TriCities Rocketeers April Launch April 9th, 2016

[rharshberger]

The TriCities Rocketeers will be holding our next launch on Saturday April 9th, 2016 from 10am to 4pm. We will have a 10,000 foot waiver in place limited to L impulse.

If you plan to fly an L motor, we ask that you bring your own pad. The reason for this is that we now have enough cable to provide minimum safe distance for that level of impulse, but we are not 100% sure that we have a pad robust enough to handle it. We would also ask that you provide sim data that will show us that the rocket will not break the waiver.

We have implemented a new liability waiver policy for 2016. All event attendees (flyers and spectators, including children) must now have a signed liability waiver on file. These waivers will be good for our “fiscal” year (April 1st through March 31st). Since this is a new policy, the waivers signed prior to April 1st this year will be good through March 31st of next year. You can download the waiver here: www.tricitiesrocketeers.org/tcr-liability-waiver-form.html

Please also note some minor changes to our safety policies as well. You can read them here: www.tricitiesrocketeers.org/tcr-enhanced-safety-measures.html

Dry camping is allowed at our site if you would like to come early. Here is an overhead view of our site with camping area marked: www.tricitiesrocketeers.org/birds-eye-view-of-the-range.html

We are running a few contest events this month. 1/2A Flexi wing glider duration, B streamer duration, streamer spot landing, and an unofficial event of H impulse set altitude of 2500’ AGL.

Since the weather is quite iffy this time of year, please keep an eye on our website and the mailing lists for launch updates. No news is good news, which means a cancellation message will only be made if poor weather is expected. If the launch is cancelled, the announcement will be made at least 24 hours in advance.

Remember that this is the beginning of our “fiscal” year and membership renewals (if you plan to) are due.

Hope to see you at the sod farm!

Read more: https://tricitiesrocketeers.freefor...-cities-rocketeers-april-launch#ixzz44vJlLCKA
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[rharshberger]

Wow! What a great day at the sod farm for our April Launch! Beautiful sunny skies, a little on the warm side, with almost no wind, but spectacular nonetheless.

Thanks to our paying members and donators throughout the last couple of years, we were able to make a few upgrades to our GSE over the last couple of months. We just added a new 8’ 1010 rail with an available 4’ extension, and an 8’ 1515 rail with available 4’ extension. We also added a new “jawstand” mid power pad for a 6’ 1010 rail, and a center foot to our largest high power pad. Wit the addition of the center foot, we can now handle L impulse motors. So thank you to everyone who has joined our club and made donations. It really helps us provide a better experience for everyone.

We were able to complete the impulse ladder from A through L thanks to the center foot upgrade to our pad! Can’t do much better than that!

Frank Burke came out and flew his usual array of scratch built foam scale rockets and missiles on I200’s along with his R/C rocket gliders. These are always very entertaining to watch. Frank also makes kits available for sale on his website https://www.dynasoarrocketry.com/.

Paul B. flew a very interesting rocket that he called “Windy” on a K695. This was an all fiberglass rocket with aluminum fins that had a 2 degree “flap” design that caused the rocket to spin. The flight was flawless with apogee around 7000’ and “KATE” gave the crowd a play by play.


Larry K. came over from Renton and flew several mid/high power rockets. He made an attempt to hit our H impulse 2500’ altitude challenge, and almost hit it right on the money. His Estes Leviathan flew on an H180 to 2527’. You can’t get much closer than that!


The big flight of the day was Rich Harshberger’s L3 shakedown flight of his upscale 5.5” Cherokee D. He loaded it up with an L1000 which pushed it perfectly to about 4600’. Every aspect of the flight was spot on and I suspect Rich will have no problem with his L3 certification flight at FITS in May.

Thanks again to everyone who joined our club, and made donations. And I can’t forget the outstanding work put in by the TCR crew, Dave K., Rich Harshberger, and Dave M.!


We’ll see you in June for our 3 day event!

Here is the motor breakdown...

68 flights on 71 motors

A – 11
B – 11
C – 18
D – 2
E – 6
F – 4
G – 5
H – 5
I – 5
J – 2
K – 1
L – 1

Reposted by Rich Harshberger from the April Launch Report by D. Smith.

For those who are interested in flying with the TriCities Rocketeers visit our website at :https://www.tricitiesrocketeers.org

Our next scheduled launch is our annual June Swoosh event June 17th-19th, 2016 its three days of fun and camaraderie with dry camping available onsite (services are available within about 10mins, and a porta-potty is available onsite).