LUNAR Regional Meet II, 1995

by Jack Hagerty

With photos by Lynn Kissel.

The second LUNAR Regional for the year is now history. Following are the results, but I'll skip the blow-by-blow since those of you who were there already know what happened, and the rest probably don't care about that level of detail. I'll throw a few comments for each, though.

I have to give a big thanks to all who helped out, but I want to single out William Walby. Not only did he fly in three of the four events (and took 1st place in two of them!) but he made the 100 mile drive down from Sacramento early enough to arrive for setup, flew his events, helped with range duties in between, Judged Sport Scale (the only event he didn't enter) then helped with the equipment break down before starting on the 100 mile trip home. A real trooper who gets a standing-O in my book!

Also a thanks to Ron Baskett who did real time training of rookie tracking crews and got them in shape to turn in sub-1% tracking closures for the contest events!

The events, in order of increasing engine size:

1/2A Flexwing (Exhibition only)

	C Division:

		1 Royce Longacre 	26.7 sec
		2 Lynn Kissel		20.1 sec

	B Division:

		1 Marissa Baskett 	35.5 sec

This went very well for an exhibition. Marissa Baskett was up first with a QCR "Auta Sight" which was trimmed a bit steep but glided steady. Royce was next with his scratch built "no name" with a gorgeous, glass-like finish (which he kept apologizing for!) which ejected and started on a nice, flat glide until it took a sudden, unexplained nose dive. Last was Lynne "Dr. Knots and Colors" Kissel who got a nice boost on his "MAS" (Modified Auta Sight), but the glider Red-Barroned all by itself.

A Altitude

		1 Tim Maier		740 ft (non NAR, B Division))
		2 Ron Baskett 		574 ft (non NAR)
		3 William Walby		496 ft
		4 Tim Hansen		389 ft (non NAR)
		5 Lynn Kissel		  0 ft (no track)

Lots of flyers, but not many NAR points generated. Ron Baskett got an outstanding flight (which was flown proxy by his son Larry since Ron was out manning Tracking West!), but since he's not a NAR member, first place in NAR points went to William Walby. Note: Ron didn't know it was his own rocket that he was tracking since we flew the entrants "blind" to the tracking crews.

B Streamer Duration

		1 William Walby		1:49.56 sec
		2 Lynn Kissel		0:55.11 sec
		3 Larry Baskett 	0:53.24 sec (B Division)
		4 Royce Longacre 	0:42.91 sec
		5 Paul Pittenger	0:42.80 sec

An event where everyone qualified! William Walby walked away on this one with his eyes closed, getting nearly double the time of second place Lynn Kissel. Royce Longacre turned in a respectable time with a scratch built model that he still kept apologizing for (while I was busy combing my hair using the fins for a mirror. Paul Pittenger entered a blast from the past: the top stage of an Astron Delta! Note that only 0.11 second separated Royce and Paul.

C Eggloft Altitude

		1 Jack Hagerty		775 ft
		2 Larry Baskett 	652 ft (B Division)
		DQ William Walby	969 ft (no recovery)
		DQ Lynn Kissel		548 ft (recovery strip)

Not as many entrants as last time (but we used the same eggs which had been in my refrigerator since April!). William got an absolutely outstanding vertical flight, but had no recovery deployment. Lynn got barely half the altitude as William and had his 'chute strip to boot.

Larry Baskett's entry had a nice boost with mild weathercock, but his ejection went off a bit early and cut his total atltitude.

Noting how far Larry's was drifting in the wind, I aimed considerably up wind and traded off some altitude for a shorter walk (which was still 1/4 mile across a running creek and briars landing only 70 feet or so from Larry's!). Post flight inspection of my entry, though, showed how much luck plays in this contest. The chute opening must have been quite violent as one of the shrouds had ripped free, however thanks to Ed's excellent attachment technique the line actually stayed attached and about 10 sq in of the canopy ripped free, dangling below the chute. More frightening was the fact that the snap swivel (the lock-over wire type) had ripped open and only by complete coincidence had it snagged on the long Kevlar shock line keeping the 'chute attached to the model!

Sport Scale

	C Division:

		1 Jack Hagerty, Titan IIIB/Agena	855 pts
		2 Lynn Kissel, Space Shuttle 		550 pts

	B Division:

		1 Larry Baskett, Terrier/Sandhawk	845 pts
		2 Marissa Baskett, Nike-?		600 pts (non-NAR)

A good example of how you can win by being too dumb to quit! What would have been the first place C Division entry (a stunning Saturn IB) was withdrawn about a half hour before the qualifying flight due to the builder's (probably wise) reluctance to fly it in the increasing wind. I had my tired Titan III from NARAM last year (with some new, cleaner fins) which had a great flight despite rocking like a metronome set to "jazz" on the pad preflight!

Lynn's Shuttle was supposedly STS-1 (white tank) even though the Orbiter said "Enterprise" on the side and it had a more Challeger-like flight profile.

There was also a extremely nice Jayhawk that was entered by another B Division member, but, never having entered any type of any contest in the past, he didn't know about the scale data requirement and couldn't scare up a photo of the real thing in time. He went on to have more fun flying it on the Sport Range to the applause of the crowd.

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