The next monthly S.E.A.R.S. Launch is Saturday September 11th at Samson, AL. We setup at 8:30 AM, the waiver opens for launches at 9:00 AM. We usually go until about 4:00 PM. Beginners are welcome. Bring the whole family!. Everyone is also invited to Crews BBQ in Samson after the launch. For more info see http://www.sears572.com/sears-launch-info

Sep 11, 2010

•         General: Patriot Day (Fly any patriotic rocket)
•         Youth: decorate a patriotic rocket (red white & blue)
•         Challenge: fly a red motor, white motor and blue motor during the day
•         Advanced: fly a red motor, white motor and blue motor on one rocket

Use a green flight card for any patriotic rocket and you will entered for a drawing from the prize pool.

Author: Russ Roberts

  Our annual Boost Glider event was a hot one with very little wind. Most members flew a glider of some sort. The Edmonds pop-pod gliders were the most popular and always perform well. We got some great hang time and may have benefitted from thermal activity at a few spots.

  The launch was well attended by our younger members who kept the low power pads busy all day long. Kids always make the launches more enjoyable because their excitement and enthusiasm is contagious. Ben White had a great 2 stage flight with an Estes Mongoose. Seth’s Metalizer blinded us with its chrome brilliance. Bentley had so much fun, that his dad had to carry him away to get him to leave the launch. Alexa Stetson sold sno-cones that were greatly appreciated by all flyers suffering from the heat. Drake took frequent flyer award with 9 launches working up to E motors. William Thorne provided invaluable recovery assistance with his keen rocket tracking eyes, and saved us from quite a few long walks by fetching our rockets.

  Angel and Patty Huet from the University of South Alabama showed up to prepare for a student rocketry competition. We loaned them some rockets and showed them how to fly. They’ll probably be back when their project is ready for testing.

  Thanks to a NAR safety grant, we now have a set of fire swatters. Hopefully we won’t ever need them, but they’ll be on the trailer just in case.

  My 29mm mongoose flew into the sun and was not found. The (soybean?) crop is now over a foot high, and will hide smaller rockets that would have been easy to spot if they were lying on the sod. I will start flying my tracker more often and am going to get an audible beacon for smaller rockets.

  Photos have already been posted to the gallery, so I won’t recount who flew what; the pictures tell the story. Greg Lane’s Applewhite 54mm Stealth was the flight of the day. This huge draggy odd-roc has a slow liftoff that really amplifies the noise and smoke from the K-550 motor. Tumble recovery on a HPR just doesn’t seem right, but it works well and makes for a short recovery walk.

Russ brought one of the most impressive rockets yet. It is a plastic model conversion of an F104 and had a successful flight!

See more F104 pictures and the rest of the launch pictures in our gallery.

Jul 10, 2010

•  General: Glider Day
• Youth: Bring a hand glider and fly it
• Challenge: Glider Duration
• Advanced: Fly an glider with 24 inch wingspan or greater (Maybe R/C)

Use a green flight card for any glider rocket and you will entered for a drawing from the prize pool.

  We had great flying weather with no winds or rain. Many members stayed home due to the heat, but turnout was better than expected. All adult members flew at least one HPR.

  Our monthly event was staged rockets. Greg Lane had the LPR flight of the day with an Edmonds Cici stage 2 glider. The booster glided back as the upper stage glider powered on. Both gliders circled back for a smooth landing. My Omega disappeared in the trees making it my 3^rd to be lost at Samson. The booster always comes back, so I’ll have to build another sustainer for next year. Bob Mullins launched his 2-stage Blue Goose HPR. The Goose did not want to leave the nest and it took about five attempts to get the motor lit. Ignition finally occurred and the 2^nd stage lit as planned. There was a recovery failure with the booster, resulting in a core sample. Chris Short’s 2-stager flew as a boosted dart. The sustainer coasted ahead of the booster after separation without lighting its motor. Both sections deployed their chutes for a perfect recovery. I won the random draw and took home an Estes Condor ARV kit.

  Kendall’s Grandson, Drake, flew his 1^st rockets with us. His Baby Bertha stayed pretty low on A motors. Drake worked his way up to Cs and then added a booster for a 2-stage flight that went to the edge of the field.

