CMASS launch July 18th

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jflis

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Our next CMASS launch is July 18th (Saturday) in Amesbury.

Who's coming, what are you flying?

I hope to have a selection of our newer kits to fly as well as proto's of our next wave of kits :)

See you out there! Pray for good weather!

jim
 
Our next CMASS launch is July 18th (Saturday) in Amesbury.

Who's coming, what are you flying?

I hope to have a selection of our newer kits to fly as well as proto's of our next wave of kits :)

See you out there! Pray for good weather!

jim

The long range forecast looks good and so does the forecast for the week. That's important because the farmer has been allowed to cut the hay on our side of the field until after the 4th because of nesting birds.

Bring Saturns!
 
Plan to be there with gliders and a Little Joe. Planning on getting one of those Fliskits Saturns too. Maybe Jim will remember to bring me one of the Coronas from the Pearl days???

Hopefully the third flight of the Semroc Hawk will fly and not break. :)

Paul
 
I plan to be there and have more stuff to fly than I probably can manage to get done. If someone is around to witness and time permits, I need to recertify too...I'd let my NAR membership lapse and apparently that means the Level 1 is gone until I recert...
 
I plan on being there. I have a few that haven't flown yet.

I finally finished up my Fliskits Frick N' Frack so I'll be giving it it's maiden flight. I think I only have 2 C6-0's so it may only get one flight.

A Semroc Lune-R1 to replace the one I left on the power lines last year.

An Estes Stormcaster. I was looking through my kit pile and saw that I had 3 of them so decided to build one. They are cheap using a 50% off coupon at Michaels.

A Hotrod Rockets Nitro-X. This is a nice 2 motor cluster kit.

A Quest Shuttle Intrepid. I just need to balance the glider.

A Semroc Centaur. I actually had this built last year but the last couple of launches were very breezy so I never flew it.

I'm thinking of bringing my old Estes Saturn V. I don't know where the tower is but I probably can throw together a paper one just for this launch. I think I know where the slip on plastic fins are. I better check the shock cords. They have been in there many years now.

I still have a couple of D13-3 motors that I bought when I got the Saturn V. It would be an authentic flight with the recommended motor but I don't think I'll chance it. The last 2 D13's I tried turned my rockets into cinders.

I can't find the single 24mm motor mount so it will go on 3 C6-3's. The plastic fins had come apart but I had some clear dope so I stuck them back together. I'll probably tape the edges with clear tape and see what happens. If it looks like they're not tight enough I'll tape them on.
 
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I'm thinking of bringing my old Estes Saturn V. I don't know where the tower is but I probably can throw together a paper one just for this launch. I think I know where the slip on plastic fins are. I better check the shock cords. They have been in there many years now.

I still have a couple of D13-3 motors that I bought when I got the Saturn V. It would be an authentic flight with the recommended motor but I don't think I'll chance it. The last 2 D13's I tried turned my rockets into cinders.

I can't find the single 24mm motor mount so it will go on 3 C6-3's. The plastic fins had come apart but I had some clear dope so I stuck them back together. I'll probably tape the edges with clear tape and see what happens. If it looks like they're not tight enough I'll tape them on.

Bob,
I have a 24mm motor mount for my old Saturn if you want to borrow it for you Saturn flight.
You can always use a 24mm reload. ;)
 
Bob,
I have a 24mm motor mount for my old Saturn if you want to borrow it for you Saturn flight.
You can always use a 24mm reload. ;)
Why don't you bring it along. I think an E18-4 might be good for this.

I know when I got it, that they only came with 1/8" launch lugs. If I get around to it, I'll replace them with 3/16" lugs.

I thought I would bring it for the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. It doesn't look the greatest but I wasn't much of a craftsman back then.
 
Is Sunday the 19th a rain date for this Weekend CMASS launch? Weather forcast looking not so good for Sat.
 
I may not always agree with everything that Bill has to say, but I do appreciate his brevity... :D

See you folks Satunday...??? (is that anything like Septober....????)
 
I hope to be there. I've been trying to get some stuff up since last falls washout. I'll have a small launch window, I'll have to leave between 12 and 1.

