Landowner invite to look at 1300 acre field (not farmed) DUDE

Dudes: This is a dream come true!!!! Mark Wilson, a landowner of a huge field down near the South Carolina border off HWY 522 (the field lies between Plyler Mill Rd and Gus Eubanks Rd) called me out of the blue today to invite the club officers down for a look-see at his field to see if we would want to use it. Steve Haring, the Hobbytown USA, Monroe owner, gave him my contact information and he called. Now, after hearing is story he is looking to lease the land out for monetary gain, this won't be a freebee but who cares if the field works. They originally set up the field for steeplechase events in the mid 90s and it has power and water and camper hook-ups. It has a lot of potential. I would have posted sooner but Linda has been extremely ill today with the bout with the high fever again. Anyway, if everyone (current club officers and Orangeburg regulars) could free up some time next Saturday or Sunday to go take a look, he is awaiting us to call back to get this scheduled. If nothing else we could use this as a summer field or as a possible venue for NAR Sport Launch or dare I say an LDRS or other regional TRA event. We need to get a GPS reading on the field to check distance to the Charlotte and Monroe airports, as that will be the trick to get a descent waiver. Please let me know when you all are free and lets set it up ASAP. Thanks, Ralph "Can you believe this" Roberts

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Makeup launch on Sunday 1/25/09 - Updated

Makeup launch - 1/25 SUNDAY:

Due to the ever changing wind and weather forecasts we have changed our minds and are moving the makeup launch date to Sunday rather than Saturday. This avoids the rain and more importantly it sidesteps the predicted winds on Saturday. Ralph once again has given me the benefit of his wisdom and experience and concurs with my decision.

Standard Winter Hours: Setup at 10am and flying at 11am or sooner as setup permits.

Waiver: Doug was calling in the waiver for Sunday this afternoon.

Vendor: Ken Allen indicated he might be able to make it on Sunday.

Sincerely, Brad Shea
ROCC President
roccprez@rocketrycarolina.org

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Launch Report January 17 2009

So, how is everybody doing after the ROCC January �ARCTIC BLAST� launch? We had our regular Jan weekend launch last weekend on Saturday the 17th. It was suggested that we name it the �Arctic Blast Launch�, which seems to fit the circumstances for the launch. The morning temperature started at 14 degrees, 8 degrees higher than the 6 degrees forecasted the evening before and then seemed warmer than the 33 degrees forecasted for the days high.

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Update for Sunday, 18th January

Due to the weather concerns for Sunday, we're calling the launch for the 18th. It's predicted to be rainy &/or snowy by 1:00 PM, which would mean we might be able to get in an hour or 2 of flight time. Not enough to make the set-up time worth it. SO... We're looking at a make-up day on Saturday, the 24th. Keep an eye to this site or to the Rocketry Planet ROCC site by mid-week when we see what the weather is going to be... Thanks, and a great big THANK YOU to all who came out today and participated. It was a really nice, albeit cold, day of rocketry out there!

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January Launch Info UPDATE, UPDATE

OK, if you've read the posts up till now you'll know that Brad, Doug, Ralph and several others have been worrying about all of us freezing our tucasses off out there this Saturday... so the latest is we will start SET-UP on Saturday at 11:00 AM, with launching to commence about NOON. Read the next story or the long thread on ROCC's Our Planet site to get all the gory details, but that's the latest! Thanks for all of your patience! See you at the farm!

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UPDATED January 2009 launch announcement

