MudRock Mimi Madness

Vern Estes would probably be proud of the Aero-Pac’ers who participated in the Screamin’ Mimi contest at MudRock. The use of the word “contest” is probably out of line in this context. It was however, certainly an event. There were really no rules, but a drag race was the basic intent of the event that was hatched by Jamie Clay in January, and facilitated by Peter Clay who took orders, bulk ordered, and delivered about 30 Estes Screamin’ Mimi kits.

There were ten Mimi versions that I recall at the launch, but I very likely did not see all of them or simply forgot a few of them. If I missed you here, my apologies, but it was not my intent to chronicle the event when I packed for the trip. I welcome any updates from Peter or Mimi flyers that I miss here. Several of the Mimi kits were not flown in the drag race but did experience the rush of launch pad departure. And a few would be Mimi Flyers were simply not able to work in the construction time, and their Mimi kits lay dormant at home.

Among the non-drag racers, was Sue McMurray, who flew several of Chet’s EX motors on Friday in her unique Mimi interpretation. She flew an E50, an F75, and finally she finally found a motor tougher than the rocket, a G136! The fin stripping flight was not the end of what became Frankin-Mimi, as it flew at one more flight with only 75% of it’s original complement of fins using an Aerotech E30 on Sunday. Never say die. Rumor has it that carbon fiber may be heavily involved the next time Sue & Mimi meet in the back room!

Richard VonEhrenkrook took this opportunity to make a successful Level 1 Certification flight using what else, but his “Reamin’ Mimi” on an H73J, congratulations Richard.

The first of two Mimi versions I flew outside the main event is called “Creamin’ Mimi” (Sorry about that, but it was easy to cut off the first letter of the decal). This was a cluster of seven C6-7 black powder motors (see below). Three in the main airframe, and one in each of the outboard whistle tubes (no whistles, all motors). Unfortunately I left out a small altimeter at the last minute, which was the nose weight it needed to become stable. Ed Hackett, RSO told me it wouldn’t fly, but being stubborn (and wrong) I talked him into letting me fly from the H & I pad distance. Six of seven motors lit (one central motor did not ignite), it made about three loops and crashed. She’ll fly next time though.

Launch Video (Complements of VideoRocketry.com)

The second of two Mimi versions I flew outside the main event is called “Mach Mimi”. This one is just different. She has a beefed up airframe, a lot of glass, a conical PML solid urethane nosecone, and redesigned flute-style whistles. “Mach Mimi” was a very different story from “Creamin’ Mimi”. She left the pad in a hurry (Rocksim estimated 45.6 Gs) on the cool blue tail of an I300. After burnout the whistles could clearly be heard as she decelerated from the Rocksim estimated 860mph peak speed. Of course Rocksim was not designed to deal with the complexities of outboard whistle tubes & the Screamin’ Mimi design in general. I will try to incorporate some form of electronics to capture data the next go-round in August.

The Drag Race

The main event rolled around about 10:30 AM on Sunday. We had five contestants, and six rockets supervised by LCO and Prefect John Coker. There were 4 stock D12 powered Mimis, and two modified kits flying an F50 and F21. I took Video of the start at 30-frames per second. Here is the line-up from left to right:

On pad 2 Sebastian Sutchek’s Mimi AKA: “The Ringer” (my name, not his) with his F 50 powered Mimi.

On pad 4 Owen Delong’s “Naked Screams” with a Stock D12 powered Mimi.

On pad 6 Mike Brest’s (me) stock Mimi kit, this is another D12 powered Mimi.

On pad 7 Mike Brest’s (me again) “Mimi with Tail” a slightly modified F21 powered Mimi with a boat-tail.

On pad 9 Jamie Clay’s “Still Screaming” stock Mimi kit also flying a D12.

On pad 10 Peter Clay’s stock kit, which also flew on a D12.

T+2

Launch Video (Complements of VideoRocketry.com)

And the start:

At T-0 (the first video frame indicating action), a spark flew from Sebastion’s F50 motor, at T+2-frames, the picture seen above, Sebastian’s F50 was 4” off the pad and clear indications of ignition coming from the other 5 rockets. At T+6-frames, Subastian’s rocket was off the picture, and the rest were still, well, resting. At T+8-frames still no movement from the field. At T+9-frames clear movement is visible from 3 rockets: Owen, Jamie and Peter. Of those three, Jamie seems to have made the biggest movement, but this I must admit, may simply be an optical result of his contrasting red tipped white nosecone against the Blackrock background. Owens rocket clearly moved, but his white nose cone against the hazy sky background does not provide the contrast to measure against Jamie’s. Peter’s rocket made clear movement also, but an unfortunately aligned rail in the background, clouds the picture slightly.

My F21 powered Mimi with Tail quickly caught up to the field after starting in clear 5^th place, but interestingly enough as they left the top of my picture frame, Owen Delong’s D12 powered stock Mimi was still a ½ nosecone leader over the F21, and the clay brothers were within a body length, with Jamie leading Peter by a ½ length, and my own stock Mimi a good 2-½ lengths back.

Let us not forget however, that Sebastian Sutchek, was already taking his post flight shower in victory champagne.

The sky was filled with Screamin’ Mimi rockets, all hanging gracefully on parachutes, as rocketeers tried to figure out which way to go to find their own Mimi. Perhaps at an upcoming launch, those who have yet to build Mimi will find time between life’s little requirements, to let Mimi out of the bag, and get her into drag. J