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Date: May 26, 27, and 28, 2001
Location: Pony Express Test Range, Utah
Club: UROC
(Sorry, I forgot my camera and didn't get many photos)
I made the trip out to Utah with Todd's family, who were nice enough to put up with me for the weekend. Bright 'n' early Saturday morning we made our way out to the launch site, which was about a 1.5 hr drive from where we were staying up near Ogden. After some minor technical delays, NSL 2001 was underway.
My first flight was with my Vaughn Bros. Mini-Extreme. After flying her before on an Apogee B7, I decided to try one of the 10.5mm B2s. I didn't have an adapter, so I had to wrap tape around the motor until it fit in the 13mm body tube. That B2 motor is pretty long and it was difficult to calculate the stability margin, so just to be safe I added a little noseweight by tying some small washers to the shock cord. The motor refused to light the first couple of tries. I even used a couple of Bruce's special igniters, but they were a no-go. I finally ended up using the original Apogee-supplied igniter, which worked just fine. She tipped a bit northward off the rod and did a bit of a tail-waggle, but the 3-second burn on the B2 was pretty cool. Unlike the B7 flight in which she promptly disappeared (I was lucky to find her at all after that flight), I was able to visually track the entire flight on the B2. Ejection was on time and she landed a good couple hundred yards north of the range. Good thing Todd had a good line on her, because I found her lying in the grass right where she was supposed to be. Fun little rocket.
Next was Scratch-N-Sniff on another Kosdon I130 [MPEG|RealMedia]. This is really turning out to be one of my favoritest motors. This motor is a c-slot reload for the 38/640 casing, and it has a (relatively) long, 4.25 second burn. Scratch-N-Sniff was my first dual-deployment rocket, and this would be her third flight as well as her second on an I130. It took about a half-hour to prep the electronics and the recovery system, but soon I had her out on the pad. The altimeter was armed and beeping out that it was happy. She got a few chuckles from the crowd when her name was announced. At ignition, the I130 came to life and pushed her straight into the sky. Nice, long burn and coast to apogee. The streamer appeared right after apogee, and she came in pretty fast until main deployment. Finally, a successful dual-deployment flight! It was about a quarter-mile walk to retrieve her, and the altimeter was reporting 4,139 ft. Not quite as high as the previous flight on the I130, but a cool, successful flight nevertheless!
Fellow C.R.A.S.H.-er Bob Ellis also made the trek out to NSL to fly. Bob made a successful L1 flight on his gorgeous NCR Interceptor-G, flying it on an H128-S. Congratulations, Bob! Bob also flew a bunch of smaller stuff, including Sprinkles the Fire Hydrant. Unfortunately, Sprinkles had a pretty rough flight due to a motor failure. It looked like Sprinkles didn't suffer too much damage, though, and we should see him back in the air soon.
Sunday came and I started prepping the Talon. This would be the first flight of the Talon, which is a replacement for the rocket I lost last year at a launch at Pawnee. This rocket was just too cool-looking not to have one. Unfortunately, ScotGlas doesn't make these kits anymore, so all I could do was buy the nose- and tail-cones and scratch-build the rest. I also redesigned the electronics bay, including using a much more reliable and resilient switch.
For her first flight, I decided to use a Kosdon J450. I knew this was a pretty aggressive motor, but I knew she could take it. However, nothing could have prepared me for the sound and fury this motor put out! At liftoff, the Talon practically exploded off the pad [MPEG|RealMedia] scaring the crap out of me as well as several of the onlookers. She even knocked over the pad! Even though she flew almost directly into the sun, I managed to track her visually through most of the flight. I lost sight of her briefly after apogee, but picked her up again soon after. She descended quickly and smoothly on her drogue, but at main deployment the 'chute got slightly tangled in the riser, and never fully opened. Not too big of a deal, since she was descending slowly enough to avoid any major damage, but of course she had to find the only paved road within 10 miles! When I got to her, I discovered that she had acutally sustained very little damage, just a couple of dents in the ends of the main airframe. The booster section had landed on the shoulder of the road, and was unscratched. The altimeter was beeping out 3,888 ft; again, not quite as much altitude as I'd expected, but still a good flight.
Meanwhile, James was prepping his MissileWorks "Sweet-P" for its first flight. Since he wanted to use a J450 as well, I quickly cleaned out the casing and loaded it up again. Unfortunately, this load turned out to be a little too aggressive, and CATOed on the pad. The force of the CATO was enough to toss the rocket about 500 ft. into the air, but neither recovery event deployed. She fell flat and received very little damage, just a couple of stress fractures in the lower airframe. Pretty tough little rocket!
Todd managed to put in a flight on a rocket that he dubbed "Instant Rocket." He assembled it out of parts he bought on site and assembled the day before (pretty typical for Todd): a 38mm motor tube with an Acme fin can. Todd flew it on a G64-7, and everything looked good on the way up, until ejection. It separated due to a weak epoxy joint, and the lower section fell to the ground while the parachute and nosecone floated away in the breeze. All of the parts were eventually recovered, and could probably be reassembled into something flyable.
My second flight on Sunday was the Goblin on another I200-M (photo by Nadine Kinney) for his tenth flight. He's another attention-getter, since the Goblin is almost universally recognized. The I200 gives the Gob a heck of a kick. This was another fast, straight boost, with less fin-flutter than usual. Ejection was right on time, and she drifted about a quarter-mile north-west of the range. I barely had time to go get him and bring him back when I was due for my shift at range duty.
On Monday, I started out the day with another shift of range duty. Todd's daughter Christiana decided to come to the launch this time, and she lent a hand at the LCO table. With range duty out of the way, I prepped my MIRV-Gryphon. Not only does this little beastie have one of the coolest names in the hobby, it's also deceptively complicated. It is a two-stage rocket that consists of a 4 - 13mm motor cluster in the booster. At staging, each of the uppers ignites separately and takes off on its own. Well, that's the way it's *supposed* to work. Unfortunately, only one of the uppers lit; the other three remained coupled to the booster, and it all came back ballistic. The single upper that had lit successfully was returned to me in exchange for the promised one-dollar return fee.
Right about this time, James flew his Sudden Rush again, this time on an AeroTech J800. She looked great on takeoff, but flew almost directly into the sun, never to be seen or heard from again. Bummer. She was a nice bird.
My last flight of the day - and of NSL - was my Small Endeavour on another H123-M. Good boost to about 3,000 ft. or so, with ejection just a little too early (the "medium" delay is too short). I thought I would be clever and stand downwind from the range (slightly southwest), but the rocket had other ideas, and drifted northeast of the launch site. Oh well, good flight anyway.
Well, I certainly had a great time at my first NSL. I got to see a bunch of old friends and even make a few new ones. Many thanks to everyone at the Utah Rocket Club for running a fabulous event.
*Thanks to James for the video footage and stills.
2001 Motor Count: MM - 4; 1/2A - 4; A - 4; B - 1; C - 2; E - 2; F - 2; G - 9; H - 7; I - 7; J - 3