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My personal National Sport Launch report
At NSL at the end of May, as some of us were talking, the idea came up that some of us should post individual launch reports. So here, several weeks after the fact, is mine. I'll start with my own launch report, then some about the Saturday banquet (including some pictures of the display models) and then a look at one of the new Estes products that were being shown.
As those of you who were following either JumpJet's or Initiator001's NSL 2013 threads know, I drove out to Pueblo, Colorado from the Seattle area. The trip itself was pretty uneventful – I did it in three bites. It helped that I had a brand new car – a 2013 Mazda3 five-door – to drive. I drove rather than flew in part so it would be easier to bring rocket motors, but also because it would be much simpler to have my usual launch “camp” setup – 10x10 shade canopy, two folding tables, chair, etc. as well as more rockets to fly than I could get into a golf club case for checking on Southwest. NSL was also the beginning of a two-week vacation in which my wife and I would visit family in various New Mexico locations before heading home. I arrived in Pueblo on the evening of Friday (after slogging through traffic between Denver and Colorado Springs that was reminiscent of what I'd see at home on a Friday of Memorial Day weekend). After finding my lodging and unloading a couple of things at the room, I headed out to the ranch to check out the flying site. Wow – lots and lots and lots of room to fly – provided the winds blew to the east toward large portion of the range. As it turned out, this was often not the case. A number of RVs of various sorts were out there and I wound up chatting with a couple of other participants before meeting one of the host club members who told me I could set up my canopy in what turned out to be vendor row. This led to a little contention on Saturday morning but in the end I had one of the best vantage points of all the participants. I got back to the ranch on Saturday shortly before the range was scheduled to open, got my registration packet (including some Pueblo salsa) and proceeded to prep a number of rockets for their first flights. I had gone on a building frenzy the prior couple of months and had examples of the most recent Semroc releases (Starship Excalibur, Centurion-F, Maxi Micron and Booster-18), as well as an original 24mm motor night flyer, a Semroc Mini Aero Dart, a scratch built (to the original MRN plan) Big Bertha, an Estes QCC Explorer, and an Alpha III from an older red/white kit with me. All of these were unflown when I arrived. By the time I left on Monday of these only the Alpha III remained unflown, and the others had from one to six flights on them and most of the ten more “experienced” models I brought along got at least a little more experience. The day got off to kind of a slow start as folks got into the rhythm of the RSO, launch pad assignment and LCO processes. Interestingly, this is the first launch I've attended where every rocket before every flight got at least a cursory RSO inspection and flight cards had to be initialed by an RSO before they could be taken to the pad manager for pad assignment. At other launches I've attended usually an RSO inspection was required only above a certain total impulse – usually E or higher. Before I put up my first flight I visited with the folks at the Estes tent and met both Mike Fritz and Christine Schwarz – folks I'd corresponded with by e-mail from time to time but had never spoken with or seen face-to-face before. John Boren (JumpJet) was around of course (and seemingly everywhere) as well. I'd had the pleasure of meeting him at the Seattle NARCON a couple of years ago. Mike gifted me with a pre-production version of the upcoming Estes altimeter and I flew it 10 times over the course of the weekend. More about that in another post. I proceeded to reel off a series of seven first flights, beginning with the QCC Explorer on a D12-5 (carrying both a PerfectFlite Pnut and the Estes altimeter). Winds were variable in both speed and direction all day, which led to a number of models landing well behind the flight line. My QCC was one of those, which also stripped its 'chute but otherwise suffered no damage on that first flight. At times the winds were high enough that I was expecting operations to be halted, but they never were and the flight line was active up until the range was closed so we could pack up and head for the banquet. My last first flight of the day was the Big Bertha (a typical BB flight on a modest B6-4) – a flight which Vern Estes witnessed (he and Gleda had arrived an hour or so before) and after which he consented to autograph the model. That one is now up on a high shelf and will likely never fly again. By the end of operations on Saturday I'd put up 9 flights including first flights on the Starship Excalibur (B6-4), Centurion-F (E12-6), Maxi Micron (C6-5), my night flyer (C11-5), and the Mini Aero Dart (C6-5) as well as the two mentioned above. My SLS Aero Dart got a nice ride on a CTI F36 Blue Streak and one of my many BMS School Rockets took the Estes Altimeter for a ride on a C6-5. The Centurion-F stripped a couple of shroud lines and spat the 24-to-29mm motor adapter, and the SLS Aero Dart was aimed more easterly than I wanted to because things were landing behind the flight line earlier, so that was my longest walk of the day. There was often lots of blowing dust along with the wind so it was fortunate that we had a couple of hours to go get cleaned up before the banquet. Unfortunately my nice new car was also filled with dust (and only in the last few days is it mostly cleaned up inside). I'll talk about the model display, the banquet and the speakers in another post.
