Launch Reports

The launch at 60 Acres today went very smoothly with a wide variety of rockets.  We had everything from 1/2A-powered parachute-duration rockets drifting lazily in light thermals to seven-engine clusters echoing across the valley.  This month, we went back to alternating flights between the A pads and the B pads, loading one while launching from the other, and notched a total of 135 flights using 152 engines in under four hours.  Motor distribution was as follows:

1/4A motors - 1

1/2A motors - 7

A motors - 31

B motors - 22

C motors - 33

D motors - 24

E motors - 23

F motors - 9

G motors - 2

There were two 2-stage flights, one 3-stage flight, two 2-engine clusters, three 3-engine clusters, and one 7-engine cluster.  The only flights that appeared to leave the field were 1/2A powered parachute duration models that managed to find one of the light thermals that drifted through after the sun came out.  We had what appeared to be an unusually high number of motor CATOs across a range of motor sizes.

Special thanks to those who helped with setup and teardown, to James Mooreshire for handling LCO duty all day, and to Ken Berkun and Jim Rolph for covering the RSO duty.

Be sure to mark your calendar for our next 60 Acres launch scheduled for Saturday, March 14th , the weekend after our first scheduled high-power launch near Pasco.

Jim Pommert

Hello Rocketeers - 

     We had a great turnout on Saturday for our January Launch at 60 Acres.   Weather was excellent, with all the flights were below the cloud cover.  We even had some sunshine :).   

     We had a number of special flights including special Club project flights Parachute Duration and Gyrocopter Duration.  We had flights with electronics onboard, multi-stage flights, Cameras, a number of 3-D printed rockets flew, cluster, egg launch, helicopter nose cone recovery, steamer and tumble recovery, and many first flights (both for the rocket and the person launching the rocket).  We launched a total of 99 rockets on Saturday (100 motors were used, as one flight was a cluster launch).   See motor list below.

     A HUGE thank you to all of our volunteers who helped get waivers filled out, performed RSO and LCO duties, helped set up and tear down, got the sound system set up etc.   It takes a village to put these events on, and we could not have done it without your help.  

Saturday's Motor count - 

     A = 25

     B = 25

     C = 20

     D = 18

     E = 7

     F = 2

     G = 2

     Our next Launch will be on Saturday February 14th - Bring your favorite valentine :).   

     Cheers!

• Bill Barnes (Launch Director)

--------------------------------------------------------

Good afternoon, Rocketeers!

Building on what Bill reported below, we had 113 people at the launch! (Based on the count of new 2026 liability waivers that were turned in at the registration tent) Amazing for a January launch!

Our January contest was lightly attended, but the two flyers did very well!

• S3 (Parachute Duration): Shane Ferrell had three qualified flights totaling 251.84 seconds.  Good enough to put him into third place on the national scoreboard in the C division!  His second flight found a thermal no-one thought could possibly exist in January--not just once, but three times! His flight would have been even longer, had it not snagged in a rocket-eating tree.

• S9 (Helecopter Duration): Jim Wilkerson had three qualified flights totaling 106.81 seconds.  Good enough to put him into fourth place on the national scoreboard in the C division!  His last flight may have found the remnants of the same thermal Shane had caught, giving him a very robust flight time.

Respectfully submitted,

Pete Schurke

WAC Secretary and Contest Director