In Septembet of 2000, a large contingient of Northwest Flyers converged on the Aeropac Launch on the Black Rock playa. There were many large flights, including 4 successful level 3 flights. A summary of the large flights was prepared by Kimberly Harms, and pictures are below.

The BIG flights

Pat Floyd (TRA 5595)

The airframe is a 58% exact scale RIM-67A Navy Standard. It is 102" long and has a pad weight of 75 lbs with the M1939. The tubes are 7.7" phenolic on the outside with 6" tubes on the inside. The fins are .125" G10 with AC plywood laminated on both sides and shaped to scale. All fins are through the wall mounted the full length. Due to the rocket being scale there was little control of where the CP ended up and due to the long fins the CP is very far forward. This required a very heavy nose cone to balance out the M1939. The nose cone was turned out of solid maple and weighs in at 10.3 lbs. It has a 98mm motor mount and flew on an M1939. It carried an Adept ALTS25 and an Adept RAS2-50K recording altimeter. It has a Rocketman R9 for a drogue and an R19 for the main chute.

ALTS25: 8287ft

RAS2-50K
Alt 8305 ft
Vel 692 ft/s
Gs 3.9

Decent rate under main was 24 ft/s

An interesting side note: During decent, the rocket must have caught a thermal. According to the data the decent rate was steady (you can see the swing under main) for the first minute then it slowed down to 17 ft/s for 45 seconds (still showing the swing), then it returned to 24 ft/s.

Win Maynard (TRA 7729)

The rocket is a modified Dynacom Scorpion, dubbed "Kryptonite", and painted Neon Green accordingly. Certification motor used was the AT M1315, Loaded pre-flight weight was 31.5lbs, recovery was via Rocketman chutes, R3 drogue, and R12 main. No damage was caused by the flight, or recovery.
Here is the data:

Pre-flight simulation, courtesy of RockSim:

Max velocity 1295.37 ft/sec
Max accel 658.54 ft/sec
altitude 16029.10'

Actual recorded data:

Adept Alts 25: 15280'

Black Sky AltAcc 1A:
Altitude 16244'
Max velocity 1029 ft/sec @ 4.8 sec.
Max accel 399.40 ft/sec2


Christopher Scott (TRA 7903)

6" dia 120" long scratch build of my own design. Aerotech M1315, G-Wiz LC Deluxe and Olsen FCP-M2 for electronics, recovery via Rocketman R4 and R18.
The flight details from the Olsen:
Maximum altitude-8855ft
Max velocity: 1,286 ft/sec

Data from the Pratt:
Maximum altitude-8888ft


Kent Newman (NAR 74607)

The scaled sounding rocket, Arcon, was a 133.7" long, 6.0" diameter rocket weighing 44.2 lbs. with motor. The airframe was Giant Leap 6.0" tubing wrapped in a 5.7 oz. carbon/S-glass hybrid cloth, with PML nose cone and shaped G-10/aircraft ply/carbon wrapped fins. The rocket flew on a Kosdon M1130. Recovered on Rocketman R4C drogue and R18C main parachutes.
A Missile works RRC2 altimeter was used as well as a BlackSky Altacc 2a. The data from the flight was:
RRC2 Altitude: 7830'
BlackSky 2A Altitude 7889'
Velocity 831.86 fps
Accel 331.63 fps2

No damage upon recovery.

Preflight simulation (Rocksim) on the M1130 was 8287'

This flight makes Kent one of the few NAR level 3 certified flyers.


Tom Gonser (TRA 2171)

He flew his "Pinky and the Brain" project on one Aerotech M and one Kosdon M. In case someone doesn't know this was the same airframe he attempted L3 on several years ago. Unfortunately that attempt failed. He certified L3 at a subsequent launch using just his sustainer. However this flight made up for all previous problems as it was truly amazing.

1. Pinky's Two Stage flight
Wt: 75# with motors
Size: 7.5" x 16' in two stage configuration
Motors: M1939 booster, ~M1200 sustainer (EX motor)

Pinky2 Booster Section(separate Olsen Flight Computer):
Max Alt: 4854 feet where main chute deployed

Pinky2 Sustainer Section (Cambridge)
Booster Burnout: 2068 feet at 6.67 sec
Sustainer Ignition: 3314 feet at 9.02 sec
Max g: 4.4
Max q: 649.46 mph
Max Alt: 15,412 at 36.27
Main deployment at 1999 feet, 177.6 seconds

Altacc2A (on sustainer as backup)
Max Alt: 15,143 pressure, 15,869 inertial at 34.655 seconds
Velocity: 984.76 ft/sec
Main deployment off the chart (Set for 500', and Cambridge set at 2,000)

Minor damage on booster recovery due to a 'bounce' landing the booster tube
on the playa, sustainer did not have so much as a rail scratch.

