December Launch Announcement - Dec 20th Only

Everyone: Official launch announcement: Saturday and Sunday December 20th from 11:00 to 5:00 each day - Setup starts at 10:15 Setup will again be down at the old Windsock location. High Power pads even with the Windsock stand. ROCC Sport launch Vendors: Ken Allen from Performance hobbies will be there one possibly both days. I will confirm today Ralph Roberts and Family will bring out the Propane stove again for Hot Chocolate and Amanda will make some cookies, they were a big hit last month. Meetings: We will have a meeting both days promptly at 3:00pm, no slacking off this year. Topics: ROCC Elections, need to make final nominations for club offices. Election to be held at the end of the meeting on Saturday. During the November flier's meeting we took a number of nominations for club positions. A few changes happen since the meeting see below: President: Brad Shea Vice President: Doc Russell (Ralph pulled name to run for Prefect again) Club Secretary: Roy Potter Asst. Club Secretary: Louise Ferrell Treasurer: ????? - Louise please advise TRA Prefect: Ralph Roberts (I will opt back in for Prefect for this year) TRA Secretary: Doug Knight NAR Contest: Make recommendations on what kind and when for 2008-2009 season 2008 Membership drive continuation New T-Shirts are in make sure if we owed you on from last year, that you received. Roy, bring cash box as we owe Mark Ferrel money. NAR Contest Wnners from last month: Events were: Streamer Duration - Winner Roy P "A" Parachute Duration - Winner Bob B "1/2A" Boost Glider - Winner Bob B Spot Landing - Winner Emily S Drag Race - Winner Wayne H Prizes again this year are for a $10.00 giftcard from one of the Vendors and NAR Ribbons. (Bob B don't forget to bring the ribbons) Raffle: We had three winners not present to pick up their prices. I need to get the list of names I know Brad Shea was one of them. Note: Malcohm Smith has offered as a donation to the club a matching check for the total from the raffle. Roy, get me that number ASAP and he will bring us a check. Thanks a million Malcohm. The silent auction will continue this launch for the 29mm hobby mottor and the 38mm hardware set. Please bid as this money goes straight to the club. Duty Roster: I will have new sign-up sheets for the launches through April next year. Sign up to help, please. Porta-Potty: Will be serviced and ready to go. Flyer-Fees: Please come out and fly and pay your fees. Recommended $8-$10 donation a day per flyer. We still have to pay the land owner for the use of the land. Note: Keep an eye on email and the website WWW.rocketrycarolina.org for any changes regarding our launch. Questions, comments - Ralph Roberts @ roccprez@bellsouth.net Sincerely, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez and prefect.

Click to read more ...

ISS sighting ops

There are 2 GREAT opportunities to see the ISS this week, and the best one is on the 18th, Thursday morning at 6:56 AM. Starting from the southwest and moving toward the northeast, passing almost directly over Charlotte and visible for almost 6 minutes. Max elevation is listed at 82 degrees, or almost straight up. The next is on Saturday the 20th at 6:15 AM and visible for almost 5 minutes. This one has a max elevation of 66 degrees and is moving WSW to NE. for a more complete listing, go to the spaceflight.nasa.gov real-time data page and input your location. It'll give you your local sighting ops. Since they've been adding solar panels all over the station over the last few missions it's gotten very bright if you haven't seen it lately. DR

Click to read more ...

End of an era, perhaps time for a new one?

On this date in 1972, December 14th, at about 10:30 PM, where were you? I was watching Harrison Schmitt and Gene Cernan do the last EVA of Apollo 17. The last of the Apollo missions to make the journey, the rest of the hardware scheduled for missions 18, 19 & 20 was used for the Skylab project after the budget for Apollo was gutted. Perhaps now, after 36 years, it is time to return to our closest neighbor in space. Question is, will we be in second place after China?

Click to read more ...

Track The Bag

You all probably know about the various tracking systems that keep an eye on the (literally) thousands of pieces of trash & space junk that orbit our humble planet. Everything from old space ships, hardware, nuts & bolts, wrenches, etc. have all been left up there either on purpose or by accident. Well, there's another one recently left, this time a bag of tools worth somewhere in the neighborhood of 100-grand. Funny thing is, as painful as it might be, like all the rest of this stuff, they have to track where it is. If you're the curious sort, or just want to laugh at our wayward tax dollars whizzing around us, follow this LINK Ya gotta love this stuff! DR

Click to read more ...

What's that Color?

A photographer & modeler friend of mine turned me on to this cool site that cross references real-world paint schemes of various agencies (Army, Navy, Airlines, etc.) to the different model paint manufacturers that are out there for those looking for that authentic paint scheme... it's here. DR

Click to read more ...

Key found after launch

A single SCHLAGE key on a Red Guitar pick looking keychain was found at the ROCC Rocket Launch this past weekend in Midland, NC . Ralph has it at his house, email him at roccprez@bellsouth.net if it is yours. Thanks, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez

Click to read more ...