My Saturn V is already to go. My first cluster. along with another 12 first flights I think.
 
I may not always agree with everything that Bill has to say, but I do appreciate his brevity... :D

See you folks Satunday...??? (is that anything like Septober....????)


You don't agree with everything I have to say? Heresy. I'd have you burned at the stake but it's too wet.
 
It started out iffy but the forecast was good, and it turned out to be a really good day of flying. A bit HOT and HUMID, but still good :)

When we all first got there we had battled traffic jams due to accidents, rain, and a very low cloud ceiling. What was our estimate on the ceiling at first? 8 feet? 10... dropping to zero in places...

It burned off after a while and then the humidity hit. But it really was a great day. High flying birds landing in and around the launch area, multi staged models and hpr birds, everything from 1/8A's through J cluster birds. Man!

I was also tickled with how many FlisKits models were seen taking to the air. What a hoot! :) We had several drag races also, which are always fun.

Here are a few pix (wasn't a great picture taking day until well after noon). I hope to have my album up some time next week.

Now to get ready for our August 1st launch!

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Great day to fly rockets =). At first we had a real low ceiling but then the sun came out and got real hot and humid. However, the wind cooperated and I was able to fly some things I normally would not consider flying at Amesbury :p.

At first I started my flying day by launching gliders. First was my Delta Vee with a 1l2A3-2T. Great boost, and the glider had a beautiful straight and slow glide! Then I launched my MPC Delta Kat wtih a 1/4A3-3T. I originally intended to launch it with a 1/2A3-2T but I was talking while loading the motor and I grabbed the wrong motor. But since I had the motor friction fitted in I decided to go with it. This glider had a good glide concidering how little altitude it had to fly with.

I wanted to win the spot landing contest Bill had, first person to land a rocket in the inner circle got some sort of gift certificate. So I chose my Totally Tubular with an A8-3. It did land in the inner circle, but unfortunatly someone who launched before me with a micro maxx rocket beat me to it.

Then I launched my Quest Tomahawk with an Estes C6-5. The flight was a bit wobbily. Once it landed the weather was good enough to fly some more serious stuff. I decided to try one of the new CTI propellants, so I flew my Aerotech Sumo with a Pro29 H170-9 Blue Streak motor. Normally I would not use a 4 grain in my Sumo, but since the weather was so nice, I went for it. After a suscessful flight, I launched my EZI-65 with another CTI motor, this time I used a H225-9 White motor. Great fast flight! landed on the other side of the river in the tall grass. After several minutes of searching, I found the rocket. I ended my flying day with something simple. My Quest Bright Hawk with an Estes C6-5. Lost the rocket in the sun but saw its parachute on the ground when I went back to my table.
 
Today was my first launch for quite a while and I had a ton of rockets itching to fly. I didn't think we'd actually have a launch so I didn't prepare much at all on Friday night...so when I called the hotline and found out that the launch was on it was a mad scramble to get rockets in boxes and in the car, get son up and head up to Amesbury (an hour and a half or so from Natick). We made it up there by about 1 and I managed to get about 7 or 8 flights up, and my son Josh (who only brought two rockets) got up 2 or 3 including flying the Estes Bullpup I'd built some 5 or 6 years ago but that never flew before (it flew great). Among my flights were my 10 year old Fat Boy (I usually start with that one) on a C6-3 and a roughly 30 year old original Estes Alien Invader on a B6-4 (the parachute tangled but it landed with only a couple of paint chips. That rocket I actually picked up off of ebay last year and so although it's 30 years old, it was only recently built and painted.

I flew my Alien Space Probe, and an Executioner on an E9-4 with two Zing Wings inside. The wings ejected perfectly and circled for many minutes before drifting away, never to be seen again. (see https://www.darehobby.com/airplanes/airplane-zingwings.htm for a description). Then my Advanced Rocketry Corp. Shark, the Semroc Launch rocket (great flyer), the clone of the Estes Sprint I recently built to replace my two retired Sprints, one built in 1979 and the other in 1982. The Sprint flew great on a B6-6...but the body tube was damaged by the shock cord. I had put some masking tape on the Kevlar to prevent zippers, but it dinged it pretty good regardless although it didn't cut the tube. I suppose a B6-4 would have been a better choice. Finally I closed out by flying my Semroc Lil' Hustler on an E9-6. That is just about the perfect motor for that rocket ...it flew high but still landed in the field.

