For three days, rocketeers from the eastern part of the country traveled to a large sod farm located in Middleton, NY for a three day event that was the launch of the first North East Region Rocket Festival. This launch was not sponsored by NAR or TRA, and was independently insured. This allowed us to fly commercial, EX, decertified, and never certified motors side by side. Besides that, NAR and TRA rules were used, and high power users were expected to be either NAR or TRA certified for the level they are flying at.
My impression of NERRF was I had a blast. I never been to a launch this big, and it was fun seeing all the different projects on the ground and in the air. I was also impressed by the amateur radio presence at the launch. If I had known about that, I would have brought my HT. I liked the size of the field, and even though with the moats and turned soil, I think this is the best M rated field I have ever set foot on. I rode shotgun to this launch with my friend Bill Ralston, and when we arrived early Friday morning, we made sure we set up our site in a good spot.
On the first day of the launch, I got three birds in the air. The first rocket I launched was my Super Glotova. The booster was loaded with a H123-6W, and two G64-PW motors in the outboards. The second stage sported a Loki H144. Since I was using a G-Wiz for staging and dual deploy, I did not bother trimming the delay on the H144. Picture perfect flight. The beast rose majestically off the launch pad with a huge white plum of fire and tons of white smoke. Staging occurred right on queue and that H144 pushed the Super Glotova way out of my eyesight. I lost sight of it, but after moments, someone pointed out to me. It was under chute, and landed gently with only a few yards from where the booster came to rest. The altimeter reported a peak altitude of 3,571 feet.
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| The Super Glotova launches with a central H123 and dual G64's, followed by a Loki H144. | |||
Ever since I heard that AMW came out with a Skidmark motor for their 1050 motor, I wanted to fly my PML Aurora with one. So I arranged to get my hands on the J230 Skidmark motor, and I proceeded to modify my Aurora to use the motor. The three foot length of 4” dia phenolic tubing I ordered for it did not arrive in time, so I bought another tube from Hanger 11, and borrowed a drill and some sandpaper to do a field mod. The Aurora is now dubbed the Ladyrobin.
I had some problems loading the J230 motor. At first I thought that the propellant grains were to long, so I scraped some off from the end of one of the grains. This did not help. So I decided to dry load the motor. Without the propellant, I was still unable to load the motor. So I proceeded to cut the liner tube into a shorter length. After some effort, I got the J230 loaded, and I installed the motor into the Ladyrobin.
The J230 was the perfect motor for the Ladyrobin. Ignition was very quick, and with a burst of sparks, the Ladyrobin took off from the launch pad in the hurry. The motor burned for about three seconds, crackling during the last two thirds of its burn. The Transolve PK altimeter did its job and the rocket landed under chute in the turned soil. One of the fins was knocked loose on landing, which was the only major damage the Ladyrobin sustained. The final flight I had on Friday was my PML Bull Puppy with a F40-4W. Perfect motor for that small but heavy rocket. I could see it all the way to apogee.
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| The Ladyrobin's awesome flight with an Animal Motor Works J230 Skidmark motor. | |||
Saturday I only was able to launch two rockets. First off the pad was my Super Glotova sustainer loaded with a Kosdon Dirty Harry motor. I am not sure what the designation of the motor is, but it looked identical to the I130 motor. This motor was never certified, so I had no way to check it up and see what its specks are. Lets just say that my Super Glotova was severely underpowered with that load. It went on a low and long arch. The apogee charge did go off (or at least the motor charge), but the main never came out. The Super Glotova suffered major damage to its airframe and motor tube.
The final flight of the day was my Magnum with an AMW J480 Blue Baboon. Once again I had trouble loading the motor. I dry loaded the motor and once again, I found the liner to be to long. So I took the motor and reload to Joel Rogers and Robert DeHate. After doing some poking around, we determined what the problem was. The nozzle was to long. The company that machine their nozzles made 1050 nozzle out of the 1750 nozzles, which use a longer nozzle. So Joel let me borrow his nozzle, and soon the Magnum was loaded and was ready to fly.
The Magnum had beautiful boost on the J480. This motor has a nice blue flame and a trail of white smoke. After its short burn, the Magnum coasted up to 2,100 feet where the transolve blew the apogee charge at apogee, and the main at 600 feet. The main deployed over the river and the Magnum coasted into the spectator area, and drapped over the hood of Bill’s truck. That got a laugh out of all of us. I did not have to walk far to return the rocket. Just pull it off the front of the truck, and bring it to the back of the truck. Bill thinks the Magnum just wanted to go home.
On the final day of NERRF, I launched a total of four rockets. First off the pad was a borrowed Art Applewhite 38mm UFO which I launched on a Kosdon I130 longburn motor. I originally was going to use this motor in my Super Glotova, but since it wrecked on Saturday, I chose to do a UFO flight with it instead. It was a picture perfect flight. Straight up of the pad with no oscillation. Gained a respectable altitude, and came back down with less speed then I thought it would. It landed right smack in the middle of one of the moats. It looked like an Ocean Buoy on top of that green Algae water. I used the retrieval pole from Hanger 11, and was thankful this UFO had fins. That gave me something to hook with the pole.
My second flight was my Magnum again with an AMW J450 Super Tiger motor. With the right nozzle, there was no issue loading the motor. Perfect flight and deployments. This time the Magnum landed on the other side of the woods, and was fortunate to find a ride so I did not have to walk all the way to the bridge, and walk to the rocket, and back. Once I cooled off a bit, and did my range duty, I prepped and launched my PML Bull Puppy again with a G64-7W motor. I was able to see it all the way to deployment. It landed on a sod strip. The hardest part of recovering it was the distance of the walk. I finished the day off with my modified Estes Cluster Bomb, which I flew on an Aerotech E18-7W. That rocket really got up there, and once again, I was able to follow it to landing, and it landed on the same sod strip that my Bull Puppy came to rest on.
Over all, the first NERRF was a blast. There was so many things I liked about the launch, and so many things that I did not like. For example, lowpower/mid power launch needs to be a separated from the High Power launches. That way, the low power people can fly and fly and fly, and the high power people can launch their birds with their own schedule.