  Riley flew a Mean Machine painted in Iron Man colors. He also built a small rocket at the field with scraps and super glue. It hung up on the rod and then crashed.

  Tim had the highest flight of the day on his Firestorm 54. The nine grain J570 motor blasted the rocket to 7400’.

  John Hansel enjoyed a lazy summer day napping under his shade. He made a single flight with his ¼ scale Patriot.

  Tom Mac Phearson took frequent flyer award with his arsenal of scale missiles. Sea Wolf had a huge arcing trajectory to the edge of the field and Barracuda was lost again.

  Eldon had an interesting flight in his Magnum5. A failure at the Av-bay coupler caused it to separate under power. The pieces came down mostly intact and the rebuild will be pretty simple.

  Kendall had the HPR flight of the day in Nos-A-Gator. He left the gas on the trailer and used a Loki blue L1482 motor for a spectacular launch.

Kendall Brent’s NOS-A-GATOR

Click here for more pictures.

• General: Multi Stage Day
• Youth: fly a two stage rocket and find both the booster and sustainer
• Challenge: fly a three stage rocket
• Advanced: fly a four stage rocket

Use a green flight card for any event flight and you will entered for a draw from the prize pool.Greg Lane SEARS President

Launch Events:

• General: Sci-fi / Futuristic / Alien Day
• Youth: decorate a rocket to have aliens on-board
• Challenge: Fly a Mars Lander type rocket
• Advanced: Warp Factor 

Use a green flight card for any event flight and you will entered for a draw from the prize pool.

Greg Lane

SEARS President

Location: Green’s Sod Farm, Samson AL

Author: Russ Roberts

  The weather was perfect and the winds weren’t too bad. We only had 10 flyers, but we made 51 flights. All flights were recovered on field. We flew motors ranging from A to L with everything in-between. D motors were the most popular because there weren’t many small rockets flying C motors.

  The monthly event was Peep lofting with 18 spot landing attempts. Peeps were skewered on Snitch landing gear. Peeps were ejected from Cluster Bombs with some being lightly toasted before they could bailout. Ben White used his Estes Omloid to safely transport Peeps in an enclosed capsule. Roy Houchin made the flight of the day with an excellent Booster Vision launch recording a Peep flight. Look for the video to be posted soon. I lost track of who landed closest to the target, but Greg won the random prize draw. It was a bad day for Peeps; those that survived their flight were devoured by hungry rocketeers.

  It was a great day for mid and high powered rockets. Greg Lane’s unfinished Firestorm 54 is transparent which makes it easy to check for recovery devices before liftoff. Plenty of BP made sure that the chute was deployed for a soft landing. John Hansel’s Ultimate Endeavor was late with its deployment events, but responded to his voice commands for a perfect flight. Marty Wiggin’s Thunderbird launched with lightning speed on a high impulse Blue Thunder motor. Randy Wiggin’s Arrow 4 had trouble lighting the Green Gorilla motor, but a sliver of Blue Thunder added to the igniter gave it the extra kick that it needed. My upscale Orbital Transport put on a great show, but the mother-ship suffered a hard landing at the flightline. It will go back to the hangar for repairs and a chute upgrade. Rick Gutkvecht’s flying disk had an unstable flight that was quite interesting. Eldon Triggs dialed in the Tuskegee Univ USLI rocket getting closer to the 1 mile altitude goal.

  Keith Stewart took the frequent flyer award with 11 successful launches. He has a beautiful fleet of classic clones and upscales. These are all finished to catalog perfection with the correct paint scheme and decals. His X-15 was the first that I have ever seen make a stable flight.

  Thanks to John Hansel, we now have another upgrade to our GSE. He built a large clipboard with 20 clips that correspond to the launch pads. Now we place our flight cards on the clip that matches the location where our rocket is sitting, which makes the LCO’s job easier. Come on out to our next launch, and see if we can fill up the clipboard.  

Launch Events:

• General: Peep Spot Landing (a target will be 100 feet from pad)
• Youth: Launch three different kinds of peeps
• Challenge: Deploy four or more peeps. The more the better
• Advanced: Fly a peep to as close to 1500 feet as possible based on an altimeter

Use a green flight card for any event flight and you will entered
for a draw from the prize pool.

Peeps are available at CVS or Walgreens.

Greg Lane

SEARS President