Launch Reports

October 2023 Launch Report

It was a hot first launch of the season. The temperature forecast kept some folks away, but the SDSU Solid Rocket Team came out in force. They had 11 students attempting L1 certification. At least 6 certified L1 with NAR and I believe 3 certified L1 with TRA. Congratulations to all that certified! I feel the two that didn't quite make it will be back to try again.

Some of our regulars that flew were Larry H., Cris, Jim D., and of course Val. I'm sure there were some others, but I forgot to pick up the completed launch cards, so I'm working off my poor memory. John P. ran the LPR range for some activity going on there. Rick F. and Jim D. cleaned rails in prep for Holtville Havoc next month.

By about 1 PM or so, we were in triple digit heat, the certs were done, and everyone was beat. Thanks to the SDSU Solid Rocket Team for helping set up and tear down the range. It went fast with all the hands pitching in.

By mid-afternoon we were packed up and left.

Finally, Happy Birthday to two members of the SDSU Solid Rocket Team that had birthdays over the weekend. Way to celebrate - earning your L1 certification!

Hope to see everyone November 3-5 for Holtville Havoc

Paul

May 2023 Launch Report

For a one-day event, the launch was well-attended, with 31 logged flights: 3 F, 6 G, 10 H, 4 I, 4 J, and 4 K. There were at least 4 L1 cert flights and 2 (?) L2 cert flights. Congrats to everyone who successfully certified! The largest motor flown was a K1440 White Thunder (2372 N-s) on Kenny H's Wildman Vindicator. Temps peaked in the mid 80s and the wind held off until 6 PM or so, though it looks like it did pick up later in the evening as predicted. Unfortunately, there were several motor failures that couldn't be blamed on assembly errors. We encourage everyone to submit reports at https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.motorcato.org%2F&data=05%7C01%7C%7C47d74bb0f5f14493e4b108db4f14aa60%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638190722405884607%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=tgTj5BqGCswpaqXswt%2B%2FLLypzhDrss2mCAlP6950e1c%3D&reserved=0 in addition to contacting the vendor you bought the motor from for warranty replacement. This public data gives the community insight into which manufacturers and motors are having issues. The site also collects manufacturer bulletins. For example, note that Cesaroni has reported a high failure rate on the Pro54 2G J145 long-burn Skidmark motor

Paul Snow Added:
I'll add that we welcomed 6 new members, most of which just joined TRA or NAR in the last several weeks. It's good to see new members, and us older flyers are always willing to help, just ask. In the unlogged mid-power category, Vocational STEAM Works Team 1 got in 8 launches in preparation for the TARC nationals later this month. They probably had the most launches of anyone, and two of their launches got a perfect score of 0. Vocational STEAM Works Team 1 is one of four teams in San Diego and 15 in California that made it to TARC nationals this year. Go Team!

March 2023 Launch Report

March 4 Launch Report

We had Saturday-day only launch in March4..16 flyers with 25 flights (Some fights had no flight card, will not be counted, probably at least more 7 flight more flights without flight cards.)

We had 3 K’s, 7 J’s, 4 I’s (one Russ Sands had a K’s and J on a 2-stage flight) 11 H’s, (as counted on flight cards). Dave Nord had most flights with 4

We had 3 certification flights (as marked on flight cards), Sharon Hegly and Dragos Marian with Tripoli level 1, (And I believe someone did a level 2 but was not marked on card)

The NAU SLI team launched a K1100. The San Diego SLI team lost their rocket overnight, but found it Sunday morning.

February 2023 Launch Report

We had Saturday-day only launch in February with 20 flyers and with 35 flights. (Some fights had no flight card, will not be counted, probably at least more 6 flight more flights without flight cards.) .

We had 1K’s, 8 J’s, 9 I’s (3 on one Russ Sands flight) 13 H’s, 3 G’s and 2 F’s (as counted on flight cards)

We had 4 certification flights (marked on flight cards), Frank Killon with NAR level 2, Jasmine Killion with Jr. NAR level 1, Drago Marrian with Tripoli Level 1, Isaac Khan with Tripoli Level 2 and Cole Reiner with Tripoli level 2.

