Between our loss of the Acton field and spotty weather conditions, the schedule for club launches in New England is getting pushed around pretty hard this year. In an effort to give us a chance to get some flying in, we’ve scheduled a joint launch with MMMSC in Berwick on 07 July. MMMSC will move their launch scheduled for the week after that to 21 July so there can be a little break to recover and repair from the joint launch.
The
Central Massachusetts Spacemodeling Society and the
Maine Missile Math and Science Club will be holding a joint launch at the
MMMSC field in Berwick, Maine on 07 July 2018. This is a chance to fly to new heights and meet some new people.
As is the policy for both clubs, if you are planning on flying any HPR, bring your current NAR/TRA card confirming your membership and showing your certification level. If you've recently joined or certified at a level but don't have your updated card yet, bring your temporary card and/or a print out from the national website to show you are allowed to fly the level you'd like to fly. If you're going for your Level 3 certification, you should know enough to have all your ducks in a row well before you get to the field. As usual, no sparky motor are allowed at regular launches in Berwick.
Jim Flis will be there with his
fine line of products. If you need any specific kits or components from Jim, contact him ahead of time and he'll be happy to bring it to the field. With the announcement that Jim will be closing down his company at the end of the year, make sure you buy the kits you want and/or need before he starts to run low on stock.
Robert and Gloria will be there for all your
AMWProX needs. If you're looking for anything in particular, check with them ahead of time. Remember to bring your 38 mm CTI reloads so they can check your delay grain holder. If it's from the bad batch, they'll replace it at no charge to you.
Whether you are going to fly them that day or not, bring them along so they can be inspected and, if necessary, replaced. Gloria will be taking care of the food service so be prepared to eat well.
We'll be using the CMASS circle set up for low- and mid-power flights with ample high-power pads set up from both clubs that there shouldn't be too much of wait to use one. Set up will begin about 9:30 in the morning with flying beginning when we're ready to go. We're scheduled to fly until 4 PM so please don't save a half-dozen Level 2 certification attempts until 3:30. Weather and field conditions will dictate where we set up and how high/long we'll be able to fly. Check here and at the clubs' websites/Facebook pages to see if anything changes. The new owner of the farm has more restrictive parking rules than we've had in Berwick before. The MMMSC launch on 05 May went well as we were able to park and set up near an area that is used by the farm equipment. There's no guarantee that space will be available or convenient for this launch. We used the same space for the next MMMSC launch but with different wind conditions; a few rockets ended up in the trees
Let us know what you'll be flying. We love to have a heads-up on anything really large or unusual. And as another reminder,
NAR now requires electronic recovery deployment for any CTI Vmax motors. This will be an ongoing restriction until CTI can define and correct the matter. If your rocket has passive recovery (i.e., a saucer) you can fly Vmax motors without electronics.
For those of a mind to attend, there will be the usual "post-launch debriefing"
at the Thistle Pig in South Berwick. Their menu is updated depending on what's locally available so check close to the launch to see what may be on it then. [EDIT, while I can]
Just saw on Facebook that the Thistle Pig will be closed for a little over a week around that weekend. We can explore some other spot that day.
Keep an eye on this thread, the club websites (linked above) and
Facebook page to see if there will be any issues with the weather.
