NERRF Has Started!

[FredT]

Originally posted by jflis
One thing that would have helped (although it would have lent its own frustration) would be to have a large white board set up with volunteer spots identified by the hour. Schedule out the whole day and write in the volunteer spots needed and who the volunteers are. That way you always knew who was suppose to be where and when. If you didn't have all of the spots covered, you put a big RED dot on that hour and you shut down the field for that hour. If the people want to fly, they will volunteer.

Excellent idea.

I did not volunteer but ascribe that to the fact that I have a booth to run.

But still you found time to fly rockets. (Please take in the spirt of your original post; just an observation not criticism.)

Those who did volunteer did a fine job and should be commended. Someone mentioned that they should get a reduced fee for volunteering. Frankly, I think they should get a free ticket for each day they volunteer, or even for the whole event.

The ideal solution is some sort of incentive to volunteer. I don't think a cut of range fees is enough. But here's an idea. Make shifts two hours but each volunteer gets a limitted edition "NERRF 2006 Range Crew" tee shirt for completing their shift. The costs could be partially off-set by a vendor fee which would get their logo on the back (ala NSL 2003). The rest of the cost could be offset by non-range fee assets such as a raffle.

1) If possible, don't over complicate the controls. I am not sure if this was a mix of different clubs equipment or not, but man that launch table looked like something out of a NASA launch! many boxes, each with their own key lock, buttons everywhere, no way to do a continuity check at the LCO table, having to go out to the pads to arm them, etc.... Just my 2 cents

As Tom noted, just not praticle, and from a guy that actually worked the controls, not that much of a problem.

2) Define and publish (to both the volunteers and attendees) what the process is for getting a rocket launched. Every time I went up it was a slightly different proceedure. Sometimes there was a pad manager who would assign you a pad. Others, they'd tell you to load up and then let them know what pad you selected, other times, different still. It was hard to know what you needed to do. The only *clear* operation was RSO.

Good idea about publishing process for flyers and volunteers.

3) For many reasons (some controllable some not), there was no way to know when your rocket was going to be launched as there didn't seem to be any pattern. Some times they would go HPR pads followed by LPR pads. I would load up my rocket then go socialize thinking I had 20-30 minutes, then they would begin with the LPR pads instead and I was in a panic to get back to the flight line.

I think there is a need to retain flexibility to deal with situations as they occur. A general smoothing out of the whole process would solve this problem.

4) There was a "Fliers meeting" each morning. This was very informative Was there also a "volunteers meeting"? I do not know if there was or not, but if not I bet it would have been very helpful so that all of the volunteers knew their duities and knew how to run this range. Just a thought.

Point taken, but we picked up volunteers as the day went on. We could make people think they couldn't/shouldn't volunteer because they missed the volunteer meeting. Your suggestion about published (in advance and at the field) instructions would accomplish the goal.

Please take this note in the manner it which it was intended.

Great job, one and all.

jim

Same with this post. Jim, now get to work on that Corona-2!

...Fred

 

[FredT]

Originally posted by n3tjm
Suggestion - make two ranges. One low/mid power and one high power. Each range operates independantly, so low power flyers will not have to wait for the HPR folks, and vice versa. If a model lands in another range, it is a simple mater to wait wait till the next loadin time.

We had the range split in two so that one side could load while the other flies. Didn't always work that way though and a general smoothing out of the whole process is needed and is possible.

The problem with spiliting the ranges as you suggest is you end up with two launches; one LPR and the other HPR. This is contray to NERRF philosophy. In other words, "Can't we just get along."

...Fred

 

[rocketdad0934]

wowwwww what a great time we (my son Billy and I) had. I have so many things to say where do I start?
we left fri morn @ 0200 and had a great ride down stopping for breakfast in Newburgh. arrived @ the field right on 0700 got set up and prepped a few rockets before fliers meeting. we had offered two hours of time all three days and did manage to keep up with our comitment fri and sat sun I lost track of time and was a half hour late @ our assigned post. As far as I was concerned that was plenty of time from us.

