That is a pretty intriguing contest. By only having two rockets, you can't come loaded up and ready to fly a bunch of different birds. You'd have to be a prepping machine. Assume for a moment you wanted to do your H, I, and J as dual deploy. That would add considerably to the prep time.

Would you get bonus points if you made it all the way through the alphabet? Would flying all ten motors be mandatory? I'd say YES, because if you didn't, someone would go out and go all-out with the H, I, and J. My best H + I + J shots add up to over 40K. For me, personally, it would be easier to just fly those and call it a day. I don't think that is the spirit of the contest...

I would say you have to fly all 10 motors. If you did your A-F/G motors motor eject with altimeter for recording only. Your H, I, J would be DD. You'd have to be ready to fly when you got to the field. I could see the A-F/G being a morning endeavor and the H,I,J an afternoon one. We've all seen Bill Beggs come and fly 10^3 BP flights in a day. I think it could be done. The H,I,J flights would be the challenge in getting them back and up again. Right now it seems like the H,I,J will be what wins it. Any way to weight the other flights so that they also count more. I guess having to do them already makes them worth something. Is 5 lbs too much weight to give someone?

Edward

why even have a weight limit? the altitude penalty extracted should suffice IMO. The other thought I have as opposed to cumulative altitude, you get place points for each impulse, and the total number of points wins. This then equalizes emphasis across the spectrum. Otherwise the a,b,c potentially don't count much.
JS

Would all motors have to be individual flights? Can you say mixed cluster? I knew you could! 😀

That might be a quick way to use up the smaller motors as strapons, etc. with the bigger motors. Since most of the altitude would be from the H,I,J...

Just a thought.
-Ken

Make it even more fun and require a different rocket for each motor size, regardless of whether you have an altimter reading for the smaller ones. Recovery of each has to be accomplished before the next size up is launched. And contest DQ if at any letter the rocket is not able to be safely launched again that day. Rock Sim files could be an adequate substitute for estimated altitude. Require an altimeter reading for F and beyond.

Make it even more fun and require a different rocket for each motor size, regardless of whether you have an altimter reading for the smaller ones. Recovery of each has to be accomplished before the next size up is launched. And contest DQ if at any letter the rocket is not able to be safely launched again that day. Rock Sim files could be an adequate substitute for estimated altitude. Require an altimeter reading for F and beyond.

Now thats evil! But I like it. For one it takes out economic incentive for having baby altimeters you might never use, otherwise. But theres a certain genius in Ed's plan, never mind that with 10 flyers we have potentially 100+ flights to record (and launch). Nor do you want to compromise safety by encouraging sloppy preps.

The genius in having 2 rockets is you need a pentathalon kind of athlete. Its gotta run well with 24mm motors and take the heat of a 29. It seems the I-J would have to be 38. So do you take aim at the top implse classes, the bottom or be an all arounder. I don't think aggregate altitude is solid. One could get a great flight higher up and erase any deficiencies.

But the thought of all these big ass HPR flyers scrambling from a "gentleman start your engines" command at 8 am has me laughing.
JS

Make it even more fun and require a different rocket for each motor size, regardless of whether you have an altimter reading for the smaller ones. Recovery of each has to be accomplished before the next size up is launched. And contest DQ if at any letter the rocket is not able to be safely launched again that day. Rock Sim files could be an adequate substitute for estimated altitude. Require an altimeter reading for F and beyond.

Now thats evil! But I like it. For one it takes out economic incentive for having baby altimeters you might never use, otherwise. But theres a certain genius in Ed's plan, never mind that with 10 flyers we have potentially 100+ flights to record (and launch). Nor do you want to compromise safety by encouraging sloppy preps.

The genius in having 2 rockets is you need a pentathalon kind of athlete. Its gotta run well with 24mm motors and take the heat of a 29. It seems the I-J would have to be 38. So do you take aim at the top implse classes, the bottom or be an all arounder. I don't think aggregate altitude is solid. One could get a great flight higher up and erase any deficiencies.

But the thought of all these big ass HPR flyers scrambling from a "gentleman start your engines" to the LPR rack command at 8 am has me laughing.
JS

This is a GREAT idea and it sounds like it would be a wonderful event. That said, we have had a really hard time getting folks to even fly their single solitary SSS or SSSS shot each year.... doing ten blasts in a day? Yikes. I don't think anyone could do it. Or would do it.

Another thought... Give the entrants an entire year to go from A - J and record the standings online. Even with 8-10 launch dates, I'm wondering if it'd be done by anyone. I'd say you have to recover EACH rocket intact, i.e. in certifiable condition before you could move up to the next letter in the alphabet. If you biff a rocket, you are DQ'd.

Think of the pressure here. If you were successful on your A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and I flights, would you REALLY put that J570 into a 38mm bird? or would you hang back to see who was creeping up on you? What if you had to get 12K on your J flight to win? I think this is a totally cool, fascinating contest. I would favor spreading the flights out over the year vs. going for it in one day. I really don't think anyone would git 'er done...

Another twist, if you went with the do-it-over-the-course-of-a-year plan... why limit to two rockets? Just a thought.

JW

Maybe the idea of limiting to 2 rockets is because SOMEBODY has the club records for F-J with 5 different rockets? 😉