Flying condition were good with almost no winds on surface, but some winds higher up. Most folks were at least in short sleeves most of day.

January 2023 Launch Report

We had Saturday-day and Sunday Am launch in January with 6 flyers and with 25 flights. (Some fights had no flight card, so may not be counted, I know there was maybe 2-night flights without cards)

We had 5K’s, 4 J’s, 6 I’s and 15 H’s and couple mystery motors. There was a drag race Sunday AM with Jim Deveau with a Mad Max, Dave Nord with a squat and Val Derkach with a Pyramid (3 banana clips stack on 1 channel)

We had 2 (marked on flight cards), Chris Jackson with NAR level 1 and Isaac Khan with Tripoli Level 2

Flying condition were good with as no winds (surface and high up). It was little cool but short sleeve in heat of day.

November 4-6 (Holtville Havoc)

We had launch in November on Friday afternoon, all day Saturday and Sunday AM. We had 37 flyers and with 70 flights. The most flights by anyone were 5 by Sharone Hodges of Goodyear, AZ, 4 by Val D (maybe 5, if the name “me” was Val)., 3 by Wayne Comfort of Goodyear, Az. We did have some night flights (seemed like more on Friday night than Saturday night, no flight cards. Remember any night flight is 1 only, max of 3.3 lb for rocket, lights visible on Pad and max of G motor)

We had 4 M,’s 3 L’s, 8 K’s s, 11 J’s 17 I’s, 15 H’s, and some smaller motors. Both Jim Deveau (L was ground start and 2 J’s air started, impressive flight on Friday) and Wayne Comfort (3 H’s ground start) had triple motors on their launches.

We had 3 successful certification flights, I am not sure on Level 3 (no cert mentioned on any Level 3 fight card), Level2 by Martin Wood and Level 1 by Dave Wentworth.

March 2021 Launch Report

We had launch in March on both Saturday and Sunday AM. We had 20 flyers and with 47 flights. The most flights by anyone were 7 by Val D.,6 by Dave Fennel and 4 by Jim Deveau.

We had 1 L and 3 K’s, 10 J’s 10 I’s, 15 H’s, and some smaller motors. Michael Caplinger, Dave Lanholz and Dave Nord launched 2 stage rockets successfully.

8 Flyers flew on Friday 6 Nov. We had calm winds in the morning with a ceiling between 8000 and 11000 feet. Around 1100 a front came thru that drizzled on us a few times. At about 1300, it cleared and we had SE Winds at about 10 MPH with No Clouds

We could see F-18’s doing high speed runs on the bombing range North of the Launch Site for most of the day. Other than a Border Patrol Helicopter checking us out, we had ZERO Aircraft over the site all day.

Val D – 5 Flights – Estes Doorknob/H165, Estes something/A-10, Van Halen Scratch Built/H180, Estes Mega Mosquito/G76, Estes Executioner/G-76

Doug C – 4 Flights – Madcow Arca/H180, Madcow Hawk/H550, BDR Tubefin Scratch Built/J425 and I540

Dave N – 3 Flights – Madcow Squat/AT H128, AMW Gorilla/AT J250 DMS, 38MM Piece Part Rocket/AT H238

Paul Snow – 3 Flights – Polecat Aerospace Pershing II/I300, "Mace"/AT I357, Orange Crush Scratch Built/AT K250.

Jim Deveau – 2 Flights – Madcow Nike Apache/J350 to a G106, Frenzy Scratch Built/J445

As expected, this turned out to be a hot launch. By 8:30 when the trailer arrived, most people were already there and set up with tables, chairs, shade and the temperature was already pushing the high 70s. AMW was there distributing motors that were pre-ordered. We set up 3 pads at 100’ for H and I powered rockets, 1 pad at 200’ for J and K, and one at 300’ for complex J. It was a mix of newer members and longer-term experienced members. But it was the first launch without Dolly, who was missed.

