Beach Blast! - Enjoy 4th of July at the Beach – Fly on the 5th & 6th!

[PhlAsh]

Enjoy 4th of July at the Beach – Fly on the 5th & 6th!

The SouthEastern Virginia Rocketry Association (SEVRA) invites you to bring the whole family for a holiday weekend at Virginia Beach, VA. The region offers many places to stay, eat, visit, and enjoy (Beaches, Golf, Fishing, Military Aviation Museum, Chrysler Museum, Nauticus, Virginia Air & Space Center, Air Power Park, Busch Gardens, Historic Williamsburg and Yorktown, Shopping, and more). Watch the fireworks displays Friday night and then put on your own display Saturday and Sunday.

We will have rocketry vendors on site and food from SEVRA's CATO Cafe. We will have raffle prizes as well. The United States Navy has already approved SEVRA’s use of Fentress for the weekend. Only bad weather or an unexpected military action could interfere with Beach Blast.

Beach Blast is our way of saying Thank You to those clubs that hosted our members for the year our field was closed.

Beach Blast will be limited to 50 fliers, so please register with our Treasurer (on the SEVRA link below) as these limited slots are available on a first paid, first served basis.

Trailers may be dropped off at the flying site Friday afternoon. There is no camping on site, but camping sites are available within 15 miles.

Flying commences at 9:00am both days and continues until 6:00pm on Saturday, 4:00pm on Sunday. Saturday will be a Tripoli Research Launch with a nominal 10,000' waiver. Sunday will be a NAR Launch with a 6,000' waiver. Altitudes may be lowered at the discretion of the LCO. Our webpage will be updated more frequently as Beach Blast approaches.

SEVRA webpage: https://www.sevra.org/BeachBlast.htm

Directions to NALF Fentress: https://www.sevra.org/Location.htm

Virginia Beach events and attractions: https://www.virginiabeach.com/

 

[wyo17]

I will be there!

 

[JMZawodny]

Me too! Looking forward to flying with you again. I have something special planned.

 

[jimzcatz]

No offense to you and yours, but in my humble opinion rockets, especially big heavy rockets and concrete dont play well together. I grew up in Va Beach, so I know the field. But I will get back home one weekend soon to meet ya'll!!

 

[JMZawodny]

No offense to you and yours, but in my humble opinion rockets, especially big heavy rockets and concrete dont play well together. I grew up in Va Beach, so I know the field. But I will get back home one weekend soon to meet ya'll!!

Yes, you are right. Concrete can quickly take a toll on the overall finish and exposed edges, just look at the before and after photos of my Minnie-Magg in the most recent photo set in the SEVRA flickr page (although most of that was due to being dragged by the parachute after landing). Personally, I've been putting bigger parachutes in my rockets to soften the landing (at the risk of being more easily dragged). I also save my pretty rockets for a big soft field like Red Glare or Bayboro. Nevertheless, we fly a lot of Medium sized rockets (4-5" 10-20 pounds) on K's and a few large rockets on L's or M's at Fentress. There is a good deal of "soft" landing area at Fentress. If you are familiar with how your rocket responds to wind and adjust the launch angle you can minimize the risk of hitting concrete. Flying sites that are convenient and in a family friendly area are hard to find.

 

[wyo17]

No offense to you and yours, but in my humble opinion rockets, especially big heavy rockets and concrete dont play well together. I grew up in Va Beach, so I know the field. But I will get back home one weekend soon to meet ya'll!!

Jim,

I agree with you on the concrete. In the past our biggest problem was the trees. A few rockets (probably way less than 10%) would find a runway but the greater majority would land safely in the fields or in the trees. When they shut Fentress down in 2012, they removed about 30 acres of trees. Since we got back onto the field in December of 2012 we have flown over 900 flights and have had far fewer runway incursions and tree visits than in the past.

Some other factors in or planning was that many of the clubs in our geographical area are shut down in the summer due to crops being planted on their launch site. We are blessed to be able to fly year round at Fentress and thought to open up to our area clubs.

Would love to see you there as it has been a while since I visited Bayboro!

 

[PhlAsh]

According to the database, only 5 damaging impacts with the concrete out of the 900+ flights last year.

 

[cwbullet]

I will be at our launch on a rocket friendly sod farm. We have a day launch in Orangeburg,

 

[PhlAsh]

I will be at our launch on a rocket friendly sod farm. We have a day launch in Orangeburg,

At 9.8m/s^2, there's very little difference between sod and concrete!

 

[JMZawodny]

We tried a new launch location at Fentress on May 3rd. Having a naval airfield to use gives us a lot of flexibility to adapt to the winds. Being surrounded by a lot of farmland gives our high-fliers a lot of recovery space. The winds did not develop as forecast and we had to adjust the launch pads accordingly. We expect our fliers to know their rockets and adapt the launch pads accordingly. My 2.6" Mad Cow Honest John landed on the runway with only a minor scuff on the nose cone. We had 20 fliers and put up 82 flights. All had a lot of fun.