Return to contents.
The Range Headby Jack Hagerty, LUNAR #002BACK ON TRACKI guess that people really believed that winter is over since the April launch set another high water mark for launch volume. The previous record, set May of last year, was shattered by nearly 30 flights! Of course, this was an extended launch started early to accommodate both some Indian Guide tribes and a Cub Scout pack, but in retrospect it only ran about an hour longer than our regular launches. It was also supposed to be our first night launch of the year, but red tape at the FAA held up our waiver renewal so we had to quit at dusk (8 PM) rather than the planned 9 PM. Here are the stats: April, 1998
Total Flights: 259 Motor Use Breakdown:
Most of the IG's and Cubs were flying "C" motors which, all by themselves, had more flights than some previous launches totals! This dragged our average impulse down a bit. Also, there were a high number of people who didn't list a motor on their flight cards, but they were all single motor Estes kits. Even though it was disappointing not being able to fly in the dark, everyone had a really good time and the weather was perfect all day. Even after my four hour LCO shift, I hung around to the bitter end talking to everyone and enjoying myself. RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY!Things didn't go nearly so well in March. I don't know what we did to offend the rocket gods that month, but they certainly sneaked in a zinger past all of the local forecasters. After three weeks of almost completely dry weather, a front started moving in Friday night. The soothsayers, however, said that it had stalled and wouldn't reach California until Saturday night, and even then only the far northern end. It was with great confidence, then, that we set up the equipment and got our first launch of the year going. Once it was underway, Joe Heckenbach and I set up the trackers for the altitude section of the contest which had been delayed since last December! The crowds were not the mob I had expected, in fact they were relatively light. Maybe people were just gun shy, but those that showed up had some very nice flying conditions during the morning with mild temps and light winds. Contestants flying in the C-Alt event weren't so lucky. The mass of featureless gray clouds overhead were exactly the color of tracking smoke and the contest rockets disappeared as sure as if they'd had a Klingon cloaking device! After five of the seven flights were no-tracks due to one or the other (or both) trackers loosing it, Contest Director Dan Davis called the contest and we moved on to Spot Landing. By now it was after 12:30 and just about the time we would normally start packing up. There were still plenty of sport flyers along with the contestants and we didn't think much of a little sprinkle until it gradually escalated into a full blown downpour. I called the launch at 1:15 and we pulled the equipment down in record time. Afterwards we found out that the damage was more than some frustrated contestants as our equipment meister Warren Massey explains:
I have no choice but to agree with Warren here. The investment in our equipment is too great to risk loosing it. It's taken years to build it up to the current performance levels and the only reason we've been able to keep, and even expand, our capabilities is Warren's tireless efforts. If we were to suddenly have to replace large portions of the flight and/or support equipment we might not be able to do it. We would certainly have to have a sizable dues increase! I'm going to make this an agenda item for the May meeting so that we can come up with some reasonable "wet threat" guidelines. LOST & FOUNDLast January I made a proposal to start auctioning off items that were left in the Lost & Found box for more than six months. I guess all you have to do is threaten to start selling off their stuff and people start coming out of the woodwork! At the past two launches people showed up to pick up the Initiator, Black Brant, Bullpup and a bunch of odds and ends. In fact, I only came back from the March launch with one new rocket and that was a very nice ASP that had been contest prepped. I knew I wouldn't have it for long because the owner had placed an info sticker on it with his name, phone number and NAR/LUNAR/Tripoli/AMA numbers on it! When I informed Ken Biba that I had his model he replied:
I can't say it often enough: Get a roll of address stickers printed up, 200 for $5, and put them on every part of the rocket that might come down separately. You'll be glad you did. Ken certainly was, he picked up the ASP at the April launch. I came home from that launch with only one new lost rocket: the tail end of an Aerotech Arreaux with a $40 reloadable casing in it owned by...Ken Biba! Make that four, Ken. MAY MEETINGThe meeting this month is on Thursday, May 21 at 7:00 PM at (as usual) the public meeting room at the Livermore Police Station. The featured speaker will be Lee Teicheira who will enlighten us with a talk on strengthening your models by fiberglassing. There is one other short item in between the business part of the meeting and Lee's talk. At the top of the previous section I mentioned that my proposal to auction off old L&F items had been unanimously adopted. Well, May is the time to get rid of everything more than six months old. As I said above, most of the really nice stuff was claimed by the owners, but there are still quite a few odd's and ends (some of it non-rocket related) to be had. I have a few surprises of my own to throw in there. All of the proceeds go into the club general fund which will help offset the loss of the Kiwanis funds. F/F SCALE CONTESTJust a reminder that this month is the Fiction/Future Scale contest. Even though it's a bit late to get started on a model for this just-for-fun contest, it's still worth the effort to build a scale model of your favorite fictional rocket or proposed future design. You'll also be helping the NAR shake out the rules for a whole new contest. See the March 'clips for the official contest rules, or e-mail me for a copy. If you still want to enter but can't figured out what to build in such a short time, Jim Fackert has an article (with enough detail to satisfy the "background data" requirement) and a set of plans for the "Luna" from the movie "Destination Moon." The plans are based on a couple of Estes PNC-55AC nose cones, but he gives optional choices for scaling it up or down using parts from other manufacturers. The parts are all off-the-shelf Estes pieces or easy to fabricate using simple hobby tools. LOCAL HEROSThe March/April edition of Sport Rocketry magazine published the winners of last year's photo contest (they're inside the front cover) and two of the five are LUNAR members! Judy Heckenbach got her shot of Joe's upscale Mosquito taking off while Robert Jennings got a shot of a White Lightning powered model at the instant of ignition taken at last October's night launch. It was taken during dusk so everything is still quite visible, but the illuminated smoke cloud at the base is absolutely stunning! Actually, Robert isn't a member but attended as a guest of the Heckenbachs. Congratulations, folks!
Copyright © 1998 by LUNAR, All rights reserved. Information date: May 8, 1998 lk |