No Response for any ROCC activities this Weekend

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

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Tripoli Prefecture Improvement Money has arrived.....

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

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Happy Birthday to NASA

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!

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4-H Event was a success

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.

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Refreshing news that even the ATF's Record Keeping was not up to Par

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

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We're all OVER it

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

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Freedom Launch - Another Great Launch

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

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TRA Election deadline extended - Now Aug 22nd

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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TRA Members: The TRA Board of Directors is aware that some members are experiencing a delay in receiving the Election Issue of the "Tripoli Report" (Volume 19 Number 2, June 2008). It is stated on the voting ballots included with the issue that the due date for the receipt of member ballots by TRA Election Committee Chairman Guy Soucy is August 8, 2008. Since this leaves little turnaround time for those members who are experiencing the delay, the TRA Board and Election Committee have agreed to extend the ballot due date to August 22, 2008. When members receive their TR issues, they are advised to give immediate attention to reviewing the candidates' resumes, and mailing ballots ASAP. As final note, if any member receives their ballot too late to be mailed, but will be attending LDRS 27 at Argonia, Kansas, they may bring their ballot to LDRS, and submit it as soon as possible to any TRA Director present at the event. If any such ballots are received, a special committee will be formed to tally these ballots and add them to the totals that will be supplied by Guy Soucy, to announce results at the members' dinner on August 30, 2008. Ken Good TRA President

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August ROCC get-together - UPDATED DETAILS

Just an update on our August get-together... I'm aiming for it to get started about 1:00 pm, we've got chairs & a couple of tables available, and the air conditioning works great. So, here's the deal. While we're still at the old studio location, 645-G Pressley Rd. in Charlotte, near Woodlawn and So. Tryon St., we're going to have a meeting there on Saturday, August 16th, at 1:00 pm. Bring your favorite beverage and anything you want to work on and come on by. UPDATED (BY Ralph Roberts) Here are additional details: -Brad will supply a dial-in number so that you may join by phone if you would like to listen in - Phone Conference style - Available to ROCC members only for now. Go to our Group on Our Planet for details. -I will have the Rockets Magazine NSL 2008 DVD playing on an Proxima video projector on Doc's largest wall. See rockets full size. This thing will almost put HD TV's to shame. - About 1:15PM will have a half hour meeting to discuss club buisness. One key item is to discuss the Freedom Launch duty roster. Same deal as NSL Launch work two 2-hour shifts and get a crew T-shirt. I have the current duty-roster with me. Also, need to discuss Pre-orderering any HPR motors for the launch. Plus pick-ups at our magazine prior to our trip down to Freedom Launch. - After the general meeting we will break out into smaller groups based on power level and do any Q and A sessions. I plan to bring two rockets I am repairing to show how I make major repairs. These sessions are free discussions; if we stray too far off topic, someone will may need to speak up to wrangle us back in. Note: Also, in the past we have brought extra kits, parts, motors, general stuff to have a "SWAP MEET" with. So this would be a good chance for to empty your shop and do some trading. Note: I have a bad cold & cough so I may not do a lot of talking so I'll let others speak up today. Here's a map to our shop... LINK (If you zoom in on the photo you can just see my big blue van parked in front of the studio, in the center of the middle building!) If you get turned around, my CEL number is 704-574-0510 See you there! DR

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Rockets Magazine - NSL 2008 Video Review

Everyone: I just received my Rockets Magazine NSL 2008 DVD yesterday, and I gotta say it is a "Must Have". Features lots of ROCC flyers with interviews and spectacular shots and even thousands of photos are included. Now, being old school, this is my first DVD of a Rocket Event I've purchased. I have lots of VCR tapes of launches going back to the mid 90s . The DVD quality far outweighs those old tapes including 5.1 surround sound, super slow-mo rocket liftoffs, cool video editing of on board rocket video, cool music, etc. Some really good stuff that is probably on all of Bob's videos. The really cool thing is that Mark Canepa got his Carolina Nike on the cover of the box. Just go to Rockets Magazine and order yours today, it only took three days to get it. Ralph "You finally see one of my rockets fly on the video" Roberts ROCC Prez and Prefect

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