TCC - Tripoli Central California - October Skies Oct 20-22 - near Helm, CA (Fresno)

TCC - Tripoli Central California will be hosting their ever popular October Skies Launch, October, 20-22 on the Maddox Dairy near Helm, CA. Come and launch at host site for LDRS 2018.

See website for launch details and location.

Subscribe to email group to get updates about launch, vendors, and events that weekend.

Update from Club President.

October Skies is right around the corner, some notes/preparation for launch!

RSO/LCO and Launch Duty Signup
- Please sign up for launch duty - definitely need help on Saturday:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A6n91005NWaMK5ape27fTqeW3BXK-T7m1qoldDMnRA8/edit?usp=sharing

Portapotties
- I will get 2 double wides as usual

T-Shirts
- Please sign up here for T-Shirts - we are going to give preference to people who sign up and since we're getting a lot extra,
after the launch - we won't get so much this year. Please make sure you have your name on the list or you may miss getting a shirt!


Night Launch
- We plan to have a night launch; make sure you have lights on all separable airframe components! We go over this a lot but suffice
it to say, a nosecone is separable so putting a light inside the rocket *does not* qualify. Think about it. We have the waiver to altitude
and I'm still waiting to RSO for the Presidents challenge at night!

Nike Drag Race
- With the new Dragrace rules, we will need to limit the # of concurrent flights. In simple terms, if we have 5 fliers, they will
be out at 500' - if we have 10 fliers, we will be out at 1000' - obviously, we will need to take the Away pad setup and how ever
many pads so we will need to plan this. I've made a list of fliers here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CBH27Y1mOllzupDjM86ReUMfs8cqgdTGxYz4vFWNLP8/edit?usp=sharing

Cert Flights
- Everyone who wants to cert, please send an email offline to Bruce, Richard and me (email on website). We'd like to get a headcount
so we can plan our coverage over the weekend.

Special Flights
- Anyone doing Presidents challenge or any special flights, let me know - I'd like to get some forums update on the website

Food Vendors
- Mike Smith and I are investigating our options here; we'll have a more detailed update soon.

robbdm said:

TCC - Tripoli Central California will be hosting their ever popular October Skies Launch, October, 20-22 on the Maddox Dairy near Helm, CA. Come and launch at host site for LDRS 2018.

See website for launch details and location.

Subscribe to email group to get updates about launch, vendors, and events that weekend.

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Checked out the website, but couldn't find how to subscribe to the email group. Is this Wordpress?
Last post on the forum was 10 months ago...

Wayco said:

Checked out the website, but couldn't find how to subscribe to the email group. Is this Wordpress?
Last post on the forum was 10 months ago...

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Try https://www.freelists.org/list/tccrockets this link....

Hi Wayne, saw your post on the email list, figured I'd not respond there as James (club prez) is usually pretty quick to respond, but I will comment here. I've been going to most of the TCC launches for the past 3 years, it's always been at the same set of fields, but it is a rather large farm, so we do move around based on which fields are 'active', or currently being irrigated/insecticide'd, etc. Recently we've been just south of the train tracks, my first OS 3 years ago was on the southern end of that same "block", and at least once we were a bit farther west, where the tracks start curving northwest. But Dairy Aire 2016 was north of Kamm Ave in a rather different spot. So we largely go where the landowner tells us to go, but it's all basically the same as it's a large, flat area, and most of the fields are alfafa or other fairly low stuff, though the field where the tracks bend is currently planted with small trees (not a problem yet, may be a problem in a few years I guess, though the wind doesn't generally blow in that direction, it's typically more to the south to east).

Wayco said:

Thanks Will, just the kind of info. I'm looking for.
Things are looking good as far as Sharon's work goes. We just got reservations at Harris Ranch, nice room with a king bed. We plan to make the 9 hour drive on Thursday, and hopefully give you guys a hand setting up the range on Friday, if that's how you do it there.

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Harris Ranch is THE place to stay! Great restaurant, cool pool, not too awfully far from the launch field.

Haven't been willing to pay for Harris Ranch myself, I've usually stayed at a Comfort Inn in the SW corner of Fresno, but it's apparently changed to a Motel 6 since last October. The chains associated with CI aren't anywhere else nearby, so I picked the Motel 6 across I-5 from Harris Ranch. It's a ~2:10 drive for me, so I'll make the trip Friday morning to get there for setup, and extra help is always appreciated. See you there!

