Number Of Flights

[accooper]

How may flight have you ever gotten out of one rocket?

 

[skycopp]

My rocket 'Froggy' has over 40 flights in the G - I range.

 

[Micromeister]

How may flight have you ever gotten out of one rocket?

I retired my Estes 1/100th Saturn-V after it's 139th Fight in 1999 tho the model is still in flyable condition. The current fleet has many models with more then 50 flights. A few are more then 35year old.
Shoot I have a few Micro models built in the past 9 years that have more then 20 flights each. It really depends on how much I like the model how often it gets to the top of the box LOL!!!!

 

[Gillard]

my estes snitch seems to get flown when ever the weather is looking a bit too windy, as because its hard to damage she must have had a few dozen flights by now. i also had a nightwing, which had several dozen flights on it right back when i just started into rocketry and my fleet was just three rockets.

 

[redsox15]

my first ever rocket was a fat boy and I think I got 15-20 flights out of it. Even managed to get it caught on the roof of the middle school I was launching at :y: but it was recovered. I reitred it in good condition...can't say that about some of my other rockets

Matt

 

[jflis]

500 for me on an Estes Sprint Purchased in 1973 I pumped well over $700 worth of motors into the tail end of that thing.

Donated it to Vern & Gleda Estes after they got to push the button on flights 499 & 500

pix can be found here. (scroll down about 5 images to get to the Sprint'73 story)

I often get 20-30+ flights out of any one rocket.

 

[r1dermon]

my current LOC aura has had probably 25+ flights in the E-F range...of course, my past two Aura's both had about 3 flights on them, and when i stuff a G in the rear it doesn't want to come back.

 

[accooper]

We retired my sons first rocket an Alpha after it had fifty flights on her. My wife has it with his other little boy stuff.

 

[MarkII]

My FlisKits Tumble Weed has made 9 flights so far (5 of them on Micromaxx motors). It is my most flown rocket to date. Tied for second place are my Art Applewhite Turbo Delta "Hot Pink" and my Art Applewhite Popsicle Stick Monocopter "Coconut Pop" with 7 flights each. After that I have many rockets with 3 or fewer flights, and actually, quite a few of mine have 0 flights so far.

At club launches, I bring many more rockets than I can ever manage to fly, even though there is never a wait for a pad. None of my rockets from my youth have survived, and I have been building new ones at a steady rate since I resumed the hobby five years ago. So far in 2009 I have launched rockets a total of 39 times on 8 launch days, which is more than one third of the flights that I have logs for during the 9 total years that I have been actively involved in the hobby.

It may take me 20 more years before any of my rockets have logged anything approaching the numbers that most of the other posters to this thread have reported. Yowsa! :eyepop: That is, if any of them survive that long without getting lost. I am trying to get everything flown that I have, but as I mentioned, I already have a backlog that just keeps getting bigger as I build more and more...

One of the oldest rockets in my active fleet (my No. 2 Estes Skywriter, built in 2004) made its second ever flight just this past Sunday.

MarkII

 

[Bone Daddy]

I flew the "finally did something about those booster pod post" rocket 7 times in the last 2 days. Went like this:

11/02/09

Maiden flight yesterday with an A8-3 tad underpowered and a little more swishy than expected.

B6-2 even more swishy, ejection a bit too soon. Looks light in the nose.

B6-4 still swishy, ejection dead on. Still looks light in the nose. Not getting as much altitude as expected.

C6-3 yup light in the nose. Marginally stable.

Has a balsa nosecone (I hate balsa nosecones, but didn't have a plastic one on hand). Drilled out the base and stuffed it with rather hefty threaded nut from my junk box. Epoxied it in place with an eyehook.
=======================

11/03

B6-2 to start figuring its heavier than before. Nice stable flight. ejection still too early

B6-4 perfect, it's a keeper.

pass on C6-3.

No A8-3 to try. Against my better judgement I stuff a 1/2A into her.
It survives the flight, never to see a 1/2A again.

======================

7 flights no damage. I'll finish painting it and shoot it off at the next club meeting.

 

[MarkII]

Wow, so many votes in the "11 or greater" category that it isn't even close. You might need to redo this poll with different ranges. How many people have flown a particular rocket 25 times? 50 times? 100 times? These numbers just boggle my mind, primarily because all I see are more and more rockets that I want to fly, so I can't imagine finding the time to fly any one of them that many times. But even more, I can't imagine not having the rocket drift off to distant lands or disappear into the forest long before it gets anywhere close to, say, 25 flights. Where do any of you go where you are able to buy such luck by the bargeful?

