BattlePark is back! 1st launch of 2014/15 season Nov. 7, 8, & 9

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Handeman

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Tripoli Central Virginia #25 will be hosting the first launch of the 2014/2015 season at BattlePark this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, November 7, 8, & 9th.

All launches start at 10 AM and continue to 5 PM. Sunset is about 5:10 PM this time of year and the Saturday launch may be extended. There has been some interest in a night launch with sparkies!

Note: the night time waiver is only to 3,000 ft. The day time waiver is 16,000 ft.

Ken Allen of Performance Hobbies will be the on site vendor. Kevin Dunn, Wildman VA may also be attending.


See ya all at the BattlePark!
 
Starting my sophomore year of high power rocketry. Looking forward to this weekend. Weather looks great for Saturday with a forecast of blue skies and SW wind about 5 knots. Got a Formula 98 to maiden.. :)
 
I will be there. I have been waiting all summer to get back to Battle Park, my favorite place to fly. I have a new HyperLoc 835 ready for this season. Hopefully the weather will cooperate, I am ready to fly some J and K motors this weekend.
 
I'll be there at least on Saturday, perhaps Friday. Not sure what I'll be flying yet - been too busy lately to get much done! Hope to get a few more successful test flights with the GPS tracker so that i can trust it to higher altitudes.

Any word on field conditions? are all the crops gone?
 
Red Sox nation here....I've got a new rocket named Fenway that might take its first flight this season! She was born to tear up all Yankee rockets silly enough to fly.....

I'd highly recommend that any Yankees rockets stay home if they'd like to fly again. Fenway is hungry!

I'll see you guys This weekend.
 
The corn on the left side of the road where we setup has been harvested. I don't know if the soybeans on the right side have been harvested or not. We maybe setting up on the left side until the soybeans are harvested.

Ben
 
FYI- My buddy talked to Ken and he is going to be there Friday only. He will be in South Carolina for another launch Sat/Sun. I believe Kevin will there Sat/Sun.

How early do you guys get there if I wanted to help set up?
 
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We start setting up around 9:30.

Mike called and said all of the crops have been harvested. We have a clear field. Weather for the weekend looks great.
 
This will be the start of my second season too. I have a couple new birds but the big project I was hoping to reveal will have to wait because it got moved down the priority list. Oh well, being mostly a spectator is pretty fun too.
 
It was a little windy on friday, but a few brave souls got in some very nice flights, I was too chicken, but i did fly a Der Red max on a C6-5, which is always fun. Word is we are going to be joined by the Cub scouts with Alpha IIIs on saturday. I think I will bring my stretched Alpha III and fly it on an aerotech D21. :)
 
Thanks for the report. How are the grounds with the rain?

Me and Mike Kitto will be there Sunday. Mike has to work OT tomorrow (we've got too many Mikes in the club). LOL Anyways This may give me enough time to finish the Madcow Twitch I got in the mail yesterday.

Edit- Youngest son has Strep Throat. I'm out for this weekend. :(
 
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Thanks for the report. How are the grounds with the rain?

Me and Mike Kitto will be there Sunday. Mike has to work OT tomorrow (we've got too many Mikes in the club). LOL Anyways This may give me enough time to finish the Madcow Twitch I got in the mail yesterday.

The ground was actually pretty dry, no mud to speak of. The field is covered with cut down soybeans, and has not been plowed under. There was still some corn out there, but the harvester was out there working so there will be less tomorrow.
 
What a perfect day Sunday was. Almost no wind. I shot my Leviathan on a H250G and it almost disappeared. Landed under 80 ft. from the pad. My joy of being the closest to the pad was very short lived when Kurt landed his Spirit of 76 only 45 ft from his pad about a minute later.

Mitch flew a nice EX M from the away cell and Brian has some very cool single and two stage flights with L2 EX motors. My Grapeshot hit 663 mph on the way to 7,380 ft. on a K675 Skidmark.

A very good weekend for launching at BattlePark.
 
