cold weather rocketry

I would like to hear stories of people who fly in cold weather.....by cold weather I mean below about 32 F ... stories about ice and snow seem appropriate for this time of year.

The reason I ask this, recently our club, the Bluegrass Rocketry Society (BRS-BluesRockS) had a launch in which the actual temperature was well below 32F during the entire launch periods.... if you factored in wind chill, the temperature hovered around 0 F ! most of the day!. I consider this pretty hard core rocketeers!

( I didn't attend because with weather like that I go into hibernation)

anybody got any good stories, comments, suggestions,recommendations,ideas, etc
tia

terry dean
nar 16158

My old club (the Goddard Society) used to hold a winter meet on a frozen lake

It was a hoot too.

Here's an old pic from one of our launches

Left to right:
Sid Maxwell
unknown little girl
unknown guy
Gary Hughes
Brian McCarthy
Mark Sheehy

https://cia-rocketry.smugmug.com/gallery/1155010#53893160

Here's a photo (Greg Smith took I think) of me walking back with
my all wood rocket "Woody". The wind chill and air temp was
well below freezing. Still we had some good flights that day.

edit add: My Champaign club flies all year long and even has a
New Years Day launch. My Peoria club now flies all
year but the local road is snowed in right now and we
can't get to the field. Wind is also a factor at that field
since it's out in the middle of farm fields. If it's too cold
and windy we won't fly.


William

MASA flies year round. Temps don't really matter. We have flown with temps in the teens, as long as the winds aren't howling. We just dress for it. ALWAYS have a bag of baby powder for the plastic chutes(they don't like to cooperate when it's cold) or use nylon chutes.
The snow is nice to help cushion the errant rocket. Winter is not the time to fly white rockets for obvious reasons.

get the rocket up quick because the chute freezes pretty quick. On the other hand great contrails at -20 to -49C
Cheers
fred

We launch all year around. the coldest was a day when it was 5 degrees F when we arrived and warmed up to a balmy 13 by the end of the launch

Check out the CATO 121 report here for another recent one.

We are launching this Saturday after this week's ice storm.

The Jackson Model Rocketry Club flies in cold weather all the time, as we fly every month all year.

here is a neat video of flying Hybrids in the cold

Playin' With Cold Weasels

Hi Art,
That was a great video. The second weasel made a distinct noise I frequently hear after a good burrito
Cheers
fred

Originally posted by shockwaveriderz

( I didn't attend because with weather like that I go into hibernation)

Click to expand...

I agree... The last launch I ATTEMPTED to attend was in November... I spent the entire time burried in Zog43editor's folding chair whining about how cold I was. HE launched one of my models for me and then I went home... Thanks Kevin !

People say "But you are from New York" and I say "Yeah, and in the winter I kept my butt inside!"

I will not launch in temperatures under 50 degrees!!!

-Whimp

Originally posted by Art Upton
The Jackson Model Rocketry Club flies in cold weather all the time, as we fly every month all year.

here is a neat video of flying Hybrids in the cold

Playin' With Cold Weasels

Click to expand...

Not to mention some people wear shorts outside when its single digits

Couldnt find the video

Originally posted by UncMikesRktShk
Not to mention some people wear shorts outside when its single digits

Couldnt find the video

Click to expand...

Thanks for reminding me Mike !

Here are the videos I did that snowy day, one of them has someone wearing shorts !

More JMRC SNOW FUN

Mary & I don't do as much Really cold weather outdoor stuff as we used to. I like flying year round... she...not so much
I was planning on attending this weekends Narhams launch but the vans still stuck in the alley from the Ice storm so this weekend will be spent digging it out instead the City as ask me to MOVE it or LOSE it...Doh!
Maybe next month We'll get to fly something new.

Dat's ok John- we are scrubbed until the 24th. It's fun watching Scott try and stay warm on those cold days.

kj

Originally posted by zog43editor
Dat's ok John- we are scrubbed until the 24th. It's fun watching Scott try and stay warm on those cold days.

kj

Click to expand...

Sorry, but you will not see my bee-hind out there until at least April.

-Chilly

Originally posted by zog43editor
Dat's ok John- we are scrubbed until the 24th. It's fun watching Scott try and stay warm on those cold days.

kj

Click to expand...

KEWL! or maybe COLD! tee he he Maybe we'll be able to make it next week!

OH come on Scott, bundle up and come on out... remember if you toes are cold put on a Hat but a pair of wood socks INSIDE a pair of cotton will keep your toes toasty You tush is your concern but a pair of thermal do a good job in that regard as well.
Shoot the way the weathers been running it's liable to be 50 next weekend Come on bud...we'll have hot coffee and tea i'm sure

Originally posted by Micromeister
......but a pair of wood socks INSIDE a pair of cotton will keep your toes toasty

Click to expand...

Micro,

Where can I get some of these wood socks?

Do you light them on fire to keep your toes toasty.

I had to use suncreen yesterday for our launch. It was "nice" at sunrise and pretty warm within an hour.

Neener-neener.


https://www.weatherunderground.com/...tml?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA

How is this for dedicated?

We arrived on the wind-swept plains of Sterling CT on 2/17 after the Valentine's day ice storm. It was around 20 defgrees and the field was a sheet of ice. Then the sun came out and we realized that the ice was actually a thin layer of water on top of frozen "fertilizer". Yup we were setting up to launch on a field covered with flash frozen poop.

Now it gets fun. I get a call from our trailer god (PKMDOTCOM over here)

"Al we got a problem - I think I just blew a tire on the trailer"

Yippee...

But wait, there's more: Another call tells me no, the tire is fine, the axle is broke.

Pass the Tequila...

Then I gather a recovery team and we head down to offload the trailer and my freaking electric window won't go up. so I drive 20 miles with the window down.

Shoulda stayed in bed...

We finally get everything set up and a wind gust tears my rocket off the pad.

That's it, I'm gonna LCO for the rest of the day.

Then the sun comes out melts a thin layer of water, which immediately refreezes giving us the Zamboni effect on our frozen sewer slush

Then we start launching. I think the failure rate was about 60% They blew up, blew away, recovery systems did not work right, if it could go wrong it did.

And we still spent the whole day there

The launch was christened "The Great St Valentine's Day Rocket Massacre"

It took two car washes to get the stench off my undercarriage.

And we all still declared it was fun.

We must be nuts.

Come Fred, fly up here and launch with the real hairy chested men!