Rocketry Planet

WINDOM, Texas USA — The Dallas Area Rocket Society recently held a contest for rocketeers flying staged and clustered configurations of black powder motors called the Extreme BP Contest.  Originally scheduled for October 28-29 at their Shoot for the Stars launch, held in Windom, Texas, the event was rained out and moved to the DARS Turkey Shoot held November 18-19.

The contest assigned points based on the number of motors and stages in a given rocket's configuration.  Points were awarded for installed impulse and total number of motors lit, as well as additional points for upper stage motors.  Although the point system was set up to favor the number of motors and upper stage motors, less weighting was placed on collective impulse.

Dave Schaeffer took top honors in the DARS Extreme BP Contest, lighting a total of fourteen motors.

The contest assigned first stage A-and-under motors lit with 10 points, B motors with 12 points, C motors with 14 points, D motors with 16 points and E motors with 18 points. Second stage A-and-under motors lit earned 15 points, B motors earned 18 points, C motors with 21 points, D motors with 24 points and E motors with 27 points. Third and higher stage motors lit earned 20 points for A-and-under motors, 24 points for B motors, 28 points for C motors, 32 points for D motors and 36 points for E motors. Air-started outboard motors counted as second stage motors. (Rockets were allowed to contain one or more APCP motors in addition to black powder motors, but no points were given for the APCP motors.)

The first place winner was Dave Schaefer, who put up a spectacular 2-stage flight, named Clustered F Squared, staging seven booster motors to seven sustainers for 245 points.  Shaeffer's first place prize was a Madcow Rocketry Buzzie, a very cool 2.6" kit. Besides laser cut fins and fin slots, it includes a kevlar shock cord and a nomex chute protector. It also has a 29mm motor mount and, for the purists, it comes with balsa nose and tailcones. For more info, see: http://www.madcowrocketry.com/buzzie.html

Second place was claimed by Gary Briggs, who flew his Failure Mode, an upscaled Black Widow, that staged three D12's and three C6's to three E9's.  Living up to its name, Failure Mode failed to separate the stages after the upper stage E9's lit, leaving the booster stuck to the upper stage until it burned away and fell back to the ground.  But they all lit, earning him 171 points and a JonRocket.com 7x18mm cluster motor mount kit.

Contest promoter, Doug Sams, flew a number of rockets in the event, including a very nice Super Big Bertha featuring a nine motor cluster.  Sams disqualified himself from winning any prizes but still got to enjoy the fun.  Full contest results and more pictures are at: http://home.flash.net/~samily/exbp/results3.html