TCC October Skies - Oct 17-19 - Central California (near Fresno, CA)

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I'll be there to attempt to (re)cert L2 with the Door Knob on a CTI K360 white.
 
ChrisAttebery said:
I'll be there to attempt to (re)cert L2 with the Door Knob on a CTI K360 white.
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I'd really like to see that! This launch might be a bit out of the way for me, and I might be going crazy with work right about that time, but I'll see if I can make it.

Maybe Kit will fly the workbench.
 
o1d_dude said:
I've almost forgotten what it's like to launch rockets.

Thanks for the reminder, David.
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If you don't mind driving the fun never stops... after LUNAR double header in April, I drove down to ROCSTOCK 39 in June, over to ROCKONN's July launch in Nevada, and had a great salty time at UROC's Hellfire in August.
 
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Camping over and seeing the night launch would be a lot of fun. What is the ground surface like? And are there porta potties? I do not have an RV or trailer, so I'd probably be sleeping in a tent, and some ground surfaces are not that great for that.
 
Maddox Dairy normal discs around the camping, parking, and pad areas to make "more" level smooth. I always tent camp. They have several potties that arrive Friday AM for the launch.

Stay tune about food vendors... somes times Scouts sell and others... sometimes you'll need to bring your own. Stores with ~10 miles for ice, etc... I5 intersections about 25 miles away and Fresno is about 40 miles away.
 
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It looks like there are a variety of routes for me, ranging from 2 hr 22 mins, to 2 hr 48 mins, according to Google Maps. That's not too bad if you stay the night. A one-day round trip would not be good.

We shall see. It sounds like a lot of fun!
 
Oh, come on man. Really? :p

We've made the round trip with 2 kids twice already this year. Leave at 7:30AM, arrive around 10AM. Head out around 6PM and be home by 8:30PM.

ThirstyBarbarian said:
It looks like there are a variety of routes for me, ranging from 2 hr 22 mins, to 2 hr 48 mins, according to Google Maps. That's not too bad if you stay the night. A one-day round trip would not be good.

We shall see. It sounds like a lot of fun!
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ChrisAttebery said:
Oh, come on man. Really? :p

We've made the round trip with 2 kids twice already this year. Leave at 7:30AM, arrive around 10AM. Head out around 6PM and be home by 8:30PM.
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Kids might make certain things difficult, but they also give a person stamina! You need stamina to survive! I don't have kids, so I've grown weak and lazy. Plus, if you leave at 6pm, you miss the night launch....

I think I'd have to stay the night. (Which would probably be fun too.)
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
Camping over and seeing the night launch would be a lot of fun. What is the ground surface like? And are there porta potties? I do not have an RV or trailer, so I'd probably be sleeping in a tent, and some ground surfaces are not that great for that.
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Make sure that you have good tent stakes. Secondly, get a good self inflating air mattress from REI, the thick ones, and you can sleep on rock.
 
ThirstyBarbarian said:
It looks like there are a variety of routes for me, ranging from 2 hr 22 mins, to 2 hr 48 mins, according to Google Maps. That's not too bad if you stay the night. A one-day round trip would not be good.

We shall see. It sounds like a lot of fun!
Click to expand...

If you're not into camping in an alfalfa field, Harris Ranch on I5 is about 30 minutes away, and is pretty nice.

I have also done same-day turnarounds from near Napa, but it makes for a long 3 hour drive each way.
 
It's the same weekend as the Reno club's final launch of the year (All Day Launch). Since I have nobody to take care of my animals for a three day period, I'll be going to Reno. Not to mention that Reno is almost a 2 hour drive closer for me.
 
I'm getting excited about going to this launch! Everything is cleared with my sweetie-pie boss lady, so I think I am good to go. Is there any more info about food vendors and rocketry vendors? I'm planning to tent camp, but it would be great if I could buy a few meals on-site instead of trucking the whole camp kitchen out there (car will be full of rocket stuff, leaving less room for camping stuff).

Also, I am hoping to do my L1 certification flight there. What should I be doing in advance? Are there people I need to contact in advance about the cert flight? Do I need to be a TCC club member? I am a member of LUNAR, because that is my local club, but I have not joined NAR yet. Because this is a Tripoli club event, do I need to join Tripoli instead of (or in addition to) NAR to certify at this event? Any info or recommendations on this would be welcome! Thanks!

The 2 main rockets I am bringing are:

  • The Mega Der Red Max with Pods. This is for the L1 attempt and fun flying too. I'm hoping to fly on either H115DM or H135W. I'll also bring a selection of G motors too.
  • Leviathan. This one needs repair before I can bring it, but I expect to have it ready. I've got a bunch of Econojet F motors, but I will also have a few larger F's and probably a selection of G motors as well. Mostly I have not really pushed this rocket for altitude and speed, but I might push it a bit harder at this event than I have in the past.

