December 17th & 18th UPDATE:

Okay, we're a GO for both days this weekend.

HOWEVER... PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE remember that on Saturday the field will be still fairly mushy, drying out from the last several days rain & clouds. Drive CAREFULLY down the sides of the runway and limit in-and-outs as much as possible. If you can walk to the porta-john please do rather than taking the car.

Ken MAY be with us (haven't heard if he left yet) since MDRA scrubbed their Saturday launch due to weather. They've had essentially the same as we've had but colder. As I said the other day if you have motors to flog you might want to try to sell them this weekend, since Ken may not be available.

Please choose your launch angles carefully. The winds are now projected at about 9-17 knots at 240 degrees, which puts it approximately down the runway toward the road but fairly stiff breezes.

Ralph & Roy will be there Saturday, I'll be there Sunday if anyone still needs to get rockets out of trees. (I'm lookin at you UNCC!)

See you all there!

TB/dr

December 17th & 18th launch preview

Looking forward to the weekend, weather is looking fairly good albeit cold. Saturday is the predicted windier day with 9 or so MPH headed Easterly, then Sunday at 6 or so moving south easterly.

Setup I figure at 10 to let it warm up just a bit, and we'll fly till about 4:30 so we can strike.

Ken's calendar says he's in Maryland & Pittsburgh this weekend so if you have some spare motors it might be a good weekend to flog them at the field.

Keep an eye out, I'll post an update Friday.

TB/dr

 

November 2022 Launch Report

Click the "Read More" button to read Roy's recap of our November launch.

Click to read more ...

ROCC November 19th & 20th Launch Info

OK, heard back from Ralph & Kip.

The November 19th & 20th 2022 launch is a GO!

Kip is still harvesting, and may be harvesting on Saturday &/or Sunday while we're out there depending on how fast the fields dry from the rain today. So please don't block up the runway or entrances to any of the barns, and please keep track of small objects like dogs & children. Count noses often!

We'll set up about 9:30, range open by 11. It'll be cold to start so dress in layers people! Range will close by 4:30 so we can close down the field, sunset is at 5:11.

Ken will be with us on SATURDAY ONLY. So if you're needing launch supplies please come out and get 'em on Saturday.

Due to the fire risks we will not be flying Sparky motors. It's just too dangerous with crops possibly still in the fields.

Please remember that we ask a $10/day donation for non-members and a $5/day donation for members to go to Kip for use of the farm. We've not been good about this lately and I'd like to make sure we get back to doing what we promised him & his dad when we fly.

ROCC memberships will be coming around again in January and most of that money goes to pay for servicing the Port-o-Pot that's out there. It's gone up the last few years and now is (I believe) $100/weekend to get it serviced. I will be around Saturday and Sunday afternoons (I've got a shoot both mornings dang it!) with the membership book so see me if you want to join or renew. I will try and hang out at the RSO table so you can find me. Look for the big grey bearded guy.

All that said let's have a safe and fun launch season!

TB/dr

Next launch November 19/20, 2022

Hey fellow ROCC'ers!

We were hoping to get our season off to a modest start with an LP launch this Saturday but several things are working against us. The corn is gone, but the soybean crop is still in about half the fields, and where they are we really needed the wind to be out of the southwest. All predictions are that it will be out of the Northeast, right into the beans. Second, the beans are bone dry so Kip is nervous about fire right now, but to top it all off Ralph tested positive for Covid today.

All that said we'll look to our regular 3rd weekend, November 19th & 20th, to get our season started.

Please remember that we use the Midland field at the pleasure of Kip (the owner) and we need to support Kip in every way possible. If he's nervous about us being there we just don't go.

Speaking about the Midland field, a quick review... 

*Remember that this is a working farm, please no unattended children from your party wandering off where they can get into trouble. There are animals and farm equipment with pointy bits (both animal and mineral) that are very tempting, but also very dangerous to wandering small fry. 

*Remember we essentially rent the field, so remember your flight fees. $10/day for non members, $5/day for ROCC members. This goes to Kip for the use of the field.

*Remember that our membership year runs from January to December, so everyone will be up for renewal in January. Among other things these help us to fund the Portajohn maintinance, which runs about $100/weekend. Unfortunately there's no other location close to the farm that gets serviced by any of the portajohn companies (we've checked) so we pay a premium for that. 

*Use best judgement when launching. Rockets should be aimed out over the empty area to the West (downrange) just a bit, so they don't fly over the flight line and spectators. This is in both NAR and TRA safety guidelines. 