Fri I flew five flights the ACME race, my Stingray, the Drake on a E9 that broke one of its fins in flight (got part of it back) the two stage Rhino that Jim talked about and the Richter Rechter.

Sat Billy flew his overdrive (another tree rescue rocket ). I flew the Preator, raced the Phroed 150-Athena two stage saucer with Jim and the Nomad D/C/C (thanks to whom ever it was that recovered the pieces) we waked all the way out to the trees and when we got there the rocket was no wheres to be found as some one had already picked it up and returned it to lost and found. the booster pieces Doug (N3tjm) brought back from the Hanger 11 tent.

Sun I was pretty well beat up tired and only put two flights up the Buick hub cap spool rocket and a cluster flight of the Rhino that had been written off Fri and I had purchased its replacement Sat. prior to its return to the lost and found table.

I did enjoy to many things to even list here meeting alot of people was at the top of the list. watching the high power stuff was to cool. and as for my son and I we can not wait to do it again.

 

[n3tjm]

Originally posted by FredT

The problem with spiliting the ranges as you suggest is you end up with two launches; one LPR and the other HPR. This is contray to NERRF philosophy. In other words, "Can't we just get along."

...Fred

With a launch this size, there is a big trade off with what ever you do. spliting the lpr/mdp and hpr into two independant ranges wouldn't mean that they are not getting along, it would mean a smoother operation because people who want to launch the lpr birds don't have to wait a year for the hpr birds and vice versa. Kinda like how NARAM has a sport and competiton range.

I like to fly both Hpr and low power rockets, and you may of noticed that I avoided the lpr pads... reason for that... i saw the consistant problem. I only had one rocket that went to the low power pad. I set it up, and had enough time between hooking up the clips and launching it to pry a stuck motor from my Magnum, dismental and clean all my RMS cases for the day, and get most of my stuff ready to pack in the truck. Having the low power/mid power section its own entity would avoid that hour wait because it does not take long to hook up and launch a low power/ midpower bird... and since most lpr/mpr birds deploy at apogee... you can move on to the next bird... unlike the HPR birds where for safty reasons, they wait till all the chutes are out or safely on the ground... which in turn, puts a good delay between launches.

 

[jflis]

Originally posted by FredT

But still you found time to fly rockets. (Please take in the spirt of your original post; just an observation not criticism.)

Just to comment, when I fly those rockets I am providing a demo of my product (well, with the exception of the Sprint'73, that is... )

Point taken however. Someone had mentioned takeing and early (first?) shift before the place gets too busy. That's an idea too.

I will make a point of taking range duty at NARAM and see if it complicates things with the booth too much.

jim

 

[jflis]

Oh, and as promised

Here is Drew's Century Shuttle on the pad

 

[jflis]

ANd the launch pix. This thing really turned in an incredible flight!

 

[Adam Selene]

As far as next years NERRF, are you going to keep the current web site up? I'd love to distribute flyers at naram this year to let more people know about it. having dates and location before then would be good but not essential.

as to volunteering, i did a couple of hours om friday even though i hada booth to run and rockets to fly.

here are some of my better shots from the weekend!

first up, doug's cluster from friday:

 

[Adam Selene]

i think this is Neil's Dad's L2:

btw- if anyone can id any of my pics please do so!!

 

[Adam Selene]

some one's something on some green motor:

 

[Adam Selene]

a leopard spotted big daddy:

 

[Adam Selene]

oops. note to self: click chose picture, THEN click submit.

 

[Adam Selene]

that really cool giant herseys hug (well, some off it) on it's way up.

 

[Adam Selene]

a skidmark on friday, i think.

 

[Adam Selene]

another big sparky motor.

 

[Adam Selene]

an upscale big bertha

 

[Adam Selene]

a CATO. not mine. that's posted to my L2 and Beyond thread.

