What'cha preppin' for NSL 2023?

[Wayco]

Sharon and I first visited San Luis Valley Rocketeers in May of 2021, when they hosted the National Sport launch. We enjoyed it so much that we went back for "Spudnik" last year at the same time. Alamosa, Colorado is a short 1.5 hour drive from our summer home in Red River, NM.
Unfortunately, they had red flag warnings starting at 10 am that weekend, and we only got to fly a couple of rockets early in the day.
This year, we are hoping for better weather, and have started prepping for a big launch weekend.
I'm bringing ten high power rockets and Sharon is bringing nine. We are also sharing a big box of LPR/MPR rockets to fly if we don't have good conditions for HPR.
Yesterday we picked rockets and motors, which was easy to do with a 52,000 ft. waiver. Most of our stuff will stay well below that.
I'm bringing a Blackstar Jr. flying on a CTI I255, an Avalanche on a K540, "Fast Freddy", a 3" Punisher on a K456, a Formula 75 with a 54mm MMT flying on a K550, Drago on a K850, 3" Blackstar on a K550, "Big Bad dog" with a 75mm MMT flying on an M685, "Slick Willy", a 4" Punisher on a OOP L1365 Metalstorm, "Red Tailed Extreme" on an M1550, and my carbon fiber Mongoose on an M1850.
Sharon is bringing her "Jimbo Jart", flying on a CTI K360, "Another Juan" on a CTI I 285, Arreaux on a G75, "Big Bad Juan" on a K540, "Blizzard", her 3" Avalanche on a K513, 3" Darkstar on a K540, Super Jart on a CTI K735 Skid, DX-3 on an L1250 DM, "Cuddle Monster", a 4" Punisher on an M1297.
Today I started building motors for the launch:


Some of our favorite motors fit in the 54/1706 casing, so I started with them:


Bill with Balsa Machining attended the first NSL for SLVR back in 2021, and I scored a previously opened K540 for $40:


The grains were a bit oxidized, but otherwise the reload was complete:


Sharon showed up around lunchtime and watched me finish up the 1706 reloads:


I spent most of the day in our air conditioned garage building motors, here are the results:


The K850 is a DMS, and I only have one CTI 38mm 4 grain casing, so I will have to pick another one up from AMW this week.
I also talked to Jackie at Wildman's today, and will be picking up another 75/7680 complete motor to build the M1850 in. The big blue ROUSETECH Monster motor at the top left has the M685 long burn in it.
Tomorrow I will build my first crossload, an M1297 in a CTI 4 grain casing. Blew up a 75/5120 casing with that same load last month.


So post up the rockets and motors you are bringing to the National Sport launch this month!
I will be updating this thread with our progress from sunny Arizona to the high altitude (7600 ft.) launch in Alamosa, Colorado.

 

[BEC]

Wow!

I'm afraid Avis and I are passing on NSL this year. We're helping at the TARC final (which is only the weekend before) as well as the World Spacemodeling Championships, and we're planning to attend NARAM this year....so our rocket time and travel money are already pretty well allocated.

Have fun, both of you!

 

[Wayco]

Sounds like you will be busy BEC, are you competing in the Spacemodeling Championships?
Not sure where the other two launches are....
You will be missed! One of the few fliers that makes more flights than Sharon and I put together.

Updating my previous post, this week has been building commercial motors and picking up odds and ends.
So far, I have built 16 of the 20 commercial motors listed for NSL. Three of the four left are DMS loads that are just plug and play, with one final RMS which is the M1850 for one of my high altitude flights with my CF Mongoose 75. I'm waiting for a shipment from Wildman, a 75/7680 complete motor that should arrive tomorrow. I built the M1297 in the CTI 4 grain casing and the M1550 Redline and glued the grains in on it and a couple others that I had already built. Messy job.
I also put together the CTI 4 grain 38mm I255 with the casing from AMW.

Here's what I have built so far:


I ran out of 75mm seal disks yesterday, and had to run into AMW to pick one up. Sharon added a CTI M1101 and a K360 to my list, for Holtville Havoc later this year.
Tomorrow I will start on the research motors for NCR's Mile High mayhem the first week of June. Last year I built motors for four research launches and three of them cancelled. Not gonna happen this year. We might be hitting a couple of the one day launches with SCORE, but I'm not building extra motors until we know what's actually gonna happen.

