Launch Sites....

When I flew rockets as a young'un, I lived in a small NC town and we had our choice of huge fields to fly in.

Now I live in Atlanta, and good launch real estate is hard to find.

Now my church has an area of land out behind it that is roughly the size of three small baseball fields (which is what they eventually will be).

Somebody help my ignorance: would this be a large enough space to fly in, or would I be at unusually high risk for losing rockets?

A lot depends on what you want to fly, and on what engine size. The recommended field size is dependent upon the engines you use.

In not knowing the precise dimensions of your field, from the sounds of it, you should be able to safely fly A, and maybe some B engines with success - and dependent upon winds.

Here is the advice we provide to folks in California. Your state and local regulations will be different, BUT field sizes and non-annoying the neighbors are universal.

I hope is is of some use.

https://home.earthlink.net/~mebowitz/siteaid.pdf

Originally posted by Mark IX Fan
When I flew rockets as a young'un, I lived in a small NC town and we had our choice of huge fields to fly in.

Now I live in Atlanta, and good launch real estate is hard to find.

Now my church has an area of land out behind it that is roughly the size of three small baseball fields (which is what they eventually will be).

Somebody help my ignorance: would this be a large enough space to fly in, or would I be at unusually high risk for losing rockets?

Click to expand...

Motor size is a big part of it, but you can still lose some designs even on A and B motors

What you might consider is flying designs that don't go too high like the Mars Outlander or Port-a-shot added to the mix.

While the micro 1/2 A stuff seems like the first choice, we've found they were also the easiest to lose. Big, heavy, low and slow seems the safest bet for smaller fields.

Depends on your rocket and motor. Too high and you come down
somewhere you don't want to.

I have flown a Art Applewhite saucer with a F motor in a single
baseball field size area. It was the biggest motor flown for that
demo launch for a group of kids. It landed in the field.

Just watch the wind and setup location.

William

Originally posted by WillCarney
Depends on your rocket and motor. Too high and you come down
somewhere you don't want to.

I have flown a Art Applewhite saucer with a F motor in a single
baseball field size area. It was the biggest motor flown for that
demo launch for a group of kids. It landed in the field.

Just watch the wind and setup location.

William

Click to expand...

Art's saucers were what I was about to recommend! They're top quality and they're cheap too! If you get one, you can use the big motors you've always wanted to try without losing it! That's what I'm doing with my RMS stuff. At the next launch (I hope its soon) with my buddy, I'm going to try out Aerotech's RMS products!

Like people already said, depends on the motor, and size.
Of course, it also depends on how good the parachute is, winds, etc.
I will say I flew an Estes Helicat (gone now ) in a tiny school field and it was recovered safely with a c engine.
The Quest flash, however, was not.

If you mean lose like you can find them, I have found if I can keep visual contact with them...most of the time I can find them.
One thing I have found VERY helpful is a compass. I point the compass in the direction of the decent, then rotate the ring to north and get a simple heading.
A lensatic compass work better for me because I can "aim" it better.

If you mean lose as it you know where it is but you can't get it (tree, house etc).
On a calm day half the height of the launch...that's my area.
On a mostly calm but a little breeze, the height of the launch is my safe area.

If I have a constant breezy, I figure 2-3x the height of the launch These are with low powered rockets. With mostly chutes and coming in pretty light.
There seems to be a very fine skill in reading the wind and launching at the right time and direction to place your rocket in a specific area.

Originally posted by Mark IX Fan
When I flew rockets as a young'un, I lived in a small NC town and we had our choice of huge fields to fly in.

Now I live in Atlanta, and good launch real estate is hard to find.

Now my church has an area of land out behind it that is roughly the size of three small baseball fields (which is what they eventually will be).

Somebody help my ignorance: would this be a large enough space to fly in, or would I be at unusually high risk for losing rockets?

Click to expand...

Hey CQ
You seem to be avery bright and energetic fellow I would suggest you forget in your reply the sticky finger of fate or as some would call it luck The compass idea by the way sounds real good
Cheers
fred

I have flown D's in my yard with a bigger rocket. It does maybe 400-500 feet.

Yes. Many clubs on small fields use an altitude limit as well as the standard Safety Code limit for power level. The altitude limit allows big fat rockets to fly with the maximum power level allowed by the Safety Code for that field size, but it limits the power level for lightweight and low drag models. That way they do not fly off the allowed launch and recovery area. Rockets drifting into people's backyards or onto busy highways are a bad thing.

You can make a simple table that lists motors on one side and body tubes on the other and then fill in the table with the minimum wieghts needed to stay below the altitude you selected.

Originally posted by plasticpaul
I have flown D's in my yard with a bigger rocket. It does maybe 400-500 feet.

Click to expand...