Moving to Ohio!

[Jean-Pierre]

Well, aging parents with some new medical problems + a number of other issues = my family will be moving from greater Washington DC to the Columbus, Ohio suburbs. It’s where both my wife and I grew up, and our offer on a house was accepted Tuesday. This all happened fast, and we’re totally overwhelmed.

So back to rocketry! Can anyone recommend some fun clubs and good fields near where we’ll be heading? Whether LPR, MPR, or HPR - and for HPR, by “near” I of course mean “within a couple hours drive.”

See you late summer, Buckeye rocketeers!

 

[Hobie1dog]

which area of Columbus? I moved away from there in 1993, the weather was too bad for me.

 

[Jean-Pierre]

which area of Columbus? I moved away from there in 1993, the weather was too bad for me.

Dublin. And we grew up in Worthington. And it all remains frigid in the winter, burning in the summer, and overcast all year.

 

[Hobie1dog]

Rocketry clubs in Ohio
https://www.nar.org/state/ohio/

 

[Hobie1dog]

website for C.O.R.S.A.
https://centralohiorocketry.org/

 

[jderimig]

Welcome home!

 

[Buzzard]

I am from outside of Columbus - Hilliard HS Class of 69 - but retired from the Air Force in Fort Worth. Flew in the late '60s & early '70s with CSAR. Heart is still in Ohio where my siblings are. Thank goodness I have the Big Ten Network.

Chas

 

[Scott_650]

We have a number of active clubs in Ohio - Tripoli Mid Ohio launches in South Charleston, about 45 minutes from Dublin. The Dayton Club’s - Wright Stuff Rocketeers - HPR field is only a few minutes further west. WVSOAR flys off the Vinson County Airport, about 1.5 hrs from Dublin. The already mentioned CORSA was active before The Late Unpleasantness but I don’t know what they have going on lately. Northern Ohio Tripoli/Skybusters launch at South Amherst which is a longer drive than the others.

 

[Rocket Al]

The Dayton area is also home to Erockets.biz, if you're into walking into a brick and mortar store and into touching things before you buy. Unfortunately (at least in my wife's opinion) the touching before you buy means I "overspend on rocketry", like that's a posibility.

 

[Zeus-cat]

The Wright Stuff Rocketeers is NAR section 703 in Dayton, OH. We are a very active club with launches about every two weeks all year long. Our winter field is near Cedarville, OH where we have a 12,000 foot waiver. After the fields have been planted in the spring we move to Huber Heights, OH for LPR and MPR launches.

Our annual dues are only $10 for the entire family and we don't charge launch fees. If you only fly low power you don't even need to join the club to launch with us.

We use a Wilson FX wireless launch system with up to 5 pad boxes. We usually set up 2 low power banks, a mid power bank and a high power bank for winter launches. We can also set up an away cell for rockets that need to be even further away than the high power pads.

We meet every Tuesday for a build session at eRockets. Officially the build session is from 6 to 8:30, but you can show up early afternoon like I do and stay as late as 10 or 11 or until Randy throws you out. Randy has a dozen or so tables we use that easily accommodate 30 to 40 people. Families are very welcome at all our club events. And you can even join the build night online via the Zoom session.

Our club also does community outreach events including our big annual event at the National Museum of the US Air Force. Last year at the NMUSAF we helped people build 750 rockets and we launched about 400 before we got rained out. I would say the club does 40 to 50 outreach events a year, mostly at schools, churches and libraries.

If you are interested check us out at: https://www.nar.org/site/section703

 

[Peartree]

CSAR was pretty active (just west of Columbus) when I lived farther south, at keast when the cornfield isn't planted. And, as previously noted, Tripoli launches aren't far west of town and, if I'm remembering correctly, their field is really nice (despite me losing a rocket in corn stubble).

Skybusters (CLE west side) would be a haul from C'bus as would MTMA (think Akron). But Skybusters has a big enough field for HPR (under a mile due to proximity of the airport) while MTMA is strictly LPR and MPR if the wind is just right.

 

[loopy]

Lots of choices from the middle of the state! Tripoli Mid-Ohio, Wright Stuff Rocketeers (I'm a member of that club), or you can head north a couple hours for Skybusters outside of Cleveland. Have fun!

 

[Kabulrocks]

The Dayton area is also home to Erockets.biz, if you're into walking into a brick and mortar store and into touching things before you buy. Unfortunately (at least in my wife's opinion) the touching before you buy means I "overspend on rocketry", like that's a posibility.

I didn’t realize that in 2021 when a friend and I made a 1600 mile round trip to see the USAF museum (which is OUTSTANDING). Erockets is 4 minutes from the museum, I drove right past past it several times unaware. I’m sure it saved me lots of money though.

 

[Jean-Pierre]

Thanks for the great tips, everyone. Didn’t realize so much was going on in Ohio! Look forward to meeting some (hopefully many) of you in the fall!