Oktoberfest - Las Vegas

crtbeas said:

Back from vacation, new granddaughter comes before any rocket launch... That being said, Thanks Mark and Jim for keeping all up to date as best as you could.....

The moved Oktoberfest Launch this Sat - Sun will be under TRA Research Rules....

Sorry for all the trouble this caused everyone and for this happening at all and working not to let this happen again... Getting along good with newest BLM Rec Manger... Springfest dates are locked in, third weekend in March.
I myself also have to work this weekend but will try to be out Saturday morning for a few hours.

Again like to Thank all for the help in securing new waiver, those of you who were keeping all updated as best you could and the support from all TRA and NAR members.

Again Thanks,

Curt Beasley
President Tripoli Vegas

Click to expand...

I am turning 50 on MARCH 20th ! Im GOING TO VEGAS !!!!!!!!!!! :wave:

Maybe I should get my Ultimate done and certed in case someone wants to show up with a Birthday 'O' motor for the Five Oh flight

YEAH BUDDY !

Kenny

Oh almost forgot, our resident celebrity Dr TubeFin Larry Brand planned a trip to Vegas last weekend.

I don't know what he told the wife but he booked Friday night at the Gold Strike and Sat - Monday at the Luxor, so he was planning on 'stopping by' the launch before the dates were changed to protect the innocent.

This is an except from his personal field report from Saturday :

JEAN - lake bed is in dry condition and hard as concrete. The lantern
festival people did a good job of cleaning up their sh*t - I took home one
of the huge burned-out paper balloons as a sovernir,

Click to expand...

Kenny

Launch update – Was called by BLM to confirm launch and waiver was Sat & Sun, because there will be a photo crew on lake bed Friday. Not sure where they will be setup/filming. BLM does know that some club members will be arriving Friday for launch this weekend. Please show them the utmost respect as I know you will, watch speed limit on lake bed (25 mph) and if launching any low power rockets make sure that they do not interfere with their photo shoot…

Thanks – Curt B

It's getting closer!

Given all the go/no-go happenings regarding this launch, both the launch itself as well as my own attempts to have the time available - well you know that scene from "Contact" where everything seems on the edge of complete disaster and Jodie Foster keeps saying "I'm OK to go" in the midst of all the commotion? Everything is about to rip to shreds, the Launch Control Director literally has his finger on the "abort" switch, it's total chaos, and she keeps straining to say "I'm OK to go" over and over? You know the one.

That's what I'm feeling right now.

I'm OK to go.

s6

Wind wise, Friday and Sunday look like the days to launch. Saturday is launchable, by the rules, but iffy in reality. I can say from experience that windy landings on the lake bed make for broken or banged up rockets.

Dave and I made it last night, and will be out on the lakebed shortly.

We did a couple of selfies had a dessert and nightcap out on the town before heading back to the Gold Strike

Kenny

While I was only at the launch today, awesome time! Great to meet a few of you in person. I believe two people cert'd L3 this weekend despite the moderate winds. Lauren and I had a few, great flights. The Aerotech K456DM seemed purpose made for my BSD Thor 4"--slow but stable lift-off just almost out of sight.

Get ready for Springfest! Might be (another) L3 attempt in the works for me...question is, should it be Jihad This with an M1297, or a to-be-built Mad Dog 6 with an M1939??

Safely Home !

Made real good time from the lake bed to the house, Got things unpacked and put away, got a shower and had a great dinner!!!

As always, had a great time with the Tripoli Vegas gang, and everyone that made the trip.

Yes there were two successful L3 Flights -
Congratulations Miles and Fred !!!

Mark - Look forward to which ever you decide to fly !

CaveDuck Dave and I are back safe and sound..dropped him of couple of hours ago, got unloaded and hit the showers.

We had a great time and enjoyed meeting & seeing so many TRFers out on the playa this weekend.

Kenny

Well it was a launch.

The good:
As always, the Vegas TRA folk are good people to "camp out in the desert" with. They run a launch that has a nice relaxed atmosphere with the focus on people enjoying themselves. Jean lakebed is an excellent place for flying. The Saturday night potluck is really nice.

Best of all was seeing and meeting lots of TRF folk (along with some of the local flyers who don't have an active presence here on the forum). My camp neighbors were Wayco and Hardline. A lot of you "know" Wayne and Sharon from all of their great posts/projects here on TRF. You most likely thought "I bet they would be really cool folks to meet and hang with" - and you would be right. Also fun to meet and see what they were flying: jus_rockets, KenRico, CaveDuck, Viperfixr, rdbones, and more.

I flew my 4" carbon stubby (LacSar KB) on a beautiful I-100 longburn red that just seem to burn forever. My 4 way cluster (Swarmprince) also flew, (with some mixed results). And I put my carbonite 38mm minimum diameter (Tepes) on it's first flight to 9200' which was fun. Wish I could have flown a lot more, but ANY flying is better than none.

There were some cool flights from others there including a few (successful) L3 cert flights, and a couple of great night rockets.

Also got to meet (and give some of my money to) the good folk at Bay Area Rocketry - an excellent onsite vendor!

The bad:
Wind - LOTS of wind. Duststorms - yuck. A whole lot of down time with no one flying - all of us hunkered down seeking some shelter from all that wind and dust. Really, we all spent the vast majority of our time NOT flying due to the wind.

There were quite a few other people using the lakebed which cut into our flying time even more - including at TV commercial shoot, a lot of motorcycles/ATV's/etc, and some jackass in a plane that kept flying over the launch sight at pretty low altitude (someone said it was a student pilot, but I don't know where they got that info from).

Did I mention the wind?

The ugly:
This happened:

Swarmprince is hurt pretty bad. This makes me sad.
(full story here, post #18: https://www.rocketryforum.com/showt...Swarmprince-4-way-cluster&p=779659#post779659)

All in all though, I got to fly some rockets and meet some other cool folk doing the same, so it's all good.

Kudos to the TRA Vegas folks who went through a LOT of stress and hassle to make this launch happen at all. Thanks to you guys for doing it. Now next time, can you do something about the wind?

s6

I wanted to say that my family really enjoyed the launch and meeting the friendly folks there. It made my L3 cert. enjoyable/survivable.

Here is a screen capture of the launch site from the Flying Pumpkin. (The time stamp on the pic is off by an hour.)

Miles

There we go ! Now my car is even cooler. ..

Had to wash the lakebed off the car first !

Kenny

Just keep in mind, they got some heavy rain and flooding and washouts in Aug. Oct.
Might not be that easy, just sayin

Wish I could be there!