Launch Recap - December 1st, 2007

What a great day at the field!

We had Sunny skies until mid-afternoon, and it was a bit windy above 100 feet, but we still had a great time.

This launch was dominated by the Steamer Spot landing contest. We had a number of other fun flights, but the excitement came with 31 attempts by fliers to land at a spot randomly chosen into the wind about 60 feet from the pads. With the somewhat unpredictable wind velocities and direction, picking appropriate motors, streamers, and launch angles really became tough. Spot landing flights that looked very promising often ended up missing the mark by very large margins.

The spirit of encouragement to keep on trying sparked unique approaches. Though we followed NAR regulations, we did not run a NAR sanctioned contest, so this was more for experience and fun. All other NAR Spot Landing rules were requirements for qualifying in the standings.

What made the contest really fun was that the creativity brought on by on the field adapting of models to fly streamer to do spot landing. We didn't limit motor size either, so we had quite a range of flights from 4 MMX rockets to Robb H. flying his abbreviated Big "Dad"dy on a D-12. Lucas M. even modified his Eye-rock to drop in on streamer.

Brian C's. first attempt with his Sizzler came in at 34' 7" and held the lead most of the morning. Robb H. started the creative approaches when he outfitted his Snitch with 4 streamers tucked into the airframe. Later on his Mar's Lander dropped in at 22" 6" from the mark. Brian C. and Tom D seemed to have the same idea at the same time with pulling out their MMX roockets--Brian's Akavish and Tom's Aerobee Hi. The wind pushed Akavish right back to the pads, but Tom's Aerobee dropped in at 10" 2".

Adventurer Rack

However, the contest was far from over.

Brian C tried again with his streamer duration Adventurer on a B6-4 to attain an excellent altitude duration flight and to spot land at 19" 7". Kyle C arrived late morning with his fleet of birds and began to shoot too. His Evader didn't evade the mark and landed at 16' 1" from the mark giving him the second place ribbon. Kyle also had 2 flights land 35'+ from the mark. Wow!

Top 10 standings were:

1. Tom D.	10"2"	Aerobee Hi MMX
2, Kyle C.	16' 1"	Evader
3. Brian C.	19' 7"	Adventurer
4. Robb H.	22' "6	Mars Lander
5. Marc D.	27' 9"	NSA Starship
6. Brian C.	34' 7"	Sizzler
7. Kyle C.	35' 4"	Code Red
8. Kyle C.	35" 11"	Alpha II
9. Markus M.	45' 11"	Cruise Missle
10. Christine K.	46" 4"	Flash

Our Next launch is January 6. The January launch will feature a Parachute Duration contest for rockets using a B motor. Rockets will be timed from first motion to touchdown and the longest time wins (best of three flights). Come ready to have a great time! Come ready to have a great time!

Remember that we will also have our annual meeting the end of January. Details to follow!

Impulse Breakdown

Motor Count
MMX 4
A 21
B 22
C 15
D 7

Total Number of Motors: 69
Approximate Total Impulse: 113.34 Ns (equivalent to a medium G motor)

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