WIND I feel like a yo yo... Now the wind forecast is back down to the 1-5mph range. The best I can say at the moment is hold on and keep watching the websites. If the main website says we are go check the Our Planet as well. I'm crossing my fingers - the weather predictions have changed so much so often I just don't think they know enough yet to predict things. January's launch is scheduled for 1/17 and 1/18. Saturday 1 hour Delay Due to cold weather predicted for Saturday morning we are delaying our normal start by one hour. This means setup at 10am and launching at 11am. Typically we don't need a full hour for setup but we would like to get a fire going and have a place for people to warm up so we'll need a bit of extra time. RUNWAY ETIQUETTE Here is the deal. Kip gave Ralph another reminder in December that we all need to make sure we travel up and down the runway on one side or the other to keep from making tracks. NO DRIVING DOWN THE MIDDLE!!! We only have the one field and we do not want to lose it because of people failing to pay attention to this rule. We will to place signs out at the start of the runway to remind folks - but if you see someone not paying attention please gently let them know the reasons and try to get them to stop doing it. WAIVER SECURED Doug Knight was able to get our waiver situation resolved and we have our normal waiver in place for the launch. CONTEST Heavy Tube rockets should be ready for action. The contest details are located in the discussion thread on Rocketry Planet. The short version is that you got two tubes from Sandy Houston. Using those tubes and 2 sheets of material you had to build a scratch rocket that could fly on a G motor. Three people not competing will be asked to judge the rockets on Appearance (How cool does it look sitting still), Flight (What's it look like in flight), and Creative Use of Materials (See Materials List in the Contest Rules). No one ever took me up on prizes - so bragging rights are all that I know we're competing for so far. Club Meeting I'd like to hold a short meeting on Sat to discuss our club business. Officers please let me know if you cannot attend and make arrangements to meet with me later. I expect this to take not more than 10 mins. Setup / Tear Down Crew I would like to know who can help with Setup and Tear down prior to the launch. If you are going to be able to help please drop me a note here. I will be setting up a club specific email address soon. Official ROCC Election Results It was a brutal knock down drag out election season, but the results are finally in after several recounts... Actually everyone ran unopposed and the results were unanimous. Those who are new to their positions have an (*) by their name. President: Brad Shea* Vice President: Doc Russell* Club Secretary & Treasurer: Roy Potter w/ Louise Ferrell assisting. TRA Prefect: Ralph Roberts TRA Secretary: Doug Knight Vendor(s) Performance Hobbies I have heard from Ken Allen and he will be attending ONLY on Saturday, the 17th. So get your shopping lists ready and buy him out on Saturday. Tripoli Prefect availability for Cert. flights Ralph plans on being at the field between 3:00PM and 5:00PM Saturday and Sunday, for cert flights. If no one wants to cert on Sunday I may limit my time at the launch further. I'll advice changes here by Friday. If weather conditions change I may can adjust my schedule. However, I need to limit my time due to recovering from this virus. Ralph's Hot Chocolate and Cookies Ralph and Amanda will try to have their camp stove for hot chocolate and hopefully more Homemade Chocolate Chip cookies. However, due to a bout with a virus this may change. Sincerely, Brad Shea ROCC President

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December 2008 Launch Report

Welcome All Ye December Rocketeers. It was the weekend before Christmas and we all huddled together in the Holiday spirit one last time before the current rocket year ends. Saturday, 20 December started out quite good, �T� shirt warm for many, and high altitude clouds and not to breezy. Good over flying conditions, and we had a pretty good flight crew, friends and spectators. We had 31 fliers sign-in on the flight roster and like I said, there were more people on site. At the end of the day, of which I will describe later, we had a total of 85 flights.

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Peace on Earth

just a link to one of the most beautiful and famous images in history, that's all. Happy Holidays to all... Doc & Jean

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November 2008 Launch Report

Welcome All Rocketeers, Before our December pre-Christmas launch, how bout I give a quick overview of last months launch. Nov 22nd, Saturday launch went off pretty well. I seem to remember that the weather was actually pretty good. Cool to cold enough for Ralph�s hot chocolate, and not too windy. We had 34 listed fliers, many competed in the NAR rocket contests. The winners were posted on the web site. I think we had just as many spectators. The 34 of us managed to put up a total of 95 flights. Most were really great, a few, like one of mine, became an excuse to justify building a new rocket.

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No ROCC Launch Sunday December 21st

Everyone: Despite the gloomy outlook for this afternoon�s (Dec 20th) weather we had a great turnout and a lot of great flights before, during, and after the rain. Clean up was really wet and a lot of equipment needs to dry out. Including the grounds around the silo. I got my truck stuck in the mud and special thanks to Brad for helping me out. Here is the deal. The grounds/runway will be too wet, especially if the rain does not end till mid morning, to drive on. Kip gave me another reminder today that we all need to make sure we travel up and down the runway on one side on the other to keep from making tracks. NO DRIVING DOWN THE MIDDLE This other issue is the winds are predicted to be 15-20MPH tomorrow afternoon behind the front. That�s above the safety threshold of 15MPH. There are just too many obstacles to try and overcome and fly so we are scrubbing the launch. See everyone in January. Sincerely, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez and Prefect

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