LDRS 33. 2014??

[MClark]

Anyone heard any rumors of a proposal for next year? We are a month out from when the big decision has to be made. There was some mention of ROC at Lucerne but not sure if it is really happening.

Mark

 

[rdbones]

That is what I heard.
Jack G said that he was working with the CSFM and local fire marshal so research can be flown.

Maybe AHPRA can host it at Rainbow Valley !!!!!

 

[MClark]

I saw that one coming.

AHPRA is doing the rocket side of LDRS this year. Then back there in two months to do BALLS.

(Bones I know you know but for those reading...)
I actually did all the figuring to do a LDRS at Rainbow. It is a good site on the ground but the waiver is low for out west, too close to the Phoenix airport at 28 miles. The hotels are closer than many sites
And then there are the weather issues. The months of July-Sept are no good due to heat (118+ possible), dust storms and thunderstorms.

Mark

 

[rdbones]

Yes I am aware of those little facts............
But it would be nice to go to LDRS and sleep in my bed every night

if ROC does get it We are planning on going with something interesting!

 

[DAllen]

Mark, how low is too low? Is the weather any better in June or is it more of the same?

 

[JStitz]

Other than Small Balls, Has a full blown Balls ever been done under a 100K waiver?

(Dirty Minds please keep your snickering to a minimum..)



John Stitz

 

[MClark]

We have about 10k'
June is the hottest month, in July it is a little less hot but more humid
And some one else will have to do it, putting on one major launch a year is enough for me.

M

 

[MClark]

Other than Small Balls, Has a full blown Balls ever been done under a 100K waiver?
John Stitz

I beleive it has. The early balls launches.
We are at 491K' know.

 

[Fuddrucker]

There was some mention of ROC at Lucerne.

Mark

Noooooooooooo, not again please, at least not with discovery there. Just a guess here but I would think it will be held somewhere in the midwest or back east. I would not imagine Tripoli would hold LDRS twice in a row on the west coast.

...Fudd

 

[dlb]

Noooooooooooo, not again please, at least not with discovery there. Just a guess here but I would think it will be held somewhere in the midwest or back east. I would not imagine Tripoli would hold LDRS twice in a row on the west coast.

...Fudd

Amen:wink:

 

[blackbrandt]

2nd! Hopefully it is an east coast launch!!

 

[Green Jello]

Is Discovery (or Science Channel) coming to this one?

 

[troj]

I would not imagine Tripoli would hold LDRS twice in a row on the west coast.

Keep in mind, Tripoli and NAR can only place events where there is a group willing and able to host them.

-Kevin

 

[DAllen]

Is Discovery (or Science Channel) coming to this one?

I highly doubt if discovery is going to cover another LDRS in the foreseeable future.

 

[BBrown]

I highly doubt if discovery is going to cover another LDRS in the foreseeable future.

+1!

 

[crossfire]

That's the best news I heard today. A friend of mine had his O project sitting on the pad ready to go for over 2 hr's waiting for Discovery to get out of the way.
Gary

 

[Green Jello]

I highly doubt if discovery is going to cover another LDRS in the foreseeable future.

Why do you say that? (I wasn't at the last two and only know what I saw on TV.)

 

[DAllen]

Why do you say that? (I wasn't at the last two and only know what I saw on TV.)

AFAIK, Discovery had a 3 year agreement with TRA to cover LDRS and that agreement has not been renewed.

 

[SMR]

Why do you say that? (I wasn't at the last two and only know what I saw on TV.)

Those little interviews that take a few seconds on TV can take a LOT of time to film. TV crews on the set, er.. range, tend to slow down the flow of rockets getting to and off the pads. To their credit, the host club tries to minimize this. At LDRS XXX (and several others, I believe), the Discover Channel had dedicated away pads. Speaking only from my experience, that doesn't always eliminate the bottleneck. Waiting at the away cell RSO for the Tiki Hut filming to finish cost a group of us the opportunity to launch on that Saturday.

 

[DAllen]

Sooo Green Jello, you can see the answer to your question is that Discovery has essentially worn out their welcome with many of the rocket folk. Me personally, I have mixed emotions, on the one hand the publicity was great. On the other hand, to interrupt or otherwise delay a launch that someone spent a lot of time and money on just so they could fly it at LDRS is not only rude but downright disrespectful and unquestionably inexcusable. I wish I could tell you exactly what he said but former TRA President Ken Good remarked somewhere else that it was interesting how different the final product was from what was pitched to him several years ago when Sharp Entertainment (production co. for Discovery) presented the idea to him.

 

[MClark]

No film crew this year. In our proposal it was stated if Discovery or equivalent is to be there TRA Gerlach will withdraw support.

When it is said “someone should” put on a LDRS at (pick a place) that someone is you.

If you want an East Coast LDRS some needs to get a proposal in fast.

