Upcoming Launch Schedule

ROCC 2024-2025 Launch Schedule:

NO launch in May due to the wheat. We hope to fly in June. 

 

 All launches are at the Midland, NC site unless otherwise stated.*

Here are some other launch opportunities in our area:

ICBM & ROSCO, better known as Rocketry South Carolina, flies near Dalzelle, SC., Just NE of Shaw AFB.  More information can be gotten at their site HERE

The Saturn Rocketry Club in Hendersonville is currently switching their launch field. As soon as we know where they land we will post it. Their FB site is HERE

NC Rocketry flies at Bayboro, NC in the northeast part of the state, information is HERE

 Set-up starts at about 9:30, launches commence about 10:30. Field closes about 60 min. before local dusk so we can clean up. Watch the site front page for specifics. Also visit us on FaceBook. You can also check for the FAA NOTAM at https://notams.aim.faa.gov/notamSearch/nsapp.html#/ and using KCLT (Charlotte) as the location. This will give you the starting and ending times for HP flights. 

* If field is available due to crops, etc.

Entries by DOC R. (814)

Wednesday
Oct072009

ROCC Activity Report

Hello and salutations to all those Rocket Jockie�s and Jockette�s who have dropped a line asking how the Orangeburg �Liberty Launch 2209� went. I should have gone around and gotten the names of everyone but I didn�t think of it so I can�t list all the attendees I saw, many I know by sight but not by name. I did recognize a lot of ROCC members and some who fly out at the Farm. I made planed arrangements to attend the whole 3 day event and though disappointed by the winds, had a good enough time to say that the trip was indeed worthwhile and enjoyed. If you want to see pictures of the event, �ROCKETS� magazine attended the 3 day event and took a lot of pictures. Besides those that will be included in the next issue of the magazine, you can go to the website. and select the Freedom Launch 2009 icon on the right, or the PHOTOS box on the left. Both will take you to a selection of shots from the launch and then you can select the �more photos for sale� on the magazines photo shop and look at 50 pages of 20 pictures per page. These are additional shots of attendees, rocket set ups, rockets in flight, and under chute that you can buy if you don�t have a good pro shot of your rocket in flight. Or sometimes in many, many tiny pieces. You can also go to the O�Burg club website and select the PHOTOS box on the top row and scroll down and select Freedom Launch 2009 and the 11 videos. You do need to see the video of the 400lb V-2 flight. Partial failure, partial success, fully impressive. The �M� engines looked to blow the exhaust nozzles just blowing out a blowtorch like flame while the single �O� engine labored to get the V-2 to a safe altitude for the chute recovery system to successfully return the V-2 safely with minor flame damage I understand. Other than the wind, the weather was great. It was probably the winds that kept the temperature and humidity within tolerable limits. But I was able to get in a few flights each day but kept everything at lower altitudes. The larger heavier flights were able to push through the winds and not drift all too far. The lighter weights had a lot more drift and wind cocking to cope with. Keep a look at the ROCC website for news about any chance of a spontaneous end of Oct launch and a more probable regular November launch. We expect the farm to be through with the crop harvest and weather providing, back to monthly launches by then. I hope David Tomkinson can come out, we are holding onto the Aerotech Barracuda that he won in the ROCC Raffle at the overnight campout launch. I believe a few of the ROCC members took part in a Scout launch last weekend out at that neat Scout Jamboree looking site. Hope it all went well and we might hear a short report about that on the web site soon. Any other activities you know of, get it onto the web site so anybody who is interested and available can take part in it. Till then, remember to keep those exhaust nozzles clear. Roy. ROCC Sec.

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Saturday
Oct032009

A trip down memory lane...

I've been flying model rockets a long time now, and every now and then I'm reminded just how long. I ran across this PAGE with the original "Model Rocketry" magazine, starting with volume 1 number 1, from back in October of 1968. They're in .pdf format, so you'll need Foxit Reader or Adobe reader to open them. I remember having some of these as a kid.... man I wish I'd saved 'em! DR

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Wednesday
Sep302009

October Launch Prospects

I heard from Brad that it's highly unlikely we'll able to get into the field due to the length of the crop season this month, considering our scheduled launch is in 2 weeks. On the bright side, this month in O'burg it's a ROSCO launch, so standard NAR sport rules apply. It's a bit of a hike, but it's an option... Their launch schedule is HERE Doc R.

