LAUNCH REPORT 1999-004

Date:    May 16
Time:    10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Place:   Former sod farm, Mantua Township, Portage County, Ohio
Weather: Sunny, 65-75 Degrees F
Winds:   Southeast 5-15 mph, becoming Southwest 5-10 mph

Excerpted from Tod A. Hilty's post to rec.models.rockets with edits by MRR

Subject: [LAUNCH REPORT] MTMA First Launch!
Date: Tue, 18 May 1999 03:54:36 GMT
From: blankreg@nospam.ever.net (Hilty Information Systems)
Organization: APK Net
Newsgroups: rec.models.rockets

Hey All!

After much rumination, the Mantua Township Missle Agency (MTMA) pulled together its
first, organized launch on Sunday May 16th! We we're lucky enough to get permission
to use a "sod farm on its way back to nature" as a launch field. We probably had
close to 25 acres of sod, sorta-sod, sorta-scrub-sod, and sorta-scrub-sod-treelines
to work with! It _was_ a bit windy, with winds coming in around 10-15 mph from the
SE, but we worked the field _quite_ well for newbies! We had over 50 in attendance,
much of which consisted of wives, children, onlookers, etc.

Can't really report chronologically, but we'll go by rocketeer.

Randy Miller:
(see Tod Hilty's version)

Randy's brother-in-law, Stan Mikush:
(see Tod Hilty's version)

Chuck Straka:
(see Tod Hilty's version)

Bruce Levinson:
(see Tod Hilty's version)

Mark Recktenwald:
(see Tod Hilty's version for narrative, particulars below)

Estes Mach-12
A8-3
Aimed into and arced into wind.
Altitude ~200' AGL
Ejected just past apogee
Recovered ~200' down wind

Shadow 5
1 D12-5, 2 B6-6 (equivalent to weak E)
Aimed into and arced into wind.
Altitude ~350' AGL
Ejected just past apogee.
Caught ~50' NE of the launch pad.

Mini Marz Lander
A3-4T
Aimed into wind.
Altitude ~150' AGL
Ejected just past apogee.
Chute not unpacked pre-flight, stayed folded, landed ~50' ESE of the launch pad.

Saturn V (1:154 scale)
D12-3
Aimed into and arced heavily into wind. The same arc to the left while facing the
front of the rocket.
Altitude ~400' AGL
Chute didn't eject but nose blow caused horizontal descent. Landed ~300' S of the
launch pad in tall dry weeds with no damage.

CR4
F50-4T
Arced to east due to rod whip caused by MRR flipping switch on camera.
Altitude ~450' AGL
Payload bay landed in wet ditch on East side of main road ~500' East of the launch pad.
Booster hung up in Elm tree ~50' AGL on West side of the road ~450' East of the launch pad.
The side of the payload bay and the front of the camera were wet.

Tod Hilty:
(see Tod Hilty's version)

Everything culminated with burgers, weenies, sidedishes, deserts and Mark's homebrew at
Tod's house afterward.

One of the neatest things is that the landowner in now asking us "When we'll be back
again?":). From a PR standpoint, Tod thinks we did our job! In addition, since most of
his neighbors were in attendance throughout the launch, we've gained their confidence
also, in demonstrating a nicely run, and well controlled range! Tod thinks we've got
the field for quite a duration now!