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Bernard Cawley NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member SAM 0061 AMA 42160 KG7AIE |
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More pics
In the previous post is a picture of the range early on Saturday morning and then shots of four of my models before their maiden flights. The orange one is the night flyer. The other three should be pretty much self explanatory.
In this post are a couple more booth shots, a picture of Mike Fritz in action at the Estes booth, and my Centurion-F, also before its maiden (and so far only) flight.
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Bernard Cawley NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member SAM 0061 AMA 42160 KG7AIE |
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Days two and three of NSL
Sunday morning I managed to get to Mass at 7:30 at Holy Family (oddly, my home parish here is also named Holy Family) then out to the ranch about the time the range was to open. Conditions were MUCH nicer on Sunday morning with a light and variable breeze. I started off by putting up my New Way Spacemodels Square One on an Aerotech (valuerockets.com) D10-5. It was the only one of New Way's square rockets I saw at NSL.
Before long there was an announcement that there were not many entries in the Classic Model competition. That surprised me because it was very popular when the Tri-Cities Rocketeers ran it last year. I had several models which would qualify as “Classics” but none were really spiffed up for entry and I hadn't brought any documentation for any of them. So I grabbed my Alpha IV and turned that in to John Boren since I figured the color scheme on that one is self-evident (and provided by the kit). Later John had to remind me it needed to be flown to count, so it was my second flight of the day. Over the course of the day I put up another dozen flights ranging from my Semroc repro Rock-A-Chute Mark II on an A8-3 to my Estes Leviathan on a CTI G131 Smokey Sam. Also included in the days' flights was a flight of my Semroc SLS Aero Dart on one of the new Estes 29mm black powder F motors – an F15-6 in this case. It was a gorgeous flight to just over 1400 feet (per the Pnut aboard). I also had one crash – my little Semroc Aphelion suffered a shock-cord failure and the body came in ballistic on the south side of the parking area, wiping out the first couple of inches of the tube on that hard ground. And this was after I'd gotten Carl McLawhorn to autograph it earlier that day. *sigh* Other flights included the 41st flight on my worn and weary Nova Payloader on an Estes C6-5 (to 668 feet per the Estes altimeter aboard) and two flights on the Maxi Micron on Aerotech D10-5s. That is a nice combination (and the White Lighting propellant is amazingly “expressive” for an 18mm motor), though it really needs to be a D10-6 for optimum 'chute deployment timing. My Quickburst igniters were in a little plastic sack which apparently blew away during Saturday's winds, so after having a failed ignition on a FirstFire Jr. in the Square One all the rest of the AT composites I flew over the weekend were ignited by copperheads with no issues whatever. I did use a real copperhead clip, though. By mid afternoon Sunday the winds and the dust had returned as well, which left us wondering what the night launch was going to be like. Towards evening it calmed down some and I put up the last non-lighted flight of the day with an Estes ready-to-fly Sizzler on a C6-5. It went up …. and disappeared into the dimly-lit sky (though it was recovered later by someone retrieving a night flyer). I got a surprise in the middle of the afternoon as Mary Roberts from Estes came by my shade canopy and introduced herself. We chatted a little bit about activity in the Seattle area and she inquired after Dick O'Hara of Bellevue Hobby (raohara's Dad) and asked me to convey her best wishes to the two of them. Vern and Gleda were back out at the ranch for a little while in the afternoon as well, but not for long. I heard later that Vern wasn't feeling well....hopefully nothing more than a bit too much sun and all those people (including me) flocking for chats and autographs. He had been signing models, kits, hats, and I'm sure a few other things on Saturday. The night launch was interesting, to say the least. Lots of different approaches for lighting rockets from taped-on glow sticks (generally not too successful) to various LED-based lighting schemes, some of which were quite striking and interesting. My own modest effort got two successful flights in, both on minimum 24mm power (C11s) as the winds were coming back and getting worse as the night went on. It also seems that night-flyer rockets have a higher incidence of shock cord and other recovery failures for some reason. Some went back behind the flight line thanks to the winds. I was glad my two flights resulted in only minor damage to the model, both with recoveries out into the main part of the range. The wind (and the moon) came up and after a couple of hours of after-dark flying the range was shut down and folks returned to their camps or back into town to their rooms, as did I. I got back to my room about 10:30. Next morning I had a little trouble getting going (I am normally NOT a morning person anyway) so didn't get up to the field until 10-ish. There was still quite a bit of activity, though far less than on Sunday, and