April 23 & 24 2022 Launch Report

Well... what do they say, life gets in the way of living? I had totally missed that I didn't see an April launch report in all the run-up to NSL, then my life got hectic, Roy's life got really hectic, and now here it is the start of August and I'm finally getting this put to rights. Please forgive us both! Hit that "Read More" link to get the dish. dr

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ROCC'ers 5/14-15 weekend update:

It looks like trying to work around the on and off thunderstorms this weekend is not going to work very well. There's rain Friday night over through Saturday morning, then more rain slated for overnight Saturday. Sunday is fairly clear but then rain comes back towards the end of the day again.

Best we can try to do I think is to prep for NSL in SC or go on up to Hendersonville for the Saturn club's launch on the 28th.

Sorry it's not going to work, it looked like a good shot and then got all cloudy!

As far as NSL, I'm going down for Saturday right now.

TB/dr

Possible Midland launch either May 14 or 15.

Hey ROCC'ers... there were several conversations and inquiries about trying to have a Midland launch before the NSL launch in SC over Memorial Day Weekend.

Originally I hadn't intended on one, hoping to drive more folks to the south for the NSL, but since the 2 west fields (the ones farthest in to the property) aren't planted yet we have the option of having a smaller launch if we're careful.

It obviously isn't the entire site, so we'd need to be conservative on engine size and altitude, but if we can pull it off we may be able to get in one last day of flying in Midland this season.

Looking at the long range weather isn't promising right now, with rain predicted for Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

Please keep an eye on the site later this week to see if we can launch this weekend. Once the weather forecast is a bit more certain we'll make the call.

TB/dr

Important TRA Safety Codes announcement:

This came from Triploi today...

Important Safety Code Announcement from TRA President Bob Brown

One of the questions both members new to Tripoli Rocketry Association as well as long-time members ask is “Where do I go to find out what is and isn’t allowed at a Tripoli launch?”  For a Commercial Motor launch, the answer was three documents, the High Power Safety Code and the Safe Launch Practices document, which are available on the Tripoli website, as well as NFPA 1127, which was only available on the NFPA’s website (we were not allowed to publish NFPA 1127 as the NFPA copyrights it, and they would prefer to sell you a copy to fund their operations even though it was rocketry folks that helped them write it!).  If you were attending a Research Motor launch, in addition to the three documents above, you had to include the Research Safety Code from Tripoli’s website.

 

It always frustrated me that there was one single document that a flyer could reference to understand our safety code.  To this end, the Tripoli Board of Directors is pleased to announce the publication and adoption of our new Tripoli Rocketry Association Safety Code which is available on the Tripoli website.  This safety code will become effective on May 1, 2022. 

Under this safety code, there are no longer Commercial launches or Research launches, just Tripoli launches.  There are some changes to the current safety code, such as a common safe distance table, a safety code for both model rockets as well as radio-controlled boosted gliders as well as other changes.  Please take the time to read this document in its entirety.  While your first reaction will probably be there seem to be a lot more rules under this new document, in fact, almost nothing more restrictive has been adopted it’s just compiled into one document now.

Finally, as an organization, we owe a huge thank you to Steve Shannon, who undertook the daunting task of compiling the information from the original four documents and writing (in plain English, not legalese) a document we can all understand and follow.

View the New Unified Safety Code

NAR National Sport Launch update:

Hey folks, just wanted to post an update about the upcoming NAR NSL in South Carolina over Memorial Day Weekend.

Bobby Weatherford is working to coordinate things down there for it, his email address is: bcweatherford (at) gmail (dot) com.

Basically we've chatted over messaging and he says that they don't need equipment, just volunteers to do stuff.

Personally I'm going to head down Friday for set-up and then be there Saturday for whatever I can help with.

I found out while booking my ticket for Satuturday that while you're checking out NAR gives you options to volunteer for specific slots and jobs. The codes for these are listed on the SC website and designate the job, day and time slots, each 2 hours long. It may be that by the time the early registration closes on May 18th all the slots are filled, but there might still be changes on the day fo, so if you see Bobby or Chuck Haslip you might want to ask if there's anything that's still haning fire.

The NAR info page is here: https://www.nar.org/events/national-sport-launch-2022/

and ROSCO's page is here:

https://www.rocketrysouthcarolina.org/pages/nsl2022/

Remember, Pay It Forward as you can.

TB/dr

Update for April 23rd & 24th

Things are looking good for the weekend, weather is supposed to be in the low 80's (in April!) with 5-10 mph winds from the south heading toward the North tree line and Simpson property.

Ken should be with us for both days so bring your shopping lists.

Range opens at about 10:30 once we get set up. We'll fly till about 5 PM.

Sunday there's supposed to be a group of folks coming from University of Georgia to get their L1's so welcome them please.

We will probably want to restrict sparky motors unless the runway has really greened up since last month. We've had some close calls in the last few months and with crops coming up we really need to be careful.

Speaking of crops the Oats are heading out in the south field so if you come down in there please, straight in and straight out. No rummaging about trying to find it. We want to be careful with the crops.

See you on Saturday!

TB/dr

April Date Change

DATE CHANGE for APRIL LAUNCH

Hi all... since our regular 3rd weekend is both Easter & Passover (I think that covers almost everyone except the Pastafarians) we've decided to move back a week to the 23rd & 24th of April.

As it happens it'll also give Ken another week to recover from an illness (NOT Covid!!) that he could really use.

So we are NOT flying in Midland the 16th/17th, we ARE flying in Midland on the 23rd/24th.

TB/dr

March 20th launch report

Our abbreviated March launch was cut in half from all the winds on Saturday, but we managed to get Sunday launching in. Roy collected all the launch cards and deciphered all our chicken scratches and came up with his launch report. You know what to do, click the "read more" link to get all the 411.

Click to read more ...

6 PM UPDATE for 3/20/2022

6 PM Update for ROCC for 3/20

We will NOT be flying at Midland Saturday.

I heard back from Ken a little while ago, he is going to SC for ROSCO tomorrow. They have enough space that they can fly in the winds that are predicted. We don't have that kind of space with the wind direction and strength.

Ken will be with us in Midland on Sunday, so figure on flying with us on Sunday. Winds are supposed to be much less and in a more favorable direction.

See you all on Sunday!

9:30 am Update on 3/19 & 3/20 weather:

I really wanted to post this last night but we were trying to find a better outcome. The outlook is not looking good for Saturday. Rain overnight, albeit not a lot predicted, but the winds forecast for Saturday really bites. Winds kick up to 15-25 mph basically from 11 in the morning right through to 8 PM. And, they're heading right across the field to the north tree line.

I'm still holding out hope for Sunday however. Winds top out at about 12 and they've swapped direction to more down the runway. Ralph is checking in with Kip to see what he thinks as well.

 Please stay tuned later today and tonight for updates for Sunday but I really think Saturday is out as a flying day.