Tuesday, October 28, 2008 at 11:28AM Sorry the site was down for so long. I'll not relate the long and sorry details -- this is a family site and the story can't be told in a G or even PG-13 version, but it's back now. Just in time to start planning the November launch!
News Thursday, October 23, 2008 at 7:31AM Due to physically moving the server, the site may be unavailable for some time on Friday, October 24. After, the move it will be in a reduced state for a short time longer while the server is transferred into a new chassis. We'll keep this as quick as possible, but ya'll know Murphy's Law.
News Thursday, October 16, 2008 at 3:16AM Everyone: I've poled the officers of the club plus a lot of the regular volunteers and even some new members who have recently joined and I have had only two replies regarding suggestions for the weekend. So, I can only assume that since we did not have an official activity this month everyone is taking a pass. OK, that leaves next month. I will contact Kip and see if I can get an ETA for the soybean harvest to make sure we are on for Nov. 15th, 16th, fortunately November has 5 weekends this year and Thanksgiving comes late so our rain out weekend is clear as well. The key event for the November launch will be the NAR contest. Here is Brad�s write-up from the ROCC group on "Our Planet" site regarding the rules. 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. Other notable activities will be nominations for ROCC 2009 club officers, 2009 Membership drive, New raffle and auction for some HPR items acquired just recently. Vendor note: Ken Allen from Performance Hobbies will be down on Sunday ONLY, he will be splitting time with the Bayboro launch that weekend. Look for more to come soon. Thanks, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez
News Tuesday, October 7, 2008 at 12:03PM Everyone: Doug sent the good news that he received the check from Tripoli HQ yesterday. So we need to get busy, we have 60 days to spend it. Here is our laundry list of items we requested the Grant money for. 1. Apply money to purchase of our own Port-John and have a service company service it at a reduced rate, say $25.00-$40.00 a month vs. current rate of $65-$80.00. 2. Acquire materials and pay for the labor to repair 3 launch heads and built one new one. 3. Acquire a Solar Battery Charger to avoid carrying batteries to and from our launch site between launches. Keep the batteries from cycling as bad. 4. Acquire some additional Shade canopies and some provide shade protection for our guest at launches. 5. Acquire a Portable Propane heater to provide some warmth during the winter months since that is our main flying season. So lets get busy and have everything ready to go for the November launch. Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez
News Friday, October 3, 2008 at 4:37PM I know this was really on Tuesday, but I didn't want to get in the way of the 4H thing, and it sounds like that was a HUGE success! NASA had it's 50th birthday on Tuesday, and astronomy picture of the day had a great shot of the first launch from Cape Canaveral... a Bumper-V2 HBD, NASA!
News Thursday, October 2, 2008 at 2:07PM Everyone: Brad Shea, Bob Bernachez, and myself attended the 4-H Kick Off Celebration at Independence Park Tuesday Sept 30th as an invited guest of the Mecklenburg County 4-H. It was a blast. We got to give a pep talk about rocketry, rocketry and 4-H, ROCC, and ourselves. We did a 6 flight launch of Art Applewhite's Qubit 2.0 Paper rockets on 13mm 1/2As, A3s, and A10s (With the 4-H logo on it) plus one other UFO styled paper rocket on a D12-0. They loved it. The different groups of kids then went around to different stations (ROCC being one of them) to find out all what they could do in 4-H. We handed out the Qubits for them to build and showed them how. We also handed out brochures to the group leaders, we hope they will be able to get some involved; we'll just have to wait and see. We also talked about TARC and flew individual demos to the different groups. It was a fun event and glad we were able to do it. It really helps to get us out there and to get recognition to inspire new membership. Thanks, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez and Prefect PS Due the cost of printing up the Qubits on special cardstock and the motors for the demos, feel free to donate a little cash to the club at out next launch. Monetary help is as good as Physical help.
News Thursday, September 18, 2008 at 1:19PM Read an interesting article reported on FoxNews.com on Sept 17th. After suffering through a very particular Magazine audit recently it was amazing that this type of report came out regarding the ATF's "Record Keeping". As LEUP holders we have to report lost or stolen explosives within 24 hours, this report sites instances going back 5 years from 2007. For an interesting read check out this link FoxNews ATF article What's the old say "The Pot calling the Kettle Black" Rocket "Don't call me out when we had our stuff accounted for" Ralph
News Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 7:51PM The new NAR Sport Rocketry just hit my mail box and I'll tell you folks, ROCC is all OVER it!!!! Great photo coverage... Ya gotta see it! Even our ROCC boss Rocket "they never get me in a picture" Ralph is in there! It's pretty cool. Thanks to all. Just had to share. DR
News Tuesday, September 2, 2008 at 5:54PM Just got back from Freedom Launch and again another great launch with another great turnout of ROCC members. Thanks to everyone who helped out. I hung around for clean up, man they have a lot of stuff to put away. Saturday the Rain and Storms played some havic but the weather cleared for the night launch which I heard was really cool. Sunday and Monday provided a lot of excitement and plenty of big rockets. Stay tuned for information coming up about a 4-H demo and tent at their 4-H day at Independence Park on Sept 30th We will need some volunteers to help that day. Ralph
News Saturday, August 23, 2008 at 5:49AM Everyone: Ken Good ask that the prefect forward the following to the "The TRA followers". So here you go. The Ballet deadline is now Aug 22nd, please vote. Thanks, Ralph Roberts ROCC President
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