DARS Launches - Dallas Area Rocket Society

pyrobob said:

With an in-law in town minding the kids and a generally uncaring wife, I decided to dust off the lathe, spend a few hours unpacking machine tools, and start throwing chips to make a custom 54mm motor retainer. I could have easily finished this but I'm waiting for a 5:1 conical nose cone to come in that I plan to convert to a boat tail. It's been probably 6+ years since I last machined anything of significance, maybe even 8 years. Here you go:

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Nice!!

grouch said:

Speaking of good news, my guess would be the burn ban is not so much an issue anymore.

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No doubt we are back to the new Corsicana site being too wet, as that particular area got a huge amount of rain.
This weather has to average out in our favor ONE of these days.

tab28682 said:

This weather has to average out in our favor ONE of these days.

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Blame it on El Freakin Nino.

I settled on a straight forward motor retention method by just using a snap ring. Fortunately for me, the local Ace hardware actually stocks 2"+ snap rings to my amazement, for which I had none in the 54mm-ish size range. Anyhow, I had to knock off a little rust to my machining skills (which are far, far, far better than my rocket finishing skills ; but that's fine with me ) - the retainer decided to walk on me while chucked! I noticed it but still no time to react but I got lucky this time and the part popped out of the check and hung onto the boring bar!!! I also had to rechuck and anyone that's every had to do that using a 3 jaw chuck knows the lie liklihood of getting it to zero back out is nil and so a slight ridge can be seen in the middle of the part. I do have a 4 jaw chuck but no patience.... Anyhow, I plan to rechuck it and throw down some ~300 grit sand paper and that should take care of the infinitesimal mark.

Looks like my schedule is clear for Frisco on Nov 21, so far.

Someone fill me in on what ever happened to Windom as a launch site. I noticed that the DARS web site still has it on their map, but it is obviously inactive. I made it up there twice many years ago.

I bet Sam and others can comment in greater detail than I about Windom, but it goes something like: a) Wells Brothers sold the land, b) Wells Brothers sold some of the land to the point where flying high power is no longer feasible, c) a and b are completely wrong, d) we all forgot about Windom one day.

That's it, subdivision of land owned by Wells and over cautious owners and tenants denying recovery access. Not sure why it's still on the website; I'm sure the P.O.T.D.A.R.S would be happy to fill you in at a meeting or whenever.

I figured it was likely something like you posted, Sam. Just curiosity on my part.

I wish I was not slammed with work and other duties. I would really like to go do some serious launch site hunting.

Today is my first day off in two weeks.

tab28682 said:

I figured it was likely something like you posted, Sam. Just curiosity on my part.

I wish I was not slammed with work and other duties. I would really like to go do some serious launch site hunting.

Today is my first day off in two weeks.

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No worries, enjoy your day off !

If I remember correctly, the last launch at the Windom site happened in the Spring of 2010 or 2011 after a series of scrubbed launches because of burn bans, muddy fields and the like. (Seems to be a pattern here) When my wife and I arrived just before noon the launch was in progress, not from the usual location but upon a freshly plowed field just west of it. The usual field was overgrown with grass and weeds and thus unusable. We noticed a sheriff's deputy standing on a dirt trail next to his cruiser observing the festivities.

After I parked my truck at the far end of all the other vehicles, I approached the deputy and asked him what was going on. He told me that the tenant farmer who had a lease on the plowed field had scheduled planting on that field for that Saturday, was pissed off beyond repair and had demanded that all these people get their junk off that field so he could plant his crops. (He had been delayed numerous times that Spring and was anxious to get his seed into the ground before the next rain.) He had also called the landowner and raised hell about the situation.

After some intense wrangling with DARS officials the launch was scrubbed and the assembled throng began packing for their long trips home. I had hoped to fly my recently re-built "Global Warmer" but it twas not to be. :cry:

Sounds like an unusually bad ending to a decent launch site.

Hopefully we will find somewhere else in the Gunter area or other outlying spot that will avail us of a 5k waiver.

We need a dedicated mission oriented very friendly person with a lot of time on their hands who likes to drive around the far outer fringes of the metroplex and knock on doors......

I wonder if there are any extremely underused small airports similar to the one in Hearne closer to DFW that we could survey?

Windom was a great site. Got my L1 there.

tab28682 said:

We need a dedicated mission oriented very friendly person with a lot of time on their hands who likes to drive around the far outer fringes of the metroplex and knock on doors......

I wonder if there are any extremely underused small airports similar to the one in Hearne closer to DFW that we could survey?

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+++++111111 on all of this.

There's not a week that goes by where I don't think there must be an airport like Hearne in North Texas. 70:30 chance I'll be at the meeting this weekend and, if I forget to bring it up, PLEASE someone remind me!

When and where is this meeting? I'll be back and town and I would like to make it if possible.

K

pyrobob said:

+++++111111 on all of this.

There's not a week that goes by where I don't think there must be an airport like Hearne in North Texas. 70:30 chance I'll be at the meeting this weekend and, if I forget to bring it up, PLEASE someone remind me!

