Fwd: CRMRC September 2011 Flight Report -- LUITS II
5 views
Skip to first unread message
Lentamental
Sep 27, 2011, 8:54:55 PM9/27/11
to uvmroc
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Howard Druckerman <dh46...@myfairpoint.net>
Date: Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 20:22
Subject: CRMRC September 2011 Flight Report -- LUITS II
To: je...@pbfoot.com, bsabi...@comcast.net, dwst...@gmail.com, jmop...@yahoo.com, ke...@back2bed.com, david...@mac.com, sco...@comcast.net, tol...@myfairpoint.net, n9...@juno.com, dh46...@myfairpoint.net, cpmil...@yahoo.com, jva...@gmail.com, hey...@myfairpoint.net, da...@peoplepc.com, jsar...@gmail.com
Cc: John McCabe III <jm1...@gmail.com>, Tad Wilder <twi...@us.ibm.com>, Bob Horton <rhor...@comcast.net>, "Jack St.Louis" <jack.s...@comcast.net>, Dennis Woos <dpw...@gmavt.net>, Jamie Lent <lentame...@gmail.com>, Bob Gurwicz <bgur...@cssu.org>
Rocketeers, Astronomers, and Wannabees,
Saturday, September 17, 2011 was Look Up In The Sky II (LUITS II), the joint launch and star party with the Vermont Astronomical Society (VAS). This launch had a starting time of 1400 to enable launching up until dark and then sky viewing afterward. Notification was put in the online events for Craig’s List, Burlington Free Press, Seven Days and the St. Albans Messenger. Additional, notifications were sent to everyone whom had ever contacted the CRMRC about rocketry, including the teacher at the Shelburne Community School who does rocketry classes every year at the school.
Setup began at 1230 with the positioning of the 500 foot (M) pad at the far end of the field. From there, the location of the 200 foot (K), 100 foot (H-J) pads, the red rail and the flight line were determined. Pads were electrically controlled as follows: red pads and the 2-100 foot pads by the usual launch control box, the 200 foot pad by the wireless Transolve Mini, and the 500 foot pad by the hybrid controller. The tarp was set up on the western side of the field and a small gap to enter the launch area was next to it. Then there was about 100 feet of caution tape indicating the flight line. Starting about the middle of the caution tape was where CRMRC members could set up their tables. The space between the tarp and the CRMRC members was the spectator area.
There were only about 5 guests at 1400 when flights began but by 1500 there were almost 60. Total attendance was around 80, including ten VAS members (Joanna and Dennis W, Meghan and Doug W, Jack S, Joe C, Sharon P, Bob H, Scott T*1 and myself*1), and nine CRMRC members (new member Jason S, Tom O, Doug S, Kevin O, Dave L, Brian A, Jason V, Scott T*1 and myself*1) [*1 indicates both a VAS and CRMRC member]. Tom O volunteered to be RSO/LCO for the day so he did not fly anything. The rest of the CRMRC members, two VAS members, and eleven other non-members flew. The last flight of the day was at roughly 1930, after the sun had set.
The weather was mostly clear and in the 60s for most of the day with light breezes. It was a great day for flying but as evening approached, the sky clouded up and sky viewing was severely limited to holes where we could find them. Joe C set up his personal telescope and Dennis W set up the 12.5 inch scope he and others are building for Camp Common Ground. This did enable us to see: Epsilon Lyra (a double double -- what appears to be a single star without any magnification is actually seen as a double star with binoculars, and as two double stars with a telescope), Gamma Andromedae (another double star with the bright one being golden yellow and the dimmer being indigo blue which makes the color contrast easy to see), M57 (the ring nebula), NGC 457 (open cluster called Owl or ET Cluster), NGC 404 (a lenticular galaxy of stars and dark matter) and the ever popular M31 (a fuzzy star with the naked eye that is viewed as galaxy consisting of thousands of stars through a telescope [and estimated to be 200-300 billion stars in total]). It was too bad that no one from the public really stayed around to even see this much (although the CRMRC members did enjoy looking through the scope).
