Southern Arizona Rocketry Associ

Section #545

Prefecture #93

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January Launch Report

The Southern Arizona Rocketry Association, SARA, held a very successful and active 10th Anniversary launch on January 15, 2005 at the TIMPA site with a FAA waiver in effect to 4500 feet AGL. The weather was wonderful with sun, warm temperatures and only low winds. There were a few delays for aircraft in the vicinity. A nice, well illustrated article appeared in the day's Arizona Daily Star and attendance was very large with many visitors, some taking advantage of a 'Rent-A-Roc' program to make flights. The data below come from the flight cards; there were some inconsistencies, incompletions, as well as illegible writing, but any errors should be of little overall significance.

The 10th Anniversary launch consisted of 396 flights made by 131 fliers over an 8 hour time span. As best I can tell, the success rate was very high (about 90%) with documented problems of: 9 separations, 9 lawn darts, 8 tangled recovery devices, 3 CATO, 3 unstable flights, 1 no ejection, 1 shred and 5 miscellaneous modes of failure. The busiest flier made 17 flights, the other activity was (# flights,- # fliers): 15-1, 10-1, 9-2, 8-6, 7-2, 6-6, 5-6, 4-10, 3-20, 2-32, and 1-44.

There were many interesting and beautiful flights. Four 2-stage rockets were flown (3 successfully), one very impressive flight air-starting motors, and 1 successful flight using a cluster of 3 motors. Many very nice rockets were seen and flown, one of the most remarkable was a very old classic Estes space shuttle full stack, and a classic Estes Alpha 3 (as opposed to the modern Alpha with plastic fins) was flown many times.

A Estes Fat Boy flight duration competition was held with 9 fliers making 15 flights. Seven places were awarded and the winning time was approximately 42 seconds with the shortest time recorded: 12 seconds.

A 'Rent-a Roc' program was wildly successful with 89 flights made, 52 with A and 37 with B motors. I believe that all the 58 fliers were youngsters, but there were many very excited accompanying adults.

A great deal of effort was put forth by many people to make this launch a success and they deserve our thanks. Special thanks are due to the vendors who came to support the launch: food by the CDO rocket club, Just Rockets from Las Vegas and Recovery Technologies from Phoenix.

Below is a breakdown of the motor used during the launch

1/2 A	4
A	83
B	89
C	137
D	33
E	25
F	7
G	8
Other	17

May Launch Report

SARA held its May sport launch on 5/15/2005 at the TIMPA site with a FAA waiver in effect. The weather was nice, although the heat is starting, and many flights were made. I was present only at the start of the launch so this report is mostly from the flight cards.

Many of the 20 fliers were very active making a total of 108 flights with

94 clean or nominal. There were 7 tangled recovery devices, 3 separations,

2 no ejection events, 1 unstable flight and 1 kicked motor. The busiest flier made 12 flights, other activity was (#flights-# fliers): 10-1, 8-1, 7-6, 6-1, 5-1, 4-2, 3-4, 2-2, and 1-1. There were 4 flights using clusters of motors (3 flights with 2 motors each and 1 flight of a 4 motor cluster) and a 2 stage flight; these flights were all successful.

Many thanks are due to all who helped with the range.

Below is a breakdown of the motor used during the launch

1/4 A	2
1/2A	5
A	12
B	8
C	39
D	31
E	8
F	5
G	2
Others	3

June Launch Report

The Southern Arizona Rocketry Association (SARA) held its monthly sport launch at the TIMPA site on Saturday 6/18/2005 with the usual FAA waiver in effect. The weather was nice for launching rockets, but a little on the hot side to be comfortable. Winds were very low and there were only a few holds for aircraft.

Despite the heat the launch was well attended with 25 fliers making 88 flights of which 74 (84%) were clean or nominal. There were 5 separations,

5 tangled recovery devices, and 1 each: early ejection, no ejection, lawn dart and unstable flight. The busiest flier made 8 flights, other activity was (# flights- # fliers): 7-2, 6-2, 5-3, 4-2, 3-5, 2-6, and 1-4.

There were 5 flights with clusters of motors; 2 with 3 motors each and 3 with 2 motors each, all were successful. A flight was made using the hypertech hybrid launch equipment.

Many thanks are due to all who helped with the range. Especially appreciated are multiple LCOs enabling relief from the sun as good all sky visibility makes working under shade inadvisable.

Below is a breakdown of the motor used during the launch

1/2 A	1
A	13
B	12
C	35
D	17
E	1
F	8
G	3
Other	5

July Launch Report

SARA held its monthly sport launch at the TIMPA site on Sunday, July 17,2005. The usual FAA waiver was in effect on this blisteringly hot day.

Other than the heat, flying conditions were very good with almost no wind, a few small thermals and almost no holds for aircraft (it was probably too hot for the student pilots).

Attendance and activity were greater than expected given the conditions;

18 fliers made 59 flights of which 52 ( 88 %) were clean or nominal.

There were 4 flights with tangled recovery devices, 2 separations and one lawn dart. The busiest flier made 8 flights, other activity was (#flights-#fliers): 7-1, 6-3, 5-1, 4-1, 3-2, 2-2 and 1-7. There-were 5 flights using 2 motor clusters and a 2-stage flight; all were successful.

