Photos by: Ken Howerton and Gene Nowaczyk
Second only to LDRS, the annual Airfest at Argonia, Kansas is, as the Kloudbusters would like to put it, the largest rocket launch of the year.

This year's Labor Day weekend launch opened at 8:00 AM on Saturday, Sept. 5th. The weather was outstanding. The sun was shining and the winds were light, about 5 mph. In other words big, beautiful blue Kansas skies. Airfest has sometimes been plagued with rainy or less than desirable weather. It was a real relief to see the sun this time. The weather stayed nice and sunny for the whole weekend.

Although early morning weather was pleasant, the over-100 degree temperatures during the afternoon and early evening were rather exhausting.

Water was the biggest seller of the weekend, I brought a 5 gallon water cooler that saw plenty of action. Around 20 gallons of water and 50 pounds of ice went through it in two days. Anyone and everyone stopping by was invited to have a cold drink from my cooler and sit a bit under Jim Ball's sunshade. Shade was the other key to survival. There were many takers on the offer of shade and water.

Jim Brown's L3 attempt - Kloud Express.

Around twenty or so die hard rocketeers camped out at the launch site Friday night in anticipation of the weekend's excitement. Late night candles burned as flyers prepped their precious and most prized birds to launch early in an attempt to beat the afternoon heat. It didn't take long for flyers -- rockets in hand -- to line up Saturday morning at the RSO table. After all, the entire launch was only for three days.

The rockets flown ranged in power from a 1/2A to an N2000. Forty pads were used to handle the load and keep things moving smoothly. The launch officers did a great job of keeping things moving along with a minimum of delays. Prefects from several other clubs assisted the Kloudbusters in observing certification flights and administering level two written tests. A pickup truck equipped with a water tank and several fire extinguishers was always kept ready to roll at a moment's notice in the event of a grass fire in the hot, dry conditions.

Around 100 flyers registered for this year's Airfest. Over 350 flights were tallied for the three day event. Total attendance was estimated at 250-300 people on Saturday & Sunday.

Saturday started off very well. Flying began early with some mid-powered rockets and smaller motors. As the day progressed, so did the number and size of the rockets. The climax of the day came with the launch of a 15,000 newton-second N2000 powered bird.

LAUNCH REPORTS:

Jim Brown's L3 remains after an Ellis Mountain M1000 cato.

Jim Brown attempted his level three flight with a very ruggedly constructed scratch built rocket named "Kloud Express". All looked good until his M1000 catoed on the pad. The force of the cato lifted the rocket 20 ft off the pad, then dropped it to the ground on it's side. The motor tube and bulkheads were destroyed. The rocket is repairable. Jim will be flying this rocket again. (he'd better not give up!)

Steven White flew his rocket named "Bombus" on an AeroTech N2000. Lift off was spectacular! Thick white smoke enveloped the pad. Then the rocket lifted out of the smoke on an enormous pillar of flame.

Before you could catch your breath it was on it's way to the heavens. Unfortunately, at apogee it striped its chute, falling to the ground to meet its doom. The rocket's return descent made a sound like thunder in the distance. Twenty seconds later it was five feet under ground. This rocket will not be able to fly again!

Arley Davis of Omaha, NE. flew a nice PML Pterodactyl on a J-350 to a textbook recovery.

Steve White's "Bombus" on an AT N2000.

Jim Ball flew his beautiful, scratch built 4" AMRAAM on a K185 to an altitude of 5,617 feet. This was Jim's first K flight. The boost was picture perfect but his main chute came out at apogee along with the drogue. This caused Jim's recovery walk to be a bit longer than anticipated.

Jim Murphy flew several of his mid-sized rockets, including his very well built PML Phobos, out of his own designed tower. This rocket has flown dozens of times on an assortment of motors ranging from G's to H's and all varieties between. Jim also flew his Mustang and Miranda. Jim was using an Adept RAS2 recording altimeter with data recorder.

Darren Owens once again flew his extremely rugged 6" Public Missiles Ultimate Endeavor on a cluster of three J350's and a K550. Darren's recovery was perfect - the Ultimate Endeavor recovered pretty good too! Darren still didn't hit his goal of 5,000 feet with this rocket. Maybe a K700 and three J570's next time would do it!

Robert Taylor and Shawn Ashbaugh.

Robert D. Taylor (AKA Mr. Sandhawk) flew his rocket (an R&D 2.6" Sandhawk, of course) on a I161 straight up and nearly out of site. The rocket was recovered with help from Shawn Ashbaugh who tracking it all the way down. The rocket landed undamaged a mile away.

Shawn Ashbaugh flew his Dynacom Tarantula on a M1939 -- recovery was less then perfect. At apogee the rocket's chute became tangled and the rocket tumbled down. Only minor damage was incurred. Those Dynacom's are tough!

