LDRS 40

[Jmhepworth]

Here’s the LDRS 39 motor breakout.

 

[rharshberger]

It's actually a bit of work to produce that data.

I did it for LDRS 25 (I no longer have the data - long since lost). It took quite a bit of time to collate it all off of the flight cards.

-Kevin

I am aware of how much work it is, we do it for all of our launches both local and regional.

 

[cerving]

Here’s the LDRS 39 motor breakout.

View attachment 495988

So, only one O and maybe five N's? Sounds like the M limit is probably not much of an impediment for about 99% of the flyers... for the other 1%, there's always Balls.

 

[Jmhepworth]

So, only one O and maybe five N's? Sounds like the M limit is probably not much of an impediment for about 99% of the flyers... for the other 1%, there's always Balls.

Not being allowed to fly EX motors will likely be more of an impediment. But as many have said, bring what the waiver allows. Meeting people, attending TRA Tech, and flying some commercial motors makes it worth the trip. I’m planning on it. But I was planning on Oregon as well.

 

[Steve Shannon]

You have learned the secret to happiness, Joe.

 

[jsdemar]

With the addition of TRATECH, LDRS has even more to offer on a new nerdy level. EX or not, definitely worth going.

LDRS 39 was the most awesome LDRS, plus the inaugural TRATECH "conference" (thanks, Gary!). The iconic Bonneville Salt Flats, excellent UROC crew and range layout, and getting to fly my full "O" with the Tripoli Las Cruces team doing all the work.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

I’m not familiar with TRATECH. What’s that?

Is anyone planning any special projects or unique flights? LDRS 37 was hosted by TCC, one of my semi-local clubs, so I built a special rocket for the launch, my Silver Comet.



I also planned and coordinated the Mass Monkey Loft competition and provided a Regulation Monkey for all participants.



And that’s also where I earned my L2.

Anyone have anything special planned?

 

[Steve Shannon]

TRATECH is a series of technical presentations. You would be an interesting presenter, in fact. There were presentations on motor hardware, ebay design, and others. Log in to the Tripoli website and look on the downloads page and you can see the videos. In person they were excellent. Because of the heat, UROC scheduled the launches to stop early each day; this is where many people went during the period after the range closed and they went to dinner.
http://www.tripoli.org/TRATech2021

 

[Kelly]

Darn. I was looking foreword to Oregon. After LDRS I was going to Eugene to visit friends I haven't seen in awhile.

Come anyway! OROC will still be hosting NXRS at Brothers in early June, with a waiver to 50K-ish, EX motors welcome, and miles of recovery space.

 

[DabCat]

Is anyone planning any special projects or unique flights?

I'm gonna bring my fleet of Upscale partizons. I might also bring an 8 inch Upscale Der red max.

Definitely not a monster project but still pretty cool.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

I'm gonna bring my fleet of Upscale partizons. I might also bring an 8 inch Upscale Der red max.

Nice! The 8” Max sounds awesome. What diameter are the Partizons?

 

[DabCat]

Nice! The 8” Max sounds awesome. What diameter are the Partizons?

I have a mini 1 inch, an original 2.5 inch, a 3 inch, and a 4 inch. Maybe a future 5.5 inch.

 

[Dan Griffing]

Personally I find that a rocket that disappears after 0.95 seconds, followed by an interminable wait for the main or the 'thud' of shovel recovery, gets pretty old after the second or third one,

There’s also a matter of safety.

At LDRS-39 the next launch often happened before there was an actual confirmation that the apogee ejection event had occurred with a main or drogue chute.

There needs to be better designated official, positive tracking, especially with high velocity rockets that disappear from the naked eye after one second.

I often used a shaded recliner with binoculars, but faster rockets often disappear in the transition from naked eye to binocular tracking.

Often the crowd’s attention was on the next launch and wasn’t watching for a dangerous rocket that was coming in their direction.

 

[Dan Griffing]

Not being allowed to fly EX motors will likely be more of an impediment. But as many have said, bring what the waiver allows. Meeting people, attending TRA Tech, and flying some commercial motors makes it worth the trip. I’m planning on it. But I was planning on Oregon as well.

The TRA Tech seminars and banquet were really important parts of LDRS-39 for me.

If I can handle the logistics of a 2,000-mile round trip and driving alone for 30 hours, I’ll be there, even if I cannot use my Loki motors.

 

[llickteig1]

I've never seen them for an LDRS..Must have missed them for LDRS 25
It was nice to see the stats for Balls this year...in the latest TRA report.
I've seen them for our club...our stats guy passed away ...we need some one else steps up to help and lend a hand.

Tony

Mark Canepa published a book called, Large and Dangerous Rocket Ships: The History of High-Power Rocketry’s Ascent to the Edges of Outer Space. There is an appendix called, Statistics. Much info there.