As for rockets, here are the summaries of what was flown, followed by some detail: total motors - 57, total flights - 53, total impulse burned - N, average impulse - H. Unique motor combinations included two staged (B6-0 to B6-4, I212 to H170) and two clusters (2@C6-3 and 2@C6-5). With this many flights, I will just list the rocketeer, the rocket and the motor(s). Abbreviations used include Aerotech (AT), Cessaroni Technology Incorporated (CTI) , Animal Motor Works (AMW)
Guests (all flights were successful unless otherwise noted):
- Alanna M flew a red, white & blue Estes Yankee on an Estes B6-4
- Daniel M launched a black & orange Estes Alpha III on an Estes B6-4
- Theo K flew an Estes Fat Shooter on an Estes C6-5 (or maybe a C6-3)
- Paddy K launched an orange Estes Flying Ninja on a B4-2
- Allen W flew a green & yellow rocket called John Deere on an Estes C11-7 (partial chute tangle but survived)
- Jamie L flew his black & yellow ring finned rocket (his L1 vehicle) on a CTI G79-8 Smokey Sam
- Nick W launched two: a red & blue Estes Hi Flier on an Estes C6-3 and a red & black Estes Big Red Screaming Eagle on an Estes C11-3
- David W flew two: a yellow & purple Estes Patriot on a C6-5 and a blue AT Initiator on an AT F23-?
- Zach L launched two: a black & orange Estes Alpha III on a B6-4 and a staged red, silver & white Estes Leg Ship on an Estes B6-0 to a B6-4
VAS members who flew:
- Dennis W flew a black Estes Big Daddy on an Estes D12-7
- Jack S. was a one trick (rocket) pony that was flown 6 times. The homemade red, white & blue bird flew on each of the following Estes motors: twice on a C11-3, twice on a D12-3, once on a E9-4 and once on a E9-6
CRMRC members
- Brian A flew his orange, 13 pound, 88 inch tall Wildman called Flying Grand on a CTI K454 Skidmark to about one mile high and an Ozark Aerospace ARTS2 & Perfect Flight MAWD handling the laundry deployment
- Doug S launched his naked (unpainted) 14 pound Wildman Stretch on a CTI K630 Blue Streak to 6382 feet with two Missile Works RRC2-minis handling the recovery
- Jason V attempted four flights: a black and silver PML BBX had its first flight on a CTI H170 Blue Streak with a PML CPR3000 handling the deployment; a green, 5.5 inch diameter Polecat Pershing II kit named “To Gorbachev with love” flew on a CTI I287 Smokey Sam to around 1500 feet; a 4 inch, black & yellow Polecat V2 called “Von Braun’s Revenge” flew on a CTI I170 Classic to 2700 feet; and the most exciting launch of the day was a high power two stage attempt of a PML BBX with a Terrier with a CTI I212 Smokey Sam on the booster and a CTI H170 Blue Streak as the upper stage – the upper stage was ejected while the booster burned on the pad for the first use of the CRMRC fire extinguisher
- Kevin O also had four flights: a 4 inch diameter x 6 inch tall, scratch built spool named “Speaker Wire” flew on an Estes C6-7 to around 100 feet; a larger (5 inch diameter x 6 inch tall) scratch built spool called “Spool 2” flew to about 600 feet on an AT SU F32-6 Blue Thunder; a yellow & red, scratch built, 38mm minimum diameter, all carbon fiber rocket named “Don’t Blink!” had its first flight on a Loki Research H160 Blue to 8400 feet while breaking Mach 1 with a GWiz LC handling the streamer deployment; and the biggest flight of the day and the first M motor in Vermont was a flight by a blue & white, 7.5 inch diameter by 12 feet tall, 65 pound rocket called “Dr. Fill” on a Contrail M2281 hybrid motor to around 3000 feet with an Ozark Aerospace ARTS2 and a GWiz MC handling the deployment of the large parachutes
- Scott T got five birds up in the air: his red custom Fruit Fly on an Estes C11-3 but no successful parachute deployment; the orange plastic pumpkin with green bamboo stick fins and orange streamers attached to the ends of the fins rocket named “Pumpnik” was nice to watch on an AT F40-4; a custom rocket based on a red crayon bank called “Red Hot Wax” flew on a CTI H110 White; a white plastic patio umbrella with a nosecone about 17 inches in diameter and about 13 inches tall named “Patio Ryan” flew on a CTI H120 Red Lightning; and by adding a strobe to the translucent nosecone for night flight, “Patio Ryan” made a nice evening flight on a CTI I175 Smokey Sam and it gently floated to the ground with the light blinking throughout the whole flight
