SpaceDay 2003

[Ryan S.]

I just got back from Tewksbury where spaceday 2003 was held. The launch was great even though we only launched small rockets.

I got to the feild early to help set up. I was really glad I did because parking filled up and my cousin, who came later had to walk over a half mile to get to the feild.
After we set up I started launching rockets with Doug. I started with my half arrow which flew great on a D12. after that I flew some smaller rockets but we were held up constantly by the helcopters landing and the skydivers jumping. After the helicopter landed Doug launched his Art Applwhite rocket on an F24 after trying a D9 many times unsuccsesfully.
I then decided to fly my Arcas on an F20 there was a 10 second countdown as it was such a large rocket for this field. There were tons of little kids and they loved it. To follow this up I flew my LOC IV on an AT G35. It was a great flight and the largest rocket of the day. The rocket landed on the other side of the river but we spotted it. Since my dad had convinced me to launch the rocket he recovered it. He needed to walk through some swamp but the rocket was fine.
Doug followed up my G35 flight with his Onyx on an Ellis G35. Doug thinned the crowd with this launch The motor cato'd quite spectacularly. The rocket was undamaged. The nozzle came off and hit a little kid who was unhurt. Before the launch there was a huge crowd watching us launch and after that there were very few people. I said I was going to give Doug hell for this flight but I thought that I will leave this to you guys as I had the whole day.

There were tons of little kids at this launch. They were persistant at chasing our rockets. It was horrible. They picked up the rockets and often times they were broken. One of my cousins rockets was broken. Jim Flis did a good job keeping kids from his rocket. I tried to help him rocover a highly detialed kit he had but the kids outnumbered me. Luckily the rocket was undamaged. One of the funniest parts of the day was when a little kid came up to my rockets and said "WOW! look at all the rockets he caught"

At this launch I also met another member of TRF. lamart72 was at the launch and introduced himself to me at the end. I talked rockets with him until we left and look forward to seeing him at the CMASS launch on the 19th

In the end I had a great time and I think that for once I may have launched more rockets that Doug

 

[jflis]

Space Day was a lot of fun and Paul Manning needs to receive the kudo's he deserves for his efforts.

My focus was mainly the rocket launching, but there were activities spaning a half mile in all directions. It was huge!

There were several coordination problems that would have to be addressed shoul Paul do this again. While 99% of what I saw went perfect, some of the problems at the rocket range included:

- They were droping *free* things from the airplanes (candy on parachutes, styrofoam stars with prizes written on them, and such), as a result, the people (kids and adults alike) though ANYthing coming down from the sky was free for the taking. Several times I had to essentially TAKE a rocket of mine back from someone who had retrieved it explaining that it was NOT theirs to keep...

- Uncontrolled kids. What more can I say. Ever see your prized rocket (in this case a U.S.S. Grissom) being chased across wet grass by 20 screaming kids, each trying to be the first to the rocket???? Good thing I have lungs (comes from being from a family of 8 kids...). They were running towards the Grissom and I boomed out "DO NOT CHASE THAT ROCKET!" Third time stopped 'em in their tracks

- They had a build session across the road where they built some quick-kit and launched that day. They were set up to pick the motors up at the CMASS table after turning in a ticket. Well, turns out they were taught on how to *build* the kit, not how to prep it for flight nor how to get it on the pad. SO, there were LONG lines (there were 300 of these rockets...) of kids and parents at the RSO table (where you should ONLY be to have your rocket safety checked), being taught by the RSO how to pack wadding, pack a chute and install a motor... The Space Day people should have had their *own* booth set up to do this for CMASS. It truely slowed everything up quite a bit.

But enough of that. It really was a whole lot of fun. FlisKits didn't have the time to put together a booth (we were invited to do so), so I showed up as a spectator and enjoyed flying for the sake of flying (something very rare these days *S*)

I've posted pix on our web site and you can see the photo album at:
https://fliskits.com/photo_album/spaceday_2003/spaceday03.htm

I should also point out that I got in a GREAT, PERFECT flight on the Diminutive Deuce (MMX verision of the Deuce's Wild! kit). Bill Spadafora helped me configure ignitors (he's done many MMX clusters) and she went perfectly straight on twin smoke trails to about 30 or so feet. just WONDERFUL! Thanks Bill!

I also knocked off flight #399 on my 34 year old Astron Sprint. I am saving flight #400 for NARAM. I was scared to death though, as i had a separation and lost the nose cone. Fortunately, someone found it and turned it in to the RSO. Whew!

Who else was there? I know Doug was there! oh, i've attached the pix that Bill took of me with my diminutive deuce

 

[sandman]

I'm hurt by that first comment, Ryan.

"The launch was great even though we only launched small rockets."

Sorta like, I took a new girl to the prom, she was cute even though she was fat."

LOL!

Some leg pulling!!!

sandman

 

[n3tjm]

Yesterday was a great day to fly... most of the time there was no wind. I lost only one rocket, the sustainer of my CC Express went on the other side of the tree line. There is a chance somebody may of picked it up; smaller chance that somebody turned it. I most likely never see it again... that was such a great rocket.

I had trouble getting my Art 24mm UFO's D9 motor to ignite. After several tries, I replaced the nozzle and fuel grain with that of a F24... and let her rip. I managed to get the D9 going later in the day... using a slower burning igniter.

I also launched an old favorite of mine, My Blue Ninja which has not seen the sky since Heather Groder launched it in April. It perfored extremely well with a C11-3. Another bird that I flew was my Quest Super Eagle with a Quest C6-3.

My Onyx had a very scary cato. The Ellis Mountain G35 took forever to start. As soon as the motor kicked to life, it burned through the side, spun outa control, and headed towards the crowd. Just then the nozzle blew off the motor, distenguishing the burning propellant and delay grain. One minor injury was reported, a scratch on a leg of one boy, which was hit by the nozzle.

Space Day also had other things going on. The skydivers were pretty cool, although they closed down the range for a while. I also got the chance to take a look at the Patriot Missile display. I wanted to fly it, but somebody told me that a G80 was not enough for it .

My Flights:
24mm UFO F24-4WP
Nike Arrow A3-4T SEP
Deuces Wilder 2 C6-5
Astroblam - C6-5 SEP
Whick Ways Up - C6-5
Super Eagle - C6-3
Blue Ninja - C11-3
Onyx G35-6E Cato
Eliminated Eliminator - C11-5
CC Express C11-0/C11-7
24mm UFO D9-7WP

 

[Ryan S.]

Sandman,

I meant nothing by it. I love launching any kind of rocket, big or small

Doug and Jim, those are great pics!!!!!