May Launch ops

May 8th UPDATE AS OF FRIDAY @ 10:00 PM Current Wunderground winds forecast is still for winds from the SSW to W (210 degrees EARLY shifting to 270 degrees) favoring the un-barley'ed side of the field untill about 4 - 5 PM, then shifting from the northwest between 5 and 8 PM. The plan is to set up at 9:00, with flight ops starting at 9:30 or 10:00. We can fly till either 7:00 or until the wind kills us with the barley crop, whichever comes first. The earlier you fly the better your chances it looks like. Ken WILL be on site so BUY STUFF!

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April 2010 Launch Report

Welcome all Rocket Dudes and Dudettes. I want to again thank those who are providing us with photos of our launches. If you have any and would like to get them posted on the web site for our embarrassment and your entertainment contact Doc Russell at docr@wireknot.com or jeanr@wireknot.com. Or as some have done, pass it on a disk or flash drive. We can always get it back to you. Saturday�s weather, temperature wise, was great with clear skies, but it came at the cost of being pretty breezy with occasional gusts pushing the last weather front out. It settled down some in the afternoon like it usually does, but not as much as we were hoping for.

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Outreach events

Our prez Brad will be attending a den meeting on 4/22 to help some scouts learn about rockets and also help them build some. Later they will be launching (date yet to be determined). If anyone wants to join in this will be in the University area around 6pm. Then, on the 27th, A small group of scouts in Indian Trail / Monroe has asked for help doing a small launch near Radiator Specialty. They want a quick show and tell and then 7 scouts need to launch. (From Brad...) "I'm trying to determine if this is worth breaking out the launch controller for - I think one set of PVC or saw horse pads and a single launcher might be a better fit. Any thoughts welcome as well as anyone able to help." 6pm or so - details will be shared if anyone is interested. Contact Brad on both of these.

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April 17th and 18th

Looking forward to the April launch everybody? UPDATE - SATURDAY MORNING Note: The field to the left of the runway/parking area is planted in Barley and at this point it is growing up fast, smaller rockets may be hard to find in the Barley. With the wind blowing rockets into that area this weekend please be aware. Bring streamer material to add to our recovery. It will help. With Wind Gust Saturday, as the front passes through, to 20-25 miles per hour and low humidity we are at risk for Fire Danger. We may need to limit Sparky motors and only fly rockets with know flight profiles. Everyone please fly wisely. CAMPOUT this month!!! No fires on the ground but bring your firepits or BBQ's, your vittles and your telescopes. If you remember we're going to be running the H egg loft contest during April, as well as our continuing run of the golf ball loft. The H egg loft rules are spelled out on the NAR website here . I'd like to restrict the hours for the H egg loft to between 1:00 and 5:00 pm if possible. I know that if I have to be there to run the show I'm good for that amount of time both days. I will bring stopwatches as well as my gram scale, so that we can weigh the eggs before flight, and I will bring a carton of 18 grade-A large eggs. I will say that at least 10 of those are spoken for between Wayne, Sandy and I, so if you want to be sure I have eggs for you then please let me know at rocketrycarolina@gmail.com. If you want to bring your own grade-A larges that's OK as well (hence the scale!). The golf ball loft is our just-for-fun contest to see who can get the longest duration flight on a B engine. There's a nice prize from Paul Phillips' carbon fiber glider company up for grabs at the end of it. Right now, unless there's a result I don't know about, I have the lead at 1 minute and Roy Potter's right behind me with :58 seconds. Stewart Samuel had a great riff on it by doing a NERF football loft in March. It gave me a great laugh! Remember, Ken will not be with us (he's at Red Glare) so I hope you shopped for supplies over the last few months. If not, you can contact him directly at the Performance Hobbies website but do it soon so he can ship it. Next to the last thing... We're on You Tube! I got 1 of Sandy's videos up on Friday. I'm playing with the bit rates and such to try and get the best balance of speed and resolution. Our "channel" is located here. If you search youtube.com for rocketrycarolina, without the space, you should find it as well. There's also a video up there from someone who came out to visit us and had a lot of fun. As always, thanks for all who make this a great club. Please step up and volunteer your time in some way, either as set-up/tear down, RSO/LCO, or some of the many outreach opportunities there are out there. The old saying is still good, "Many hands make light work". Remember also to sign up with Rocketry Planet to participate in the ROCC blog. Thanks, Doc Russell, ROCC VP

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March Launch Report

Welcome to all Rocket Junkies and Nerds. Our March Launch this last 20 � 21 March was pretty good overall. Saturday was T-shirt, shorts and tennis shoe weather. It started warm in the morning and ended up in the mid 70�s by the afternoon. Winds started real mild early in the morning then picked up with some strong gusts through the rest of the day. We did have a lot of good launch�s including 4 �I�s� and 2 �J� flights. Sunday we had Scout Pack 163 come out for a Pack launch, up until the rains drove us out at about 3:30. Continued thanks to those who are providing us with photos of our launches. If you have any and would like to get them posted on the web site for our embarrassment and your entertainment contact Doc Russell at docr@wireknot.com or jeanr@wireknot.com. Or as some have done, pass it on a disk or flash drive. We can always get it back to you. Not confirmed, but how about a �Camp-out� launch weekend next month? Sat, 20 March we had 44 listed fliers that put up 101 flights with an average of 2.3 flights ea. Counting multi stagers and clusters we had burned 111 engines. A= 4. B= 21. C= 14. D= 9. E= 16. F= 5. G= 26. H= 8. I= 4. J=2. Wanting to insure the safety of both the spectators and fliers alike, we upgraded our Range Safety standards by making specific assignments of a RSO, Range Safety Officer to pre-inspect rockets before flights and the LCO, Launch Control Officer to check range conditions and control the launch�s in a timely and efficient manner. Check both the WEB site and at the launch for info on volunteering for LOC and RSO shifts. It�s great for anybody who isn�t flying that day but wants to take part anyway. For the Play-By-Play, click the "Read More" link...