*Sparky motors aren't specifically prohibited but should be flown with extream caution. Use the Nomex blankets and alert the RSO & LCO that you're flying a sparky motor. We will probably have a spotter assigned to the pads for your launch with fire suppression equipment on hand. 

Looking forward to a great season, hope to see all of you soon.

TB/dr

April 23 & 24 2022 Launch Report

Well... what do they say, life gets in the way of living? I had totally missed that I didn't see an April launch report in all the run-up to NSL, then my life got hectic, Roy's life got really hectic, and now here it is the start of August and I'm finally getting this put to rights. Please forgive us both! Hit that "Read More" link to get the dish. dr

Click to read more ...

ROCC'ers 5/14-15 weekend update:

It looks like trying to work around the on and off thunderstorms this weekend is not going to work very well. There's rain Friday night over through Saturday morning, then more rain slated for overnight Saturday. Sunday is fairly clear but then rain comes back towards the end of the day again.

Best we can try to do I think is to prep for NSL in SC or go on up to Hendersonville for the Saturn club's launch on the 28th.

Sorry it's not going to work, it looked like a good shot and then got all cloudy!

As far as NSL, I'm going down for Saturday right now.

TB/dr

Possible Midland launch either May 14 or 15.

Hey ROCC'ers... there were several conversations and inquiries about trying to have a Midland launch before the NSL launch in SC over Memorial Day Weekend.

Originally I hadn't intended on one, hoping to drive more folks to the south for the NSL, but since the 2 west fields (the ones farthest in to the property) aren't planted yet we have the option of having a smaller launch if we're careful.

It obviously isn't the entire site, so we'd need to be conservative on engine size and altitude, but if we can pull it off we may be able to get in one last day of flying in Midland this season.

Looking at the long range weather isn't promising right now, with rain predicted for Friday, Saturday & Sunday.

Please keep an eye on the site later this week to see if we can launch this weekend. Once the weather forecast is a bit more certain we'll make the call.

TB/dr

Important TRA Safety Codes announcement:

This came from Triploi today...

Important Safety Code Announcement from TRA President Bob Brown

One of the questions both members new to Tripoli Rocketry Association as well as long-time members ask is “Where do I go to find out what is and isn’t allowed at a Tripoli launch?”  For a Commercial Motor launch, the answer was three documents, the High Power Safety Code and the Safe Launch Practices document, which are available on the Tripoli website, as well as NFPA 1127, which was only available on the NFPA’s website (we were not allowed to publish NFPA 1127 as the NFPA copyrights it, and they would prefer to sell you a copy to fund their operations even though it was rocketry folks that helped them write it!).  If you were attending a Research Motor launch, in addition to the three documents above, you had to include the Research Safety Code from Tripoli’s website.

 

It always frustrated me that there was one single document that a flyer could reference to understand our safety code.  To this end, the Tripoli Board of Directors is pleased to announce the publication and adoption of our new Tripoli Rocketry Association Safety Code which is available on the Tripoli website.  This safety code will become effective on May 1, 2022. 

Under this safety code, there are no longer Commercial launches or Research launches, just Tripoli launches.  There are some changes to the current safety code, such as a common safe distance table, a safety code for both model rockets as well as radio-controlled boosted gliders as well as other changes.  Please take the time to read this document in its entirety.  While your first reaction will probably be there seem to be a lot more rules under this new document, in fact, almost nothing more restrictive has been adopted it’s just compiled into one document now.

Finally, as an organization, we owe a huge thank you to Steve Shannon, who undertook the daunting task of compiling the information from the original four documents and writing (in plain English, not legalese) a document we can all understand and follow.

View the New Unified Safety Code

NAR National Sport Launch update:

Hey folks, just wanted to post an update about the upcoming NAR NSL in South Carolina over Memorial Day Weekend.

Bobby Weatherford is working to coordinate things down there for it, his email address is: bcweatherford (at) gmail (dot) com.

Basically we've chatted over messaging and he says that they don't need equipment, just volunteers to do stuff.

Personally I'm going to head down Friday for set-up and then be there Saturday for whatever I can help with.

I found out while booking my ticket for Satuturday that while you're checking out NAR gives you options to volunteer for specific slots and jobs. The codes for these are listed on the SC website and designate the job, day and time slots, each 2 hours long. It may be that by the time the early registration closes on May 18th all the slots are filled, but there might still be changes on the day fo, so if you see Bobby or Chuck Haslip you might want to ask if there's anything that's still haning fire.

The NAR info page is here: https://www.nar.org/events/national-sport-launch-2022/

and ROSCO's page is here:

https://www.rocketrysouthcarolina.org/pages/nsl2022/

Remember, Pay It Forward as you can.

TB/dr