LAUNCH REPORT 1999-008

Date:    June 30, 1999
Time:    8:00 pm
Place:   My backyard, Stow, OH
Weather: Sunny, 75 Degrees F
Winds:   South 10-15 mph

The dad of one of my oldest son's friends called us. They were having trouble with a
Quest RTF they had recently purchased. I invited them over for some instructions
and a demo.

Seems they got the Tigertail igniter (basically a mini copperhead) hooked up wrong.
Quest supplies a piece of tape with two holes in it to wrap around the igniter. This
lets you use a standard "two-alligator-clip" controller. My boy's friend put the tape
on wrong and each clip was shorting the igniter out. Having quite a stash of Estes
igniters, I gave them several and we loaded up their rocket.

My boys rounded up the neighborhood kids and we were set.

Chain Reaction
A6-4
Straight boost
Altitude ~250' AGL
The shock cord came untied from the nose cone which fell about 150' SSE of the launch
pad. The body, with the parachute tied to the shock cord drifted about 150' SSW.

Now it was our turn

Sidewinder
C6-3
Straight boost--what a shock. This one usually weathercocks quite a bit and there was
a pretty good breeze at lift off. I intentionally launched straight up expecting the
weathercocking to take it upwind and the chutes to blow back. Now it was time to sprint!
Altitude ~400' AGL
Both pieces landed within 75' of each other, about 600' south of the launch pad.

Shadow "5"
D12-3
Aimed slightly upwind
Altitude ~200' AGL
I caught it ~60' W of the launch pad.

My son's friend and dad had to leave to track down their teenager but we agreed to
get together another day for more flights.