Monthly Archives: March 2013

NEFAR’s March Launch

Posted on by
Reply

Bunnell experienced an almost perfect day for flying rockets last Saturday and many rocketry fanatics took advantage of the nice weather at NEFAR’s March rocket launch.

Gemini-Titan Launch

Some cool scale models flew from the low-power pads.

Tom's Nell

Tom Tweit’s scale model of Rocket Goddard’s Nell turned in a terrific flight.

High Power Launch at NEFAR

Out on the high-power pads, one rocket chuffed up the launch rod then stayed there as others were launched.

E9 CATO

An Estes E9 provided some excitement when its nozzle failed. Fortunately, Fireman Steve and his can of Minute Maid soda were on hand to save the day.

Our Big Daddy Akavish also provided some undesired excitement.  Bracha and I flew it on a CTI K490 motor.

Big Daddy Akavish

The lift off went well, but a few seconds later, the rocket took a sudden turn.  The altimeter deployed the parachute while the motor continued to burn.  The rocket made a hard, tragic landing.  Postmortem analysis showed a big hole in the side of the motor.

Additional photos from the launch can be viewed in the RocketReviews.com Photo Album.

ROCK’s March Launch

Posted on by
1

High winds threatened to spoil an otherwise perfect day for rocket launching.

But, we monitored the wind speed and launched during the pauses between the gusts.

Tom tested the winds by flying his Lawn Dart.  It landed not too far from the launch pads.  Then Tom flew his latest creation, No Stack.

Tom’s cardboard creation performed a few aerobatic loops after leaving the launch rod.  

Between the gusts of wind, Carl Campbell snuck a few launches of prototypes for upcoming scale kits from DFR Tech.

We were once again visited by an eagle which accompanied a flock of turkey buzzards circling over our launch site for a few minutes.

Ton Tweit launched his FlisKit’s Nell twice. The first time, the igniter leads caught on the bottom of the rocket and it barely left the launch rod.  The second time, it flew well on a B motor.

When I first saw the new little plastic Coke bottles, my first thought was … that would make a neat rocket.  Someone else had the same idea, but actually did it.

Tom T’s Pink Crayon was not the last launch of the day, but Bracha, Oscar, and I had to leave a little early, so it’s the last launch we saw.

You can view the rest of my photos of the March ROCK Launch in the RocketReviews.com Photo Album.