October 1 Launch Report

 
 
                            LAUNCH REPORT by Lou Ballini 
 
High Power Launch number two took place on Sunday Oct.1, the weather was
fantastic! 74 degrees, no humidity, no clouds and no wind! What more could
you ask for? Launching started at noon and didn't stop until 5 pm. No 
one wanted to stop but we had to comply with the F.A.A. Waiver. 

Jason Albright launched 13 rockets. Not to be outdone, newcomers to HP 
rocketry, the Susicke's, Gary, Chris and Jesse, also made 13 trips to the 
pads. Getting off 10 launches were Dennis & Mark Luoni. Joe & Joey Pallitta
launched 8 rockets and so did Joseph, Julie & Tony Campagna. David Ackerman
& Matt Chase shot 8 rockets each. Jeff Davenport & Mark Stevens each
managed to launch 7 rockets. Fritz, of the LIARS, had 3 excellent H powered
flights.

Motors used at the launch were: 11 A5s, 29 B5s, 21 C5s, 16 D5s, 18
E's, 24 F's, 26 G's, 9 H's and 1 I, that's 156 motors shot! There were 
7 clustered flights and three drag races. 

Bill Rossi launched his "Bonzai", it had an H238 main motor and it air 
started 3 D11P's, but that's not all. At Apogee it deployed a drogue chute 
and the main chute was deployed by radio control. As usual Dennis Luoni 
treated us to his assortment of neat rockets. Several were launched from 
his rail launcher. But the most oohs and aahs came when Dennis flew his 
Mach 1, which lived up to its name, as it cracked while going through the 
sound barrier. Sound barrier? We don't care about no stinking sound barrier!

Estes was the most popular manufacturer, 56 Estes rockets were launched! 
There were 13 by Loc/Precision, and 15 by Aerotech. Get this, 36 rockets 
were home made! It's good to see so many rocketeers designing and building
their own rockets. There were no rocket airframe or component failures,
it's too bad we can't say the same for the motors.

During the day there were 4 CATO's (motor failures), 5 separations (chute
or streamer pulled from the rocket), 3 tangled chutes (when the chute be
comes tangled in the shock cord or its own shroud lines preventing opening)
and 33 ignition failures.

Now we have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is the Butler 
launch scheduled for October 22 has been canceled because they scheduled 
a game on the field. We schedule the launches before the sports guys have
their schedules made, so this usually happens. If anyone out there has a
location for rocket launches, by all means get in touch with us at the s
tore. The good news is we are planning one final launch this season. It 
will be in Sussex on November 5, weather permitting, from noon until 5 pm.

Remember we will be off daylight savings time. See you there!