MARS attend first event in 2000
The first event of the new millenium was the MARS Brass BALLS event, hosted at Pete's farm near Sleaford in Lincolnshire.
Saturday the 22nd of January, MARS turned up in force, but due to the weather only one MARS rocket flew. This was Ben Jarvis's venerable LOC Mini Mag, this rocket seems to fly at every launch, but unfortunatly due to the high wind, it impacted hard on landing, destroying a fin.
Ben's new rocket Champaign Supernova (what a name), a 6" rocket with a single 54mm motor mount and 2 x 29mm motors, posed a problem in how to launch it on a strong enough rail. Saturday evening saw Pete out with his drill and tools box and he modified his pad to take a 5' upright with which the rail, all eight feet of it, was attached to.
Sunday had the wind die down slightly so more flights could be made, the 6" rocket flew on a K1100, with 2 x G35's air starting, I suppose mainly to provide some tracking smoke. They deployment at apogee was succesful and the rocket was recovered quite a way downrange.
Kevin's black powder powered boost glider, Scary Glider, flew succesfully and the crowd were in awe of it's ability to not loop and smack into the ground, unlike it seems most rocket powered gliders are designed to do.
Richard Osborne was to have flown his 38mm diameter Rattwoks hybrid powered rocket, but due to the wind and his desire to actually see it again, decided not to. This rocket is expected to reach high altitude and so the downrange drift would have been excessive.
Thanks goes to Pete for hosting the launch and his help to everyone at the event. Due to him driving people around in order to recover thier rockets, he was unable to fly a rocket himself. What a guy.