MASA 08/25/01 Launch

Event 08/25/01: MASA Rocket Launch at Blaine, MN

The theme for this event was "Science Fiction".
The morning was foggy with low ceilings that didn't lift until about 1pm. The day turned out to be pretty nice though and a lot of flights were made.

(Quest UFO Drag Race) (My Estes Trident) (My Centuri Orion) (John Carlson's Enterprise E)

My Flight Results:

Owner Rocket Engine Notes Alt Results

Jeff Scratch Bic Arcas Quest MicroMaxx 100 After cleaning the terminals of my MicroMaxx silo launcher, it finally worked. The rocket went much higher than normal, then had a perfect deployment. This was the first flight of the day.

Jeff Centuri Taurus Quest B6-4 300 Excellent flight. Landed near pad.

Jeff Centuri Orion Quest B6-4 At the time I was prepping this rocket, we had a B motor maximum due to low ceilings. Normally would fly with C6-5 or RMS D13. My earlier flight of the similarly sized Taurus on a motor from the same pack flew great. I'm pretty sure the Orion has flown ok on B6-4's before and expected about 200'+ for this flight. 80 After 2nd try to ignite tigertail. Scary, underpowered flight. Arced towards crowd and ejected about 2 feet off the ground right at the banner line within 3 feet of a young girl who didn't see it. The ejection slowed the rocket's decent so the damage was limited to the front of the body tube (an earlier zipper repair popped out too) and a small break of the spiraling just above the fins. Very glad nobody got hurt. On the next rack, Ted's folding wing glider hung on the same rod, so it may have had a bit of bend to it or rough spot I didn't notice during loading. We really need to find a way to angle the low power pads away from the flight line.

Jeff Estes Trident Quest C6-5 500 Good. Landed past ditch.

Jeff Estes Big Daddy Estes D12-5 Drag race with pad full of Silver Comets 700 Exciting drag race. Mine was one of the last to leave the pad but had a nice flight.

Jeff Scratch: Completely Cardboard Estes D12-3 chute + long streamer 500 Good flight but the LCO accidentally launched Glen's Nike Ajax at the same time so I mostly watched Glen's rocket.

Jeff Aerotech Initiator Aerotech F22-5J RMS Beeper (but forgot to turn on after re-prep failed ignitor) 1500 Nice flight. I was LCO for this one. Noticed small crack in one fin afterwards. RMS cleanup was easiest ever - absolutely no blowby.

Some of the other memorable flights were:

Several R/C boost gliders. Damian's had a disasterous power-prang. Another had the controls backwards but Russ was able to make a semi-controlled landing.
Ted lawn-darted a folding-wing boost glider that landed very close to Russ who was in the middle of the field flying hist bg.
Tim had a bad string of luck with his 2" AMRAAM. After a forward closure failure of an SU motor, he repreped it without cleaning out the debris of the first failure and the next launch flew fine but didn't deploy and lawn-darted from about 2000'. He dug it out with his hands and at one point was up to his elbows reaching down the hole. After burrowing about 18" into the sod, the rocket and nose cone were recovered INTACT ! Amazing stuff that PML Quantum Tubing.
An exhillerating but sad flight was of a beautiful Saturn V built by Michael Kutzke and launched on a central Aerotech G35 motor clustered with 4 Estes B6 motors. It was launched from a scale Saturn tower. The BP motors ignited first on the pad making lots of smoke but not lifting the rocket until the AP motor lit. Then it had a great, smokey lift off and straight flight. At apogee the rocket split into two sections but neither section's chutes deployed. The capsule/payload section hit the gravel road and destroyed the escape tower and service module but looked savagable. The booster section core-sampled the field to a depth of about 8" but looked repariable: the motor mount and fin section was undamaged, the wraps were ok, and there were just a few kinks in the body tube.
Tim Bush flew Beldar the Conehead, his descon8 entry, for another successful flight.
He also flew a magnificent upscale Estes Orbital Transport for a perfect flight.
One of the most unique events ever was the UFO drag race. Eight UFOs all launched in their slow/weird way and was very dramatic.
The Silver Comet drag race, while less unusual, was still spectacular.

See the MASA Launch Report and MASA Photo Gallery for more details.

Back to STAC page
Back to Jeff's Home page

Owner	Rocket	Engine	Notes	Alt	Results
Jeff	Scratch Bic Arcas	Quest MicroMaxx		100	After cleaning the terminals of my MicroMaxx silo launcher, it finally worked. The rocket went much higher than normal, then had a perfect deployment. This was the first flight of the day.
Jeff	Centuri Taurus	Quest B6-4		300	Excellent flight. Landed near pad.
Jeff	Centuri Orion	Quest B6-4	At the time I was prepping this rocket, we had a B motor maximum due to low ceilings. Normally would fly with C6-5 or RMS D13. My earlier flight of the similarly sized Taurus on a motor from the same pack flew great. I'm pretty sure the Orion has flown ok on B6-4's before and expected about 200'+ for this flight.	80	After 2nd try to ignite tigertail. Scary, underpowered flight. Arced towards crowd and ejected about 2 feet off the ground right at the banner line within 3 feet of a young girl who didn't see it. The ejection slowed the rocket's decent so the damage was limited to the front of the body tube (an earlier zipper repair popped out too) and a small break of the spiraling just above the fins. Very glad nobody got hurt. On the next rack, Ted's folding wing glider hung on the same rod, so it may have had a bit of bend to it or rough spot I didn't notice during loading. We really need to find a way to angle the low power pads away from the flight line.
Jeff	Estes Trident	Quest C6-5		500	Good. Landed past ditch.
Jeff	Estes Big Daddy	Estes D12-5	Drag race with pad full of Silver Comets	700	Exciting drag race. Mine was one of the last to leave the pad but had a nice flight.
Jeff	Scratch: Completely Cardboard	Estes D12-3	chute + long streamer	500	Good flight but the LCO accidentally launched Glen's Nike Ajax at the same time so I mostly watched Glen's rocket.
Jeff	Aerotech Initiator	Aerotech F22-5J RMS	Beeper (but forgot to turn on after re-prep failed ignitor)	1500	Nice flight. I was LCO for this one. Noticed small crack in one fin afterwards. RMS cleanup was easiest ever - absolutely no blowby.