Daniel Fennell took the honors for most launches with 6, followed by Val with 4, Doug Kosty with 3, Chris Erving with 2, Alisa McGrath with 2, and 1 each for Alan Kassab, Cory Kim, Kevin Tice, Ted Zeeff, Frank Hermes, and Mike Caplinger (missing flight card). Launches of note were Alan Kassab who certified Level 1, Chris Erving with a 2-stage J-to-J, and Mike Caplinger who had a successful 2-stage to over 17k’ (our high flyer). Motors burned were one E, three F, seven G, six H, three I, and three J. All 23 launches were done by about 1 PM when the real heat set in. We were packed up and gone by 2.

Our new wireless controllers worked flawlessly (thanks Jim) and the beta test of the new wireless at 300’ also worked fine (thanks Mike). In the flyers meeting it was noted that Havoc and the Creative Rocket Design Contest (no kits!) have both moved to March 2021. Still plenty of time to get creative with your scratch building skills.

Hopefully we will continue to fight off the Corona virus and have a November launch. Stay safe and we will see you next month.

Winds were out of the Southwest anywhere from 3 – 15 MPH, we some gusts above 15 in the afternoon.

There were 17 fliers that flew 34 rockets (per flight cards). Saturday had light winds and was warm during the day. Saturday night was calm and there were several night flights. There were no flights on Sunday and we packed up the range early.
The most launches were by Val Derkach with 6, Mike Caplinger with 3 flight cards and I believe 3-night flights, and the rest with 3, 2 or 1.
There was 1 L (Mark Tresler), 3 K,s, 4 J.s, 8 I’s, 8 H’s and 6 G’s
We had a NAR Cert 1 flights by George Fredrich.
Michael Terry from Honolulu, HI had 2 flights.
As usual we had a great potluck on Saturday
I do not believe that Flight Cards will be as incomplete (missing information such as rocket parameters, RSO signature) as they have been the past won’t be allowed for at Holtville Havoc you have to pass through the RSO table to be able to fly.

Jan 2020 - Flight Report.
There were 23 fliers that flew 54 rockets. Saturday had light winds and was warm during the day. Saturday night was calm and there were several night flights. It dropped to 38 deg just before dawn Sunday. Sunday AM had very good flying conditions.
All total, there were 4 L’s (Jim Deveau, Wayne Comfort from Goodyear, AZ, Mark Treseder and Paul Snow’s with L with outboard 2 J’s and 2 K’s but 1 outboard J did not light) , 3 K only fights (Wayne Comfort), 5 J’s, 11 I’s, 11 H’s, 15 G’s and the remainder were F’s, E’s, D’s or C’s.
The most launches were by Val Derkach with 7, Sharon Hodges (Goodyear, AZ) with 6 and Mike Caplinger, Wayne Comfort, Jeff Gutgesell, Mike Veno with 4 and the rest with 3, 2 or 1.
We had 4 NAR Cert 1 flights by Brandon Alam (who also had 2 G flights), Jeff Gutgesell, Zack Mouawud (spelling?) and Stephen Seager.
As usual we had a great potluck on Saturday night with a highlight of John Bowman’s onion soup (a January tradition). Dave Nord had a TV so we saw some the AFC wildcard football games.

December 2019 - Flight Report
There were 15 fliers that flew 24 rockets. Saturday was light winds but had light rain with only a few breaks for most of the day and during one break in the rain, we had 7 Ospreys visits us for about a half hour delaying the 3 rockets on pads. Saturday night was very calm and there were about 3 night flights. Sunday AM had very good flying conditions and 4 folks take advantage of it to fly some larger rockets. All total, there were 3-J’s, 3-I’s, 7-H’s, 6-G’s and the remainder were F’s, E’s and D’s.

The most launches were by Dave Nord and Mike Caplinger with 3 and the rest with 2 or 1.