I've also got a selection of lower impulse rockets, and a few others I might be able to build in time as well, like an Estes PSII E2X for use with the 29mm BP motors. I might even be able to crank out another PSII builder kit as well. The main focus for me will probably be the L1 rocket and Leviathan, but we'll see what else I can put together. I have a feeling my fleet is on the lower end of the scale in terms of power and sophistication, so I am really looking forward to seeing what others bring!
 
You do NOT need to be a member of TCC or TRA to fly there. You do need to join NAR or TRA to certify. Bruce (the prefect) should be there to sign off on TRA certs and there will be a NAR member there to sign off on NAR cert flights.

BAR WILL be there. I just had lunch with Mike and he will be there.

At the last two launches they had 6-8 A-F pads and 8 G-M pads. At Dairy Aire there were a bunch of kids and the low power line was pretty long. At the August launch there were a bunch of college students getting their L1 certs so the HPR line was long. Go for quality instead of quantity.
 
I'm planning to be there half of friday and all day saturday and sunday. I'm going to attempt NAR L1 and maybe Tripoli L1. I'm bringing a few main rockets:

Mini Magg (for certification and general flying)
Leviathan (general flying on econojets, maybe drag racing with ThirstyBarbarian)
G-force (general flying on H's and G54 Red Lightning, which is basically an H at 159.5 ns)
MDTM (Mega Der Trek Max, Star Trek themed MDRM, hopefully will have applied decals by then)
Maybe my Argent if I finish building

And a whole bunch of smaller MPR and LPR.. a mean machine, possibly Decaffinator, Mega mosquitos, and some clustered tubefin scratch builds.
 
I'm still trying to decide. My last trip to TCC a couple of years ago wasn't too fun. If I do go, I won't launch much myself, just mostly watching.
 
ChrisAttebery said:
You do NOT need to be a member of TCC or TRA to fly there. You do need to join NAR or TRA to certify. Bruce (the prefect) should be there to sign off on TRA certs and there will be a NAR member there to sign off on NAR cert flights.

BAR WILL be there. I just had lunch with Mike and he will be there.

At the last two launches they had 6-8 A-F pads and 8 G-M pads. At Dairy Aire there were a bunch of kids and the low power line was pretty long. At the August launch there were a bunch of college students getting their L1 certs so the HPR line was long. Go for quality instead of quantity.
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Thanks for the info, Chris. It probably makes most sense for me to join NAR, since LUNAR is my local club. So it's good to know there will be someone to sign off NAR certs. Also, thanks for the heads up on the number of pads. It sounds like it could be busy, and I hear what you are saying about focusing on quality over quantity.
 
SCrocketfan said:
I'm planning to be there half of friday and all day saturday and sunday. I'm going to attempt NAR L1 and maybe Tripoli L1. I'm bringing a few main rockets:

Mini Magg (for certification and general flying)
Leviathan (general flying on econojets, maybe drag racing with ThirstyBarbarian)
G-force (general flying on H's and G54 Red Lightning, which is basically an H at 159.5 ns)
MDTM (Mega Der Trek Max, Star Trek themed MDRM, hopefully will have applied decals by then)
Maybe my Argent if I finish building

And a whole bunch of smaller MPR and LPR.. a mean machine, possibly Decaffinator, Mega mosquitos, and some clustered tubefin scratch builds.
Click to expand...

I'm still not sure exactly when I will get there. I might go as early as Friday, or at least part of it. But I will certainly be there by Saturday morning (if not the day before), and I plan to stay Saturday night to see the night launch.

Do all the pads run all three days? I heard that Friday is the day for experimental, but wasn't sure if the day is exclusively devoted to that, or if other flyers can fly as well. I think it would be really interesting to see, but I don't have anything experimental to fly.

I'm still down for the Leviathan Econojet drag race, as long is I can get it repaired. It's more damaged than I thought --- another victim of Moffett concrete!
 
qquake2k said:
I'm still trying to decide. My last trip to TCC a couple of years ago wasn't too fun. If I do go, I won't launch much myself, just mostly watching.
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If it helps you decide one way or another ;) Leah, Amy and I are planning to come. Among other things, I'm planning to fly the 7-foot Have Pink glider.

Ari.
 
iter said:
If it helps you decide one way or another ;) Leah, Amy and I are planning to come. Among other things, I'm planning to fly the 7-foot Have Pink glider.

Ari.
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You're making it hard to say no, Ari!
 
IF...I make it down to October Skies I want to launch my Polecat Aero Goblin 5.5 so that gives me about three weeks to get everything right...

Note to self: Make sure I have a Fruity Chute that's at least 42" in diameter.

Failing that I will be just launch my 38mm crayon rocket on some sort of I motor...like an I218R or even an I285R
 

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