Range crew support for set up was sparse and for operation and tear down was limited, help was much appreciated and thanks are due to those who braved the heat to help.

Below is a breakdown of the motor used during the launch

A	8
B	6
C	32
D	11
E	3
F	5
Other	4

August Launch Report

The monthly sport launch held by SARA was at the TIMPA site on Saturday, August 20, 2005 with a FAA waiver to 4500 feet AGL in effect. The weather was very nice, though hot. There was almost no wind and the foliage had grown greatly and was moist and brillant green with the recent rains, greatly decreasing the fire hazard. Unfortunately the rain had really washed the road out in several places requiring very cautious driving.

Many people, 36, took advantage of the launch to make 120 flights of which 94 (78 %) were clean or nominal. There were 11 tangled recovery devices, 10 separations, 2 unstable flights and 1 each CATO, no ejection and shred.

The busiest flier made 11flights, other activity was (# flights-# fliers):

9-1, 8-2, 7-1, 6-1, 5-3, 4-4, 3-4, 2-9, and 1-10. There were 2 2-stage flights (both successful), and 11 flights using clusters of motors with 10 being nominal.

Once again many thanks are due to all who helped with the range, these launches could not take place without your support.

Below is a breakdown of the motor used during the launch

1/2 A	1
A	15
B	13
C	66
D	15
E	17
F	2
G	3
Other	2

September Launch Report

The Southern Arizona Rocketry Association, SARA, held its monthly sport launch at the TIMPA site on Sunday September 18, 2005. An FAA waiver to 4500 feet AGL was in effect. The weather was quite nice with some small cumulus clouds, low winds and a warm, but not scorching temperature. There were few holds for aircraft.

The launch was surprisingly quiet given the nice conditions. Only 12 fliers participated, making 28 flights of which 22 (78%) were clean. There were 1 each: CATO, no chute, no deploy, separation, tangled recovery device and unstable flight. The most active flier made 5 flights, other activity was

(#flights-#fliers): 4-2, 3-1, 2-4 and 1-4. Three flights using a cluster of 2 motors each were made with a large amount of bad luck in getting both motors to ignite, but none-the-less ending up with safe flights. A successful two stage flight was made even though the parachute did not fully deploy.

Once again thanks are due all who helped with the range, your efforts are appreciated.

Below is a breakdown of the motor used during the launch

1/2 A	1
A	2
B	1
C	14
D	7
E	6
F	1
G	8

October Launch Report

The monthly sport launch for SARA was held at the TIMPA site on 15 October

2005 with an FAA waiver in effect. This report is from the flight cards only as the writer was not able to be at the launch.

Twelve (12) fliers made a total of 26 flights of which 23 (88%) were clean (nominal). For the first time in my recollection there were no separations and only 1 each: shred, tangled recovery device and unstable flight. There were 2 staged flights; one 2-stage and one 3-stage, both successful. The busiest flier made 7 flights, other activity was (# flights-# fliers):

4-1, 3-2, 2-1 and 7-1.

Thanks are due all who helped with the range.

Below is a breakdown of the motor used during the launch

B	4
C	8
D	10
E	2
F	1
G	3
Other	1

November Launch Report

The SARA monthly sport launch was held on Sunday November 20, 2005 at the TIMPA site with the usual FAA waiver in effect. The weather was pleasant with, sun and nice temperatures, but it was fairly windy which limited activity.

Thirteen (13) fliers made 44 flights of which 37 (84%) were nominal. There were 3 tangled recovery devices, 2 separations, and 1 each CATO and no ejection. Two flights using a cluster of 2 motors were successfully made.

The busiest flier made 8 flights, other activity was (#flights-#fliers):

7-1, 6-2, 4-1, 3-1, 2-3, and 1-4.

Thanks are due to all who helped with the range and special acknowledgement and thanks to Doug Forester who mowed the field, greatly improving recovery visibility and decreasing the fire hazard.

Below is a breakdown of the motor used during the launch

1/4 A	1
1/2 A	2
A	15
B	3
C	15
D	2
E	4
G	1
Other	3

December Launch Report

The last SARA monthly sport launch of the year was held at the TIMPA site on 12/17/2005 with the usual FAA waiver in effect. The weather conditions were very nice although it was pretty cool setting up the range. It was sunny with little wind. Despite the close proximity of the Christmas holiday the launch was very active.

Thirty four (34) people took advantage of the launch to make 101 flights of which 80 (79%) were clean. There were 4 each: CATO and tangled recovery devices, 3 each: early ejection and separations, 2 each: no chute and shred, and 1 each: no glide, too few chutes and lawn dart. There was a tie for busiest flier at 8 flights each, other activity was (# flights-#

fliers): 6-3, 5-2, 4-5, 3-5, 2-5, and 1-12. There was a flight using a hybrid motor, a two-stage high power flight and 2 flights of rockets using 2-motor clusters, all were successful.

The launch was briefly interrupted to hold the annual meeting and election of club officers for next year. The results will be reported elsewhere in the newsletter.

This will be my last launch report; I have suffered 'burn out'. Someone has kindly volunteered to be the club's statistician and will start with the January launch.

Once again thanks are due to all who helped with the range.

Below is a breakdown of the motor used during the launch