MarkII

 

[jflis]

Wow, so many votes in the "11 or greater" category that it isn't even close. You might need to redo this poll with different ranges. How many people have flown a particular rocket 25 times? 50 times? 100 times? These numbers just boggle my mind, primarily because all I see are more and more rockets that I want to fly, so I can't imagine finding the time to fly any one of them that many times. But even more, I can't imagine not having the rocket drift off to distant lands or disappear into the forest long before it gets anywhere close to, say, 25 flights. Where do any of you go where you are able to buy such luck by the bargeful?

MarkII

Mark,

That was my FIRST thought when I saw this... ...The choices are all wrong LOL

Lately, I have a set of Frick-n-Frack models (2 stage saucer) that I am getting a lot of flights out of as our club has pretty much settled on this as the drag race model of choice I've got about 11-12 flights on those and growing.

 

[MarkII]

Mark,

That was my FIRST thought when I saw this... ...The choices are all wrong LOL

Lately, I have a set of Frick-n-Frack models (2 stage saucer) that I am getting a lot of flights out of as our club has pretty much settled on this as the drag race model of choice I've got about 11-12 flights on those and growing.

Well, CMASS has good taste, then. I love the freakin' thing!

MarkII

 

[Micromeister]

Mark:
My current fleets contain more the 277 standard and Upscale models and 165 Micros with lots in the works....
As you say I also generally have many more models at the field then I can possibly fly but that doesn't stop me from averaging 10-20 flights depending on the breeze of the day We launch year round at least once a month sometime twice as well as demos, test flights and running over to the feild just to get my BP smell fix It really doesn't take long to rack up 10-15 or 25 flights on a given model. believe it or not I have a couple "favorite" PMC's with 20 flights or more just cause I like to see them in the air. I do have some that have only a couple flights on them but that means they were either super bad performers or something I build but really didn't like the design all that much.

The Biggest Help or Trick to Keeping models is to "Fly the Field". Don't over power or over chute or streamer your models for the weather and field conditions of the day.

My range box has an assortment of various sizes and types of chutes and streamers that I can instantly switchout on just about any model in my fleets. I have run altitude projections on most of my standard and Upscale models on all available motor combinations for that model. and have that info in my log book. it's become a habbit with me to pre-prep and log in most of the models most likely to be flown for the day the night before the launch after looking at the projected weather forcast and wind conditions for our launch site. I can choose a couple likely motors and have them prepared also in the ready motors box. At the field I simply match the motor/model to the current field conditions and fly. I still occasionally loose one in the Many rocket eating trees around our site but that really isn't often. I have a couple models I've TRIED to fly away only to have some very nice local people return it to the club weeks or months later LOL!!! Some models seem to have a life of their own LOL!!!!

 

[MarkII]

John, your long experience in model rocketry has allowed you to attain a level of efficiency in launches that I haven't developed yet, although I am working on it. I do envy the fact that you also have a field that is available for launches year round. Our launch season up in northeastern NY is much shorter, generally running from April to October, with the earliest and latest couple of launches often being canceled due to weather or field conditions. (If the field still has 4 ft. of snow in it, or is under 2 ft. of water due to snow melt, we can't launch. And in high summer, if one has 4 ft. of hay and the other has 6 ft. of corn, we won't launch. I realize that other folks around the country have similar issues with their club launches, too.) Our launch this past Sunday (11/1) was a good illustration: it was meant to be a pre-Halloween launch, but it was postponed 5 times due to weather and field conditions. The conditions on Sunday were less than ideal, but we got it off -- just barely. It was one of the latest launches that we have ever held; November launches are unheard of around here. I came home covered in mud. And the situation is a bit more complicated for me personally because I have to drive either 120 miles or 150 miles, respectively, to get to our two fields. So in addition to my still less than brisk and efficient launch preparation, I also have limited opportunities to launch in a big field.

On non-launch weekends, and any day during the summer, I can launch by myself in my local field, but that field is small so it really limits what I can fly. And weather conditions are even more of an issue where I live, which is considerably further north than the rest of the club. I can also launch in my yard and driveway, but that is mainly limited to Micromaxx and up to 1/2A. Most of the flights of my Tumble Weed were done in my driveway on Micromaxx-II's and nearly all of the flights of my Popsicle Stick Monocopter were done in my backyard. But because of all of the vegetation in and around my property, the great majority of my lost rockets disappeared within 100 ft. of my house.

I have built so many new rockets in the past few years that I haven't really developed any favorites yet. My priority at launches (club and local) is to get some of my newest stuff up into the air. That usually fills up all of the time, so it usually takes awhile before any particular model even gets a second flight, let alone 10 or 20. Some of my unflown rockets have to make the trip down to a club launch a half dozen times before they ever make it onto a pad. That's also a significant "problem," if you can call it that.

MarkII

 

[MarkII]

For the 2009 launch season, my club successfully conducted 7 launches, which is probably a record for us. In 2008, we held 4 launches. In previous years, 3-4 launches per year was the norm.

MarkII

 

[dave carver]

I'm fortunate to live in the middle of a bunch of pastures and the neighbours are used to me flying at odd times during the week so all I have to do is just go a few hundred yards and I'm good for most low flights.

 

[MarkII]

On top of everything else that I have mentioned, one final thing that limits my total number of launches is a slight "vision" problem that I have. You see, whenever I launch any of my rockets, it is not a bright orange BP exhaust plume or Mach diamonds that I see shooting out behind the rocket, but rather, little dollar bills... that burn up and are gone. $$$$... $$$$... $$$...$$$... $$... $$... $$...


And I don't know why, but that seems to make me feel a bit remorseful sometimes. I know that I should really see a doctor about this, but I need to get some kind of health insurance first.

MarkII

 

[Rocketcrab]

I don't know whay, but a couple of years ago I decided to see how many flights I could get out of one rocket. I picked the Fliskits Rhino because...well, it's a cool rocket, I like the Astron Cobra fins, and I'd just finished it. I decided to fly it at every club launch that I attended. Fifteen flights leter, she's still going strong. I've flown her on A, B, and C motors, and I'm thinking of using up a couple of D21's I have. I tried flying it on an old D3, but I couldn't get the dern thing to light. She's got some chipped paint, but otherwise she's going strong. And the aroma in that body tube!!!

 

[jflis]

I don't know whay, but a couple of years ago I decided to see how many flights I could get out of one rocket. I picked the Fliskits Rhino because...well, it's a cool rocket, I like the Astron Cobra fins, and I'd just finished it. I decided to fly it at every club launch that I attended. Fifteen flights leter, she's still going strong. I've flown her on A, B, and C motors, and I'm thinking of using up a couple of D21's I have. I tried flying it on an old D3, but I couldn't get the dern thing to light. She's got some chipped paint, but otherwise she's going strong. And the aroma in that body tube!!!

Since retiring my Sprint-73 I had considered getting another model to start crankin' on the flights. I've been tossing it up between a Rhino and a Flea... hhmmmm

 

[georgegassaway]

I know for a fact that I got 49 flights out of an R/C Boost Glider, named Avatar-1 (this was 1980 before the word “avatar” became widely used). It was my first really good 2-channel R/C B/G. At the time, Matt Steele owned the very light R/C gear (Cannon Super micro), so we swapped flights back and forth. Usually boosted on staged D12 power. We flew the heck out of it in fall 1980. I did a boost on flight #48 with a D12 and an E5. It went pretty well. Matt Steele flew flight #49 on the same motor combo, but he lost orientation on it after the E5 ignited and it ended up crashing.

There may well be other models that I have had more than 49 flights with, and if so, probably an R/C RBG model. But I have built and flown so many R/C RBG’s thru the years that I cannot be sure which if any may have flown 50 times or more.

It is more of an unusual thing that I even know how many times that model flew. I do not keep flight records, but that one was unique since it was my first really good R/C B/G and we’d get in 6 to 8 flights or so one day and another 6-8 or so a few weeks later (maybe 10 on the same day once). First flew early September 1980 and the last was November 1980.

The non-R/C model I currently probably have the most flights on is likely either my old Centuri Flying Saucer (built in 1980), or a Tri-F-O (3-sided saucer I designed). No idea how many flights (hey, it’s a hobby.... )

- George Gassaway

 

[JRThro]

I have built so many new rockets in the past few years that I haven't really developed any favorites yet. My priority at launches (club and local) is to get some of my newest stuff up into the air. That usually fills up all of the time, so it usually takes awhile before any particular model even gets a second flight, let alone 10 or 20. Some of my unflown rockets have to make the trip down to a club launch a half dozen times before they ever make it onto a pad. That's also a significant "problem," if you can call it that.

Mark, I have a similar problem, in that I build slowly, prep slowly, and walk slowly, so even at an actual club launch I don't fly a whole bunch of times. And since our September and October club launches were both rained out, I haven't flown at all since August... or was it July?

It may also be that I like starting new things, but completing them isn't as much fun, and sticking with any one rocket doesn't seem to be something that I do very often.

At next weekend's club launch, my priorities are to launch
1. my son's two-stage design, the Fire Shark, on its maiden flights
2. my InFlight Mach 10 clone on its maiden flights
3. whatever else I get around to

 

[MarkII]

Since retiring my Sprint-73 I had considered getting another model to start crankin' on the flights. I've been tossing it up between a Rhino and a Flea... hhmmmm

Not a Praetor? Or a Lil' Guy?

MarkII

 

[jflis]

Not a Praetor? Or a Lil' Guy?

MarkII

Lil' Guy perhaps, but the Praetor looks like she wouldn't hold up as well for hundreds of flights with those long tapered fins... Although, the Praetor *is* my fav design

Whatever I decide, it is sure to drive our club president nuts... Bill used to groan every time I came up with my Sprint LOL Heck, he got to see a whole lotta those 500 flights!

 

[billspad]

Whatever I decide, it is sure to drive our club president nuts... Bill used to groan every time I came up with my Sprint LOL Heck, he got to see a whole lotta those 500 flights!

I couldn't even get away from it when I went to NARAM.

 

[MarkII]

Lil' Guy perhaps, but the Praetor looks like she wouldn't hold up as well for hundreds of flights with those long tapered fins... Although, the Praetor *is* my fav design

Ahh, but that's the challenge, isn't it - keeping a rocket repaired often enough to make those 500 flights? I'm just kidding. How many flights do you think you can make with a Decaffeinator? (Just keep buying, or recycling, more cups, I suppose. )

But seriously, I know what you mean about using the Rhino, because it is big and sturdy. I would also say the Shadowlord, too, if you can find enough C11-5's to feed it, or else use 18mm C's with an adapter. (Will it fly with those?)

MarkII

 

[jflis]

Ahh, but that's the challenge, isn't it - keeping a rocket repaired often enough to make those 500 flights? I'm just kidding. How many flights do you think you can make with a Decaffeinator? (Just keep buying, or recycling, more cups, I suppose. )

But seriously, I know what you mean about using the Rhino, because it is big and sturdy. I would also say the Shadowlord, too, if you can find enough C11-5's to feed it, or else use 18mm C's with an adapter. (Will it fly with those?)

MarkII

Actually, the Shadow Lord should do fine with a C6-3 and I will try that at my next club launch. As for the Decaffeinator I've gotten up to 25 flights on one of those

 

[Pantherjon]

Most flights on a single rocket? I honestly have no clue! I haven't kept track! I DO know that my most flown is probably my Fliskits Rhino! Was one of the first kits I built into my BARdom, and has been 'claimed' by my step-daughter as 'her rocket'!:roll: Even after spending a month 45' up in a tree in my backyard and a couple of parachute non-deployments it is still flight worthy..Thought I lost it once when I flew it on an 18mm RMS load(can't recall which load it was), now it 'rattles' when shaken with the plastic ejection cap trapped between the baffle and motor mount.:roll:

 

[Buckaroo]

Since retiring my Sprint-73 I had considered getting another model to start crankin' on the flights. I've been tossing it up between a Rhino and a Flea... hhmmmm

Don't you have a Deuce floating around somewhere with a bunch of flights on it...?

When I was a kid flying Estes rockets back in the 70's I distinctly remember 2 that broke the 20 flight mark, which was extraordinary since we flew at the elementary school in our neighborhood, and between the roof/asphalt/tree/yard with mean dog landings, our active fleets were always pretty thin.

The two I always got back were a Sprint that I built in '78 and an Eclipse that I built around '80. I used to add little stick on dots to my rockets for each flight, and I absolutely remember getting to 20 on both of those rockets. Probably not much more than that, since high school was in there somewhere and the typical BAR story ensued.

In my current fleet the high number is 8 on a Thrustline Black Shadow. My problem is that I build them faster than I can fly them, and there just aren't enough hours in the day to fly them all.

Jim - I know you need to "represent" your product, and I would certainly not fault you for it, but the sentimental side of me thinks you should build another Sprint... Maybe I will too

 

[jflis]

Jim - I know you need to "represent" your product, and I would certainly not fault you for it, but the sentimental side of me thinks you should build another Sprint... Maybe I will too

Wouldn't be the same... that first Sprint I purchased from Vern... ...Now if Vern were to show up at NARAM with a Sprint for me to buy, we may have something there...