East/West has zero to do with where the launch goes, about 3 out of 4 times there is just one real proposal. It goes to the only bidder. The reason it was in Kansas sponsored by Kloudbusters is they stepped up when no others would (THANK YOU!!).
For this year TRA Gerlach was the only bid, the Prefecture was created to do LDRS at Black Rock, if you go to the website you will see none of the members live anywhere near Gerlach. Most of the original members were from Pittsburg and Arizona.

Mark

 

[cwbullet]

Only one bid? Come on, there has to be more clubs out there with a large enough field?

 

[MClark]

Only one bid? Come on, there has to be more clubs out there with a large enough field?

It has absolutely Nothing to do with field size.

Not picking on anyone……
Look at the size of Black Rock, Lucerne or Argonia compared to Potter or Geneseo. The site does not have to be large to have a good launch. Just have to have people willing to put on a launch.

Most “East” sites have good/better access to hotels and touristy things that can make a launch better for non-rocket types going to a launch. At Black Rock there is nothing near the site; it is just good for rocketing.

Mark

 

[BBrown]

Only one bid? Come on, there has to be more clubs out there with a large enough field?

Chuck,

It's more than a large enough field. Much more!

I've been the launch director of two LDRS's (27 and 30) and have been a part of the planning and execution of two more so I have a bit of insight into this process. Preparing a bid to put before the Board of Directors is the easy part. The execution of that plan is the tough part. When the Kloudbusters were preparing to bid on LDRS 30, planning started about 16 months before the launch. First we contacted our land owners and asked them if they were comfortable with several thousand folks homing in on their private property for six days of rocket flying. Anything but a definate "Yes" is a non-starter. We are fortunate to have some of the finest land owners in the hobby. Even so, they wanted to be sure that everyone cleaned up after themselves.

Then it's off to find a host hotel who can house everyone and supply a banquet hall big enough and a meal at a reasonable cost. Oh BTW, the Tripoli BoD wants a meeting room for a couple of days and the hosting prefecture is to cover that. Then you develop a website, provide a way for folks to register online, design a LDRS T-Shirt and find someone who is willing to print them at the last minute so that you either don't run out or are left with a ton of extras.

Next you need to arrange for 22 porta-poties with clean outs every other day, trash bins and dumpsters on site (Larger than normal if the guys from Nebraska plan on flying something! ) Food vendors and vendor parking round out the rest of the pre-planning.

Notice none of this talked about how to "carry out" the launch. At LDRS 30, we put out 65 pads (excluding the 8 set aside specifically for the TV folks). We are fortunate we have the pads, launch control system, cables, rods and rails to do so. Not many clubs do.

If all of this seems daunting, this is the easy part! The man hours involved with planning, setting up the range, running it, and tearing it down after the launch is mind boggling. I think it takes about 980 man hours to just man and run the range during those six days (Thank you to all of you who have volunteered to help us over the years. For that, I am deeply thankful.) There were a core of eight to ten of us that worked literally hundreds of hours making the event seem like it just happens. For those of you who think that an LDRS just happens, that's our goal but it couldn't be further from the truth. Everything takes more effort than you can believe.

BTW, from 90 days before the launch until the day before, someone has to answer all the questions about the launch. Here's a couple you should never ask the hosting prefecture. "When will the big rockets fly? (Correct answer, "Right after "THREE . . . TWO . . . ONE. . .), What's the weather going to be like? (If the weather men never get it right, what makes you think we would do any better?) and finally, "I know pre-registration ended two days ago, I planned on registering but forgot, can I get the pre-registration rates?" There is no good way to answer this one because the flyer always gets mad when we say No!

So, why does a club do it? While I can't speak for the other clubs who have hosted an LDRS over the years, we, the Kloudbusters, do it so that we can share our field, infrastructure, and waiver with all of our rocketry friends from around the world. If it wasn't for the people, we would never do it!

This is a bit early to announce, but the Kloudbusters have started working on the bid for LDRS 65.

Bob

PS: If you go to LDRS this year do three things for me. One, volunteer for at least one shift of anything. two, pick up all your trash and just a bit more. And three, at the end of the launch, go seek out the launch organizers and then thank them for all their hard work. They deserved it!

 

[jis2]

Thanks Kloudbusters , 30 is still a great memory ! I was hoping for your bid to come again before I need a walker to chase down my rockets though ! lol Thanks again , see ya at Airfest , Jim

 

[jis2]

Btw when will the Airfest event page go up ? :wink:

 

[DAllen]

Chuck,

It's more than a large enough field. Much more!

I've been the launch director of two LDRS's (27 and 30) and have been a part of the planning and execution of two more so I have a bit of insight into this process. Preparing a bid to put before the Board of Directors is the easy part. The execution of that plan is the tough part. When the Kloudbusters were preparing to bid on LDRS 30, planning started about 16 months before the launch. First we contacted our land owners and asked them if they were comfortable with several thousand folks homing in on their private property for six days of rocket flying. Anything but a definate "Yes" is a non-starter. We are fortunate to have some of the finest land owners in the hobby. Even so, they wanted to be sure that everyone cleaned up after themselves.