all through the course of the day folks were packing up, saying their goodbyes and heading out. I was one of several (including Initiator001) who spent quite a bit of time with John Boren hearing about neat stuff that is coming from Estes, including tantalizing hints about things that John said he couldn't talk about yet. It was breezy again though not as bad as it had been Sunday afternoon or Saturday. I put up six flights on Monday. The first three all resulted in some damage to rockets between the wind and the hard ground – I broke fins on the second BMS School Rocket (Estes C6-5 to 1044 feet per Estes altimeter aboard) and the QCC Explorer. The latter actually appeared to be from parts colliding with one another at apogee (750-ish feet per a Pnut and the Estes altimeter) on an Estes E12-6. The SLS Aero Dart (632 feet on an Estes E12-6 per the Pnut aboard) cracked a couple of fin fillets. My last three flights at NSL were all on the Maxi Micron – Estes C6-5, Aerotech D10-5 and then a D21-7. This last flight was a quick straight up and a 'chute that was late but not so bad as to cause any damage. After recovering it I asked Carl to autograph it (thinking of the broken Aphelion), which he smiled and did. Carl and I also figured out why my Booster-18 didn't fit once loaded with a motor – we figured out where I'd goofed putting it together. Then it was time for me to pack up, say my goodbyes, and head north to Denver to meet my wife who was flying in from Seattle while I was doing that packing and driving. We both arrived at the motel near the Denver airport at about the same time. Our two-week trip into New Mexico to visit family and then back home began began on Tuesday. Many thanks to John Boren and all the SCORE folks, as well as the other clubs who assisted in putting on an event of this size. It's no small feat, I know.
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Bernard Cawley NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member SAM 0061 AMA 42160 KG7AIE |
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Bernie,
Great report and pictures. It was good to meet and speak with you at the NSL. You build some pretty nice looking rockets.
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Bob S.A.M. # 0014 |
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Model display and banquet
One of the aspects of NSL 2013 that enticed me to make the three-day drive was the promise of a pre-Saturday banquet display of many models which had served as photo models for Estes catalogs back before the days of artist's and later computer-generated illustrations, as well as promised presentations by both Bill Stine and Vern Estes at the banquet itself.
There were a couple of interesting glitches....like a display room that had no lights, and a serving line that was not set up for the number of guests there were (thanks to some late-breaking arrangements to expand the number of possible attendees). But the display – even in the less-than-ideal light – what a display! Over 400 models which had been packed away in some big boxes for literally years carefully arranged (by John Boren and Carl McLawhorn the night before) on a number of folding banquet tables. All of us, I am sure, saw one or more examples of our favorites on those tables and got the chance to even pick them up and examine them (very carefully!). Rather than go on any more, I'll just post some of the pictures I took. I did take the opportunity to answer a question I've always had about the fin stripes on the Nova Payloader by looking at both examples on display (the stripes are on one side of all three fins). One other note about the display....in the pictures you can see a pretty large number of the new Estes display stands in use to support models that couldn't stand up on their fins. One of the perks of being at NSL was that Estes gave away all those stands on Sunday – all you had to do was swing by the Estes canopy and take some. After dinner Bill Stine told us the story of the very beginning of model rocketry as we know it from the point of view of having been involved in the hobby since he was born (including, apparently, teething on MMI rubber nose cones). While I had read some of this story before back when there was a Model Rocket Museum section on the Quest web site it was great fun hearing more of the story from someone who was very much there. This was followed by Vern Estes telling the story of the first automated model rocket motor making machine, which was dubbed “Mabel”. He wove in quite a bit of his own story before there was an “Estes Industries” in the model rocket business and how his experiences shaped not only the nature of that first machine but how he came to build it, and what happened next. It was great fun hearing the stories of the beginnings of the hobby we all love so well from two who were there.
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Bernard Cawley NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member SAM 0061 AMA 42160 KG7AIE |
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more pictures
Some more of the displayed models and one of Vern and Gleda Estes discussing something with Bill Stine.
__________________
Bernard Cawley NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member SAM 0061 AMA 42160 KG7AIE |
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still more pictures
Display models and Vern Estes during his presentation.
