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Published: Friday, 27 November 2020 18:33
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Written by Claude Maina
It was another near perfect day for our last launch of the 2020 season, which could have been titled - Rocketry in the time of COVID. Skies were partially sunny and temps 50's and moderate to strong winds blowing toward the parking area and up the hill. We had a good crowd again with students from Olin College of Engineering and the Civil Air Cadets from Worcester. We had 135 flights with motors ranging from 13 mm A's to a few I's. We flew from noon to 4:00 after which, the launch field was taken down and a small launch set-up was erected for the night launch.
There were eight HPR flights, which was pretty good - a lot for this year and only one CATO. One HPR was a successful L1 certification. Another was Wildman Punisher on an Aerotech I1299. I believed it burned for 0.3 seconds! It was neat to see! Curtis launched his fleet of upscale Deuce's Wild. Harry Woodell launched his usual serial of pyramid and pyramid-type rockets. I launched by Christmas Tree on an F50-6 motor that landed in the sheep pen. As usual, the owners were very gracious and retrieved it for me.
The night launch was again a lot of fun. The weather was still great, and we had several rockets - kits and scratch builts. All were great flights. Joe Majahad had some very nice night launch rockets. Unfortunately he lost his Blue Moon rocket when the lights went out on landing. However someone retrieved it the 
next day and he was able to get it back. Since that was, in fact, the last launch of the season, it was a nice ending. Pictures are in the Gallery. Please post yours.
Thanks to everyone who attended for abiding by the Covid guidelines. Thanks again to Kenn and Guy for manning the launch table most of the day and most of the year; and to Tony, Frank, Joe, Jim and everyone else who helped with set up and take down and the launch in general. And thanks to all who helped out throughout our shortened season.
Our next launch is sometime in January 2021 - our annual Winter Follies! Keep an eye out for further announcements.
'Good night Gracie'
CMASS held a launch intended for middle and high school students participating in TARC, but members of the Northeastern University rocket club were the only students to attend. They made seven high power flights: five were Level 1 certification flights using H's or I's; one flight was a Level 2 certification flight with a J; and the remaining flight was also a J-powered flight intended to test some electronics. All of the certification flights were successful, although some squirreliness was seen in the flights, which observers attributed to some what undersized fins.
