East Coast Bummed

[jmasterj]

Yellow and purple rocket? That was me, I burned 3 or 4 of those this time. I buy F120Vmax 1 grain 29mm loads just for that rocket whenever I can snatch them up by the handful. My last buy was an order of 15 of 'em!

That little DarkStar mini goes from pad to 1500ft pretty darn fast....blink and you'll miss it!

Where do you get those these days?

 

[Daddyisabar]

Random question from an ignorant east coast lifer: If I ever find myself in the western states like NV, CO, WY, etc etc with some LP and maybe even MP rockets, are there public-use lands and/or parks where I could launch to my heart's content? Over the years, I've observed (mainly through various YouTube videos) incredibly large, open, and flat grass fields where any number of my hobby interests involving rocketry or aviation could be done. What's the deal?

There is always the long arm of the Federal law you must follow and permission of landowners/government as applicable. Support your local Sheriff, watch out for the possies! Watch out for burn bans and critters. Best to stay out of the metro areas like Denver and Boulder. There are open spaces and parks on the front range of Colorado you can get permission for LPR and MPR. The farther away from the big cities the better. The clubs are great for HiPo. Wyoming, the greatest State ever, is where the good ole boys do what they like....under the law.

Living in the middle of the seething liberal hive that is Metro Denver I can get in the car and in about two hours in any direction I can launch anything I want with a club. NCR (Norther Colorado) on the Pawnee Grassland is big time 40K waiver. Hartsel (South Park) or SCORE (Pueblo) for research. One hour drive to three NAR 125g propellant sites (CRASH, COSROCS). I could launch LPR in the City of Denver but you need the right connections. I launch with some old dudes, mostly LPR in the park (soccer fields) by the Broncos training facility. Sometimes I sneak in a Pyramid on a G for grins. You can launch under a 125g at the Arvada RC club up by Rocky Flats if you are a AMA member.
Alamosa is awesome but a bit more of a drive, but the mountain roads are worth it in a corvette convertible hauling a big rocket in the passenger seat. Put the petal to the metal and a four hour drive can go down to just over three in the early morning summertime hours. Arrive invigorated and ready for an even "more need for speed" mindset.

 

[Banzai88]

Where do you get those these days?

Performance Hobbies and Wildman have been my primary sources

 

[samb]

Random question from an ignorant east coast lifer: If I ever find myself in the western states like NV, CO, WY, etc etc with some LP and maybe even MP rockets, are there public-use lands and/or parks where I could launch to my heart's content? Over the years, I've observed (mainly through various YouTube videos) incredibly large, open, and flat grass fields where any number of my hobby interests involving rocketry or aviation could be done. What's the deal?

There is always the long arm of the Federal law you must follow and permission of landowners/government as applicable. Support your local Sheriff, watch out for the possies! Watch out for burn bans and critters. Best to stay out of the metro areas like Denver and Boulder. There are open spaces and parks on the front range of Colorado you can get permission for LPR and MPR. The farther away from the big cities the better. The clubs are great for HiPo. Wyoming, the greatest State ever, is where the good ole boys do what they like....under the law.

Living in the middle of the seething liberal hive that is Metro Denver I can get in the car and in about two hours in any direction I can launch anything I want with a club. NCR (Norther Colorado) on the Pawnee Grassland is big time 40K waiver. Hartsel (South Park) or SCORE (Pueblo) for research. One hour drive to three NAR 125g propellant sites (CRASH, COSROCS). I could launch LPR in the City of Denver but you need the right connections. I launch with some old dudes, mostly LPR in the park (soccer fields) by the Broncos training facility. Sometimes I sneak in a Pyramid on a G for grins. You can launch under a 125g at the Arvada RC club up by Rocky Flats if you are a AMA member.
Alamosa is awesome but a bit more of a drive, but the mountain roads are worth it in a corvette convertible hauling a big rocket in the passenger seat. Put the petal to the metal and a four hour drive can go down to just over three in the early morning summertime hours. Arrive invigorated and ready for an even "more need for speed" mindset.

Sounds like Texas Daddy (and really, anywhere else in the USA). Be ready for frontier justice if the owner of said "... incredibly large, open, and flat grass fields..." catches you there without permission. You get permission or go for guerrilla launches at your peril. City parks and recs are tougher nuts to crack.

 

[ksaves2]

When I was a kid, I was told DuPage county in Illinois had more people in it than the entire state of Wyoming.
Used to visit a lot as my uncle was an Air Force "lifer" and worked on Minuteman missile maintenance.

If you want to fly in Wyoming, just make sure you don't wander onto ground where the missiles are buried or they'll send the helicopters after you. Hard to do as the launch fields are fenced off with warning signs abounding.

Also make sure you steer clear of the fields because if you approach the guard shack to ask for assistance because your rocket landed in the missile field, they might spaz out! Kurt

 

[Banzai88]

Having traveled, hunted, and camped on public land extensively in Wyoming......have caution in that NOT every road on your map OR in your GPS is actually anything a civilized human would call more than a cow path, and even many that are indicated on maps/GPS are private roads!

Same goes with towns where you might be expecting to get gas/food/water.....I've driven into many a 'town' on fumes that WAS a town.....years ago.....but now is just empty with several pumping stations churning along all alone!

There's a really, really good reason why folks in Wyoming all travel with gallons of fresh water, a full 5 gallon gas can, and some food and blankets.......even in the summer!

 

[techrat]

According to Google, the population of Wyoming is 581,000 -- and that's spread out over an area larger than Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Newark NJ has a population of 318,000 -- in an area you can walk from one end to the other in less than a few hours. So, that's a whole lotta empty. If you can't find a spot to shoot off rockets in Wyoming you're not looking hard enough.

 

[ksaves2]

According to Google, the population of Wyoming is 581,000 -- and that's spread out over an area larger than Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, Newark NJ has a population of 318,000 -- in an area you can walk from one end to the other in less than a few hours. So, that's a whole lotta empty. If you can't find a spot to shoot off rockets in Wyoming you're not looking hard enough.

For fun I just checked the population of Dupage county just West of Chicago's Cook county and Dupage is still 926,005 souls. Still more people than the whole state of Wyoming. Deal is, is getting permission of who ever is in charge of the land be it private individual, corporate entity or the government. Kurt