Rocketry is a fun and educational hobby!
Congratulations to Vernon with his level 2 certification flight and to Louis on his Level 3 certification flight.
The weather cooperated this weekend and several people attended and had great flights.
Hopefully we will have more good weather in the months to come.
Well, the day was clear and we had great participation with the hopes of at least one level 3 launch, maybe one or two level 2 launches, and several level 1 flights. The FAA waiver for up to 14k was in place.
Unfortunately, the winds were not cooperating and all that were in attendance and drove quite some distances were disappointed. It is understandable.
When there was a slight lull, five rockets made a successful flight and recovery.
Then then the surface winds continued to stay constant at the above 20 mph safe limit.
Weather
The RSO must have clear and convincing evidence that the following constraints are not violated.
1. Do not launch if ground level winds exceed 20 mph.
2. Do not launch if the planned flight path will carry the vehicle through any clouds
3. Do not launch if any type of lightning is detected within 10 miles of the launch site
GOOD SENSE RULE: Even when constraints are not violated, if any other hazardous weather conditions exist, the RSO may hold at any time based on the instability of the weather.
We do hope for better weather for the April weekend.
Virtual NARCON 2021 was AWESOME 👌
Here is a link with presentation highlights:
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:
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:
Here is the archive web link for the NARCON 2019 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/