Midwest Regional Fun Fly (MRFF-98)

Saturday
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I left Racine at about 7:45 in the morning, heading for the Hoover Scout Camp in Yorkville, IL. With a bad backup at the toll plaza transferring from I-294 to I-88, I arrived at about 10:30, with a shift as Check-In officer scheduled to start at 11:15. I set up my tent for a staging area, transferred my models to the tent, parked the car and headed over to pull my shift of range duty.

I enjoy range duty since it lets me observe all the models without the distraction of having to get my own rockets prepped or tracked. In particular, being Check-in officer lets me see the models close-up, so I can really enjoy the workmanship of the flyer. There was a pretty good breeze most of the day, but it was from the south (along the length of the field) so it didn't cause any particular problems with flying. A few rockets *did* get hung in the trees on the east and west sides of the field, but not very many. There were a number of nice models sent up during my shift and IIRC they all flew well.

After pulling my shift of range duty, I stopped by Mark Smeiske's gazebo to pick up my WOOSH t-shirt and sweatshirt. I'm glad he brought them along, because it let me wear rocketry related shirts all weekend. I wore my RMR tee on Saturday and the WOOSH tee on Sunday.

Now it was time to put up a few of my rockets. The first bird I flew was my Estes Mk109 Stingray on a B6-4. It flew fine and looks like it'll do a good job as a wind test vehicle.

Next, I sent up my repaired (from 14AL-98) modified (Alway mod.) Estes Turbo Copter on an A8-3. It flew well so it looks like the repair worked all right.

One of the fun events for the contest was Team Spot Landing 98. The rules required that the total length of the rockets of the team members (measured from nozzle to nose tip) add up as close as possible to 98 inches long. The was a ten percent penalty to the distance for each inch off the target length. My team (Team Red) wound up flying an Estes Sidewinder, an Estes Solar Probe, an Estes Red Storm and my Estes Venus Probe (on a C6-3) for a total length of 98-3/16". Unfortunately, we didn't do too well judging winds or launch rod angles. Our junior member (flying the Red Storm) did pretty well, but Mark Smeiske (flying the Sidewinder) and I had a bad time. My model weather-cocked pretty severely. The lander wound up further from the spot than the launch rod it started from, missing the spot by more than 200 meters. The booster didn't eject its chute and wound up taking a core sample. The top of the tubing got a bit crimped and the tube broke loose from the centering rings, but it's repairable. Mark's Sidewinder got carried way to far by the wind and ended up about 300 meters *past* the spot. He might have earned 'furthest from the spot' honors. ;-) I think we would have done better if the average were determined by VECTOR addition. ;-) As I understand it, the winner was Team Green, but I'm not absolutely sure of that.

I decided it was time for a flight requiring almost no prep, so I readied my Estes Skywinder on a C6-5. I had found that I had a broken rubber band earlier, but Joe was kind enough to let me have some from his model after it darted in on a B6-4 and broke the base of the nose cone. The C6-5 was a great flight, as always.

It was time for a glider, so my Big Bertha clone was loaded with my CMR Manta clone parasite (from Sport Rocketry plans). Launched on a B4-2, the glider separated during the boost (I've got to fix the parasite lug), but glided nicely as the Bertha recovered on a 12" chute.

Next up was the Big Bertha clone on an Aerotech E15-7. The field looked big enough (wrong!) and the breeze was from the right direction to give me a reasonable shot at recovery. This was my first "E" launch and I was impressed! The Bertha is a pretty clean model, so it was just arcing over at ejection - *way* up there. I was able to see the ejection and started to follow the rescent, but as the rocket drifted from in front of a cloud to blue sky I lost it. Oh, well. It was worth it for the great boost.

Time for another no-prep, guaranteed-recovery model - the Skywinder on a C6-5 again. It gave yet another good flight. This is a wonderful model for breezy conditions.

I decided to launch my Estes Sea Dart next (repaired after the last club launch dog fiasco). This is the first model I launched when I became an active modeler again. On an A8-3 it goes up just high enough to be entertaining and this flight was as nice as any. It did break loose a fin on landing, but it was easily glued for another flight later.

Joe (the same guy that gave me the rubber bands for the Skywinder) found my Big Bertha clone! I had written off the model (after a great flight!), but Joe found it about a block short of the river while he was looking for one of his own models. Now I'll have a chance to fix the parasite lug and try launching the Manta on a bit higher power. ;-)

I got to Team Kitbash a bit late (from stashing the stuff in my tent), so I was assigned to one of the four teams. We drew a theme (nuts & bolts) and had to come up with a team name, a rocket based on the theme (built using pieces/parts from two Quest kits - the Courier and the Flash) and a name for the rocket. Other teams' themes were garden supplies, plumbing supplies and power tools.In addition to the two kits, each team was given a short (6-8") length of 10.5mm and 6mm body tubing. I pushed the team to build a stable rocket and we wound up using the 10.5mm tubing and an engine block to form a lag bolt in the front of the nose cone, and we cust short (1/16") lengths of the 6mm tubing to represent bolt heads all over the body tube. We cut up the BT-20 equivalent from the Flash kit to form tube fins along with the fins from the Courier. We wound up with a good, stable rocket, but the stiff Quest parachute didn't want to open at ejection. Fortunately, the model landed undamaged in the grass of the field to place fourth in the competition.

