Hi all,

A brilliant turnout for our first launch of the year. Weather was fantastic, clear blue skies, gentle breeze, solid ground (no mud!!!).
Welcome to all those new members who turned up, we hoped you had a great day and hope to see you next month.

Thanks goes out to Malcolm of Rockets and Things and Tony of Apo11o for bringing the shops along.

Thanks to Congreve Rockets for bringing along some sample closures of their new product range.

I took lots of videos, so i'll be posting them soon.

Alan Meredith Report:
The first launch of the new season and i got there late, I come down the lane to see more cars than at car boot sale but it was a good sight to see a few new faces.

My first lob of the day was my "Made In Stafford" on a D12-5 which went very well.

I got the Black Knights Cafe on the go and soon had many punters coming up
to me for a drink of tea's and coffee.

I went around "Vendors Corner" to see Malcolm/Michael (Rockets & Things) and than on to Tony (Apo11o) to offer them refreshments.

I had to then run out onto the range for the 4 Mean Machine drag race, sadly i
have to say that I come 2nd.

It was also sad to see the best looking rocket of the day hit the floor at
a rate knots, I do not know why it spacked but Sean caught it on video, but I hope that Damian get's it put back into flying order

My best lob of the day was my Estes Executioner on a Aerotech E30-4, it was that fast I did not have time to look up and see it go but Malcolm Ingram said it went a good height, after that I just made sure the tea pot was full and help to spot other flyers rockets.

Ray Hancox Report:
The first meeting of the year had a very good turn out with over thirty five plus people  there.   Robert my [grandson] and myself set out the table and chair's, after that it was time to get a pad allocated to us, asked Mark [RSO]  for a Pad letter (which was I). With  launch pads in hand, out we went to set them up. The Sure-Fire launch controller was checked and then back to the car to set up our first Rocket. B this time there was quite a few more people about, so Mel (our level two RSO) called us all together and gave us a range safety talk. That all over, it was time to prep the first one, POLARIS on C6-5. Mel signed her off and then over to Mark (RSO). Out we went, set her on the
pad and when the OK came from Mark we introduced the rocket and with a 5-4-3-2-1 away she went. A good flight as always with this bird, so Robert asked if he could use the POLARIS to take his Level 1 Mandatory. All Forms filled in and when signed off, he few her on a C5 -3. She flew well and a good recovery. Took it back to Mark to
check it over, no damage so a pass for Robert.

The next one to go was the MANIAC on a D12-5 , ZENITH 11 on a C6-0 booster stage with the upper stage on a A8-3, ECHOSTAR a two stager and her first flight out prepped on aC6-0 x C6-5 fly's well, next was a rocket I made up of all different rockets hence the name BITS and BOBS prepped on a D12-5. Nice flight,  next came the INITATOR  prepped on a 24mm E11-3J, also I placed a pilot with a small 8 inch chute,  all went well but on recovery of the rocket the motor case was missing and lost but it was a good flight, chutes deployed so it must have lost it on float down (not found), the last one to go was the NORAD prepped 29mm E23-8T, half way into her flight something went wrong, she lost power then the delay charge went off and she landed fine with no damage at all.

Had a smashing day and thank to you all.
 
Ray  or  Hank.

Mel Sharpe Report:
First day of the flying season for Black Knights; the weather was fantastic, a good omen I hope.
My first rocket was Tracer 2 , a scratch built, powder paint filled, potential sacrifice to the rocket gods costing about 50p, on a C 6 - 5 . The flight was good and straight the powder hung in the air, at about 1000ft, for long enough to determine that there was much less movement at that altitude than closer to the ground.

Next up was Big Daddy, a modified kit that I've strengthened to take an F39. I've always thought that BD's were under-powered on D 12s. I even managed to get a drag race with another Big Daddy without telling the other flyer. Sorry, Paul. Both rockets flew well, mine just went a bit further.

Fizz, the minimum diameter Micro Hybrid was my third flight. The launch went fine. However, I had not changed the resistor settings on the MAD since K-Lob. I think that was the reason it deployed and destroyed the 'chute at a low altitude and about 45 deg. A new vehicle will be needed for the next MH flight.

I had wanted to put up a maximum motor rocket since we started at Brook Farm. SLING SHOT went up on an I 357. The 30N rocket really shifted off the pad and the 10 s delay on the motor was nearly perfect for the first stage deployment. However, the second stage 'chute deployment did not go well. Although the G-Wiz DL pushed the 'chute out at about 400ft, it failed to
open. Result, a broken fin (since repaired) and a broken instrument bay section (since shortened, the rocket is now called SLINHOT). The G-Wiz had lost its power supply so it was not possible to see what the actual altitude had been.

Raptor, on a D 12 - 5 was the final flight of my day. This really is a beautiful rocket with an impressive performance on anything from D 12 to F39. This one went fine as usual.

Regards
Mel S

Mark Perman Report:
Sunday the 16th was a great start to the years flying it was our biggest launch session so far! The club gained five new members on the day, Paul Lavin, Damian Hall, Richard Parkin, Ian Harvey and last but not least Michael Williams. Welcome to the club guys.

Thanks to the vendors for supporting us Malcolm of Rockets and Things, Tony of Apollo 11 and of course Daniel and Sid of Congreve Rockets. Thanks to Mel for RSO'ing, Alan for the Teas and Coffees, Tracy for looking after flight registration/merchandising and all those of you that helped with range set up and tear down!

Congrats to Dave Beeton on winning the BK video competition (prize donated by Congreve Rockets). It was a good weekend for Dave as he was a judge at the UK Rocket Challenge up in Lincs. and also managed to get his level II flight in!

Congreve Rockets have kindly donated a GPS navigation unit to the club. The idea is to take this along to events like Largs where the trek to find the
rockets can be a little disorienting (I know from personal experience). Thanks again to Daniel and Sid.

Have entered all the flight cards that I have onto the spreadsheet and the total No of flights so far is 58! If you forgot to hand in your flight reg sheets before you left on Sunday (Looks like I'm missing two peoples sheets) please drop me an e-mail with the details of your flights and I will pop them on to the sheet. We had a three way tie for frequent flyer the winners being Matthew Harrold, Paul Lavin and Ray Hancox. Commiseration's to Mel with Sling shot and Damian with his Thor.

Congratulations to those flying in the Model achievement Programme on your successful flights. Full details of the days flying are on the flight records spreadsheet and a good number of photo's are on the photo's page.

It was a great flying session.

regards

Mark