Bunny's Brief NSL 2009 Report

[GuyNoir]

You get weather like this to fly rockets maybe once every 5 years. Temps in the low to mid 70's. Winds light and variable from nearly every direction of the compass.

You can't find a nicer and more organized range crew than the WHOOSH guys. Here's an NAR section that, after hosting THREE NARCON events, turns around and opens its heart and its premier range, Bong Field, to NAR members for three days of rocket flying.

Hats off to Scott Gobels and the rest of the WHOOSH gang for setting up a wonderful event.

Rockets were launched pretty steadily from the 9 AM range opening on, but I never was waiting in any long lines. The equipment functioned flawlessly, and vendor row was right on the way to the range (grin).

(insert bragging rights here)

In the "Build It / Fly It - Level 1 Certification Flight" event, your winning team was the (drum roll please) Fox Valley Rocketeers, led by John Kohler, and consisting of Riley Kohler, Jeff Hallett and Kerry Quinn. Way to go, guys!

(end bragging rights process here)

Flying wise, I put my first HPR rocket up since 1997 by digging our my old North Coast Rocketry (NCR) Phantom 4000 HD, and getting and I161-M White Lightening motor from Wildman Rocketry. Thanks to NAR President Trip Barber for assistance assembling this beast, and to FVR member Ken Hutchinson who took a chance in providing a motor casing for a rocket WITHOUT positive motor retention. The liftoff was "nominal", and peak recovery worked fine, but when the rocket landed, it was strangely missing one fin and the nose cone. People loved the flight (and I got a lot of really heartfelt thanks for whatever effort I put into the litigation), but I gotta do more work on this HPR stuff.

I flew my PenCam video rocket and got good results. I confirmed the clockwise roll, and have made a modification to stop it, which I'll test out tomorrow. In the meantime, I've attached some stills from the resulting footage. This video isn't perfect but for the amount of effort and the $15 price of the Aiptek Pencam, you just can't beat this.

The "Ejection.JPG" file shows the booster section's chute deployment.

The "Parking Lot - TRF.JPG" file shows the spectator / participant parking area. Vendors start in the upper right of the pic.

"Booster Descent - TRF.jpg" shows the booster under chute headed toward landing.

"Rangehead-TRF.jpg" shows the range control / pad assignment area centered on the Easy-Up at the upper portion of the pic.

"Landing - TRF.jpg" shows the last sec before landing, how close this model was to a Jeep.

Anyway, great fun today, and even more in store for tomorrow.

Cheers, Bunny

More tomorrow, if I can find the energy!!!!

 

[jj94]

Sounded like a great day! Can't wait to hear about tomorrow. Oh, and is there a website with an archive of pictures from this year's NSL?

 

[MartinVrstal]

Hear about tomorrow, Heck...I can't wait to be there tomorrow. See you guys in the A.M.

 

[BobCox]

My impressions from Day 1 of NSL2009

• WOOSH is doing a great job hosting NSL. Scott Goebel is certainly a larger-than-life personality.
• Weather was perfect, nearly dead calm most of the day.
• Took advantage of the calm air to launch my first G motor and set a personal-best altitude record.
• Picked up a little sunburn, despite putting on sunscreen.
• Got to see some people that I met at NARCON 2007 and 2008.
• A lot of happiness about APCP no longer being regulated.
• Started a small grass fire with a monocopter that ejected close to the ground. The fire crew put it out quickly.
• My nieces and nephews each got to fly a rocket from my collection. They had fun picking them out and then chasing them afterward.
• Didn't spend anything at the vendor booths, but that will change tomorrow.

 

[snuggles]

This was my first NSL. It was FANTASTIC!!!!!!
Got a chance to catch up with lots of folks from the past couple NARCONs
Always great to see them.
Scott and the WOOSH gang did a wonderful job!!! Thanks
Unfortunately, my camera crapped out so I couldn't take pictures.
The L1 Build and Fly was a lot of fun.(MASA team)
Interesting construction methods,one group built theirs in I think 7 minutes.
Most of the flights worked well.
I took a shift at LCO on Sunday and got to work with Ted and Trip
I was on console when the Wildman Drag Race took place.
I think Trip summed up the event quite well(you had to be there to hear it)
I got quite a few flights in with just minor damage.
Most of my fin breaks happened when the wind took the rockets off my table.
I am anxiously awaiting pictures.
My 2 cents
Mark T

 

[MikeCr]

You can't find a nicer and more organized range crew than the WHOOSH guys.

This was only the second WOOSH launch I've attended (been to Bong maybe 50 times during my Tripoli days) and I have to say, they did a great job! Very well organized and a great bunch of guys to launch with! Had a great time.



Mike

 

[sylvie369]

This was only the second WOOSH launch I've attended (been to Bong maybe 50 times during my Tripoli days) and I have to say, they did a great job! Very well organized and a great bunch of guys to launch with! Had a great time.

Those Tripoli Wisconsin guys deserve some thanks as well. WOOSH launches at Bong have become bigger than the Tripoli launches, but not too long ago TWA put some of its launch fees to work fixing up that road in to the runway, and we all benefited from that last weekend. I believe they're also responsible for the concrete permanent away pad. They also serve as hosts to the annual Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium contest launch, which means a lot of work for the three guys who seem to do all of the work for TWA (Frank Nobile, Bob Justus, and Dan Byra). Finally, several of the WOOSH high power guys learned their stuff at TWA launches.