Pipsqueak-1

Carl Reisinger, LUNAR #643

Pipsqueak-1 is a NAR sanctioned "OPEN" contest co-sponsored by BayNAR and LUNAR.

Pipsqueak-1 will be held on June 18, 2000 from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Robertson Park in Livermore. Directions to the launch site can be found on the LUNAR WEB site at http://www.lunar.org/launch-directions.html . Please note that the contest events will be run in parallel with the LUNAR sport launch scheduled for that day.

Anyone may enter, although you must be a NAR member to have your results reported to the NAR contest board.

An entry fee of five dollars ($5.00) will be charged. This fee will cover all contest related flights. Any sport flights are still subject to the standard LUNAR fees.

The scheduled events are:

Fiction/Future Scale

1/4A Cluster Altitude

1/4A Streamer Duration, multi round

1/4A Parachute Duration, multi round

Details of the above events, except Fiction/Future Scale, can be found in the "Unitied States Model Rocket Sporting Code" (the Pink Book). Copies of the Pink Book can be ordered from NARTS or can be found online at http://www.nar.org/cabinet/pinkbook.pdf . Details of the Fiction/Future Scale event can be found at http://www.baynar.org/ffscale.html . (I have just discovered that as of 1-March-2000 the Pink Book is on back order. I'm told they will be vailable in two weeks.)

There are no restrictions on motor size for the Fiction/Future Scale event except the normal limit of H impulse for launches at Robertson Park.

1/4A Cluster Altitude requires the use of a two motor cluster, air starts are not allowed, and each contestant shall be given the opportunity to make no more then two official flights.

For the multi round events, a contestant may enter no more than two models. Initially, three official flights are allowed. Flights are timed from first motion till the model touches the ground, hangs up on a tree, is out of sight of the trackers or the maximum time is reached. The maximum time for 1/4A Streamer Duration is 30 seconds, for 1/4A Parachute Duration 60 seconds. The times are added in order to determine the model's score, in the case of a tie, additional flights, increasing the maximum time each round, will be made in order to break the tie. All official flights for the multi round events must be completed before 3:00 PM so that we have time for a fly off if necessary.

As one can see, Pipsqueak-1 leans heavily towards 1/4A impulse motors. The only full (0.625 Newton-seconds) 1/4A motors legally available in California are the Estes 1/4A3-3Ts. The Quest Micro-Maxx motors are also contest certified and may be used, although they are only rated at 0.200 Newton-seconds. The Apogee Micro motors are not legal in California and any flight using these motors will be disqualified per Pink Book rules (rule 4.10).

Any questions you may have concerning Pipsqueak-1 may be e-mailed to contests@baynar.org.