I'm writing this report quite a few months after the event, in fact it's the middle of July 2002 and I can't really remember that much about the launch. So this report is going to be based on the photos that I took and the flight card logs, so hopefully I'll get the majority of stuff right. I'm in a bit of a panic as I write this as I couldn't find the photos that I know I took at the event, so I'm just going to have to go on those that are up on my website.

The weather was pretty terrible from what I remember and the photos back this up, low cloud and mist all day, so it wasn't exactly ideal flying conditions. Steve Gibbings got things under was with the retirement flight of his Launch Pad Exocet, on an Aerotech E30. For some reason he asked me to use his video camera to record the flight, lets just say I wont be taking many more videos of rockets. True to form, the rocket made some entertaining manoeuvres once the motor had burned out, I don't think I've ever seen one of these kits flight straight.

Dave Rumball turned up with loads more of his aqua jets and made a number of interesting flights throughout the day. There was the usual collection of model flights being made by Warren Stamp, Mike Roberts, Tom Hicks and the Shackletons. The best of these by far, was the first flight in the UK of an Estes Dude, this is a giant inflatable Mylar rocket that is way underpowered on the recommended Estes D12-3 motor. The flight was nominal, although the Dude really didn't get very high and suffered a bit of deflation upon landing, it's totally screaming out for Aerotech E motors though.

By some point in the early afternoon the low cloud had lifted slightly, although there was still a lot of mist around. Pete Davy set up his modified PML Nimbus on a Hypertek J270 for an excellent burping and farting flight. Other notable high power flights were made by Gary Sinclair, Iain Colledge and Chris Key. Gary flew a Estes Big Daddy upscale called Bigger Daddy on an Aerotech I154 for a nominal flight, he then flew his Yank Hawk on a J350 for a pretty cool flight. Iain Colledge flew his PML Calisto on an Aerotech I357, which probably wasn't the best option considering the weather.

Chris Key turned up with a rocket called Plasma, which was built from carpet tube and looks most impressive when it's all loaded up on the pad. This was the rockets first flight so he just put an Aerotech K1100 in it. The flight was nominal and recovery via the large ex-military chute was only a short distance from the pad.

I suppose I'll have to mention Steve Gibbings G altitude attempt with his VB Extreme 29, just for the fact that it spacked big style. The rocket took off like it had a red hot poker somewhere unpleasant and everyone was scanning the skies to try and catch a glimpse of it. Iain Colledge was prepping his Calisto at this point and the Steve's rocket spacked into the farmer's field not two meters away. To his eternal credit, Iain just looked at it and carried on prepping, I know I'd have required a change of trousers. It turns out that Steve put the Gwiz altimeter in the wrong way up, so that's a quick lesson it always double checking your electronics to make sure you've installed it correctly.

There was a total of thirty six flights during the day, which wasn't bad considering the time of year and the weather. Once everyone had packed up, we all headed off to the Papworth hotel for the first ears AGM and a curry. All in all it was a good end to a difficult year of flying and everyone was looking forward to what next year would bring.

• View all the photos here.

Copyright © 1999-2007, Fatboab, all rights reserved.
Please read the copyright notice regarding use of my photos.
Website, HTML code & graphic design by Fatboab.

Last update: Tuesday, 30-Mar-2004 03:42:54 EST