ROCStock 2015

My friend Mat and I arrived this morning around 7ish and it was pretty cold. I would guess around 35 degrees or somewhere thereabouts? My fingers became numb as I was setting up the canopy. Wind was calm and it was a beautiful morning and a beautiful day. The winds were calm all day and the skies as blue as can be



Some of rockets we flew were Mat's MC 3" Twitch and my L1 Sumo



I went to the pad twice with Sumo to fly it on an H250-10 and each time the ignitor failed. Finally I bought some ignitors from Dave @ Wildman West (Thanks Dave) and it finally boosted straight! I might add that on the second time I went to the pad the launch lug fell off and it did the same on the third after I CA'ed it in place, but I just said screw it and let it go! I should have took that as a sign Unfortunately the charge ejected the motor blew it out the back and blew the elastic Estes retainer off causing it to come it ballistic. Say good bye to that beautiful paint job



I'll never use another ESTES's retainer. It worked on my cert flight so I thought nothing of it, but didn't realize how much force is behind one of those motors. The case fell to the ground, but I was very fortunate that Mat found it and not a scratch on it. Of course it was pretty soft dirt. I had flew my Initiator and had a great flight, It came down on a Topflight 30" "X" chute which I really like because I didn't have to walk that far. I think I'll buy some more.

There was a good show of people and a lot of scouts, but the line to launch was ridiculous at times. I know this is a fun hobby enjoyed at all ages, but I think part of the reason for the long lines were lack of help, but great job to the teams that worked the event! I think it would be better and probably easier on everyone if they just had a line for LPR flyers and a separate line for MPR and HPR flyers. It just seems it would make more sense to do it that way.

I've used those Estes retainers on MANY 29mm rockets and flights but I only used JB Weld and scratched the hell out of the inside of the mount and outside of the tube I glued it on. I'd GUESS your glue quit before the mount unless the motor wasn't secured tightly (so there was space for it to move). Either way, that's sad to lose a bird that way.

majordude said:

I've used those Estes retainers on MANY 29mm rockets and flights but I only used JB Weld and scratched the hell out of the inside of the mount and outside of the tube I glued it on. I'd GUESS your glue quit before the mount unless the motor wasn't secured tightly (so there was space for it to move). Either way, that's sad to lose a bird that way.

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The retainer was tight and the nose was too lose prior to flight so added a couple pieces of blue masking tape. but not all the way around the shoulder, just in sections. Just enough to take some play out. Yeah it sucks, but it happens from time to time, but I had a good time all the same.

How many days did you spend at the event? I can only handle so many hours in the sun and dry air so I was only there from 8:30-12am Saturday!

majordude said:

How many days did you spend at the event? I can only handle so many hours in the sun and dry air so I was only there from 8:30-12am Saturday!

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7am - 5pm

They need to organize the lines better as I said before. One line for LPR and other for MPR and HPR flyers

I agree! When Veni was there they did that... (not sure if was because of her input). AND they really need more LPR pads if they want to cater to the Boy Scouts and other youth groups. I don't understand why they only have two banks of LPR (front line that were always fully loaded) and two banks of ultra HP (very back line that were hardly ever used). I'd also suggest a member of the club to help the youth attach the clips because it was obvious that early in the day they all had clips that touched which meant that 70% of the rockets never launched.

Well, it was beautiful there on Saturday, it got up to maybe 65F (although it was below freezing in the early morning), with virtually no wind. Yes, the LPR lines are long, but if you're an HPR flier you can walk right up to the PM and get an assignment once you get RSO'ed (that's why the RSO's table is away from the PM/LCO tables). I suggested to the ROC board that maybe they should move the LPR fliers about 100' away, use the "old" launch system for them so they have more pads, and have a separate RSO/PM/LCO for them. The general consensus was that range crowd control would be difficult considering the large number of youths that fly there, and it would jeopardize range safety. I didn't experience any of the long delays that I've seen in the past, probably because ROC just got a new Wilson wireless launch system; the old one worked "most of the time". I don't think I waited more than 20-30 minutes, I think that's pretty good for a large event like ROCStock.

cerving said:

...but if you're an HPR flier you can walk right up to the PM and get an assignment once you get RSO'ed (that's why the RSO's table is away from the PM/LCO tables).

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Hmmm. I'm not so sure that everyone realized that. I saw some guys with some pretty big birds (HPR) standing in the long LPR line. But I was taking photos instead of flying so I'm not complaining. Frankly,, like you said, they did a good job for such a large event like ROCstock.