 

[Jmhepworth]

There’s also a matter of safety.

At LDRS-39 the next launch often happened before there was an actual confirmation that the apogee ejection event had occurred with a main or drogue chute.

There needs to be better designated official, positive tracking, especially with high velocity rockets that disappear from the naked eye after one second.

I often used a shaded recliner with binoculars, but faster rockets often disappear in the transition from naked eye to binocular tracking.

Often the crowd’s attention was on the next launch and wasn’t watching for a dangerous rocket that was coming in their direction.

You imply that LDRS 39 wasn’t safe. What you may not have known was that there were always two people acting as spotters. Perhaps that’s the “better designated official” with “positive tracking” you suggest. If one had eyes on the rocket, the other could move to the next one. So the LCO could announce the next flight while someone had eyes on the rocket watching for a recovery event. When something became unsafe, the LCO knew about it immediately and drew attention to the circumstance, even though the LCO was not watching it personally. When we lost track of a rocket, we paused the next launch. At times it was a well-orchestrated ballet. Fortunately, with nearly a thousand flights, we had only a couple of close calls and no injuries. Perhaps we could have slowed things down, but then we would have had more people standing longer in lines under a hot sun waiting to launch. My briefing to every single spotter and LCO team emphasized safety first. Efficiency was second, but we never sacrificed safety for efficiency.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

The cadence at the big launches needs to be pretty high, or it can take forever. So a system of spotters makes sense. And you need an LCO who knows how to keep the pace moving along, but stay safe. At LDRS 37, we had some who were definitely better than others.

 

[cautery]

TRATECH is a series of technical presentations. You would be an interesting presenter, in fact. There were presentations on motor hardware, ebay design, and others. Log in to the Tripoli website and look on the downloads page and you can see the videos. In person they were excellent. Because of the heat, UROC scheduled the launches to stop early each day; this is where many people went during the period after the range closed and they went to dinner.
http://www.tripoli.org/TRATech2021

Surely will be glad when the new website goes live next week.... a lot of stuff I want to read behind that Login Wall....
Sounds like the TRATECH stuff is right up my alley. I am REALLY hoping that I can swing LDRS this year...

Efficiency was second, but we never sacrificed safety for efficiency.

Sounds like how ROs have to squeeze out every little second to accomodate fully sold out USPSA matches.... all while not sacrificing safety by one smidgen.

 

[Dan Griffing]

What you may not have known was that there were always two people acting as spotters. Perhaps that’s the “better designated official” with “positive tracking” you suggest. If one had eyes on the rocket, the other could move to the next one.

I did know that there were “two people acting as spotters” but IMO this was insufficient. I personally observed with binoculars that sometimes the next rocket was launched when there wasn’t a positively confirmed apogee cute deployment. This should not have happened. When a rocket is coming down without a parachute, the attention of the crowd shouldn’t be diverted to the next launch.

With a most impressive near 1,000 launches over four days, IMO the care that should have been there — wasn’t. It was my first LDRS, so I cannot say that the level of safety was better or worse than the others. I’m sure that this would have taken more time and fewer rockets could have been launched. But that would have been the price of add safety.

 

[ThirstyBarbarian]

I did know that there were “two people acting as spotters” but IMO this was insufficient. I personally observed with binoculars that sometimes the next rocket was launched when there wasn’t a positively confirmed apogee cute deployment. This should not have happened. When a rocket is coming down without a parachute, the attention of the crowd shouldn’t be diverted to the next launch.

With a most impressive near 1,000 launches over four days, IMO the care that should have been there — wasn’t. It was my first LDRS, so I cannot say that the level of safety was better or worse than the others. I’m sure that this would have taken more time and fewer rockets could have been launched. But that would have been the price of add safety.

Hopefully the question of whether LDRS 39 was, in your opinion, run as safely as you would like can be litigated offline or somewhere other than the LDRS 40 thread. I’m sure the hosts will run a safe LDRS 40. It would be nice to focus on the upcoming LDRS 40 launch in the LDRS 40 thread.

 

[DabCat]

ROC is usually very good with safety. They make sure everyone is safe.

 

[RocketPro]

As Requested…

 

[StreuB1]

If I can say one thing about the change of location to Lucerne it would be to stress to those out there the deep history Lucerne has with our hobby and rocketry in general.

Everyone always covets Black Rock......but there are other areas too with a much older and deeper history.

Many don't even know about Smoke Creek, let alone talk about it.

Lucerne, and the Mojave desert in general, is where amateur[experimental] rocketry began and then grew into what we now know.

 

[SolarYellow]

Lucerne, and the Mojave desert in general, is where amateur[experimental] rocketry began and then grew into what we now know.

The western edge of the Mojave is ground zero for a heck of a lot of aerospace and motorsports history, both past and future. I love that place.