Woosh invites you to the April launch at Bong

Have you ever noticed how many important Space Exploration events happened in the month of April? Here are a few:

April 12, 1961 - Vostok 1 is launched by the U.S.S.R., carrying Cosmonaut Yuri A. Gargarin, the first man in space. He orbits the Earth once.

April 23, 1967 - Soviet Soyuz 1 is launched, carrying Vladimir M. Komarov. On April 24 it crashed, killing Komarov, the first spaceflight fatality.

April 12, 1981 - The first manned mission of the Space Transportation System (STS-1), Columbia , is launched.

April 4, 1983 - The space shuttle Challenger lifts off for its first mission (STS-6) and has the first American space walk in nine years. Crew: Paul Weitz, Karol Bobko, Donald Peterson, and Story Musgrave.

April 24, 1990 - Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-31, deploying the Edwin P. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) astronomical observatory.

28 April 2001: An American multimillionaire, Dennis Tito, became the first space tourist with 7 days, 22 hours and 4 minutes in space.

With all of those launches who wouldn't want to make some of your own history and come join Woosh on Saturday April 26 from 10:00am to 3:00pm at Richard Bong State Park -AKA- Bong. We'll have rails and rods of assorted sizes . Your welcome to fly LPR,MPR, and HPR.

Beside the launch we will be having the 6th annual "Steve Chester Memorial Spring Cleaning Garage Sale and Swap Meet". An event held every spring in honor of Steve, who moved away in 2009 and thoughtfully brought his entire inventory of rocket stuff to his last sod field launch, to pass them along to good homes. If you haven't done so already, dig out those un-used (or slightly used), mismatched, or excess parts you've been saving for projects you may never get to, and pass them along. Rumor has it Sather is going to have a table of freebies.

If that wasn't enough to motivate you, don't forget Tim from Wildman hobbies will be there along with the trailer of temptation housing all of your rocketry needs

Look for more information including weather related updates at www.Wooshrocketry.org

I hope everyone was able to enjoy the holiday today with friends or family. Less than a week and we have our launch and swap meet. Our equipment is clean and ready to go so I hope to see you all at Bong on Saturday. Depending on the weather there is a possibility we may be on the eastern part of the runway. Look for signs on the road once your in the park.

Lets here what you guys are looking to fly this month.

well I'm looking forward to a 2nd launch of my warthog and a 1st launch of my patriot (see pic), maybe a big Daddy.
Rex

Look forward to seeing you Rex. Hopefully I can get a picture or two of at least some of your flights.

Saturdays launch on the 26th is getting closer. Weather shows mid to upper 40's and 10 to 15 mile per hour winds.

Don't forget about the swap meet going on (see post #1) and get there early and see the clean club trailer. You can see all of the improvements and how easy it is now for all to pitch in and help set-up and take down.

Watch for signs in the park as we may be able to fly off the new runway location versus lot E.

I hear some interesting flights are planned. Chad has a 3 inch Dark-star debuting, Rex has his kit-bashed Patriot ready ( see how light that rocket is). Carl is hoping to achieve level 2. Sather will be there and who knows maybe we might see a Jay-hawk. Walt has his new science fiction creation Captain Nemo and I will be trying out my 4 inch Jart with redundant DD systems (a first for me).

For those of you who may be needing a motor, swivel, adaptor, retainer, igniter, or any number of other things, don't let that stop you from coming out as Tim and the Wildman hobbies trailer will be on sight ready to help you select what you need so you can get that rocket out to the pads.

These are but just a few of the many cool things that are happening this weekend. LPR, MPR, HPR, heck even if your not flying but want to come and just hangout.There is still time to make your plans and come hang out with Woosh at Bong on Saturday. See you there.

and of course for Walt the fun begins after his launch...finding Nemo (GDRH>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>that away)
Rex

Rex R said:

and of course for Walt the fun begins after his launch...finding Nemo (GDRH>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>that away)
Rex

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I'm looking forward to that one, hope it goes well.

I will be there.
See you all

crossfire said:

I will be there.
See you all

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Thanks for coming Gary!

crossfire said:

I will be there.
See you all

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Don't forget to bring some pics of that new granddaughter. Look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

Rrwjr said:

Saturdays launch on the 26th is getting closer. Weather shows mid to upper 40's and 10 to 15 mile per hour winds.

Don't forget about the swap meet going on (see post #1) and get there early and see the clean club trailer. You can see all of the improvements and how easy it is now for all to pitch in and help set-up and take down.

Watch for signs in the park as we may be able to fly off the new runway location versus lot E.

I hear some interesting flights are planned. Chad has a 3 inch Dark-star debuting, Rex has his kit-bashed Patriot ready ( see how light that rocket is). Carl is hoping to achieve level 2. Sather will be there and who knows maybe we might see a Jay-hawk. Walt has his new science fiction creation Captain Nemo and I will be trying out my 4 inch Jart with redundant DD systems (a first for me).

For those of you who may be needing a motor, swivel, adaptor, retainer, igniter, or any number of other things, don't let that stop you from coming out as Tim and the Wildman hobbies trailer will be on sight ready to help you select what you need so you can get that rocket out to the pads.

These are but just a few of the many cool things that are happening this weekend. LPR, MPR, HPR, heck even if your not flying but want to come and just hangout.There is still time to make your plans and come hang out with Woosh at Bong on Saturday. See you there.

