The Mooresville Sod Farm opportunity is a NO GO

Everyone: Brent was unable to get permission from the owners of the Sod Farm property up in Mooresville. In an email Wednesday, he noted that we should pursue our other options. So, on that note, I am going to get with James Inman, the City Manager of Locust, NC and try to set up something for our July date at the Locust City Park (Behind the Elementary School). We have preliminary permission, I just want to get all the details worked out. The field is small, I am thinking D and under power. I'll try to get an aerial photo ASAP. Launch times will be between 3:00pm to 7:00pm There is another location south of Monroe,NC that we are looking at. It has potential, however, we have to get the ball rolling to contact the landowners. We will keep you posted. Thanks, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez

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Clarification about Oranburg Research Launch Days

Received this message from Tom Henderson, the prefect of Tripoli South Carolina: Just to clarify one point... The 2nd and 3rd are, indeed, Research rule launch days. However, under the latest rule revisions, if you are a TRA L2 or 3 flyer (not NAR, sorry), you can also fly commercial motors on those days! This means that those two days are not restricted exclusively to EX motors anymore. If you have not attended a Research (previously "EX") launch before because you couldn't fly on those days, this has now been corrected. From what my sources tell me, there may be quite a few "M's" and "??" ;~) Hope to see you there! Tom Henderson Prefect - Tripoli South Carolina _trh@charter.net_ (mailto:trh@charter.net)

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No ROCC Launch or meetings this month

Everyone: Brent Johnson has worked hard to finalize our deal with the SOD Farm owners, however, due to slow response to our request and the fact that Brent will be unavailable to attend a launch this weekend we are going to abandon our effort for this month on the Mooresville site. We hope to have everything in the works by July. Also, I have had no contact from anyone regarding a building session for this month either. So since it is Father's Day weekend we will postpone till next month. Enjoy your weekend, buy Dad some rockets. Again, Orangeburg's SKIPOWER launch JULY 1st, 2nd and 3rd is expected to be pretty big according to Oburg's Prefect. Remember, Saturday will be a Sport launch with the other two being EX only motors. So, plan on Saturday only. Go to their site to get details. I plan on attending Saturday and Sunday. Any questions contact Ralph at RoccPrez at bellsouth dot net Thanks, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez

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Launch Options for this Summer

Everyone: Field status: Option A - Mooresville,NC (Near the DEI Race shop) As of June 9th we are still working on trying to get permission for a field near Mooresville, NC. Brent Johnson from Hobbytown, USA (Mooresville) has been working on this for our and his benefit. Due to his vacation schedule and request from the landowner that he be present at the launch(s) we will not be able to fly by next weekend. We will keep pursuing this field for the July and later launches. Option B - Locust, NC - Locust Elementary School and Park Long time member Julius Burris has been talking with James Inman (Locust city manager) about using the fields behind the school (Only large enough for D and under) We have permission to fly there, however, there is still some cleared wooded area that still needs some cleanup. Due to the fact we are close on the Mooresville site, I would like to wait at least one month to see what happens. Option C - Hwy 601 South for Monroe, NC Steve Herring - Please contact me - 704-568-1070, I did not get your number at the last launch to discuss that field you saw. Option D - Morganton,NC Vic Welland has said we could fly up there, however, it is a long way away, if we cannot workout the other sites we will pursue this one. Alternative Launches June 10th and 11th - Orangeburg, SC - They are having a two day NAR sport launch. July 1st, 2nd, 3rd - Orangeburg, SC - Saturday Sport launch. Sunday and Monday EX motors only (Level 2 only). Billed as an alternate to LDRS, the SKIPOWER launch will be a good opportunity to see some big rockets fly. Go to Tripoli SC's site for more details. Greenville, SC NAR group - I emailed Neal Montgomery and got a response back from Alan McNeer saying they still are flying the 4th weekend of the month, however, they are faced with losing there field to an apartment building. Bob B. thought it would be good if we could schedule a NAR contest with them. I will keep working on this as well. Meeting and Building sessions In the past, during the summer months, we have had a general summer meeting as well as a building session to pass along tips and information for Low, Medium, and High Power construction and flying in a indoor session. David Deason has agreed to host a session if folks would like. His business is out off of Independence near I-485. As you can see, we have not given up on flying during the summer, it just takes time to get these things done. Brad Shea and a few others have done some great ground work to get some fields, however, they don't always work out. As Ken would say, "The Grain is our Pain." If we did not have to fight the crops life would be a lot easier. So please give me your feedback on a build/meeting session and we will work something out. Thanks, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez

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More on the TARC Team Winners

This is an email I received from one of the proud parents. He included a bunch of pictures, which you can see here. Ralph Thank you for the nice article on the web site. The team was REAL EXCITED to win the TARC event. They launched very early in the day and knew that they had an extremely good score (1.79) but then had to wait for the remaining 89 teams to complete their flights. They hit the 800 foot target EXACTLY and only missed the in-air time by 1.79 seconds (hence their score). The final hour was the most tense. We all huddled around the scoreboard anxiously awaiting each new result. It really became exciting when the final results were known and it was apparent that Statesville Christian School had won. I don't think that winning a lottery could be any more exciting.