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Joint Statement on the BATFE Litigation Legal Fee Recovery Motion

March 27, 2010 On Friday March 26, Judge Reggie Walton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on the TRA/NAR motion for recovery of the legal fees we incurred in our successful nine-year case against BATFE regulation of APCP. The judge rejected the government's argument that we were not entitled to any reimbursement for our attorneys fees. However, he ruled that we will only be reimbursed based on the artificially low hourly legal rates established for use in federal court cases, and only for legal work performed after the Court of Appeals remanded the case back to Judge Walton in 2006, including legal work on the fee recovery motion itself. The amount will likely be less than half of the $196K that we had requested (the amount we requested if the court would not grant recovery at an enhanced fee rate), but will still be substantial. The exact amount corresponding to the judge's decision has not yet been calculated. This re-calculation will need to be re-submitted to the judge by April 16, and for payment at some date yet to be established after an April 30 BATFE response to our submission. Ken Good President Tripoli Rocketry Association Trip Barber President National Association of Rocketry

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WOW, What a weekend

Man, what a great launch weekend. It started out a bit rough for me personally but thanks to Roy, Ralph and a bunch of others the weekend got off to a great start. Lots of flights on Saturday with some of the best temperatures we've seen so far. It was a bit windy, and several flights ended up on the north adjacent properties, but I didn't hear of anyone getting into real trouble with any of the landowners so it all worked out well. There were some brilliant flights, and Charlie Ogino had his monster rocket on display in the parking area. I've got a photo from Sunday. Click the read more tag to see it (Remember, there's a 10' booster section yet to be built!) I started to run out of steam about about 4 and apparently I missed the flight of the day. Our own Dr. Doug decided to fly a J motor as the winds were settling down. It took off and got several hundred feet up when the forward closure failed, popped the nose off and then it miraculously got stable again, but horizontal and headed due north under full power. It impacted into the woods with a resounding THUD. Ouch!!! I heard from Brad on Saturday night and he was having a great time in San Fran, but wished he was burnin' some AP with us! Really big news, the ROCC membership overall has stepped up and donated $500.00 to the Mitchel USLI team and the team is well on their way to making their ultimate goal. They still need to raise more to go to Huntsville, so if you know of a corporate sponsor or some organization with some money and a desire to foster science education, then get in touch! Go Team!! Sunday dawned cloudy but hopeful, and we had a reasonable turnout. It really heated up once troop 163 (I think that's right) got there and had some great demo flights, then we flew their rockets. They had about a dozen and a half rockets and everyone had a great time. Rain hit us about 3:30 and closed down the field a bit early, but we all pitched in and got it done, a bit damp but safely. Hats off to all, and we'll wait for Roy's official wrap-up soon. Doc Russell ROCC VP

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March ROCC Launch - Sunday Morning Update

Well our biggest issue today will be weather. Official forecast 50% chance of showers with winds 5-10 from the South Southeast. Note: Ken Allen is here this weekend and will not be here next month (April) so come out and see him today if you need stuff for next month. The Sunday Morning forecast is trending that we may have some showers in the afternoon. A small band of rain is in southern Georgia getting ready to move into SC. We may have a few showers in the afternoon that we may be able to work around, however, if we get a band of rain that could possibly soak the equipment we may call the launch early. Now all that said the area where we launch from tends to stay drier than the surrounding areas so our rain may hold off longer than Charlotte's. Our suggestion is get there as early as possible. We will be set up by 11:00AM. We have a 1:00 PM Scout group with about 6-10 kids so any help with this would be appreciated Thanks, Ralph - Tripoli Charlotte Prefect We will try to post updates throughout the day as we have them, otherwise call Ralph on his cell 704-560-0147 for on field updates. PS Yesterday was great, a lot of great flights, good food, great weather, lots of flyers!!!!

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March ROCC Launch - Sunday Morning Update

Well our biggest issue today will be weather. Official forecast 50% chance of showers with winds 5-10 from the South Southeast. Note: Ken Allen is here this weekend and will not be here next month (April) so come out and see him today if you need stuff for next month. The Sunday Morning forecast is trending that we may have some showers in the afternoon. A small band of rain is in southern Georgia getting ready to move into SC. We may have a few showers in the afternoon that we may be able to work around, however, if we get a band of rain that could possibly soak the equipment we may call the launch early. Now all that said the area where we launch from tends to stay drier than the surrounding areas so our rain may hold off longer than Charlotte's. Our suggestion is get there as early as possible. We will be set up by 11:00AM. We have a 1:00 PM Scout group with about 6-10 kids so any help with this would be appreciated Thanks, Ralph - Tripoli Charlotte Prefect PS Yesterday was great, a lot of great flights, good food, great weather, lots of flyers!!!!

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March ROCC Launch - Sunday Morning Update

Well our biggest issue today will be weather. Official Forecast 50% chance of showers with winds 5-10 from the South Southeast. The Sunday Morning forecast is trending that we may have some showers in the afternoon. A small band of rain is in southern Georgia getting ready to move into SC. We may have a few showers in the afternoon that we may be able to work around, however, if we get a band of rain that could possibly soak the equipment we may call the launch early. Now all that said the area where we launch from tends to stay drier than the surrounding areas so our rain may hold off longer than Charlotte's. Our suggestion is get there as early as possible. We will be set up by 11:00AM. We have a 1:00 PM Scout group with about 6-10 kids so any help with this would be appreciated Thanks, Ralph - Tripoli Charlotte Prefect

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