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I was going to write this huge rambling launch report about ever rocket flown at the July EARS launch, but I'm not. It's not that I can't be bothered, it's just that I don't have the time, so this shorter version will have to do.
We were quite lucky with the weather as there was a big high pressure supposed to be coming in and it would clear up as the day progressed. As with all these things it was a bit slower than it should have been, but when the final few rockets were flown there was no wind and clear blue skies. Peter Wells started the proceedings by flying his AMRAAM on a J350. I've forgotten the number of time he's flown this rocket on this motor, but it's about time he built a new one and flew some blue thunder. He's got the perfect chance now, as on its second J350 of the day it flat spun all the way in and broke a fin. Maybe we'll see Peter with a new rocket later in the year, or maybe the trusty AMRAAM will last a bit longer.
I could go on about each individual flight, but I'm only going to mention a few more specifically. Malcolm Ingram certified Level 2 with his scratch built Time Rift on a K550. Sean O'Neill certified Level 2 with his scratch built upscale Estes Optima, which had been rebuilt from a spack two weeks earlier, on a J350. Stephen Woolhead had another attempt at Level 2, this time with a K550 in his Mini Magg, but the tracker stopped working and the rocket wasn't recovered. There were a load more great flights but I just don't have room to write about them all. In total there were 70 flights with 1 M, 4 K's, 7 J's, 10 I's and 8 H's flown along with a load of smaller motors. Seven fliers tried to certify at all three levels and some were more successful than others. So in total we managed to burn 31,431 Newton seconds of propellant for an average of 449 Ns per flight, which isn't bad.
I was watching the ascent through the lens of me camera and it was quite weird in a way as it was stop-start as the view was blocked every time a photo was taken. The way the could of dust and smoke grew around the base of the rocket was amazing to watch and I was having sever trouble keeping the camera still as it roared into the sky. In fact I've had to throw away a few of the photos of the ascent, as they were all blurred due to my arms shaking so much. Well, that's all I'm going to write about, apart from a quick note on Jim Mac's Gyroc. This thing is a gimballed rocket that has no fins and can hover and move around as long as it's got oomph from the motor. I've never seen it work correctly before, it normally just falls over on its side, but it didn't this time. I was most impressed, especially when it did a loop the loop at the end of its flight.
Copyright © 1999-2007, Fatboab, all rights reserved.
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Big ears came about because of the crap weather at UKRA 2001. There were a number of people who had big motors they wanted to fly in medium sized rockets that were going to go along way. With the could cover being so low, they had to scrub their flights and with the July EARS launch only two weeks away they all said they were going to come along and fly them there. There were so many people saying this that the event got dubbed Big EARS, you never know we may even start having this in the launch calendar for next year.
Robin tomes had brought his highly modified PML Eclipse along to UKRA 2001 to fly on a K700 but with the predicted altitude being over 8,000 feet it was grounded. The rocket is beautiful, it's been covered from shoulder to toe in carbon with a glossy overcoat of hard clear coat. Every time I see it I want to do a runner with it and hang it on my wall. When we had a break in the clouds, Robin flew it to around about 8,500 feet. It went up on a pillar of smoke and came back without a scratch on its Sky Angle chute.
Now this report wouldn't be complete if I didn't mention Roy's monster quarter scale V2 Level 3 attempt. Wow, I've never seen a launch like that in my life, it was without doubt the single most amazing flight I have ever seen. The noise, the smoke, the up bit, the down bit, the bounce… It was such a shame it ended up the way it did, but those are the breaks, Roy's said he'll be back and I can't wait to see another one of these go.