NERRF 5 -- August 14, 15, 16, 2009 at Pine Island, NY

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Good Day,

The current weather forecast for NERRF V in Pine Island, NY Aug 14-16 IS:

Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. [ SET UP ONLY ]

Thursday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 61.

Friday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 82. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Friday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 62. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82.

Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 60.

Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 83.

Bobby B
Hangar 11
www.hangar11.com
845-926-1959

Hangar 11 will be onsite Thursday thru Sunday...

Check back soon for specials on Aerotech kits and a BBQ Bundle....
 
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YES vendors may set up on Thursday....

And we can use help setting up the range also.....

Bobby B

Hangar 11
 
NERRF 5 Weather Forecast as of Monday 11:20 PM


Tuesday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 85. West wind between 5 and 8 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Tuesday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before midnight. Partly cloudy, with a low around 63. Light northwest wind. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Wednesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 83. North wind between 3 and 5 mph.

Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 62. Calm wind.

Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 84.

Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 62.

Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 85.

Friday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 61.

Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 85.

Saturday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 62.

Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 82.

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 62.
 
just a general question for anyone who is lvl one cert or above...

Im hoping to get my lvl one cert at NERRF this weekend just wondering what I need to bring as far as paperwork and such. I have my NAR ID, then I was looking at the NAR website and a found a form that looks like needs to be filled out for a lvl one cert (site here if not sure what i mean https://www.nar.org/pdf/hpappl.pdf). Is that all I need? wouldnt want to show up to the launch site and not be able to fly haha

thanks for the help
matt
 
Matt,
Bring your NAR card, the Level 1 application(2 pages), and rocket and your field box and stuff.
You can find me there near the RSO table (SATURDAY) and I can help you with the process.
If your ready you could do your Level 2 there also, need to take written test first(on site ok)

There will be plenty of others to help with the cert. also, just ask.


Mike Diventi
NAR 80980L3
TRA 09981
 
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I'd like to go for my NAR level 2 certification at NERRF.

Will anyone have copies of the NAR lvl 2 written exam available?

Jim
 
Well .... the range is pretty much set up. The grass is freshly cut and looking very golf course like. This is going to be a great launch.

Dan
 
Kathy and I made it into town this afternoon and are resting up for the big day.

I'm still recovering from an illness but hope I will be bright eyed and bushy faced tomorrow for the opening :)

See you all there!
jim
 
Sincerest thanks to the volunteers who made it out to the field today to help set up. We dodged a few rain showers, but the field is in excellent condition. Craig L. cut the grass and even recut the parking area this morning.

A few vendors are set up and ready for fliers... Rocket T shirts, Nadines Dogs, Hangar 11, Wildman. with 10 more on the way.....

Please drive slowly on the way into this field, this is a WORKING farm and farm equipment has the right of way. Be nice to the farm workers, they might be the one who returns your project from parts unknown...

IMPORTANT, BRING a SMILE.. we are here to have fun and even have some "between launch" festival music set to play. The selections span the last 6 decades, your sure to enjoy one or 2 tunes.....

Point Forecast: Pine Island NY
41.31°N 74.36°W
Last Update: 8:20 pm EDT Aug 13, 2009
Forecast Valid: 11pm EDT Aug 13, 2009-6pm EDT Aug 20, 2009

Overnight: Patchy fog after 3am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 60. Calm wind.

icon7.gif
Friday: A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly cloudy, with a high near 84. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Friday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 61. Calm wind.

icon7.gif
Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 88. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph.

Saturday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 61. Calm wind.

icon7.gif
Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 92.

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 66.
 
Great day of flying, hot and dead calm most of the day. I saw one HPR bird on a K motor scream to incredible altitude and deploy at apogee.

Chuck and I just looked at each other... ...big mistake on the mains there fella...

The darned rocket landed IN the launch area, not far from the pad it left from...

incredible..

Tomorrow is a concern though. The weather report says that we could see wind gusts in the afternoon up to 4 mph...

oh man... LOL
 
jflis said:
Great day of flying, hot and dead calm most of the day. I saw one HPR bird on a K motor scream to incredible altitude and deploy at apogee.

Chuck and I just looked at each other... ...big mistake on the mains there fella...

The darned rocket landed IN the launch area, not far from the pad it left from...

incredible..

Tomorrow is a concern though. The weather report says that we could see wind gusts in the afternoon up to 4 mph...

oh man... LOL
Click to expand...

DRAT, I'd better leave the L3000 at home then ;)


Bout time we had some decent flyin weather.

See ya's tomorrow
 
Jim, not to worry, we can tilt the "FLISPADS" .02 degrees into the stiff 5 mph breeze and get your recovery walk down to 20 paces or less.....