I did nothing over an E, no composites and had a blast. Now I'll nurse my sunburn again and continue to build more of the stockpile of kits I have on hand. Now that I already have more rockets on hand than I could ever fly at one launch, why not add a few more. My friends think I'm nuts.

A few pictures attached.

Alien Invader on the pad.jpg

Alien Space Probe ready for its first mission.JPG

Executioner heading for the sky with two ZingWings on board.JPG

The Shark ready to chew up the sky.JPG

The Launch missile ready to be launched.JPG
 
turned out to be a great day to fly. the bros and i had some successful flights and some not so successful flights...I sent up the sustainer section to my two stage and that came down ok. Once the wind died down i thought id put the booster section on and see what happen. First stage went off well but when it came to light the sustained it didnt :( instead it blew the engine up into and through the baffle kit before landing like a lawn dart 3.5inches in the ground wish i got a picture of that haha. externally there is no damage internally i have to fix the engine mount and as Jim had mentioned to me...drill vent wholes between stages.

I dont know if you guys saw my brothers "dessert eagle" clustered rocket (the rocket whose fins were guns). Two very good flights although it did start to crumple like an accordian from hitting the ground to hard...simple fix of a larger parachute.

My other brothers "fire" rocket did well as well but hit the ground hard on its last flight and broke a fin...again...no worries another easy fix

And finally my littlest brother had the maiden flight of his newest rocket on which we forgot to put lunch lugs (thanks to jim who had some extras). he had a little bit of a walk but it came down in one piece
 
With a lot of help I got my Saturn V up! Also flew my Orbital Goonieceptor and My Goonskelion. I had to leave early so that was it. The short Time I was there was great.
 

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It was a great day to fly for sure! All but one flight was a great success.

Thrustline - Black Shadow - C6-5 using a streamer thankfully.
Thrustline - PumpkinHead - C6-5 streamer recovery
Thrustline - ATM - D12-5
Loc - Onyx its first flight - RR F45-5 very nice
1.3x Upscale Quest SuperBird - Best flight of the day - Aerotech F23-4 recovered inside the circle.


Dynastar Snarky -- E18-4 Unfortunately the delay was real short causing a zipper repairable.
 
A foggy start turned into a great launch day with little wind.

The final launch count was 320 in the 6 hour window which is fairly low for a July launch at Woodsom Farm. It was a little slow in the morning due to the low ceiling (which also probably kept some folks from coming), but Bill called it right and it cleared nicely as I took over as LCO at 12:45 and then launched 240 rockets, so we were launching about 65 an hour which isn't too shabby.

There were must have been a half dozen Saturn V launches, a great tribute to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and lots of drag races, the most memorable being the 3 FLISKITS Lighthouse drag race. Who won? Does it matter? We also had a good sampling of rockets launched on the new Pro29 and Pro38 reloads from CTI. Really nice stuff.
Boris launched the Voodoo Daddy on 8 D's again, along with several saucers and a magnificent 5 motor cluster cluster Sirius Saturn V. Bill had several fine hybrid flights, and Howard launched 2 big L2 rockets, one with the new Garmin Dog tracker (with landed in the field) and the second without the tracker which of course ended up in the swamp and took a while to retrieve.

The next two launches are in Acton, and then we'll be back at Woodsom Farm through November for our final 5 launches of the year.

Bob
 
but Bill called it right and it cleared nicely as I took over as LCO at 12:45


I had my doubts when I got to the field at 9:00 and by noon I thought I had screwed up big time. The sky was supposed to clear by 11:00.
 
Here are a few pics.

1) Scott Clement's Witch Way
2) Nantucket Sound drag race
3) My SLS Hustler with a new CTI F35 that Robert DeHate gave me to fly.
4) My Deuces Wild on Quest C6-5s

s Witch Way lo sm.jpg

Nantucket Sound drag race 2 sm.jpg

SLS Hustler 2lo sm.jpg

Deuces Wid 2lo sm.jpg
 
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