Then it's off to find a host hotel who can house everyone and supply a banquet hall big enough and a meal at a reasonable cost. Oh BTW, the Tripoli BoD wants a meeting room for a couple of days and the hosting prefecture is to cover that. Then you develop a website, provide a way for folks to register online, design a LDRS T-Shirt and find someone who is willing to print them at the last minute so that you either don't run out or are left with a ton of extras.

Next you need to arrange for 22 porta-poties with clean outs every other day, trash bins and dumpsters on site (Larger than normal if the guys from Nebraska plan on flying something! ) Food vendors and vendor parking round out the rest of the pre-planning.

Notice none of this talked about how to "carry out" the launch. At LDRS 30, we put out 65 pads (excluding the 8 set aside specifically for the TV folks). We are fortunate we have the pads, launch control system, cables, rods and rails to do so. Not many clubs do.

If all of this seems daunting, this is the easy part! The man hours involved with planning, setting up the range, running it, and tearing it down after the launch is mind boggling. I think it takes about 980 man hours to just man and run the range during those six days (Thank you to all of you who have volunteered to help us over the years. For that, I am deeply thankful.) There were a core of eight to ten of us that worked literally hundreds of hours making the event seem like it just happens. For those of you who think that an LDRS just happens, that's our goal but it couldn't be further from the truth. Everything takes more effort than you can believe.

BTW, from 90 days before the launch until the day before, someone has to answer all the questions about the launch. Here's a couple you should never ask the hosting prefecture. "When will the big rockets fly? (Correct answer, "Right after "THREE . . . TWO . . . ONE. . .), What's the weather going to be like? (If the weather men never get it right, what makes you think we would do any better?) and finally, "I know pre-registration ended two days ago, I planned on registering but forgot, can I get the pre-registration rates?" There is no good way to answer this one because the flyer always gets mad when we say No!

So, why does a club do it? While I can't speak for the other clubs who have hosted an LDRS over the years, we, the Kloudbusters, do it so that we can share our field, infrastructure, and waiver with all of our rocketry friends from around the world. If it wasn't for the people, we would never do it!

This is a bit early to announce, but the Kloudbusters have started working on the bid for LDRS 65.

Bob

PS: If you go to LDRS this year do three things for me. One, volunteer for at least one shift of anything. two, pick up all your trash and just a bit more. And three, at the end of the launch, go seek out the launch organizers and then thank them for all their hard work. They deserved it!

Not to pile on Chuck but when I see stuff like what Bob has posted I think, "Boy am I glad we got a bid this year."

 

[H_Rocket]

Chuck,

It's more than a large enough field. Much more...

In addition you have to be mentally prepared for the people who will walk up and berate you when they did not get to launch their whatever project when something went wrong and you were trying to fix something else. It is considered poor taste to tell folks at that point just exactly what they should do with their project. Of course when you go to the range volunteer roster, the best way to find the people who will complain the loudest will be to look and see which names are missing (to quote Bob "Hmmmmmmmm...."). I've had the opportunity to work on two national events and plan seven regional ones. Would I do it again, certainly. Why? I enjoy the sense of accomplishment at he end of the last day.

So what Bob said is true and I want to add on a bit. Keep in mind that a launch is your event. It is as good as you make it, the folks who run them are giving up their time to an extreme. Paying a range fee is not like paying for a vacation, if you are not willing to step up to assist in any way (and that can be as simple as helping pick up trash as you see it blowing by), you should sit in your pop up and quietly seethe (or just stay home).

I will dispute a bit that the field does not matter though. As development encroaches on the eastern side of the US, doing the large launches without listening to people whine about the trees, waiver, what-have-you is getting more and more challenging. And believe me when I tell you how wonderful it is to hear the griping commence about those things right after you volunteer to host the event.

 

[troj]

This is a bit early to announce, but the Kloudbusters have started working on the bid for LDRS 65.

Doggonit, Bob! You guys told me LDRS 63. Now I have to change my plans....

PS: If you go to LDRS this year do three things for me. One, volunteer for at least one shift of anything. two, pick up all your trash and just a bit more. And three, at the end of the launch, go seek out the launch organizers and then thank them for all their hard work. They deserved it!

Agreed!

If you're there, do your part to help the club. I've heard folks make comments along the lines of "I paid to be here, why should I have to give up my time to help?" It's easy -- if there aren't volunteers, the club would have to pay people to run the range, and LDRS would be all the more expensive. Two hours of range duty is a great way to meet new people, and it helps everyone.

-Kevin

 

[DAllen]

I <3 THIS THREAD.