WOW.... What a great day...... the field was packed..... lots of great flights.... I saw a HOJO on a K1100 boost straight up.... wicked fast.... and touchdown maybe 75 ft from the pad it left from.....

Point Forecast: Pine Island NY
41.31°N 74.36°WLast Update: 8:24 pm EDT Aug 14, 2009
Forecast Valid: 11pm EDT Aug 14, 2009-6pm EDT Aug 21, 2009

Overnight: Patchy fog after 2am. Otherwise, clear, with a low around 60. Calm wind.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 89. Calm wind becoming southwest around 5 mph.

Saturday Night: Patchy fog after 3am. Otherwise, mostly clear, with a low around 60. Calm wind.

Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 90. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph.

Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 63. Calm wind5


Bobby B
Hangar 11
 
'nother great day of flying :) We had a 7-way Frick-n-Frack drag race with 11 of the 14 parts landing all around the launch rack they left from LOL

We got as many woooo's on that drag race as we did on many of the HPR launches :)

And I forgot my camera.... ugh!

Tomorrow's the last day. Light'em up!
 
I just got home from a couple of fantastic days of flying at my first NERRF. While I lost a rocket :(, I also had some great flights and managed to bump up my personal best altitude by quite a bit. :cool:

Many, many thanks to METRA and everyone else who made NERRF possible. It was very clear that a lot of effort went into making everything run smoothly.
 
I too would like to thank everyone for making NERRF such a great time.
The great weather didn't hurt either!

Thanks to the vendors (rocket and food) for great deals and eats.

I can't wait for NERRF 6

Les
 
Well, back from our back-to-back events (NARAM/NERRF)

NERRF-5 was incredible for flying. Very little wind all 3 days, clear skies and a lot of rockets. My fav is still the 7-way Frick-n-Frack drag race :D
 
NERRF 5 was the best launch ever. Field conditions were as good as it gets. Lots of great projects. No wind and essentially no waiting for pads.

As far as I could tell, all of the equipment worked really well. The sound system was great. The folks that ran NERRF 5 made it look easy, and it was not easy ... not by any stretch of the imagination. Thanks guys, it was a fantastic launch.

So what would I change for next year .... uhhhhmmm ... not much. The only thing I could say is that the BBQ is tough when it's hot. By the end of the day, many people want to get a shower and cool off. You just can't predict this in advance.

Dan
 
Thanks all for a great NERRF-5!

Some 780 flights went off and a significant number were High Power. People seem to think the timing with Naram reduced the number of low power fliers from previous years, when we flew over 900 flights.

The weather was FABULOUS! A 6,000 foot flight blew its Main Chute at the top by mistake, yet it floated down safely to 500 feet from the pads! What a weekend.

Thanks to all the volunteers who made it successful and please be vocal with emails or forum entries about ideas for improvements. Keep it productive, but please let us know what will make it better.

THANKS!
 
Although my son and I were only able to attend on Sunday, it was still a great time! Conditions could not have been more perfect. Well ok it could have been a little less hot but no one was complaining. Got to fly our Estes Space Shuttle and Mercury Atlas as well as a couple other low power birds but of course we love coming to see the big stuff fly too. A few high power CATO's were spectacular although I'm sure their owners might use different terminology.

Thanks to everyone involved in making this a great launch, including the snow cone vendor who gave half off to those of us who stuck around to clean up and break down the field. We've been to all 5 NERRF launches and certainly hope to be there for #6 next year! But this was one of the best, if not the best so far.

Glenn
 
Well crap. Wish we could have been there, I had planned a 76-6000 in my 6" rocket to a predicted 10,200' and a 76-3000 in my dad's 4" rocket to a predicted 8,000', but unfortunately had a curative problem with our propellant. While the density was great, it appears our curative needs replacement. Rather than travel 2 hours for no flights, I went and played golf.

Sounds like I missed out.
 
What an incredible 3 days of flying! Definitely the best flying weather of all 4 NERRFs that I've been to: little wind, clear skies. A little hot, but with a container of Lloyd's wonderful cold lemonade in hand, I'll take that over wind any day.

The field had been soaked by rain in the days leading up to NERRF so it was pretty well sparky-proof. Lots of loud skidmarks (including my first - an AMW I220SK in my Dual-Double Crayon). As has been reported, most flights landed reasonably close to the pads.

Attendance seemed a little lighter this year (probably due to economy and having NARAM the week before and LDRS on the east coast) but that meant virtually no waits for flying throughout.

My first level 2 cert attempt (the double height crayon on a J350W) failed spectacularly as the top of the Toys-R-Us 4" "crayon bank" body tube came apart towards the end of the burn. Fortunately, the electronics kicked in and deployed the laundry and pretty much everything but the body tube is salvageable.

