Report

ASK 't Harde, 20 October, 2000 - As usual we had set up the day before and we (nearly all) had a nice evening. After breakfast we went to the launch area to do the last preparations. There were a lot of preparations to be done, because there were to be six HPR launches and the launch of the N21. Of the HPR rocket's five were flown by guest flyers from Tripoli The Netherlands. Unfortunately there was a thick fog, which lasted until 11 o'clock.

First launched was the Tomahawk of Jan-Hein Ramakers. It was a level 1 certification flight. The rocket flew great and some people saw it parachute, but then we lost track of it in the remaining fog. Luckily the rocket was recovered, because it landed near the its predicted landing spot. So the level certification was successful after all. By now the fog was totally gone and they sky was blue. Next was the launch of the G-Force of Rolf Querido. This was also a level 1 certification flight, and after a successful flight it landed unscratched, and thus another successful certification. The HPR launches continued with the beautiful Harpyen, NAVRO member Benjamin Wilkosz' first HPR rocket. The rocket flew perfect, until the ejection charge went before reaching top altitude. This resulted in losing the nose along with the R-DAS electronics. When recovered the rocket was badly damaged. Next was the Orange of Bert Koerts. This is a large HPR rocket of two metres and powered by an AeroTech K185-W, which provided a spectacular flight. The Orange parachuted, but was last seen flying in a cloud. Unfortunately the 2 metre long bright orange rocket couldn't be found after a long search. Eventually it was recovered on a later date. The following rocket was the very smooth and shiny Saab RB05 of Rene v.d. Hulst. The motor was an AeroTech J350-W. But before it could be launched the centre of gravity was corrected using "local raw materials". Because of it's shape the rocket made a whistling sound while flying. The Saab RB05 made a perfect flight. The final HPR rocket Bert Koerts' second, the Yellow, which also had an AeroTech J350-W. The rocket flew nice, but nobody saw it parachute. Fortunately it was recovered.

Next was the N21, NAVRO's amateur rocket. This flight was to be the fourth flight of the rocket, which had flown before as the N18, N19 and N20 making it NAVRO's most successful rocket. The goal of this flight was to measure the thrust of our K2000 rocket motor during flight. The sky was unusually blue, especially because it was already late in the season (for American readers: the climate is comparable with that of New York). The launch was again successful and the N21 recovered almost unscratched. According to R-DAS it reached an altitude of 5000 feet (1500 metre).

The launches ended with The Rainbow, a two-stage model rocket with in each stage three Estes C-motors. It made a "colourful" flight. A little later the sky was filled with clouds again.

Looking back the NLD12 was a great success, with all HPR rocket's and the N21 flying perfectly, although not all were recovered that day. More importantly again we had no safety incidents. The cooperation between the NAVRO and Tripoli members was very good, as was the cooperation with the military.