YABAR-Greetings!

(That's Yet Another Born Again Rocketeer).

Hi y'all. Thought I'd stop lurking and introduce myself. My name's Will Gwaltney, and I'm a software developer in Durham, NC. I did the rocket thing as a teen, got back into it in the early 90's in Huntsville, AL (the "Rocket City"!), and now I'm born yet again in NC. I've got 5 kids who I've introduced to rocketry, and we're going to try to make it to Whitakers in September. I've even got my wife saying she wants to build a rocket! (I must be living right...

A question: anybody know of a *big* launch site in the Research Triangle Park area? We've been going to the Carter-Finley Stadium parking lot with great success, but it's not big enough for high-altitude or staged flights (I already lost a nose-cone and parachute in the woods after a shock cord gave way...). Any suggestions would be most appreciated!

Will

Welcome fellow Carolinian. We have the same problem here in Salisbury/Winston-Salem. It is very difficult to find places to launch. Good luck with finding a place.

A bunch of us will be at Whitakers in September: me, PGerringer, KenParker, MarkABrown, even CTulanko is coming down [I think]. We need to hook up. We will be the ones handing out Forum propaganda.

Yeah, just look for the shameless soliciters... Welcome to the forum!!!

What is Whitakers?

Whitakers is a city in east NC. Whitakers Farm (at least I think that is what they call it) is a place where Tripoli/NAR sponcered launches occur each month. We plan on being there for the open weekend on September 22-23.

https://www.whitakershpr.org/

I think it is about the only decent place in NC available to launch HP rockets. Unless someone else on this forum can correct me...

I'll be looking for you at Whitakers. I'll be the one with the 5 kids and the harassed look.

As it turns out, the site the south-east Virginia high-power group launches from is about 5 minutes from where I grew up. It's an old Nike missile site that the county has converted to a park. We were there a week ago and had a great time. Wish it had been available when I was a teen, but I guess they would have shot me if I'd tried to launch there...