- Dave L attempted 7 different rockets: an orange & black mini-saucer named “Johnny Rocket” on an Estes C6-5 (not real straight); a scratch built silver ball with sticks aptly called “Sputnik” on an Estes C6-5; a scratch built white pyramid named “Going Postal” on an AT SU F20-7W; a first flight of a scratch built green short and fat (7 inches wide x 9 inches tall) rocket named “To Infinity and Beyond” on an AT SU F23-4FJ which suffered smoke and flames out both the top and bottom on the pad; a custom rocket based on a yellow crayon named “Yellow Crayon” on a CTI H123-7 Skidmark to over 1200 feet; a red and white flying saucer-looking Wocket from Skunk Missile Works named “Oh Canada Wocket” on an AT J135 White Lightning to around 500 feet (arching over while the motor was still burning); and a beautifully painted blue Performance X-celerator on a CTI K454 Skidmark with a Featherweight Raven and Perfect Flite MiniAlt/WD handling the recovery work as the rocket flew to 3741 feet
- Jason S (new member) managed 8 flights (with just 7 cards): an orange & white Fliskit Deuce’s Wild cluster flew twice on 2 Estes C6-3 and then on 2 Estes C6-7 with the latter being a lawn dart; a blue and black Estes Ninja on an AT SU E304T (could use more delay) to over 1000 feet; a yellow & black AT Arreaux also flew twice on an AT SU E30-4T (first flight) and an AT SU F40-7W; a red & yellow AT Sumo had it’s first flight on an AT SU G77R-4 and an Estes Saturn V in classic colors flew (first flight) on an AT E15-4 with one section landing in a tree and a second flight where it delayed on the pad after ignition and then only got about 30 feet off the ground (and hit the ground before the ejection charge)
- As for me, I flew five times: a first flight of a partially painted Madcow 2.6 inch Patriot on a AT G79W-8; a Wildman Dark Star Lite called “Gold Star” on a kicky AT G138T-10 to around 2500 feet (still MIA); my custom Saranac Root Beer plastic bank bottle on an AT H165R-5 (filtered down through a tree); a 24”x24” light blue Styrofoam pyramid on a CTI G69 Skidmark as the last flight of the night (Skidmarks in the dark are excellent!); a black highly modified Performance Rocketry Gizmo (extended by 4 feet) which weighed 21 pounds at take-off on a very impressive AMW K1000 Skidmark to 4214 feet with the deployment duties handled by two Missile Works RRC mini altimeters
This certainly was the most fans we have ever had at a launch and LUITS is quickly becoming the CRMRC’s premier launch of the year. Now, if we can get the skies to cooperate, the VAS will get to really show what is up in the night sky.
Howie Druckerman
President, CRMRC
VAS Full Member
From: Howard Druckerman <dh46...@myfairpoint.net>
Date: Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 20:22
Subject: CRMRC September 2011 Flight Report -- LUITS II
To: je...@pbfoot.com, bsabi...@comcast.net, dwst...@gmail.com, jmop...@yahoo.com, ke...@back2bed.com, david...@mac.com, sco...@comcast.net, tol...@myfairpoint.net, n9...@juno.com, dh46...@myfairpoint.net, cpmil...@yahoo.com, jva...@gmail.com, hey...@myfairpoint.net, da...@peoplepc.com, jsar...@gmail.com
Cc: John McCabe III <jm1...@gmail.com>, Tad Wilder <twi...@us.ibm.com>, Bob Horton <rhor...@comcast.net>, "Jack St.Louis" <jack.s...@comcast.net>, Dennis Woos <dpw...@gmavt.net>, Jamie Lent <lentame...@gmail.com>, Bob Gurwicz <bgur...@cssu.org>
Rocketeers, Astronomers, and Wannabees,
Saturday, September 17, 2011 was Look Up In The Sky II (LUITS II), the joint launch and star party with the Vermont Astronomical Society (VAS). This launch had a starting time of 1400 to enable launching up until dark and then sky viewing afterward. Notification was put in the online events for Craig’s List, Burlington Free Press, Seven Days and the St. Albans Messenger. Additional, notifications were sent to everyone whom had ever contacted the CRMRC about rocketry, including the teacher at the Shelburne Community School who does rocketry classes every year at the school.
Setup began at 1230 with the positioning of the 500 foot (M) pad at the far end of the field. From there, the location of the 200 foot (K), 100 foot (H-J) pads, the red rail and the flight line were determined. Pads were electrically controlled as follows: red pads and the 2-100 foot pads by the usual launch control box, the 200 foot pad by the wireless Transolve Mini, and the 500 foot pad by the hybrid controller. The tarp was set up on the western side of the field and a small gap to enter the launch area was next to it. Then there was about 100 feet of caution tape indicating the flight line. Starting about the middle of the caution tape was where CRMRC members could set up their tables. The space between the tarp and the CRMRC members was the spectator area.
There were only about 5 guests at 1400 when flights began but by 1500 there were almost 60. Total attendance was around 80, including ten VAS members (Joanna and Dennis W, Meghan and Doug W, Jack S, Joe C, Sharon P, Bob H, Scott T*1 and myself*1), and nine CRMRC members (new member Jason S, Tom O, Doug S, Kevin O, Dave L, Brian A, Jason V, Scott T*1 and myself*1) [*1 indicates both a VAS and CRMRC member]. Tom O volunteered to be RSO/LCO for the day so he did not fly anything. The rest of the CRMRC members, two VAS members, and eleven other non-members flew. The last flight of the day was at roughly 1930, after the sun had set.
The weather was mostly clear and in the 60s for most of the day with light breezes. It was a great day for flying but as evening approached, the sky clouded up and sky viewing was severely limited to holes where we could find them. Joe C set up his personal telescope and Dennis W set up the 12.5 inch scope he and others are building for Camp Common Ground. This did enable us to see: Epsilon Lyra (a double double -- what appears to be a single star without any magnification is actually seen as a double star with binoculars, and as two double stars with a telescope), Gamma Andromedae (another double star with the bright one being golden yellow and the dimmer being indigo blue which makes the color contrast easy to see), M57 (the ring nebula), NGC 457 (open cluster called Owl or ET Cluster), NGC 404 (a lenticular galaxy of stars and dark matter) and the ever popular M31 (a fuzzy star with the naked eye that is viewed as galaxy consisting of thousands of stars through a telescope [and estimated to be 200-300 billion stars in total]). It was too bad that no one from the public really stayed around to even see this much (although the CRMRC members did enjoy looking through the scope).
As for rockets, here are the summaries of what was flown, followed by some detail: total motors - 57, total flights - 53, total impulse burned - N, average impulse - H. Unique motor combinations included two staged (B6-0 to B6-4, I212 to H170) and two clusters (2@C6-3 and 2@C6-5). With this many flights, I will just list the rocketeer, the rocket and the motor(s). Abbreviations used include Aerotech (AT), Cessaroni Technology Incorporated (CTI) , Animal Motor Works (AMW)
Guests (all flights were successful unless otherwise noted):
- Alanna M flew a red, white & blue Estes Yankee on an Estes B6-4
- Daniel M launched a black & orange Estes Alpha III on an Estes B6-4
- Theo K flew an Estes Fat Shooter on an Estes C6-5 (or maybe a C6-3)
- Paddy K launched an orange Estes Flying Ninja on a B4-2
- Allen W flew a green & yellow rocket called John Deere on an Estes C11-7 (partial chute tangle but survived)
- Jamie L flew his black & yellow ring finned rocket (his L1 vehicle) on a CTI G79-8 Smokey Sam
- Nick W launched two: a red & blue Estes Hi Flier on an Estes C6-3 and a red & black Estes Big Red Screaming Eagle on an Estes C11-3
- David W flew two: a yellow & purple Estes Patriot on a C6-5 and a blue AT Initiator on an AT F23-?
- Zach L launched two: a black & orange Estes Alpha III on a B6-4 and a staged red, silver & white Estes Leg Ship on an Estes B6-0 to a B6-4
VAS members who flew:
- Dennis W flew a black Estes Big Daddy on an Estes D12-7
- Jack S. was a one trick (rocket) pony that was flown 6 times. The homemade red, white & blue bird flew on each of the following Estes motors: twice on a C11-3, twice on a D12-3, once on a E9-4 and once on a E9-6
CRMRC members
- Brian A flew his orange, 13 pound, 88 inch tall Wildman called Flying Grand on a CTI K454 Skidmark to about one mile high and an Ozark Aerospace ARTS2 & Perfect Flight MAWD handling the laundry deployment
- Doug S launched his naked (unpainted) 14 pound Wildman Stretch on a CTI K630 Blue Streak to 6382 feet with two Missile Works RRC2-minis handling the recovery
- Jason V attempted four flights: a black and silver PML BBX had its first flight on a CTI H170 Blue Streak with a PML CPR3000 handling the deployment; a green, 5.5 inch diameter Polecat Pershing II kit named “To Gorbachev with love” flew on a CTI I287 Smokey Sam to around 1500 feet; a 4 inch, black & yellow Polecat V2 called “Von Braun’s Revenge” flew on a CTI I170 Classic to 2700 feet; and the most exciting launch of the day was a high power two stage attempt of a PML BBX with a Terrier with a CTI I212 Smokey Sam on the booster and a CTI H170 Blue Streak as the upper stage – the upper stage was ejected while the booster burned on the pad for the first use of the CRMRC fire extinguisher