Mike Hedges "hot" Mother Load!

Mike Hedges launched his brand new and still unpainted LOC Mother Load on a cluster of three K1050 single use motors. A second after ignition and liftoff, one of the K1050's catoed, ripping one of the motor tubes apart and away from the rest of the airframe.

The rocket then began to flip and spin out of control towards the RSO table. The remains of the Mother Lode finally came to rest atop another rocket awaiting launch on the mid-power pads. Mike has already rebuilt it.

"Plum Crazy!" was flown by Mark Carr of Cameron, MO. on an AeroTech M1419. This was Mark's level three certification flight. Mark learned a valuable lesson the hard way about choosing the correct length of shock cord. Unfortunately, the rocket's shock cord was a little too short and zippered a few inches of the payload bay, disqualifying the level three flight. Even though it did not end in a certification, Mark's flight was awesome! Good flight, Mark! Next time for sure.

I even flew a rocket! It was named "STARCHASER T/70-508A-5430". I took the design from the original Starchaser built by Steve Bennett of Great Britain (HPR May, 1997). I made a few changes to Steve's design. First change was to make it strong enough to fly on a M1419. Second change was to relocate the altimeters in a special electronics bay I developed just for this purpose. I added a 35mm camera (Canon T/70) to the payload and incorporated dual deployment (two Adept ALTS25's). For a third redundant backup I used a Programming By Pete timer.

Gene Nowaczyk & Starchaser.

This was to be my level three certification flight. Unfortunately all didn't work as planned. To recap the flight: the motor lit, smoke poured, flames shot violently from the M1419, the rocket began to lift out of the tower with a roar. It went soaring over 6,000 feet into the heavens in all it's glory! Then, at apogee, the rocket separated exactly on cue -- BUT I had forgotten to attach the shock cord between the booster and payload! The booster fell on it's own from over 6,000 feet leaving the payload section to tumble down without a chute.

This was not a big problem because the drogue -- a 5 foot Rocketman chute -- was attached to the booster end of the shock cord. the payload with the main chute still inside tumbled in from 6,000 feet until the primary altimeter fired its ejection charge at 600 feet AGL. The big 15 foot scarlet red chute deployed perfect and gently landed the payload section only a couple of hundred feet from the launch tower. The booster's Rocketman chute shroud lines became tangled in it's parachute deployment bag. This had the effect of reefing the chute, causing it to fall a little too fast. The booster hit the ground a bit hard and cracked a fin (not bad, but bad enough.) It was still an exciting flight! Look for my 1.7X upscale of STARCHASER at LDRS next year.

Starchaser's recovery.

John Baumfalk (KloudBusters Prefect) also attempted a level three certification with a scratch built rocket. Unfortunately, John's M1000 also catoed on the pad! This time the rocket was thrown nearly 100 feet into the air. This almost completely destroyed the rocket. It seems that some Ellis Mountain M1000 motor cases were supplied with the wrong nozzles. This problem was quickly identified and corrected by the manufacturer.

There were literally hundreds of flights worthy of mention. Most flew perfectly. Some had minor recovery problems and will fly again after a few repairs. A few were total losses due to shred, ballistic return, cato, or other catastrophic failure.

Jim Murphy and I were talking about the failed level 3's and other flights we had seen over the weekend. We agreed that any person planning a Level 3 attempt (or any project of great complexity) should observe and use such failures as a teaching experience. We should learn as much or more from our failures as from our successes. Every person at this launch should have left with greater knowledge, better understanding and new ideas to help them succeed with their own projects.

Dale Barker's L1 certification.

One nice thing about the KloudBusters; you will always find a friendly welcome at one of our launches! Nobody leaves as a stranger.

Our launch announcements, LCO countdowns, and other news was simulcast to the launch site area on a special low-power FM radio (91.9 FM) as well as over the PA sound system. Bill Kenney supplied the transmitter equipment and did a great job with it. Thanks Bill.

Gerald Graves supplied the sound system used for launch announcements and LCO announcements.

As expected, rocketry supplies were easy to come by with the presence of vendors Magnum, Inc., the Science Education Center from Wichita, KS., Robby's Rockets, Rocket R & D (Gary & Jr. Buck) and Odyssey Productions with the newly certified Ellis Mountain Works motors.

Here are the stats from this great weekend:

Also: thanks to Mikes BBQ "the best ribs in KS" for providing food on site all weekend. Mike also owns the 4 Seasons restaurant in Argonia, KS. The Argonia Lions club provided us with much needed cold drinks.

Most Important! RICK NAFZINGER, our launch site property owner. Thanks Rick!