November Launch This Weekend Nov 22nd-23rd - Plus ISS Flyover

Everyone: UPDATE - New Portable Propane heater has been acquired and will be at the launch today. Thanks again to the Prefecture Improvement money we will have an additional heat source for today. So come on out it is going to be a great day, just cold. Dress in layers and get out your wool socks. ISS flyover from 5:28PM to 5:34PM - Saturday Night Nov 22. Courtesy of WWW.HEAVENS-ABOVE.COM here are the specifics. Date Mag. Time Ang Dir. Time Ang Dir Time Ang. Dir 22 Nov -2.0 17:28:47 10 WSW 17:31:39 62 NW 17:34:33 10 NE For those of you who have not seen a International Space Station flyover, it is a pretty cool event and with the Shuttle docked and the Leonardo Cargo Module docked it is expected to be a pretty bright pass considering it will not be totally dark yet. So come check it out. With soybeans still in the front 1/3 of the field we are going to plan on flying anyway with setup back at the Windsock area. One, note, wind conditions will be light today and blowing down the runway and/or towards Simpsons place. It looks real good for today and tomorrow. Official launch announcement: Saturday and Sunday November 22th and 23th from 10:30 to 5:00 each day - Setup starts at 9:30 ROCC Sport launch Vendors: Ken Allen from Performance hobbies will be available both days. Steve Harring from the new Hobbytown USA will not be out this weekend due to being too busy at the store. Ralph Roberts and Family will be the food vendor (bringing the grill to sell Hot Dogs, Chips, and drinks (Hot Chocolate) Meetings: We will have a meeting both days promptly at 2:00pm, no slacking off this year. Topics: ROCC Elections, need to make nominations for club offices. Election to be held at the December launch. Confirm the 2008-2009 Schedule for setting up the waiver. Doug we need to file the 2009 waiver ASAP NAR Contest: Make recommendations on what kind and when for 2008-2009 season 2008 Membership drive kick-off New T-Shirts are in make sure if we owed you on from last year, that you received. Roy, bring cash box as we owe Mark Ferrel money. NAR Contest: Will need help to run the contest table. Events selected are: "A" Streamer Duration, "A" Parachute Duration, "1/2A" Boost Glider, Spot Landing, and Drag Race. Spot Landing target will be determined by the first young person flying a rocket - the recovery location of their rocket (if not unsafe or otherwise hazardous) will be the target location. Please note that neither Spot Landing nor Drag Race have specific engine requirements. Drag race is done in heats 2 fliers at a time - these fliers then are paired up again and fly off until only two remain and then they fly off for 1st and 2nd. 3rd and 4th place fly off for 3rd. Winner of each heat is determined by First off the pad (1pt), Lowest (1pt), longest duration (1pt). Bob advises that smaller motors are cheaper! We'll have to figure out the details of who is flying so that we can work out the flight pairings. Prizes again this year are for a $10.00 giftcard from one of the Vendors and NAR Ribbons. Raffle: Recently we acquired some Rockets and Hardware from a person getting out of the hobby. We will have a raffle to give away the goods and to raise money for the club. There is some good stuff including motor hardware. (Roy if you have tickets bring them out for the raffle. Duty Roster: I will have new sign-up sheets for the launches through April next year. Sign up to help, please. Porta-Potty: Will be serviced and ready to go by Friday. Flyer-Fees: Please come out and fly and pay your fees. Recommended $8-$10 donation a day per flyer. We still have to pay the land owner for the use of the land. Note: Keep an eye on email and the website WWW.rocketrycarolina.org for any changes regarding our launch. Questions, comments - Ralph Roberts @ roccprez@bellsouth.net Sincerely, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez and prefect.

Click to read more ...

ROCC - Now owns their own Porta-John....Sweet.....

Everyone: I want to start by saying that don't ever say that Brad and I don't do Crap for the club. Brad found us a great deal on a Porta-John through Craigslist, the gentlemen was local and delivered it to the Farm for $50.00. How cool is that? I washed out 5 years of Wasp nest and general grunge. It cleaned up quite well. I contacted A.L. Lowder and worked a deal for a once a month servicing for $25.00 a month, that�s a $55.00 a month savings. We can now all be relieved that we have this problem behind us thanks to Tripoli Prefecture Improvement money. Thanks, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez

Click to read more ...

No Launch - Today and Tomorrow (Nov 15th-16th)

Just a reminder..... Due to Beans still in the field, Rain, Strong Winds, Snow in th Mountains, Tornados and severe weather on the coast, a full moon, and now an extremely wet field. There will be no launch today and tomorrow. We are now planning on next weekend. The Rocket Gods are mad for some reason, it was just not meant to be... Ralph Roberts ROCC President and Prefect

Click to read more ...

State of the Prefect address

Everyone: As we approach our 2008-2009 Flying season for ROCC I wanted to take a minute to update everyone on a few issues and outline my personal plans for this year. I hope that this year will be as busy and that most of you will be able to come out and support the club as this countries economy has gone in the tank. I hope most of you are avoiding the huge mess and financial shake up. I know personally how this can affect leisure activities such as going out to movies, restaurants, sporting events and hobby activities. My hope is that since we have been in our summer break mode that folks have had time to acquire new rockets and motors and are just ready to fly. Our first launch is slated to be a busy one with our NAR contest and several folks wanting to cert. Plus, we have several ROCC business issues to confront, nominations and elections for club offices for the 2008-2009 Flying season, Flying schedule review, and FAA Waiver renewal. Plus, we need to finalize spending with our Prefecture improvement program that has to be completed by November 30th.

Which brings me to my bad news for the time being. (Please read on.....)

Click to read more ...