans to launch the full Nike Hercules stack at an upcomng NEFAR launch. This was impressive scale work on Tom's part.

My Odd'l Rockets PIPELINE flew twice on Quest B6-4s. A tight spin during boost was apparent from the turns in the smoke trail. With the wind picking up, a streamer was switched out in place of the 12" parachute.

My best flight of the day was the Apogee SUN CONDOR. I'd never had much success with boost gliders but this one has changed my luck. Launched with a Quest A6-4, I got a 50 second circling glide! This kit was easy to build and trim, a perfect first boost glider for anybody.

My downsized A-20 DEMON flew on an old A10-3t. I didn't see it launch or land, I was helping a new flier install an igniter. I was told it looked good!

Last up was a clone of the old Centuri BANDITO on an A8-5. Boost showed a slow spin, landing was hard on the road. One cardstock wedge fin is bent but repairable.