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Launch Stats, 1997by Jack Hagerty, LUNAR #002With the close of the year, I've totaled up all of our flight cards for all of 1997. For those that missed the earlier article (LUNAR'clips vol. 4, no. 3 - May, 1997) where I describe what the different categories are, here's a brief recap. After every launch, I total up the flight cards and separate them by motor size. The total number of flights is just the total number of cards. The "Total Motors Consumed" is always larger that the total flights because we haven't had a launch yet where someone didn't fly a cluster or staged model (although we came really close a couple of times this year!). The "Total Impulse" line is the impulse for each motor category (e.g. 10 Nt-s for a "C" or 20 Nt-s for a "D", etc.) multiplied by the number of motors in that category and then all added together. I multiplied the total by 75% to reflect the fact that not all motors are right at the top of their impulse class. The "Average Impulse" is the Total Impulse divided by the total number of motors. Simple, huh? Well, this year I think I'm going to start using a spread sheet and spare my calculator finger! =================== January, 1997
Total Flights: 73
Motor Use Breakdown:
This is a launch that almost didn't happen. Like the previous two months, the weather was rotten. While there was no rain to worry about, the wind was brisk and the fog gave us a ceiling of under 200' during setup. In fact, the mist in the air gave a stinging quality to the wind. We couldn't activate our waiver under these conditions, of course, which limited us to 1 lb. launch weights. After the equipment was up, I called for a vote of the dozen or so hearty souls who had braved the elements to ask if they were willing to still fly even if they would be limited to "C" motors at first. The answer was a unanimous "yes!" Rocket fiends in need of a fix are not always the most rational... Those who stuck it out, though, were rewarded by some marginally improved conditions. The fog lifted to nearly 1,000' and the wind died down some. A couple of brave flyers launched 2 stage models (one with A's and one with C's) and Paul Magid even flew his scratch-built Astron Ranger replica on a three "C" engine cluster. We even worked our way up to a few "F" motor flights that were under a pound and had a max altitude of under 1,000'. =================== February, 1997
Total Flights: 150
Motor Use Breakdown:
What a difference a month makes! In comparison to January's almost Arctic conditions, February had very mild temperatures and light winds. We had a huge turn out, and everyone was trying to fly right up to the end when we had to shut it down at 1 p.m. More interestingly, this seemed to be a grownup's launch. The motors ran to the high end of the impulse range and gave us the highest average impulse since I started compiling these records! =================== March, 1997
Total Flights: 166
Motor Use Breakdown:
Almost an exact copy of last month's launch, right down to the mild temps and kicking people out at 1 p.m.! Just slightly more flights and more motors, but they tended towards the smaller end, so while the Total Impulse was up 6%, the total number of motors was up 16%, thus the Average Impulse was a bit lower. =================== April, 1997
Total Flights: 176
Motor Use Breakdown:
A really good launch that came within three flights of tying the largest number of flights record from last November. There was a big increase in the number of low end motors used (mostly by a large Indian Guide group who was flying with us) and a concurrent drop off towards the top end. Another interesting observation is that these were almost ALL single motor flights! I flew my old Astron Ranger on it's 25 year anniversary flight (I built in March, 1972!) on three A6-4's and one person flew a full-up Commanche 3. Other than that, there were only two 2-stage flights. That lone 1/2A was flown by Royce Longacre who was de-bugging his flexwing glider. The reason for the odd motor number count is that three people didn't put down a motor on their flight cards and somehow slipped it past the RSO (tsk, tsk). They were all lower end Estes kits that couldn't have flown on anything more than a "C" at most, so it wouldn't have altered our Impulse totals by more than about 2%. =================== May, 1997
Total Flights: 231
Motor Use Breakdown:
An ENORMOUS launch! The combination of good weather, the first day of a holiday weekend and several educational groups (Cub Scouts, GATE classes etc.) all added to having huge number of people turn out; by far the largest number since I started keeping records. The number of educational group flights is further witnessed by the very large number of "A" and "B" motors used. The previous record holder, November, 1996, had "only" 179 flights and didn't even come close. Our procedures seemed to work well as even with this huge crowd, waits in line were only about 30-40 minutes at the peak. Two people managed to sneak flight cards by the RSO with no motor listed (an Estes Wizard and an Aerotech Mustang) so these are not counted in the impluse total. =================== June, 1997
Total Flights: 115
Motor Use Breakdown:
Our first night launch. Went pretty well and was a big hit, although we still have to learn more about procedures and crowd control in the dark. While the turnout was pretty good, most just came to watch as the total number of flights was the lowest all year except January. =================== July, 1997
Total Flights: 154
Motor Use Breakdown:
Back to "normal" launches. The turnout was pretty moderate, though (peak of the vacation season). Interesting to note that the Average Impulse figure is tracking remarkably consistent over the past few months. The lone 1/4A motor was Judy Heckenbach flying a vintage Estes Mosquito. =================== August/September, 1997August/September, 1997
Total Flights: 352
Motor Use Breakdown:
I was not at the August launch and had to leave early from the September, so I did not pick up the flight cards from both of them until October. We found them stuffed in vest pockets, equipment boxes and all over so it's possible that some of them weren't even from these two launches, but that just brings our totals up to date for any flights that had been missed earlier. If you divide these totals by two, you'll get a sense of what the two launches were like individually, and it seems to put them right in the middle of all the launches this year. The Average Impulse continues remarkably consistent. =================== October, 1997
Total Flights: 181
Motor Use Breakdown:
Our second night launch and the word must have gotten around! The turnout was huge for both fliers and spectators. The flight line was up to an hour long right towards dusk! While the number of flights was the second highest this year (and the third highest of all since I started keeping these records) the total impulse was way down since folks were using smaller motors for obvious reasons. =================== November, 1997Rained out =================== December, 1997
Total Flights: 130 sport + 30 contest
Motor Use Breakdown (sport):
Motor Use Breakdown (contest):
This was a pretty amazing launch. It was our first joint contest with BayNAR, and the weather teased us all day. It started out perfect, relatively mild and not a breath of wind. It never got really windy, but the clouds moved in with uncharacteristic suddenness and we had to call it due to rain only halfway through the scheduled events (although it was 1:30 and after our "normal" quitting time). Although the turnout was light compared to the last few, I'm always amazed at the number of fliers that come out so close to Xmas. Also, those that came out were SERIOUS fliers. Looking over the year, our monthly motor usage usually peaks in the C-D range with about 10 times as many of those being flown as G's and H's. For the first time since I started compiling these records two years ago, there were more H's flown than G's, F's or E's! This bumped the Average Impulse way up to the highest ever recorded at nearly twice the normal value. Other anomalies: no one forgot to list the motor on their flight cards (hence no "unknown" flights) and something I find even more amazing, there wasn't a single mixed motor flight (e.g. a staged D-to-C). Every staged or clustered flight today used all the same class motor. Whatta way to end the year! =================== Annual Summary 1997
Total Flights: 1,758
Motor Use Breakdown:
A pretty impressive year, all-in-all. Note that we were only 138 Nt-s from having expended a nice round 50,000 Nt-s of impulse. A single "G" powered flight would have put us over the top! Let's do better next year... Copyright © 1998 by LUNAR, All rights reserved. Information date: January 11, 1998 lk |