2. Car #6 - On AT L1500 (98mm)
Wt: 28# with motor
Size: 6" x 10'
Max Alt: 10,839 pressure, 10753 inertial at 23.9 seconds, main fired at 172 seconds.
Velocity: 1090 ft/sec
No Damage at all.


3. Car #6 - On Skidmark M (~M1000) (75mm)
Wt: 32# with motor
Size: 6" x 10'
Max Alt: 8407 pressure, 8577 inertial at 23.3 seconds, main fired at 148.6
seconds. Velocity: 775 ft/sec
Motor retainers melted due to heat of Skidmark, threw the motor, which was recovered unharmed. Main deployment bag did not come all the way off, however, the lighther weight of the rocket under drogue resulted in only minor damage to nose cone shoulder.

4. Pure Theory
Wt: 31#
Size: 4" x 10'
Motor: Kosdon M1845 (~7500ns)
Fiberglass airframe destroyed about 2 seconds into flight. No data recovered from altimeter, although all electronics were recovered intact. Motor section sheared off and went to apogee (?10K?) and impacted 40" into the playa 1500 yards downrange. Reason for failure unknown. All fins were still intact, no cracks, airframe tubing failed in at least 3 places in mid-section of rocket. Electronics bay up was fine.

Steve Bloom (TRA 7448)

Made a number of flights but I think the highlight was his "General Cluster". His first flight was a 3 motor cluster - ignited all at once. His second flight lifted off on the central blue thunder motor, airstarted two white lightening motors, then two black jack motors. A nice flight.
Unfortunatly, the 3rd flight on EX day on five 38mm Thunderflame motors resulted in the death of The General when two motors cato'ed. Knowing Steve, he will rebuild.

Kimberly Harms (TRA 6206)

Her two flights were with her 4" airframe called Community 6. It has two different motor sections. The "A" motor section a single 54mm motor, and the "B" section with a cluster of 3 38mm motors.
Flight with the "A" motor section (single 54mm) with a Aerotech K700.
Altitude (ALTS25): 8,883 feet
Max velocity (Cambridge IAX96): 946 fps
Max Acceleration: 16.5 Gs
Time to apogee: 22 seconds

The 2nd launch was with the "B" motor section with 3 J350's as a cluster ignited all at once.

Altitude (ALTS25): 7,278 feet
Max velocity: 871 fps
Max Acceleration: 31.71 Gs
Time to apogee: 20 seconds

Two cool flights that pushed the limits of the airframe. She had hoped to break mach (1130 fps) but it was not to be.

Black Rock flightline (note two airplanes "parked" behind line) from 3000' courtesy of Snapshot.	Black Rock landscape with car racing across playa lower left. Lots of creative vehicle tracks.
Arcon getting its fill.	Erich and Kent Newman for a "just in case" photo op.
Lighting Up.	Up.
UP!	And AWAY!
Kimberly Harms' Community 6 roars to life on a cluster of 3 J350 motors.	Steve Bloom's General Cluster's last stand. Two 6 grain experimental motors catoed.
Pat Floyd's beautiful level 3 project, a Standard ARM.	Kent Newman's level 3 takes off on a Kosdon M1130.
Paul and Patty Eiternic, monroe regulars, were voted the cutest couple at Blackrock XII.	Dawn on the desert. Pinky and the Brain are getting set up.
Pinky and the Brain take off on the big M1939. What a sight!	Imagine having a launch site so big, you could actually get lost in the middle of it! (But not for long with a full tank of gas and the "Desert Dust Bird" racecar.
Christopher Scott's level 3 bird, Gamma-75, on the pad with crew member Eric Bloom.	Gamma-75 on it's way to a perfect level 3 cert flight.
Steve Bloom, jubilant, retrieves Toose Dayger after a sucessful flight on an I300 staged to an I284.	At first we thought we'd found a straggler from the Burning Man celebration. But we later learned that this was Sue McMurray, the TRA motor testing committee chair person.