First off, welcome to TRF!
Recently I've started to build a much bigger rocket, following Dan Pollino's book 'I still have all my fingers'. I understand there are certain rules to follow with regard to launching a rocket this size. What's the best way to launch a rocket like this safely and legally?
I picked up that book as well, though I haven't really taken a good look at it. My understanding is that the motor part of it isn't legal in CA, and I believe actually a motor in a PVC case isn't allowed anywhere as it's pretty dangerous. But I'm not the expert on these things so I should let others talk on this. Note also that this forum doesn't allow discussion of home-built motors except in the Research forum, which requires you to already be a L2 to join. But I assume saying that it's not okay isn't against the rules since ultimately we all care about safety of the flyer and anyone (or anything) around them as well.
Is it best if I join a local club? I live in Northern California, if that matters, but a quick trip to SoCal is quite doable (4hr30min to Mojave City from here).
I would
definitely say yes. I'm not quite sure where that puts you, I also live in NorCal (Bay Area) but Mojave City (AZ?) is 8h away for me. There are at least two great clubs in north/central CA,
LUNAR is a bit closer to the Bay Area and does HPR launches out of Farmington (near Stockton) during the winter months (the rest of the year the field is too much of a fire risk), I went to my first launch there 12/2014 and it was fantastic, I also made the March and April launches after missing January and February due to vacations. The field is great, and at least this year the weather (and turnout) was great at every launch. They also do monthly LPR launches at Moffett field (Mountain View).
There's also
Tripoli Central California, which launches at Helm, CA (near Fresno, might be closest to you I'd guess). They try to do a launch every month, though sometimes they have trouble getting enough people to help out (most specifically it seems to be someone to take the equipment trailer to the site) or do a cleaning party instead of a launch before a bigger launch. They do two multi-day (Friday-Sunday, with night launches Saturday night) events each year, Dairy Aire in mid-May and October Skies in mid-October. I went to OS last year for the Saturday part, again a great turnout and a great site for launching, the farm was irrigating the field next to the launch which made things pretty messy (especially when the wind blew in that direction) but that was my only gripe. Weather unfortunately caused DA to cancel this year. I also did two of their monthly launches.
Both groups are very welcoming to new folks (and members of either cert org [
NAR and
Tripoli]) even though each group is affiliated with one of them, and you can fly without being a member of either club, TCC doesn't even have paying members, you just pay for each launch you attend if you plan to fly), though if you build the rocket from that book I'm pretty sure neither group will let you fly it at any of their events. They both run mailing lists / have email contacts, so it would probably be best to find out before you get too far along. You will of course have to follow the rules of the levels, so you'll have to work up to the larger motors and become a member of at least one of the cert orgs to get your L1 (and maintain membership to keep your level). Any K motor would require a L2, and I doubt any group would let you certify on a non-commercial K motor. There are a lot of ways to get into HPR that I think are less frowned-upon by our state (and the community in general). Believe me, the launches are a lot of fun to attend even if you don't have anything to fly yourself (okay, I've usually gone with rockets, though they haven't always come back in one piece when I was done.
). And there are a good number of people on this forum who attend those launches as well. But they take care of the waivers, provide all of the launch equipment, consider conditions for fires (very important in our state, especially with our drought), etc. So you can just go and fly (and helping out at the event is certainly encouraged as well, I've helped with setup and tear-down, and served as lookout at LUNAR's field). At the very least I would recommend checking one out even if you don't have anything to fly, though if you have model rockets all of these launches have low-power pads as well so you can show off what you have. The next launch from these two groups should be TCC on 6/20, I'm planning to go and hopefully get my L2 there.
I'm not as familiar with the other groups/launches in SoCal/NV/AZ, but I will say I got my introduction to HPR at the Black Rock Desert, and that is an experience of itself. I've gone to
XPRS 3 years now (and will keep going, I do all 3 days for this one since its a longer drive for me, the first time I went purely as a spectator for the 3 days and it was still a lot of fun), AeroPac and other groups launch from that site as well (I think TCC is working on doing some launches from there as well). I've seen more exotic rockets at XPRS (and they get a much higher waiver there than at the Farmington or Helm fields), including some built entirely of PVC though I'd suspect the motor was still a 'proper' motor, though I know there have been home-built motors at these launches also (probably just not in PVC cases). It seems like NV's rules here aren't as strict (and I probably have the terminology wrong, XPRS and some other Black Rock launches are run as TRA Research [or EX?] events which allows some things that other launches do not, but I think you need to be a TRA L2 to take advantage of those), though you'd have to build the motor in NV as I understand it since it wouldn't be allowed in CA. Sorry for not being more clear on some of this, since I'm not there yet I haven't put as much focus on it, I just know what I can't do.
I got started with HPR building one of
Giant Leap Rocketry's kits, the Almost Ready to Fly kits are complete and very easy to build (I've built the T-Bolt and Firestorm 54 kits), I got my L1 cert on my first flight. I've since moved on to more complicated kits from other vendors, though the kits themselves are still pretty easy, some come with detailed instructions, others with nothing at all, most don't give you
all the bits you need (most often some parts of the recovery system are not included, followed by motor retention), so you have to make some decisions on your own and pick up the missing bits. And of course there's always scratch building that's totally up to you (but whether you can fly it or not is up to the officers responsible for the launch event). But I would definitely recommend sticking with commercial motors (especially if you plan to launch in CA, not even all of the commercial motors are legal in CA), all of the launches I've mentioned above are usually attended by at least one vendor (
Bay Area Rocketry), he has a great stock of both AeroTech and Cessaroni motors, AT even has a 'DMS' line that you can fly without needing any motor casings/closures/etc., just prep the ejection charge, load the motor and fly.
I hope that helps, and hope to see you at a future launch!