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I smell a 4"Jart drag race :grin:
Anybody else in?

WILDMANRS said:

I smell a 4"Jart drag race :grin:
Anybody else in?

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I think Russ is the only one that has one, he's a shoe-in!

Thanks for the update the other day Tim!

in the midst of prepping...I did remember to pack CA & a rubber mallet .
Rex

Rex R said:

in the midst of prepping...I did remember to pack CA & a rubber mallet .
Rex

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I remembered to pack fresh batteries, load my big dowel rods into truck for knocking out 54 and 75 mm motors.

We are going to be setting up on the eastern side of the runway tomorrow according to latest news.

Nice clear Blue skies today at Bong. Decided to test out my new lens.

Wildman sets up the new big V2...

Wildman's V2

Mark Hackler's Alpha Jart - Red Motor with Mach Diamonds!

Great photos! Wish I could have been there. Alas, had to work. Then rush home after lunch and seed the GF's new lawn. I love how the Alpha Jart's flame bends on the deflector.
Was this the new launch area? How is recovery there? Better than at lot E?

Adrian

jd2cylman said:

Then rush home after lunch and seed the GF's new lawn.

Adrian

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Not sure what to make of that. But I digress. And, yes, Adrian, that was indeed lot E.

Another successful launch event at Richard Bong, finished and in the books. Awesome photos, Scott. That big lens really brings things up close and personal. Any specs on it?

Great seeing and talking with everyone today, particularly a few new faces and some we haven't seen in a while. John, welcome back. And thank you to Dean and Paul, for your generous contributions to WOOSH needs and Kelly's school rocketry program, respectively. All will get put to good use. Congratulations to Carl for his textbook perfect L2 certification flight. Thank you also to the WOOSH volunteers for range setup/teardown. and making it seem so effortless. It was the behind the scenes labor that made it all possible. Dan, thanks for Tricia's cake pan, inadvertently left behind at the Christmas Party. And to round out a superb day, I shoehorned in three successful flights on a test alphabet run ("G" thru "I") in anticipation of an attempt to keep up with Sabrina S. (you go, girl!) and a MWP "A" thru "O" attempt.

P.S. Matt... Russ and I picked out a few things we thought you might like. Enjoy, and thanks for being part of the annual WOOSH spring cleaning garage sale and swap meet.

Sather

SMR said:

Awesome photos, Scott. That big lens really brings things up close and personal. Any specs on it?

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A "plain jane" 500mm F6.3 Mirror lens - A gift from the Easter Bunny.

SMR said:

Congratulations to Carl for his textbook perfect L2 certification flight.

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Yes! Excellent flight, and likely today's "High power-Closest to the pad" winner !!! Congratulations!!! your prize = A very short walk.

great pictures Scott, video to come!

Thanks to all who attended yesterday. It looks like a number of people got some really cool stuff at the swap meet. The new clean and organized trailer worked well. Thanks to those who helped with set up and takedown of the range. A big Thanks to Dave who handled flight announcements yesterday.

Thanks to all of the flyers for some pretty memorable flights .

I am looking for a few things from yesterday. Let me know if you have any of these.

- anyone get a pic of Tim with the big rubber boots on?
- anyone get a picture of the 4 inch Jart launch with all 4 on the pads before the rail deployment of a certain Jart
- anyone get pic or movie of my Jart sitting on the pad before it finally took off?

I will go thru my pics and post soon.

With three of us competently wielding cameras now, I don't even know where to start! Guess I'll start here...

crossfire said:

I will be there.
See you all

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Thanks for bringing the other chute I needed Gary, it worked out very well!

I have some chores to do now, but I was able to eek out a shorty for Carl's certification. This is about as perfect as it gets!
[video=youtube_share;fEww2Wer7ac]https://youtu.be/fEww2Wer7ac[/video]

jd2cylman said:

Great photos! Wish I could have been there. Alas, had to work. Then rush home after lunch and seed the GF's new lawn.
Adrian

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SMR said:

Not sure what to make of that. But I digress. And, yes, Adrian, that was indeed lot E.
Sather

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The girlfriend built a new house, so, being a farmboy, and access to rental tractors and grass seeders at work, I got the job of seeding the area around the new house (lucky me). Got it done quickly and now watching it rain on it to hopefully get a good start on germination.

Adrian

Here are just a few pictures I took out at the launch yesterday. First up:

Marks Super Alpha Jart on a L1030. Looking good on the pad.




I see some smoke.



We have liftoff.



Beautiful Red tail



On its way up to 8140 feet. Nice Flight Mark.

Next up Carl's L2 Flight. A Wildman Comp 3 with a cool paint job, sitting on the pad



Ignition on first attempt. 1 step closer to L2



Plenty of power with a J430.



What goes up.......



Must come down.....



Another step closer to L2- main has deployed.



Everything is out and its a successful flight. Welcome to L2 Carl.

Chad brought out the Wildman Darkstar for its maiden flight.

Looks like there's something happening down by the motor.



Looking good in flight.



Coming down safely under chute.

Tim decided it was time to demo the new Wildman V-2.

Looks pretty nice on the pad.



Lets see it with some smoke.



I see fire underneath there.





On its way for a nice flight. There was no grass harmed in the launching of this rocket.:clap: