BlueSkies 1 Launch Report
Saturday February 28th was the 1st BluesRockS BlueSkies HPR Launch at our Sims farm flying field. Like alot of clubs, we have this field from approx. Dec 1-April 1 as its a working farm that plants soybeans. The field itself is apprx. 1000 acres of very gently rolliing Kentucky river bottom land...
The weather for this launch was perfection.....winds < 5 mph with bright Blue sunny skies, temperatures in the mid to high 50's....( I might add I got a good sunburn on my face, arms/hands and lips...ouch!)
I saw some of the strangest things during this launch...1st of all due to the lack of wind , all the model went exactly straight
up..... but it wasn't what they did on the way up as what they did on the way back down.. I saw models floating stationery for seconds at a time, or going up and coming back down like yo-yos.... there was obviously a great deal of thermal activity at this site....
We had 2 firsts at this site..... David Logan was the first ever person to certify as L1 at this site while Lance Knoechel, proprietor of MerlinMissiles, and our preferred motor vendor, had a absolutely beautiful 5:41 B PD Nartrek Bronze Level flight.... Lance also had a number of beautiful flights on his SWORD model Rocket on Estes E engines...Straight up beautiful flights.... The finish on this model was just outstanding...
This model seemed stuck in a thermal directly overhead and not only did it go up but as it hit the "donut hole" ( down draft) it came down like a rocket only a few hundred feet from the laucnh site..
The first flight of the day was an Alpha on a C6-5 by yours truly, shockie... I had been driving by this site for almost 30 years and vowed to someday launch rockets from it and I became the 1st
person to do so...
Approx. 15 + people showed up ready to launch rockets of all size and engine classes.. We had the 'Louisville Boyz" as I call them, The Stevens Brothers, Albert and Dennis, George Gradhl and Bryan Mackin, members of the KRA, the Kentuckiana Rocketry Association that go back to HPR in the early 90's
These guys have been around for a long while in HPR and really know their stuff... We could not have had this HPR launch without their GSE support...
I now know who owns all the composite engines in the state of Kentucky: Albert and Dennis...and did I tell you that Dennis has a unbuilt fleet of over 75 models...? and a built fleet of close to 60? WOW....
From western Ky we had David Logan, his beautiful daughter Katy and a celebrity : The "Prfessor" himself,
Terry McCreary , an actual TRA BOD member!.... I was agog...... Terry Had a beautiful flight of a Patriot on an I-300....
and kindly donated his materpiece, Experimental Composite Propellant to our raffle.
David of course, was the first BluesRockS member EVER to certify for his L1...( I'm next!!!!) and again, we could not have held this event without his GSE support....
From central Ky we had Patrick Harvey, aka Iceage, Bill Martin and his family, Stewart32 form TRF (whose name escapes me ARGHHHH!)
From SOuthern Indiana Joe Magginnis, another LONGTIME Model Rocketeer ( his NAR # is like 10XXX) came down
and launched most of his Aerotech fleet: GForce, Aurreaux,Mustang,and Barracuda.... I also now know where
all the AT composite motors in Indiana are!!!...
From here in Etown Booby McKnight came down and had the distinction of launching the most rockets up..
way to go Bobby! ALso Michael Henninger came down and Launched a 4 ft tall MOSQUITO on an I230! Very Impressive....
and Michael holds the club record for the 1st J launch at a BluesRockS HPR meet...
Between 3pm and 4pm when he closed down, Dennis Stevens launched his Quasar on a F25 and Dennis has the dubious
distinction of having the 1st rocket to drift over the Rolling Fork River, out of the launch area..
Never fear, after we shut down, The Stevens brothers, Bobby and I eventually found the model on the other side of the river on a farm across the river....
Before we tore down the range head and left, we held a raffle of various kits, engines,etc and a number of peopl went home happy
with free kits, especially Stewart32's little friend....!
So we had 50 launches over a 5 hr period for a launch of approx 1 per every 6 minutes...pretty laidback
Its not the quantity of launches that count but the quality and I think all would agree that we
had excellent weather, an excellent field, and a great time was had by all...
If theres anybodies name I forgot, please forgive me as I am losing my memory in my old age...
We are all looking forward to BlueSkies 2 to be held in mid to late March...
Terry Dean
aka shockie
prez BluesRockS #657