- Kevin O also had four flights: a 4 inch diameter x 6 inch tall, scratch built spool named “Speaker Wire” flew on an Estes C6-7 to around 100 feet; a larger (5 inch diameter x 6 inch tall) scratch built spool called “Spool 2” flew to about 600 feet on an AT SU F32-6 Blue Thunder; a yellow & red, scratch built, 38mm minimum diameter, all carbon fiber rocket named “Don’t Blink!” had its first flight on a Loki Research H160 Blue to 8400 feet while breaking Mach 1 with a GWiz LC handling the streamer deployment; and the biggest flight of the day and the first M motor in Vermont was a flight by a blue & white, 7.5 inch diameter by 12 feet tall, 65 pound rocket called “Dr. Fill” on a Contrail M2281 hybrid motor to around 3000 feet with an Ozark Aerospace ARTS2 and a GWiz MC handling the deployment of the large parachutes
- Scott T got five birds up in the air: his red custom Fruit Fly on an Estes C11-3 but no successful parachute deployment; the orange plastic pumpkin with green bamboo stick fins and orange streamers attached to the ends of the fins rocket named “Pumpnik” was nice to watch on an AT F40-4; a custom rocket based on a red crayon bank called “Red Hot Wax” flew on a CTI H110 White; a white plastic patio umbrella with a nosecone about 17 inches in diameter and about 13 inches tall named “Patio Ryan” flew on a CTI H120 Red Lightning; and by adding a strobe to the translucent nosecone for night flight, “Patio Ryan” made a nice evening flight on a CTI I175 Smokey Sam and it gently floated to the ground with the light blinking throughout the whole flight
- Dave L attempted 7 different rockets: an orange & black mini-saucer named “Johnny Rocket” on an Estes C6-5 (not real straight); a scratch built silver ball with sticks aptly called “Sputnik” on an Estes C6-5; a scratch built white pyramid named “Going Postal” on an AT SU F20-7W; a first flight of a scratch built green short and fat (7 inches wide x 9 inches tall) rocket named “To Infinity and Beyond” on an AT SU F23-4FJ which suffered smoke and flames out both the top and bottom on the pad; a custom rocket based on a yellow crayon named “Yellow Crayon” on a CTI H123-7 Skidmark to over 1200 feet; a red and white flying saucer-looking Wocket from Skunk Missile Works named “Oh Canada Wocket” on an AT J135 White Lightning to around 500 feet (arching over while the motor was still burning); and a beautifully painted blue Performance X-celerator on a CTI K454 Skidmark with a Featherweight Raven and Perfect Flite MiniAlt/WD handling the recovery work as the rocket flew to 3741 feet
- Jason S (new member) managed 8 flights (with just 7 cards): an orange & white Fliskit Deuce’s Wild cluster flew twice on 2 Estes C6-3 and then on 2 Estes C6-7 with the latter being a lawn dart; a blue and black Estes Ninja on an AT SU E304T (could use more delay) to over 1000 feet; a yellow & black AT Arreaux also flew twice on an AT SU E30-4T (first flight) and an AT SU F40-7W; a red & yellow AT Sumo had it’s first flight on an AT SU G77R-4 and an Estes Saturn V in classic colors flew (first flight) on an AT E15-4 with one section landing in a tree and a second flight where it delayed on the pad after ignition and then only got about 30 feet off the ground (and hit the ground before the ejection charge)
- As for me, I flew five times: a first flight of a partially painted Madcow 2.6 inch Patriot on a AT G79W-8; a Wildman Dark Star Lite called “Gold Star” on a kicky AT G138T-10 to around 2500 feet (still MIA); my custom Saranac Root Beer plastic bank bottle on an AT H165R-5 (filtered down through a tree); a 24”x24” light blue Styrofoam pyramid on a CTI G69 Skidmark as the last flight of the night (Skidmarks in the dark are excellent!); a black highly modified Performance Rocketry Gizmo (extended by 4 feet) which weighed 21 pounds at take-off on a very impressive AMW K1000 Skidmark to 4214 feet with the deployment duties handled by two Missile Works RRC mini altimeters
This certainly was the most fans we have ever had at a launch and LUITS is quickly becoming the CRMRC’s premier launch of the year. Now, if we can get the skies to cooperate, the VAS will get to really show what is up in the night sky.
Howie Druckerman
President, CRMRC
VAS Full Member
To err is human so the sky is our birthright.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages