Launch Reports 2011

Day started off a little breezy, but soon calmed by midday.

A good turn out was witnessed, with Tom from FOG, and Robert et al from Liecester Uni AstroSoc joining us.

Notable flights of the day were mainly provided by Tom who gave a very entertaining maiden flight of a TLP Rapier, giving a cartwheel or two, and a very impressive flight of a snarky on a (cough) D motor (cough) – got to love those D motors that burn for a lond time!!

Steve Mann failed to witness a few new enteries to the lawndart society, first was David’s “new motor” flight darting in, next was with a shock cord failure of a mean machine, giving a core sample, then there was Tom’s flights, then Andy had a parachute deployment issue that shortened a rocket by 4 foot.

Matt was joined by Drfish and Chris S on the longest walk of the day to recover a H fight of his Ariel.

Chris S and Dave drag raced two monocopters.

We had one motor failure with a D motor spitting its plug.

Day ended with the light failing at 1530hrs.

One could get annoyed by the number of times that the weather predictions have been wrong. This month the weather prediction was for rain and 17mph winds, the reality was that it was gusty at times, but flying was done all day.

MRC was please to see that two non members came; Mel and Paul. Both flew a range of rockets, with Paul flying some nice high power birds and Mel showing us some great flights, and he entered MRC lawn dart club, welcomed by Steve.

A drag race between Matt and Chris F was held, resulting in both of them cracking a fin on their Bull pups.

Dave flew his minnie mag on an I205,  – that rocket begs for a J, and will probably be the rocket Dave gets his level 2 on.

Chris F showed us how to reduce flight costs by lighting one motor on a 2 motor cluster…….. and the rocket still gave a good straight flight.

Chris C put some impressive Estes flights in with his Interceptor and Big Daddy – smart carbon fibre looking rocket.

Paul flew is glider twice, it does not perform like it did before he painted it.

Steve flew his truely amazing upscaled Gemini DC – it’s worth coming to a meeting just to see this rocket, unfortunately the H240 motor had a blow by, although the duel ‘chute rear deployment worked perfectly, just a bit too close to the ground.

Andy flew a range of mpr scratch builds using just a small part of his aerotech stash.

The AGM was held, chaired by Paul.

(Apologies for any flight that I forgot to mention).

End of the day came early, with rain clouds looming at 1500hrs.

Midland Rocketry club hosted it’s third national event on the 16th to the 18th of September.

The weather forcast was against us, as the forcast had predicted wind and rain. The reality was somewhat different with shorts and t shirt weather on the Sunday with a few showers on the Saturday.

UKRA held their AGM on the Saturday evening.

MRC was very pleased to see its regulars, some old faces and some new faces.

Many flights took place, from A motors, all the way up to Malcolm from rockets and things L motor.

Two rocketeers passed their certification flights, Baz got level one and Matt got level two.

Rockets and Things were present to vend out kits, parts and more importantly motors.

MRC second launch site was used, which has an excellent recovery area with no hazards.

As with previous Midland Sky events, an excellent time was had by all, if you didn’t come because of the weather, you missed a good one.

The weather was good, a little windy at first. the pads were moved to the other side of the brook as this field had had the crops removed.

The usual crowd were there, with some new faces and a lot of flights took place.

Notable flights was the hybrid launch from George and Paul, which had a few people thinking about breaking into hybrid. Adam flew his experimental rear ejection rocket, and became a new member of the lawn dart division, Dave B and Matt also joined the division with some less than perfect recoveries. Several new rockets took to the air, including two stagers and a few odd rocs. Andy continued to give his excellent scratch builds an airing. A piston launcher was used. Drag races were won and lost. Cluster rockets performed perfectly, and gliders flew flat. Overall, lots of low, mid and high power flights across a ranged of rockets

New GSE was tested, thanks to Steve for building a multi-launch low power controller and Matt’s new low power rack.

A BBQ was enjoyed by some.

Only down side was a few rockets being badly damaged, but if destroying a rocket upsets you too much, then you should take up stamp collecting.

Now we are looking forward to Midland Sky.

Well it was possibly the smallest turn out ever, quite a few members were on holiday. Flights still took place with Chris F and Andy sending up plenty of midpower rockets.

Big thanks for Alan for RSOing.

 12th June 2011

Unfortunately the rain started just before we arrived at the field. And the rain did not stop all day. Nevertheless, it was good to see some old faces and some new faces to MRC – sorry you guys didn’t get to fly.

As usual with bad weather, everyone ended up in McDonalds, there was 12 of us, with other members phoning in and turning there cars around on the motorway.

The website was looked at. Level one rockets were discussed, as was George’s 54mm hydrid. Paul distributed some stock, mainly motors and tubes for Matt’s UKAYRoC teams for next year.

Hopefully next month’s launch will see good weather.