 

[Adam Selene]

I think this is Al's L2 flight.

btw, if anyone is looking for a pic a a particular rocket, send me a description and i'll see if i have it. although i didn't take as many pics as usual.

 

[thomasrau]

Originally posted by Adam Selene
As far as next years NERRF, are you going to keep the current web site up? I'd love to distribute flyers at naram this year to let more people know about it. having dates and location before then would be good but not essential.

Yes, the NERRF site is going to remain up. This weekend I hope to have the breakdown on the types of flights and will update the numbers. Also the photo gallery is slowly filling in the albums (135 pics so far). So if you have NERRF pics stop by to upload them to the appropriate album for all to enjoy. Also the gallery is set up to allow you to send an e-card with your favorite picture.
I don't think we will have next years site picked by NARAM, but as soon as we do the dates and location will be announced.

 

[Hospital_Rocket]

Originally posted by Adam Selene
a CATO. not mine. that's posted to my L2 and Beyond thread.

Pay attention boys and girls.

That is what happens when you are doing a reload of a Loki I405, get distracted and forget where you are in the process. It seems I left out the forward O-ring.

Major vendor Kudos to Loki for replacing a motor and reload in a situation where it would seem the fault was all mine.

Al

 

[rstaff3]

The o-ring, or the o-rings? They use a bunch of them

 

[Hospital_Rocket]

The big one around the forward closure. I had the delay train ok.

 

[rstaff3]

Duh, that is obvious...that's what I get for typing while still asleep

 

[Lugnut]

Just uploaded my dozen or so pictures into the saturday bin, I think they're still under the 'most recent upload' section too (for the time being)

Lugnut

PS I'm starting to get the bug for bigger rockets. Not good. Problem is, other than NERRF, I would have no place to launch one.

 

[Neil]

Wow, thats a great pic of my dad's L2! Thanks!

this saves me the trouble of posting a pic for my dad.

 

[Adam Selene]

Originally posted by Hospital_Rocket
Pay attention boys and girls.

That is what happens when you are doing a reload of a Loki I405, get distracted and forget where you are in the process. It seems I left out the forward O-ring.

Major vendor Kudos to Loki for replacing a motor and reload in a situation where it would seem the fault was all mine.

Al

looking at the picture that's about what i thought happened.
Darren did alright by everyone who had problems this weekend. Gotta love that in a vendor!

 

[Loki]

Originally posted by Lugnut

PS I'm starting to get the bug for bigger rockets. Not good. Problem is, other than NERRF, I would have no place to launch one.

So? The METRA club launches at the NERRF site at least every month. Check the METRA web site for the launch schedule.

 

[Loki]

Originally posted by Hospital_Rocket
The big one around the forward closure. I had the delay train ok.

Heh heh, I always wondered what it would look like if I left that o-ring out.

Distractions in the prep area are the numero uno cause of flight failures, try to avoid them (nearly impossible I know).

 

[Hospital_Rocket]

Originally posted by Loki
Heh heh, I always wondered what it would look like if I left that o-ring out.

Distractions in the prep area are the numero uno cause of flight failures, try to avoid them (nearly impossible I know).

Got any other mistakes you'd like me to make at your expense?

Of course it immolated my Sudden Rush. About all that is left is the tailcone, CP3K fittings, and nosecone.

 

[thomasrau]

Originally posted by Hospital_Rocket
Of course it immolated my Sudden Rush. About all that is left is the tailcone, CP3K fittings, and nosecone.

That's more than enough, you can make it better, faster, stronger than before (theme from 6million dollar man plays in background as Al mixes epoxy in slow motion).

Jeff was correct, distractions are the number one cause of failures. There are two things that can help:

1. Become intimately familiar with the hardware. Just as a recruit learns to field strip their weapon in their sleep, you need to be able to assemble your reload without even having to think about it.

2. Always line up all the parts in a tray on your bench, anything left over when you're done is a bad sign.

Of course there are always other things to go wrong, heck thats what makes the hobby so much fun.