NCR Club Launch - January 2008

Saturday January 5th, 2008

Launch Summary

Regularly scheduled club launch.  Thanks to Mike and Becky Konshak for towing the trailer to and from our storage spot.  Waiver and range were operational by 10 AM.  An auspicious beginning to another great year of rocketry.  9 flyers put up 14 flights.  Chris Frazier had the most flights of the day with 5, followed by Dennis Billings with 2.  All of the flights were notable but most impressive were the L2 cert flights by Mike Konshak's "Slipstick HP2" (first flight of 2008) on an Aerotech J350, the Aerotech J420 flown by Scott Evans in his "Butt of the Quantum Leap" and Greg Arend's "Atlas IV" on a Cessaroni J380.  Flights are listed in a random order as the launch cards have been shuffled and sorted a few times completely changing the proper sequence of events.  Motor usage breaks down as follows. A's=4, C's=2, G's=3, H's=1 and J's=4.

Weather Conditions

Stunning calm before a storm.  With a threatening winter system moving in from the northwest and the retreating warmth of the recent southern winds, we were blessed with calm on the ground and near fifty degrees by the peak of the day.  Winds aloft were on the strong side with Greeley-Weld County Airport reporting winds of 110 knots at 4000 feet and 250 knots at 9000 feet.  Winter coverage made for deep tracks in spots and provided a sparkly mosiac patchwork of scrub and cactus in the broken shroud of snow.