As usual we had a great potluck on Saturday night

We had 7 fliers to kick off the season at Holtville this month. Forecasted temps in the high 90s scared some folks off. There were a total of 19 flights, 8 of which were by Val (that’s 42%)! Second to Val was Joe Motta with 3 flights. Jim D., Grant, and Larry B. each had 2 flights. Oliver Booth of Ramona and Paul each had a single flight. For all his flights, Val came in third for total N-s burned. It was Jim D. that burned the most N-s with a K1100 and a H73. No record of Jim’s night flight on a G, which is probably how he prefers it. Second in N-s was Paul with a K185 in a helicopter type scratch built design by Mike Brock (looks like an upside down T with offset fins). There were 2 K motors, 2 J motors, 5 H motors, 5 G motors (including a 24mm G55-15), 3 F motors (all Val), and 4 D motors (in two 2-stage rockets). Missing from this tally are the 3 flights by John B. because I have no flight cards. But I actually witnessed John fly rockets!

A small potluck of 6 folks was held and as usual there was plenty of food with many leftovers. Nobody went away hungry or thirsty.

Hope to see you all at the November launch where AMW will be present to sell lots of great rocket stuff. Order now and pickup at the launch

There were 22 fliers that flew 49 rockets. Saturday was windy in the AM, but improved to good flying conditions by about 1 pm. Saturday night was very calm and had a number of night flights. Sunday AM had OK flying conditions.

All total, there were 2 L’s,(Dave Nord and Paul Snow with his 10” NikeSmoke with L800 with 2 K550W and 2 J275W although 1 of the J’s did not light), 5 K’s (including Paul’s 2), 4 J’s (counting Paul’s 1 that lite), 11 I’s, 13 H’s, 13 G’s and the remainder were F’s, E’s and D’s.

The most launches was by Val Dekhach with 8, Michael Veno with 4, Robert Morgan, Heather Parker and Mark Treseder all with 3 and the rest with 2 or 1.

We had 2 certification flights for level 1 and 1 for level 2. Daniel Amaru and Tauia Taylor both passed NAR Level 1 and David Wentworth passed Tripoli Level 2. Welcome to spending more money on motors

March (Holtville Havoc 3) 2019 - Flight Report.
There were 56 fliers that flew 128 rockets (The night flights on Friday did not have cards). Friday was good all day from when the range open in the AM till it closed. Saturday was good till about 1:30, then wind really started to really blow, sand at face level, and moving the porta poties across the road. Sunday AM was okay.

The AZ folks launched a lot of large motors, 3 M’s, 6 L’s, 6 K’s and 3 J’s. All total, there were 5 M’s,(Miles Anderson (AZ), Bruce Dale ,Russ Sands, Randy Shanyfelt (AZ),Sharon Hodges (AZ)), 9 L’s, 9 K’s, 15 J’s, 30 I’s (2 air start in combination with a J by Jim Deveau), 31 H’s, 16 G’s, 5 F’s and 8 E’s & D’s.

The most launches was Val Dekhach with 7, Dan Pape of AZ with 6, Todd Mullin with 6, Miles Anderson of AZ, Robert Morgan, Heather Parker and Mark Tresder all with 5, Michael Veno with 4, and the rest 3,2, or 1.

We had 18 certification flights for level 1 and 2, with only 4 failures. Sidney Baker, Kristopher Brown, Shawn Cummings, Ernest Garrison, Tyler Johnson, Mark Nara, Tom Player, and Jesus Robledo all passed level 1 NAR. Mike Deveau passed level 1 Tripoil. John Little of Bozeman, MT passed both level 1 and 2 Tripoli using a PML Phobos for both (the same rocket I used for my level 1 and 2 ). Ahrens Walter Castro passed level 2 Tripoli.

John Little wasn’t the most distance from Holtville, Desmond and Sully Shanyfelt were from Jacksonville, Fl (but Randy Shanyfelt was from Phoenix)