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Team America Rocketry Challenge Crowns New Champion

Everyone: I got great news tonight about the Statesville Christian School's TARC team. Bob Bernatchez called me on my cell to tell me they won the 2006 Team America Rocket Challenge competition. I called Doug Knight, their mentor and ROCC member, to discuss their trip. He confirmed that it was true. Way to go team! He also gave me a little history about their team. He informed me that their team lost two members in separate automobile accidents in Nov of 05 and Jan of 06 right after the TARC teams were forming. The current team members Michael Goetz, Will Cobb, and Myles Dunlap which we all knew from their visits to the farm went onto the National Finals this past Saturday (May 20th) and won with a perfect alt. of 800 ft and off on time by 1.74 seconds. Almost perfect, and per Doug, had they not landed in a tree and actually landed on the ground they would have been only a .5 seconds off, based on their predictions. They had an experience of a life time and got to meet and greet with NASA folk and others and their fun is just beginning. I and along with the other members of ROCC would like to congratulate them on a job well done. They worked hard and they succeeded, they even dedicated their victory to the fallen teammates. What a great group of guys to deal with such adversity and apply themselves in a common goal to succeed and become the best of the best. Doug has promised pictures from the finals so we can show their smiling faces. You know, it is days like today and knowing people like this that make those long hours helping others worth it. This hobby can be so rewarding in so many ways. To say you have seen these guys grow from test flights to qualifying flights to National Champions is awesome. You guys are truely awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks, Ralph Roberts ROCC Prez News story from Aero-News network follows at the "read more" link:

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May Launch Update

Everyone: The May Launch is a go at Williams Farm for May 20th and 21st. Corn will be anywhere from 6" to 12" tall. We can not trample the corn, so watch your step. We will have limited retrieval teams so pay attention to where your rocket comes down. I will have my field walkie-talkies to help guide people to the rockets. Recommend larger Estes rockets with large streamers to make them more visible. Note: Saturday night is the big All-star race at Lowes Motor Speedway so traffic around the speedway will be bad starting Saturday afternoon. If you are coming from that direction I would come early and stay until around 7:00pm, after everyone gets to the speedway traffic will be fine until they let out around 11:00pm Sunday should be OK, just watch for the campers coming and going. Brent Johnson from Hobbytown USA will be at the launch on Sunday. Note: Due to the recent fire danger alerts and if we don't get any rain we may have to limit flying power. Just keep this in mind if conditions don't improve. The 2006 membership drive continues, please renew or join at this launch. We will also have the T-Shirts for sale. Sizes from Youth Large to Adult 2XL. We will be running the launch from 11:00AM to 8:00PM Saturday and Sunday. We will have the Porta-A-Jon at this launch. This is another expense we have to add onto our budget per launch, it cost $70.00 a month to have a porta-Jon on the site. Please come out and support the Porta-Jon! We need as many people as we can to make our flyer fee goal. Last month we had a small turnout again. We need everyone and their donations so please contribute if you fly. Remember our recommended donation is $8.00-$10.00 per flyer per day, families with lots of young flyers maybe a $10.00 donation would be good. Again, these are recommendations not harden rule yet. The requested weekend land fee from the land owner is $250, so we need everyone to drop a little something in the jar. Anyone needing to certify, please contact me ahead of time. Todd Haring can arrange to have the Level 2 NAR test delivered to the field and we can have others administer the test. We will meet at around 4:00pm on both days to talk about launches and other activities for the summer months. This will be our last launch at the farm site until late Oct. Thanks, Ralph Roberts

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Launch Update

Ralph spoke with Kip about next weekend's launch and it appears that we're ON for the farm on the 20th & 21st. There are a few ground rules that we need to adhere to very closely. First... DON'T step on the corn!!! It's very fragile right now and it'll be about a foot tall next weekend. Please don't break the plants!!!! Second, again based on height, is long streamers, bigger rockets and things that will lay across the corn will really help in finding your rocket. You'ld be surprised how fast a small rocket vanishes in amongst the corn rows. Everybody come out and enjoy the last launch at the farm till fall!!! On that note, read on......

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March 2006 Launch Report

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. The Post-Launch Report for 18-19 March 2006. Well, I�ve about caught up. I just don�t seem to have as much free time as I used too. But give me a rain day to spend home and no other distractions, and I can get a lot of things done. 1st point. I know a lot of you have �Spam� blockers now. And they work pretty good. Those of you who are about to get it installed, and those with it, (who will not see this) need to have my e-address listed to be passed through, or your messages, rocket launch announcements and post-launch reports will be intercepted and kicked back to us as �Non-Deliverable, Spam Blocked�. Some members are going to think that I�m deliberately not sending them any more reports and updates not realizing that the blocker is kicking them back.

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More weather updates for the weekend

Club Secretary here with some good weather news. It looks like the Rocket Weather Gods are going to smile down upon us this weekend. Saturday is projected to be mostly clear and sunny, 45 in the morning with a projected high of 69 degrees. As most of you know, it will be, or seem warmer out at the farm as the open fields act like a solar collector. Over night temps will be in the mid 40's with a Sunday wake-up of about 45 degrees again and a high of about 65 degrees. Only a slight chance of any rain late Sunday, so we should have the whole day to fly before we have to take down the flight equipment before dark. So, if your camping over, pack and be pre-paired for the cool night. Plan ahead and use common sense in that you are camping and walking around on a farm field. If your going to cook on site, bring a proper container for your fire. Portable and single use grills are a good choice, or like me, be sure you have a good portable fire pit. That way we can sit around the camp telling the story about "The Headless Rocketeer". OK, I hope to see everyone out on the farm this weekend and if everyone helps out, everyone will have a good time. Roy.

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