March 2006 Launch Report

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. The Post-Launch Report for 18-19 March 2006. Well, I�ve about caught up. I just don�t seem to have as much free time as I used too. But give me a rain day to spend home and no other distractions, and I can get a lot of things done. 1st point. I know a lot of you have �Spam� blockers now. And they work pretty good. Those of you who are about to get it installed, and those with it, (who will not see this) need to have my e-address listed to be passed through, or your messages, rocket launch announcements and post-launch reports will be intercepted and kicked back to us as �Non-Deliverable, Spam Blocked�. Some members are going to think that I�m deliberately not sending them any more reports and updates not realizing that the blocker is kicking them back.

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More weather updates for the weekend

Club Secretary here with some good weather news. It looks like the Rocket Weather Gods are going to smile down upon us this weekend. Saturday is projected to be mostly clear and sunny, 45 in the morning with a projected high of 69 degrees. As most of you know, it will be, or seem warmer out at the farm as the open fields act like a solar collector. Over night temps will be in the mid 40's with a Sunday wake-up of about 45 degrees again and a high of about 65 degrees. Only a slight chance of any rain late Sunday, so we should have the whole day to fly before we have to take down the flight equipment before dark. So, if your camping over, pack and be pre-paired for the cool night. Plan ahead and use common sense in that you are camping and walking around on a farm field. If your going to cook on site, bring a proper container for your fire. Portable and single use grills are a good choice, or like me, be sure you have a good portable fire pit. That way we can sit around the camp telling the story about "The Headless Rocketeer". OK, I hope to see everyone out on the farm this weekend and if everyone helps out, everyone will have a good time. Roy.

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LAUNCH UPDATE

Everyone: As of Wednesday evening, weather forecasters are predicting a chance of showers, Saturday afternoon, evening and all day Sunday with a chance of a Thunder shower Sunday afternoon. The percentages are varying all over the place. Based on the current forecast I feel Saturday may be the best day for flying. Sunday will have to be a Saturday night decision, mainly due to the runway conditions if we get a lot of rain. At this point I don't want to cancel any activities for the weekend, just make you aware of the situation. I have not spoken to Ken Allen from Performance Hobbies yet regarding the latest conditions. Note: You need to PRE-ORDER... especially High Power motors. Also if you call him with orders that will help him decide if he wants to drive down regardless of conditions, please contact him ASAP. www.performancehobbies.com One note on the history of Williams farm, the lay of the land in the area just south of Midland is that whenever there are showers around the Charlotte area, they somehow skip over the farm. A lot of times when it has been raining in Charlotte, we stayed dry on the farm. Will this be one of those times, who knows? I would suggest you contact my cell, 704-560-0147 for the latest conditions at the field. Those planning to camp, prepare for the rain as well. My take is that if we get a lot of showers, I will pass on the camping. Just using a little common since here. Thanks, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez PS : If we get only one day in this weekend, we will go around for one more day next weekend, May 6th or 7th. Note: Ken cannot come back that weekend due to launches in Maryland.

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The Fastest Man Alive

Scott Crossfield, at one time the "Fastest Man Alive", passed away while doing what he loved, flying. He was at one time a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, and flew a wide variety of aircraft, including the X-15. Read more about this amazing man here: http://www.edwards.af.mil/history/docs_html/people/pilot_crossfield.html Here's the news from Space.com: http://www.space.com/news/cs_060420_crossfield_obit.html

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February 2006 Launch Report, Part 2

Welcome to the Make-up weekend February post-launch report Pt II. As stated in February�s Post-Launch Report, Part I, we did indeed have a rocket launch in February. In fact we ended up having 3.

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February 2006 Launch Report, Part 1

Welcome. As a lot of you might remember, we did indeed have a rocket launch in February. In fact we ended up having 3. Because as you might also remember, the weather was really kind of on the nasty, wet and on the cold side for our regularly scheduled 3rd weekend launch. So Ralph, doing what good club presidents do, worked out a make-up launch for the following weekend. Cool, huh?

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April's Spring Camp-Out Rocket Launch

Everyone: Ralph Roberts here, ROCC Club President and hard worker; The April Spring "Camp-Out Launch" is a go at Williams Farm for April 29th and 30th. we are moving the launch to the 5th weekend of the month. The launch is moved back due to the Easter holiday and the chance to get Ken Allen down to one last launch before he is committed to launch's up north and we may or may not have a launch field depending on the crop situation. So do your shopping this weekend. Every year we have a campout in the Spring, it gives us extra flying time and a chance to get together Saturday night for good food and conversations. This year we are going to have it at the April launch, mainly due to the fact that if we wait till May, as the corn begins to grow it will be harder for folks to retrieve the smaller rockets. In the past folks have brought telescopes to view the stars, it gets a little dark out there with very few outside lights to compete for the star light. (Roy will be looking for UFO"s). I will take my grill to the launch, and people may borrow to grill, a lot of folks will bring there own as well. (Roy will have his fire pit, everyone is encouraged to bring your charcoal or wood with you) I will post further details about the campout as we get closer to the weekend.

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April Launch moved to 29th and 30th

The latest word from Ralph is the launch will be the fifth weekend of the month. See you then.

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New Server in Place

One week, one motherboard and two head colds later, the new server is up. If we hadn't both got stuffy heads, it would have been here Wednesday. Thanks for bearing with us. Jean

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Contest Results

Results of Contests * C Eggloft Duration * Bob Bernatchez 64 Sec * Ralph Roberts 40 sec * Doc Russell 32 sec * Steve Bumgardner 22 sec * 1/2A Boost Glider * Bob Bernatchez 59 sec (2 flights) * Steve Bumgardner 37 sec (1 flight) * 1/2A Parachute Duration * Bob Bernatchez 128 sec (2 flights) * Brad Shea 11 sec (2 flights) * Roy Potter DQ (2 flights) * Steve Baumgartner DQ (1 flight) * Total NAR Contest points awarded * Bob Bernatchez 400 * Steve Baumgartner 166 * Doc Russell 96 * Brad Shea 42 * Roy Potter 0 _________________________ * ROCC 704 Congrats to all those who participated. Contest prizes will be awarded at the next launch.

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