 

[BEC]

@Wayco, the TARC final is held in The Plains, Virginia every year (well, outside of pandemic times, anyway). We'll both be helping set up the range on the Friday, then I'll be checking eggs and reading altimeters after flights and Avis will be a roving photographer.

At the WSMC we're both going to be helping wrangle altimeters as they are essentially checked out by teams, then brought back for reading and ultimately returned.

NARAM this year is in Lordsburg, NM (southwest part of the state). There we will both be flying. I'm planning on entering most of the events and Avis is working on models for, so far, three of them.

Again, enjoy NSL. That is an amazing place to fly and I hope we get back there again in the not too distant future.

 

[Wayco]

Making progress with the research motors for NCR, over the weekend I have built nine motors, two were already built and I have four more to do. Sharon took the day off yesterday and we started prepping our fleet:


Here is the pile of motors, minus a couple of 54/1706 loads in the rockets above:

 

[GrouchoDuke]

Spudnik's wind last year was no joke, but I still had a great time and got some good flying in. The folks at SLVR are awesome! Hoping for much better weather this year.

As for what I'm flying, you're way ahead of me Wayco. I still need to start building 4 of the 5 rockets I'm planning to fly. It's time to get to work!

 

[75Grandville]

Not planning anything bigger than a K myself

All planned rocket flights are tentative until they actually launch...

• Urgent! - an 3.9" upscale of an Estes Argent - K535W
• 3.9" Upscale Screamin' Green Meenie - J315 - If it gets repaired
• Trey - LOC Tri-Star clone - 3 x H219
• 44 Mk29 Prototype - I200
• Upscale Fliskits Corona - H250
• Painkiller Micro - G145
• AGM Pike 33 Mini - G250

Tentative: Wildman Inteceptor AAM 98 on a K1275
If all other preparations go Extremely well, OVERKILL - 2 x I357T & 2 x I285R
Plus the usual LPR and MPR assortment

 

[Adrian A]

I have two 2-stage 38mm flights planned: A Loki J474 to a CTI I125 moonburner, which combine for a full J impulse, and if that goes well a Loki K1127 to probably a CTI J150 for most of a K impulse. The nosecone, chute cannon, and booster are in common for both flights. I'm 0-for-7 on fully successful 2-stage flights so far (though a recent attempt this spring was all good except the igniter wasn't enough to light the sustainer), but I'm taking my time with the prep and testing this week and hopefully I've learned enough from my many mistakes to get a fully successful flight and recovery.

A Blue Raven will control both flights, with tilt lockout and ignition based on velocity or tilt.

I may also fly an I216 as a single stage in my smaller sustainer to see if I can beat my I altitude PR.

 

[sriegel]

Hoping to get a couple DD flights on my Super DX3. I've done the ground testing, flown DD a couple of times, need more flights for experience to build up to my 5.5" IRIS.

 

[James Owen]

Just arrived in alamosa for NSL! I have a friend attempting level 1 and I’ll be doing a supersonic launch attempt with my wildman darkstar Jr.

 

[Initiator001]

I am at the NSL, also. Just LPR & MPR for me. I have a hunch I may be flying some new-ish Enerjet and Q-Jet motors.

 

[GrouchoDuke]

I got here mid-afternoon with my wife & kids. Tiny bit windy this afternoon. Planning to fly min diameter rockets with J & H motors. Maybe G & K too. The kids and I built some D/E-powered rockets that we designed together & we plan to fly those too.

 

[Initiator001]

Weather started out good Saturday morning.
By Noon the wind was blowing too hard and the launch was shut down.

 

[Initiator001]

Weather on Sunday was much better.
Low/no wind, mostly blue sky, temp in the 70s.

Many rockets flown. Vendors doing brisk business.

 

[GrouchoDuke]

Lots of record attempts so far this weekend. As far as I can tell, Adrian is the clear winner. Fun night flights tonight too!

 

[Initiator001]

Monday saw more good weather at the NSL 2023 West launch.
Fewer people but vendors were still doing a brisk business.
Many altitude flights. R/C rocket gliders too.

Wind picked up about 1:30PM at which time most folks left the field.

 

[GrouchoDuke]

It was a great final day at NSL West. My kids had a great time flying rockets they designed. We already planning our rockets for next year!