Author: JET66

Sorry to announce that the Clubs end of the year launch in Parkdale has to be canceled.

I am looking forward to a better 2021.

If you are an active NAR member, please make sure to register for the virtual NARCON 2021 event:

NARCON 2021

It was really an impressive test. I am sure they will get it working as designed soon:

Here is the link for the NARCON 2020 presentations that you may find informative:

Presentations

Here is the archive web link for the NARCON 2019 presentations:

Presentations

This is a neat video by Scott Manley on the 28 November launch from Vandenberg AFB:

The latest launch was really a very fortunate day. The entire week before the day of the launch was rain, wind, and cold weather. Sunday was a very 50/50 chance of good weather. Miraculously the sun came out and we had very little to a mild breeze of less than 20 mph during the active time of the NOTAM. Two club members worked diligently towards their NAR L3 certification flight.

We had less then 25 people in attendance and masks and social distancing was in place.

Both rocket launches towards the level 3 certification boosted great. After that point, both encountered some issues. All components of each rocket returned safely and they will both work towards another attempt. Both were not discouraged and I know they will both accomplish the goal. Achieving Level 3 is not given, it is definitely earned and is a good learning curve.

Frank Burke from Dyna Soar Rocketry arrived and launched a few of his really impressive radio-controlled boost gliders:

This has been a really hectic year. Thank you for making it to the small launch due to the current real world events. Hopefully next year once things hopefully get back to some form of a normal life, we can plan for some more launches from his location. In the meantime, please stay safe and we will look forward to have some launches in 2021 from March to June time frame. Maybe have a couple of two day events.

The neat little Flightsketch mini altimeter is a very impressive little altimeter and is worth the price of $40.00.

I tried one out on the Quest duel motor cluster kit called Magnum. The little altimeter provides not just the altitude. It also provides wind speed, temperature, and humidity. You can upload it to their web link and review the data as well as download the CVS file from the site for record-keeping: https://flightsketch.com/flights/1158/  

Commemoration
by
Judith L. Freed
August 11, 1996

Seven candles burning bright
Six are red and one is white
We gather here upon this date
Man on the Moon to celebrate
On the 20th of July in '69
A drama as to stretch the mind
Man from Earth his foot did place
Upon the Moon in Outer Space
How did Man come to such a task
To reach this goal that we may ask
Because of Men who dared to dream
This Cosmic plan did Science scheme
A journey such as none had done
The quest of who would be the one
To touch the Moon and place the flag
The race was on no time to lag
To land upon another World
The mind of Science would be hurled
And leave our flag for all to know
That dreaming dreams can make it so
To Armstrong Aldrin Collins too
With courage and hope these precious few
Did take us thereupon that day
The Moon no longer dreams away
So we remember from now on
That Man has been and Man has gone
To dream and seek and hope and search
And bring us back the Universe.

http://www.evoloterra.com/pdf/Evoloterra_2019.10.20.pdf

Ben Feist has done a great job with providing real-time online footage of Apollo 17, Apollo 11 and now he has done it again with Apollo 13: https://apolloinrealtime.org/13/

Please sit back and enjoy at your leisure.

All Three are at this link: https://apolloinrealtime.org/

The most recent club launch that took place had the best weather that we have not had for some time. We had six people in attendance with a lot of great successful flights. Don, Vernon, Daniel and myself all had great flights. Vernon launched one of his 3D printed rockets up on an Aerotech 24mm F44 motor and it must have achieved an altitude of 800 feet. He also launched a cool Estes kit with landing legs called "Destination Mars" and an electric propellered kit.

Don launched the Estes Helicopter recovery rocket called the "Flip Flyer" which had great rotation recovery on the three flights he had with the kit. I need to get one of those cool kits. He also launched the Estes Conquest model rocket and the Multi Roc kit in the two-stage format.

Daniel brought out an arsenal of rocket kits. He had several different Nike Ajax rocket models that all went up and recovered perfectly. He launched the DynaStar Snarky model rocket that was very impressive to see during liftoff and ascent. An Estes E12-4 was used with one of Daniels Nike Ajax rockets and was picture perfect. He also launched a LaunchPad Nike Ajax on an Aerotech E15-4.

I launched two 18mm J&H Aerospace boost glider kits. One was perfect with the Estes B6-2, the other one was not as successful. I think it was due more to launch rod whip and not the glider. I then launched the Estes Executioner rocket which had two great flights with the Estes E12-4 motors. The second flight I added the Jolly Logic Alt 3 just to see how high it went and the altimeter read 541 feet:

The weather was so great, that I had wished myself that I had brought more rockets 🙂

I do hope that our next launch has picture-perfect weather like this great launch day.