I've stayed at the Motel in Coalinga and the Apricot Inn. Both are serviceable if you're just looking for a place to sleep.

Weather Friday is improving... possibility of rain has dropped from 60% a few days ago to 15% now..... Saturday and Sunday clear and sunny.. temp highs in the low 70's and mid 40's at night. Watch website and sign up club emails to stay up to date.

robbdm said:

Weather Friday is improving... possibility of rain has dropped from 60% a few days ago to 15% now..... Saturday and Sunday clear and sunny.. temp highs in the low 70's and mid 40's at night. Watch website and sign up club emails to stay up to date.

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We are a GO for launch! Packing the truck this morning. Limiting our rockets to 6 each, plus Sharon's Funk Night Saucer!
Should be pulling into Harris Ranch around 2 pm on Thursday, TOMORROW! Will anybody be around?
Our forecast predicts windy conditions on Friday, but otherwise good for the rest of the weekend.

PM sent to Will Ferry.

Friday's weather took turn for worse.... windy and possibility of rain increased.

We are launching, one flight so far. Breezy and a little bit of mud on the field.

jimn said:

We are launching, one flight so far. Breezy and a little bit of mud on the field.

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That first flight was my dual deploy Argent with an H115 dark matter motor. Sharon was right behind me with her Jimbo jart on a K456 dark matter. I’m gonna try to add a picture from my phone, don’t know if that will work.

Saturday was great! Started out calm, but did get a little bit breezy as the day wore on. Some flights were weather-cocking to the north a bit, but over all, it was a pretty darn nice day. I had a ball on the mike for a good part of the day. Nothin' like lighting AP all day.

Congratulations to the newly minted L3 flyers, please note that is plural, and congrats to several new L1's and L2's! Lot of folks out there having a darn good time. I had to hit the road before the evening activities, but I'm sure the night launch went well.

Also want to congratulate the folks at TCC for putting on another great launch. Great job, everybody!

Great launch as always, thanks TCC.

Here are onboard and ground based videos of the Ventris SRB.

[video]https://youtu.be/2C74Lhou9zw[/video]

https://youtu.be/UwY_NR4QIjE

All three Estes motors lit but the boosters did not drop off as cleanly as the initial launch. We'll keep working on it.

Was nice to meet Wayco and Hardline who were as pleasant as any people you would want to meet.


After walking downwind through the dirt clods for 15 minutes (felt like an hour), I spotted my Scarab 54 that had an early main chute deploy. Right next to it was an Aerotech Barracuda with no chute deployed. I brought both back and turned in the Barracuda at the LCO table. Later, the owner came up and said he lost it in the sun. Amazing how far some rockets can "surf" on just their fins.


One of the many M motor flights. Those are always impressive to experience.

Hey thanks folks, I'll spend more time on the forum and try to be more responsive in the future.
-James

Mr G said:

Great launch as always, thanks TCC.

Was nice to meet Wayco and Hardline who were as pleasant as any people you would want to meet.

View attachment 330553
One of the many M motor flights. Those are always impressive to experience.

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That might have been Jughead on an M1101. Landed almost a mile away in a Pistachio grove. I think that was my third or fourth flight on Saturday. We only got two flights off on Friday, got a bit windy in the afternoon.

It was great to see you again Mr. G, Airfest to TCC is quite a span between launches.
Here is the pic I tried to post above, Sharon with her Jimbo Jart:


It was great flying with TCC, excellent equipment, with an awesome group of people that ran one of the best launches we have ever attended. Can't wait to see what you come up with for LDRS!

Thank you Wayne and Sharon, had a great time! Looking forward to seeing you folks at LDRS.
I posted a shot or two of you guys on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/tccrockets

Wayco said:

That might have been Jughead on an M1101. Landed almost a mile away in a Pistachio grove. I think that was my third or fourth flight on Saturday. We only got two flights off on Friday, got a bit windy in the afternoon.

It was great to see you again Mr. G, Airfest to TCC is quite a span between launches.
Here is the pic I tried to post above, Sharon with her Jimbo Jart:

It was great flying with TCC, excellent equipment, with an awesome group of people that ran one of the best launches we have ever attended. Can't wait to see what you come up with for LDRS!

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