I'm planning on bringing an unusual EX propellant Sunday for static test and possibly a flight. There should be essentially zero smoke trail. I also need to renew my membership in the club. It's been too long since I've been to Battle Park.

Gerald
 
Aviation forecast called for winds starting at 3 mph and peaking at 8 about 13:00 and dropping to 3 mph again by 16:00. I don't think we had a breeze above 3 or 4 mph all day, and then only a couple of breezes about mid-day. It was dead calm most of the day. Unfortunately that was only under about 2,500 ft. Once above that, it was strong north winds blowing every thing straight south.

The calm winds at low altitude made it a lot of fun for most folks, especially the kids on the LPR pads.
 
Great day at BattlePark, again! There was little wind at low altitudes, but the winds aloft were strong and heading south above 3000 ft.

Had some great flights, lots of K & Ls Jerry O flew his 2 stage with 4 L motors in the booster and a L motor in the upper stage. The booster went about 5,000 ft and the sustainer was around 10,000. Everything recovered fine.
 
Did they ever find Ben's rocket? I left after we put everything away in the sea container, I was exhausted.
 
I heard it's hung up in the trees to the east.

Great day today. Four high power flights and two maidens. Thanks to all the club members who made it happen!!!
 
It wasn't in the trees. The rocket had GPS tracking so we have a fix. We were all over the area but didn't have an exact fix on where WE were! I had LOS when it came down. We also used RDF. Everything agreed as to the location. It is one tangled area of brush, trees, and briars. One would have to be almost right on top of the rocket to see it. We were probably well within 50 feet of it a number of times and just didn't spot it. We had to return to have enough light to get back. It's a bit tricky getting around down there.

My static test went well. The initial Kn looked about perfect. I decided to save the rest of the grains and make a flight motor or two instead of doing more characterization burns.

Gerald
 
We found my rocket via the GPS coordinates Jeff entered into GPS Essentials on his cell phone. Its in a tree 50' above the ground. Chain saw recovery planned for the weekend.

The RRC3 was beeping out 7000 and change.

Another great weekend of flying at Battle Park.

Ben
 
Great day at BattlePark, again! There was little wind at low altitudes, but the winds aloft were strong and heading south above 3000 ft.

Had some great flights, lots of K & Ls Jerry O flew his 2 stage with 4 L motors in the booster and a L motor in the upper stage. The booster went about 5,000 ft and the sustainer was around 10,000. Everything recovered fine.

Sounds like a good weekend.

I'd like to hear more about Jerry's project.

Unfortunately I couldn't make this one...we are in the final stages of a major renovation on our house (Janet had done all the design and construction drawings so we decided to do everything we needed to do at one time so we can "age in place" - without moving to a different house in the future) and everything is in storage until we move back in.

Hope to be back in the house soon - with access to my stuff!
Like to fly something.
 
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We found my rocket via the GPS coordinates Jeff entered into GPS Essentials on his cell phone. Its in a tree 50' above the ground. Chain saw recovery planned for the weekend.

The RRC3 was beeping out 7000 and change.

Another great weekend of flying at Battle Park.

Ben

Rocket and motor?
 
So people can go out there on a non-launch weekend and search for missing birds and whatnot?
 
MacQ - yes rocket and motor.

We have a really good relationship with the land owners. We did check with him before we went on the property to look for the rocket. After we found the rocket, we asked if it was OK if we came back to recover the rocket. He said it was and we can cut the tree down if needed.

At the launch another land owner came by with a rocket he found on his property.

Needless to say we work at maintaining this relationship with all of the land owners.

Ben
 
Hey Guys, Mike Kitto lost a rocket this weekend in the general area where Ben's bird ended up. It was a smaller scratch built (I'm guessing about 40 inches) violet colored rocket. 38mm with a silver streamer. If anyone finds it, would appreciate a heads up.

Here is a pic (I believe) of Jerry's bird that I snapped while the crew was preparing it for launch.

I'm sure Ben will correct me if I'm wrong but I believe he flew a Rocketry Warehouse Stinger 6 on a L motor on his second flight. He had two very nice flights with that bird on Sunday.

IMG_0130.jpg
 
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