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I did some Google map surveying one day, and Hillsboro Municipal Airport was the best "Hearne-like" airport I could find. Similar amount of air traffic according to some stats I found. The southern end of their runway was about a half mile off the interstate, but the interstae goes off to the northwest, so the typical wind pattern would be in a launches favor. The area to the Northeast appears to be farmland, so recovery permission would have to be worked out too.

I am not volunteering to ask after this site, I don't have the people skills for the task.

I've found a given contact info to Mr. Sprauge for the owners of land up north of Bowie. It's not super close to DFW but there are no major air routes over head, treeless for the most part, and around two spare miles total area. I gave him the info over a month ago and I have yet to hear anything back from him but if those owners are willing we'd have our hands on a pretty nice launch site.

grouch said:

When and where is this meeting? I'll be back and town and I would like to make it if possible.

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First Saturday of the month, 1:00 pm

Coppell Family YMCA

https://www.google.com/maps/place/1...1s0x864c294cbf3aa1e9:0x6f25b6ae59aac89b?hl=en

Go here (www.dars.org) and get on the Yahoo list for official meeting and launch announcements. (If you want :blush

Looks like I'll make the meeting tomorrow but may have to leave early. Let me know if you guys need anything. Also, if you're contemplating any big purchases whether by volume or expensive hardware/reloads. Then we should probably talk .

pyrobob said:

Looks like I'll make the meeting tomorrow but may have to leave early. Let me know if you guys need anything. Also, if you're contemplating any big purchases whether by volume or expensive hardware/reloads. Then we should probably talk .

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Unfortunately I can't make it tomorrow. How I am planning big, so PM sent.

I have an RC event in Fort Worth to run tomorrow, so no meeting for me.

Am planning on trying to make the Dec meeting, though.

Random question of the day: Anybody know of WAC Corporal mid/high power kit? Say in 3" or 4"? I might do a sport scale of an already built 5.5" rocket but I don't think it will see much action.

This is the only one that came to mind. It's 2.6"

https://www.asp-rocketry.com/ecomme...ge-29-38-mm-Version-.cfm?item_id=631&parent=8

Thanks Poker. Yeah, I've given that kit some thought but I have a ton of 2.6" kits already so was hoping for a 3" or 4". It's hard to believe no one has kitted (is that a word?) this cool looking rocket in other sizes.

pyrobob said:

Thanks Poker. Yeah, I've given that kit some thought but I have a ton of 2.6" kits already so was hoping for a 3" or 4". It's hard to believe no one has kitted (is that a word?) this cool looking rocket in other sizes.

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That would be a pretty cool model at 4". Looks like you would have to turn your own nose cone to get a 4" at about 4:1 aspect ratio. The little boat tail at 4" by about 2.45" would not be hard to make. Does not appear to be any off the shelf parts available for either a 3" or 4"

Get a mold made of both parts and buyrocketmotors.com would be in a position to produce a pretty neat kit....

Might be able to use the nose cone mold to get both parts, as the taper of the boat tail looks about like that of the nose cone. Simply lay up the first three inches of the nose cone and trim to fit. Likely more than good enough for sport scale.

So I don't forget.... At the meeting, I asked about the impulse limit at Gunter and received a very pleasant response. It is unchanged! However, there seems to be a little more navigating required to get to where we would need to setup but that seems like a small concession to me . The field is saturated though so there's nothing planned just yet. I'm thinking sometime early next year - weather cooperating of course - and we may be able to burn some H+ propellant. Count me in!

Right now I'd settle for some G power. The next launch in 2 weeks in Frisco supports G flight correct?

pyrobob said:

So I don't forget.... At the meeting, I asked about the impulse limit at Gunter and received a very pleasant response. It is unchanged! However, there seems to be a little more navigating required to get to where we would need to setup but that seems like a small concession to me . The field is saturated though so there's nothing planned just yet. I'm thinking sometime early next year - weather cooperating of course - and we may be able to burn some H+ propellant. Count me in!

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So, the club officers were more positive about limited high power at Gunter at this meeting, subject to us being able to drive to and get the equipment to the correct spot we have to be at?

grouch said:

Right now I'd settle for some G power. The next launch in 2 weeks in Frisco supports G flight correct?

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With the recent construction north of the field, G flights are dependent on wind speed and direction. Unless, of course, if it's in a saucer.

tab28682 said:

So, the club officers were more positive about limited high power at Gunter at this meeting, subject to us being able to drive to and get the equipment to the correct spot we have to be at?

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That's pretty much it. I turned around to Poker and Alfa and said, "Did you guys hear that?" Pretty sure I saw nods of agreement. Guy's, tell me I'm not delusional???

pyrobob said:

So I don't forget.... At the meeting, I asked about the impulse limit at Gunter and received a very pleasant response. It is unchanged! However, there seems to be a little more navigating required to get to where we would need to setup but that seems like a small concession to me . The field is saturated though so there's nothing planned just yet. I'm thinking sometime early next year - weather cooperating of course - and we may be able to burn some H+ propellant. Count me in!

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Maybe y'all could pass the hat and provide the DARS brass with one of these? Add a trailer and they could even transport the cub scouts, kinda like a hay ride. I understand these are being sold as surplus now that the war has been won.

[video=youtube;_74RbrPyN-Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_74RbrPyN-Y[/video]