Friday, January 28, 2005 at 5:05PM NAR CONTEST The next ROCC section meet will be held in conjunction with our next monthly launch on Feb 19 & 20, 2005. The events are; C Eggloft Duration, 1/2 A Boost Glider Duration, 1/2 A Parachute Duration.
News Wednesday, January 26, 2005 at 10:15AM If you got a whole bunch of emails from me today, I apologize. I've changed the code that runs the way the site send emails, and the testing was a bit more public than I had hoped.
News Tuesday, January 11, 2005 at 4:06PM The January Launch is GO for this weekend Jan 15th and 16th!
News Thursday, January 6, 2005 at 3:31AM Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you exhaust sniffing rocket nerds. I myself had a great two week holiday season. Lots of neat stuff and gift certificates to Hobby Town USA. I hope everyone did as well and had a great time also. And the December launch was pretty darned good overall too!!!! Saturday, 18 Dec at the Williams farm. The weather was almost �T� shirt warm and almost no winds. Light breezes at the most. There were continuous giveaway drawings for rocket kits for adults and kids all day, so there should be some new rockets in the air next month. Hey it was Christmas and everyone was enjoying the last flight of the year. Kip Williams was out there with the hands working the fields and he is getting along much better. He gets around with a cane for now, but will continue to recover. Click the button to read more...
News Tuesday, January 4, 2005 at 7:00AM Two weeks ago Carla Linker (Bill's wife) pointed out that she couldn't add pictures. Turns out the Gallery software was a bit too secure. I've created an Album named Winter2005 which will allow any logged in user to create their own sub albums and upload pictures. Logged in users can comment on pictures in any album. Read on for the basic steps.
News Tuesday, December 28, 2004 at 4:33PM Joint Statement on BATF Litigation - December 22, 2004 This message will outline the results of the December 17, 2004 hearing in U. S. District Court in Washington, DC, before Judge Reggie Walton and next steps in our legal effort to remove unnecessary and illegal regulation of the sport rocketry hobby. NAR and TRA won both pending motions before the court. Winning these motions are important for us because we can now move forward on two key items. Granting the first motion means we can now legally challenge the illegally promulgated "Questions and Answers Hobby Rocket Motors" document at the ATF Explosives website within the current litigation. Granting the second motion for final judgment under Rule 54(b) means we can proceed with an appeal of Count 1 of the lawsuit. Count 1 argued that APCP does not function by explosion and is therefore not subject to BATFE regulation. A ruling from an appellate court on our appeal will determine a key point -- whether the ATF even has jurisdiction to regulate the hobby at all. We intend to file an appeal immediately after the judge releases his written order granting our motion. The next scheduled event will be another status hearing, January 28, 2005. BATFE has until that time to respond to our amended complaint. Upon reviewing that filing, counsel will have an opportunity to respond, most likely with a motion for summary judgment to attempt to get the court to set aside the "Questions and Answers" document. Members may obtain a copy of Judge Walton's orders from our websites; we expect to have those documents available in the next few days. We need your continued strong financial support for the legal work necessary around these two wins. The appeal preparation and filing will cost a minimum of $25,000. We estimate the total costs of remaining legal work on both the litigation and appeal will take approximately $100,000 over the next two years. Please donate today in whatever amount you possibly can. And thanks for your assistance to date. Also, we again strongly recommend that members in the field report in detail any actions taking by ATF personnel in the field, particularly if they use the ATF's "Questions and Answers" as the basis for their action. Forward to either of us the dates, times, names and offices involved, along with a complete description of your experience. Be factual and complete in your message. If we need additional information, we'll contact members individually. Secondly, we again urge members to consider donating to the Legal Fund. Please make a donation to the Legal Defense Fund today, in whatever amount you possibly can contribute. Your support and generosity will be recognized and acknowledged, and you'll be able to say "I supported the fight for an unregulated sport rocket hobby." You can make donations securely online at: https://secure.consumersinterest.com/nar/NARfrompres9911.html#donorform As we have further developments, we'll continue to report them here and in our publications. Mark Bundick, President National Association of Rocketry Ken Good, President Tripoli Rocketry Association
News Saturday, December 25, 2004 at 12:08PM Happy Holidays!!! Here's one Jean ran across on her travels to Slash-Dot... a DIY versoin of the Apollo flight computer: http://klabs.org/history/build_agc/ If ya happen to have some spare time, or just want a laugh, follow the link. Be warned that things that appear on slashdot tend to get slammed for a few days, so if the link returns a 404, try in a little while... their server just can't keep up! Doc R
News Sunday, December 19, 2004 at 5:05AM Everyone: A strong artic front is to pass by us this AM, winds will increase throughout the day growing steadily out of the NW all day with no chance of dying down toward Sunset like they normally do. I would recommend coming out early, the range will open at 11:00am. If the winds blow above 15-20 MPH sustained we will close the range. Please contact me on my cell phone at 704-560-0147 for range weather updates. You can also call my home phone for launch updates, I will have an answering machine message or you can ask Linda. Thanks, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez PS, Yesterday was perfect, clear skies no winds, Awesome! Lots of beautiful flights! If you missed it, kick yourself.
News Thursday, December 16, 2004 at 5:04PM Yessss... It is going to be a bit cold Saturday and Sunday morning. I received a few questions on dealing with the cold out at the launch site. For those of you who have been out on the launch field in winters past, we know that the best system is to dress in layers. If the sun is out at all, we have seen how the farm fields can act like a solar collector and the air temperature can be 5 or more degrees warmer than the projected high. So if its warmer than you thought, you can shed or don clothing layers as needed. As of now, it is to be sunny, with a morning start in the low 30's moving up to the 50's. So dress accordingly, use common sense and have a lot of fun. (its rumored that flight performance is increased in dry cold conditions) And to clarify "Donations" vs "Membership fees". The "Donations" jar on the sign-in table is for the flyers flight fee, which is given to the property owners as a gratuity in appreciation for the use of their property. The present target amount requested by the property owner is $250 for the weekend. Club memberships, $5 for juniors, $10 for adults, $15 for a family or $20 with a ROCC "T" shirt included, goes into the club treasury to cover the costs of maintaining the club equipment, supplies, engine storage, Insurance and fees with both the Tripoli Rocket Association and the National Association of Rocketry. Hope that everybody is able to come out and have a good time. See you on the launch pad. Roy
News Wednesday, December 15, 2004 at 6:53AM The December 18 th and 19 th, Launch is a go for the Farm. I spoke to Mrs. Williams tonight and she says we are GO! Kip was out and about, I take that as good news. The house/bathroom will not be open and they will probably have the water off anyway due to the cold. I will proceed with trying to fiNd a source for a port-a-potty for next year. *Larry Barker had a source for one last spring I will follow up with him. I polled some of our avid volunteers and they agreed that we should start the launch at 11:00AM to extend the day. So we will be running the launch from 11:00AM to 5:00PM each day.
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