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Sunday
Sep132009

How much ejection charge?

I recently had to try and answer that question on a new rocket. 5.5 inches in diameter and almost 36" of essentially empty space to fill with pressure at apogee. How much powder to put in? Well, I found this page and it gives a handy table as well as a good explanation of the math behind it... very handy!

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Sunday
Sep132009

TARC sign-up is OPEN

Team America Rocketry Challenge 2010
 
Registration of 7th-12th grade student teams for the TARC 2010 national rocketry competition opened on September 2 and will remain open until November 30.  This competition, now entering its 8th year with the NAR and the Aerospace Industries Association as co-sponsors, has enrolled over 50,000 students over this period and got them excited about rocketry and about an aerosapce career -- which is why we do it.  The $60,000 in prizes for the top 10 teams and the free trip to the Paris or Farnborough European Air Show for the winning team help with the excitement, too!
 
This is the most effective youth outreach and national publicity program that the NAR has ever had.  Please help get the word out to students and teachers about this opportunity using our publicity handout, and reach out to help "mentor" these teams on basic rocket skills and welcome them to your launches to do their test and qualification flights.  See the event website www.rocketcontest.org for application forms, and see the NAR website's Team America page for more details. 

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Thursday
Sep032009

Freedom Launch 2009

OK Folks... Freedom Launch is our next regularly scheduled event, over Labor Day weekend, Sept. 5th, 6th & 7th. Saturday & Sunday are standard sport rules, Monday is operating under Tripoli EX rules. I've been trying to find the updated EX rules on the Tripoli web site and haven't found them yet, so if someone knows them and can e-mail me i'll add them here. I know that there is a 450lb-plus V-2 that's about 12 feet tall to be launched around Noon on Monday, so if you needed a reason to just hang & watch for at least the morning... there you go! Roy sent out a great e-mail that i'll post on the "read more" link. So, in short, it's a really great time, I believe the waiver is around 12,000 ft., and they can easily handle up to an "M" motor. Ken will be there as a vendor, and he'll be loaded for bear, and I believe Chris Stockhart will also be there as a vendor. Some of you might might remember Chris from NSL last year. Here's a LINK to the SC ICBM site with more info. If you want to volunteer for range duties, 2 hour shift on either RSO or LCO, please drop a line to: William Daugherty at his address, wdaugherty2-at-sc.rr.com and let him know. (note... replace the "-at-" with the usual sign, didn't want the bots to scrape his name on our site) <UPDATE>If you still needed a reason to drive down to Orangeburg for the Freedom Launch, Burl Finkelstein sent me these two photos of what he will be launching Monday: Click on either for a (much) bigger version. </UPDATE> And now, please read Roy's e-mail below:

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Thursday
Aug272009

A cautionary tale...

Just a brief note... the ATF released a report that was related to the fireworks explosion out on the outer banks earlier this year. The cause seems to have been the insertion of an igniter into a shell and a static discharge caused the igniter to fire, exploding the shell and all it's friends in the truck, killing 3 and seriously injuring an fourth. I bring this up because a bunch of us are going to be at a large launch in the next little bit and there is a really good reason why igniters should be shorted together until insertion at the pad with the rocket pointing safely up. Let's all be safe out there folks...

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Tuesday
Aug112009

4H at the Schiele

On Aug. 7th, 2009 Bob, Ralph and Doc helped a bunch of kids launch some tiny paper rockets. Pictures here

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Monday
Aug102009

Scratch Building Vintage Rockets via Make

This turned up on the Makezine blog.Check it out.

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Saturday
Aug082009

August shuffled

Well, due to the crop situation and no alternate field in sight, we're going to shuffle our August launch date to September at Orangeburg. Freedom Launch 2009 will be held Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Sep 5, 6, & 7 at the Super Sod farm in Orangeburg, SC. It's about 2&1/2 to 3 hours away (shorter if you burn a few engines along the way) and is where we had the 2008 NAR NSL. It's a great field and well worth the drive. Saturday and Sunday will be standard sport days, under Tripoli rules, and Monday will be a research day. An incentive to stick around for Monday, at least for the early part, is between 11:00 and Noon on Monday is V-2 time, ending with Burl's 400-plus pound V-2 behemoth flying on (2) M2400's and an experimental "O" motor, predicted 4000' altitude. The story from the ICBM's website is after the "Read More" link.

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