__________________
Bernard Cawley NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member SAM 0061 AMA 42160 KG7AIE |
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First impressions of the Estes altimeter
One of the products that was being shown by Estes at their booth at NSL is the altimeter that is on the back cover of the current Estes catalog. As I mentioned in the launch report post, Mike Fritz of Estes gifted me with a pre-production version (NOTE: this is NOT the final version) of the Estes altimeter on Saturday morning of NSL. I put 10 flights on it during the event (and have flown it a few times since).
Some of you may know that I like doing measurements and testing, having done quite a bit of static and airborne data logger testing with electric RC airplanes. When I became a BAR I naturally gravitated toward electronic altimeters and have, as a result, amassed quite a collection of devices from a number of makers including Adept, PerfectFlight, Adrel, Jolly Logic, Altus Metrum, Winged Shadow Systems and at least one or two others. I've even flown an Eagle Tree stand-alone altitude sensor as a rocket altimeter. So when the Estes altimeter was first mentioned on TRF I was very interested to see what design requirements would be important to them and what sort of unit would result. So....here are first impressions based on that one pre-production sample. The unit is in a plastic case with an eye at one end that implies you can tie it to a shock cord or nose cone without benefit of a separate payload section. It's just a touch bigger in diameter than an 18mm motor so the smallest tube it will fit in is Semroc/Centuri ST-8. It has a four digit display and a single recessed pushbutton on its face, with a small slide switch embedded in one side. This latter is for turning the unit and on and off. Power comes from a replaceable 6V alkaline battery that's about the same diameter and 1/3 the length of an AAA cell. The battery is inside a small compartment that is held closed with a single cross-point machine screw. I've done a little looking around for replacement batteries. They are not something you can just walk into a drug store (or even a Batteries Plus store) and buy, though they appear to be used in some remote controls and perhaps electric lighters. Radio Shack carries it on their web site, but at $12.99(!!). I finally found a five-pack of compatible batteries (Gold Peak GP11A) on Amazon.com for about $4. That said I have no real idea how many hours the supplied battery will last, but I'm sure its hours, perhaps days, not minutes. So having a replacement battery easily to hand is not something you'll need as soon as you get your altimeter. All up weight is 0.43 ounce or 12.3 grams, which makes it heavier than others which use a single small lipoly cell (for example the Jolly Logic units or the PerfectFlite Pnut) but lighter and more compact than units that use a 12V lighter battery (like the PerfectFlite APRA or Adept A1). The Estes altimeter has a unique feature at this price point (suggested retail of $35) - the ability to store the peak altitudes of the last 10 flights. These data are accessed by holding down the pushbutton until the data prompt comes up. Then you cycle through them from most recent to oldest with successive button presses. The button is also used to set the unit to zero in preparation for the next flight and switch display of altitudes between meters and feet. Using it is simple – turn it on, check to see if it's set to zero (the display will read zero). If not, press and hold the button until the display reads “0000” then let go. The display then reads “0”. Pack it in the payload section or attach it to the screw eye or shock cord. Try not to close the compartment too quickly or with your hand blocking the vent holes. Go fly. Upon recovery, just pull it out and read it (the default unit is feet). Pretty simple. As I understand it, it will shut itself off after being on for exactly one hour, so make sure you get your flight off within an hour of powering it up. I haven't checked this aspect of its behavior yet. I have gotten reasonable values for reported altitude considering the rocket and the motor and the weight of the device each time I have flown it so far. All of these flights have been in a dedicated payload compartment rather than tied to the nose cone and stuffed into the body of the rocket. These have ranged from the little BMS School Rocket on a B to my Estes Leviathan on a G. On four flights at NSL it flew alongside one of my PerfectFlite Pnuts. The Estes device typically reported a result 9-10 feet higher than that reported by the Pnut on the same flight – which is plenty close enough. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on a production version. I think it will be a great unit for use in school projects and for just answering that question “how high did it go?”.
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Bernard Cawley NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member SAM 0061 AMA 42160 KG7AIE |
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Thanks, Bob. It was fun to meet you as well. Hopefully again some other time....
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Bernard Cawley NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member SAM 0061 AMA 42160 KG7AIE |
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Any idea when the production version would be available? Seems like something that would be cool to introduce at something like, oh, I don't know, a NARAM.
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Bill Eichelberger NAR 79563 http://wallyum.blogspot.com/ I miss being SAM 0058 Build floor: Centuri Design Contest F-150 Hurricane Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Groonie Der V 1/2 |
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