Team Garden tools built a flying pitchfork (the tines were the fins, made from the 10.5mm and 6mm tubing), power tools build a nifty Binford drill and plumbing made some sort of plmber's nightmare including shower heads, curtains, urinals (made by cutting the Courier nose cone in half) and users of the urinals. I was expecting some of the other models to be unstable or to shed parts during flight or landing, but this year everyone's models held together. The final results had the plumbers in third place (their flight *was* a little "wiggly"), power tools in second (I had really expected it to shred the fins, but it spun up nicely) and garden tools won the event.

I had planned to sleep over in my tent, but that would have meant taking it down, moving to another site, re-setting up and then taking down and moving again in the morning. Luckily, Mike Ugorick had set up with the scouts to let us use some of their tents (with cots, yet), so after the building session I carted my sleeping bag and change of clothes down there.

Sunday
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I got to be LCO for the first shift on Sunday. We started out with just under 400 launches and in calm conditions the flights mounted up quickly.

After my range-duty session, I decided to take advantage of the calm conditions to launch some gliders. The Edmonds Deltie used 1/2A3-2T engines for some very nice flights. My only (minor) complaint with this model is that it does arc over during boost and coast. Granted, this isn't a big deal, but I'd like it to go up straighter. I think I'll try building an extended boost pod to see if I can improve this.

I also tried the Edmonds Ecee again on a 1/2A3-2T. This worked much better than the A3-2T I had tried at 14AL-98. Instead of arcing in under boost, it only arced over to a level-flight attitude. The engine ejected (not enough masking tape - I'm going to add an engine hook), so the glide was a bit steeper than I wanted to see, but the model recovered undamaged. I *did* get a better handle on why it's arcing over for me. It looks like the lever on the bottom of the canard control surface is being pushed down by the acceleration to the point where it's making the model dive. I e-mailed Rob about this observation and he suggests adding a counterweight to the top surface of the canard so that it will balance the force of the under-wing lever. I will try this or adding a shim to the front of the actuation plug to limit (slightly) how far the acceleration forces can move the control surface.

I launched the Estes Sea Dart again on an A8-3 and broke another fin on the landing. That's three of the four, but it's fixed again and ready to go.

Several people had had some reasonably good flights with their Quest HL-20s on Saturday, so I decided to see if mine could do as well. With a C6-3 on its first flight it went very well. On the second flight, it was stalling slightly, but still glided pretty well.

My Estes Nighthawk flew very nicely on A8-3s. I had two good flights and one where the power pod hung up on the launch rod.

I wanted another launch of my modified Turbo Copter, but on a B6-6 something got hung up and the heli-blades didn't eject for a serious lawn dart just behind the Nordic Dimensions tent. The body tube is destroyed and the blades have broken off from the base of the nose cone, so it's time to build a replacement.

As it was getting late in the day and I was running low on the motors I wanted to fly, I filled in on LCO again for the last shift of the meet. By the time flying was done over the two day period, we put up 723 flights. I certainly had fun and I hope to attend again next year.

other highlights
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On Saturday, Mike Vaughn of Vaughn Brothers rocketry flew a VB Extreme 10.5 with an Apogee Centrix booster on B2-0/B2-9 engines. His stated intent was to see if anyone could spot the tracking charge - which no one did. It launched and staged great and during the course of the day both booster and sustainer were found and returned to the launch table.

He also flew a VB Extreme 13mm model. When I asked what he used for the fins on the 10.5mm model, he told me he had used G-10. The models looked great and flew as good as they looked.

One more bird Mike flew was an Edmonds Deltie Thunder. he had made up a special launch pad for it and flew it several times on Saturday and Sunday. The first flight Red-Baroned, although it was a clean recovery. The pod weighed daown one wing enough that it made the whole thin come down in a nice flat spin for a good close recovery and no damage. The other flights were clean, but could have used a little turn trim to keep the model closer to the pads.

Mark Smeiske got permission to make some night launches. I forgot that it was planned, so I didn't see them -- but he did send up 5 models and took pictures of the rocket trails. I hope they turn out well so we can all see them.

On Sunday, Dave Miller launched his upscale USS Antares, last year's people's choice model. This is a spectacular model and I hope my photos turn out OK. Dave also won the people's choice award this year with a wonderful Saturn V.

The Lemans marshmallow eat held Sunday afternoon was very entertaining for the spectators - particularly Bob Kaplow's attempt. Be sure to ask one of the attendees about it. ;-)

NIRA president Rick Gaff wound up taking a large (4" diameter, 12?" deep) core sample when he either left off the chute or forgot to hook up the lower half of his Patriot?. Luckily, the ground was pretty soft and there was no obvious damage to that half of the model.

Bill Thiel launched his 16' minimum diameter model, but the nozzle ejected (with a LOUD bang). The model jumped about eight feet into the air and dropped in tail first. No damage to the model and we'll see it fly again some time.

Tom Pastrick kept launching his X-Wing Flat Cat all weekend.

Jack Wiker and John B..... launched many D and larger rockets all weekend. It was great to see all the variety they put up - as well as Emil with many other oddball and novelty models.

It was very nice having a couple vendors on site. Nordic Rocketry was there for both days and BMS (Balsa Machining Service) was there on Saturday only. I picked up V-2 nose and tail cones in BT-60 (18mm and 24mm motor mount sizes) Bt-55 (18mm mount) and BT-50 (also 18mm mount) sizes. Nordic Rocketry has some nice kits and I expect to pick up one or two at Eat Cheese or Fly (ECOF-98) in July.

I do wish there had been a motor vendor. I was running out of motor sizes that I wanted to fly and it would have been nice to be able to pick up some replacements at the launch. Next year I'll know to bring along more motors.

All told, it was a great weekend and I look forward to attending again next year.