I later got my level 2 cert on a Giant Leap Elipse with a J350W. Flew a J500G in it the next day -- great flights!

And I really enjoyed hanging out with a very fun CMASS contingent (including a number of spouses).

Feedback:
Loved the sound system. Great to have tunes during the down times.
Good turnaround on flights. I found I rarely had to wait very long.
BBQ was excellent. I wouldn't go to NERRF without the BBQ. It's a bargain and it's great to hang out with friends by the field at twilight.

Many thanks to all the volunteers, vendors, and attendees for making this my favorite NERRF yet!

Jim
 
My 5th NERRF. I wasn't sure I'd even make it. I was "on-call" for work, so I got paid to launch rockets. Great weather (wind), just a little hot and humid. I wasn't so lucky with flying. First flight was fine, but landed in the only dirt section of the sod field. The "dirt" was mud, and I sunk 6" in with every step. My rocket got coated too. My second flight was a lawn dart. The powder sucked up the humidity and didn't ignite, so no 'chute. My third flight was fine until the LOC standard "underwear elastic" shock cord broke separating my 'chute from my rocket. The rocket suffered no damage, but the 'chute floated away. My kids had better luck with their Tomahawks and got a couple good flights in.

While it was a good launch overall, it was not without it's problems. I was first in line for pads and didn't get one. It was a mad rush and free-for-all to the pads. No one was organizing that at first. I had a bad pad that wouldn't work, so I had to switch to another pad with good wires. Yes, I sanded the black alligator clips. 1 1/2 hours later my rocket was actually launched. It's actually much easier to launch at a normal METRA launch, so maybe next NERRF, if I'm off, I'll just come to watch and volunteer.

I missed the slow skidmark lawndart on video. That was pretty cool. I did get a few shots with the camera:
https://picasaweb.google.com/PoconoWargaming/NERRF5#
 
In the spirit of offering some feedback, I will say that I enjoyed the launch immensely. It was my first organized, large-scale launch since the mid-1990s and I sure did miss them :)

Things went generally well, I thought, but I do think there is room for improvement in safety and range operations. On too many occasions for my liking, the next rockets were launched before the previous one was identified as safely deployed. This resulted in a rocket coming in ballistically pretty close to the LCO table, with flyers gathered there waiting for pads, with nearly no notice or heads-up call until it was far too late. There was also an unseen rocket that came in like an artillery shell and hit the ground somewhere that I don't know anyone even saw.

There was at least one incident in tent row where an ejection charge went off and threw the nose cone across the grass area between the tents and the ditch bordering the field. It might be wise to make that a no-walk zone in the future, as many used it to reach the range access area and someone could easily have been struck.

Finally, I think there was a bit too little attention paid to air traffic, as it was often the crowd that was hollering to the LCOs that airplanes were in the area. A little more diligence in "sky is clear, range is clear" would go a long way. The last thing we need as a hobby is another airplane incident.

On the plus side, the pad managers I had were excellent, the LCOs did a great job announcing the flights and informing the spectators about what was going on, flyers seemed to volunteer pretty readily and the field and conditions, although wicked hot, were simply superb. The number of vendors was surprising and appreciated and I spent way more than I had planned to :D

So kudos to everyone involved in the launch - organizers, vendors, flyers and spectators alike. I hope my comments come across as positive; that was my intent. I would hate to see anything jeopardize our access to such a fabulous launch site and such an enjoyable event.

As for me, I accomplished my main goal, which was to fly my Cert 2 flight - a PML Tethys on an AT J350W. The Tethys later flew on a 15 or so year old Rocketflite H220 Silver Streak black powder motor - possibly the original "sparky" motor! I also flew my LOC King Viper III on 3 I180 Skidmarks, which turned out to probably not be Skidmarks, although they were marked that way. Still a great flight but I sure missed that sparkly show :)
 
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Many thanks to all the great folks that hosted and volunteered. Our first time to Pine Island, It was a fabulous time

The twins and I did a three way Little Dog drag race at NERRF 5 on F38FJ's
Then the girls wanted to see 'em fly on sparkies so we got two CTI G69 Skidmarks from Wildman and the casings. Girls flew those and got some nice cheers!

Plus a friend certified Lvl 1 --he choose a DD Binder Galaxy for the Lvl 1. Gratz and well done Steve!

Here's the 3 way on the FJ's (Note at 1.7 #'s the RSO was a bit concerned about the 5/1 ratio but let them pad and they flew fine)

Three way drag race Little Dogs NERRF 5.jpg
 

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