Rocketry in NYC

This summer I'm being transferred up to New York. I'll be living on Staten Island at Fort Wadsworth. I've visited the area a few times, and I'm not too hopeful about launch sites. The schools all have tiny fields, surrounded by houses. I've looked up the parks and found out rockets are not allowed.

I've checked the club availability, but not knowing anything about New York or New Jersey, the cities where these clubs are located, mean nothing to me. Is there a good club nearby NYC? And are there any fields on Staten Island that can be used for personal launches?

I'm afraid to hear the answers, but I need to know. I don't know what I'll do if I find that I have to drive 2 hours once a month to launch anything at all. :cry:

METRA - Tripoli Rocketry Association #94. Meets in North Jersey. Runs a monthly launch in Pine Island NY about 90 Minutes from SI. Hosts NERRF annually as well.

https://www.metrarocketclub.org

That sounds great for the larger action. I hope I'm off that weekend! Now if someone will just tell me there's a nice convenient location for LPR close by I'll be set.

Garden State Spacemodeling is probably a bit closer than METRA. I think you would just take the Outerbridge crossing into NJ. Looks like about a half hour or so.

While the parks prohibit rocketry, go back to those schools and see about permission. Even a small field is better than *no* field. You could explore saucer designs and micro to the maxx rocketry till you have the time/ambition to travel out to a CATO or METRA launch.

I met a girl recently that works for CNN. A few years ago she used to work for CNBC and they had a little "lunch hour rocket club" that would fly from a park across the Hudson, in NJ. IIRC, this park would be on your left as you got onto the NJ turnpike after exiting the Holland tunnel.

Haven't heard from him in years, but Will Safford used to have an apartment in Manhattan and managed to fly something small occasionally, though this was well before 9/11, but he mainly flew with the Long Island club, the NJ clubs and the Connecticut club.