NSL 2017 in Alamagordo, NM on May 27-29, 2017

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tab28682

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Currently planning on going to NSL 2017. The drive from DFW is bearable at about 9 hours. Interesting site with interesting rocket related attractions nearby.

Who else is going?
 
I am beginning to plan for it. My wife and I would be driving from the Seattle area. We both have family in New Mexico and so would make it more than just a trip to fly for three days....
 
Rocketry Photography will be there. I plan on flying at least one rocket but will be availble to film others if there is interest.
 
Nice! I will definately go, may even go for L2 there.
 
Cool! I was just going to ask if there was going to be a motor vendor attending.
 
Gaa, why in May? It's going to be hot as.... Anyway, if I am not up to my eyeballs with FSAE Prep that weekend I will try to be there.
 
Gaa, why in May? It's going to be hot as.... Anyway, if I am not up to my eyeballs with FSAE Prep that weekend I will try to be there.

NSL is always held on the three day Memorial Day weekend. Allows folks to have two or 2.5 days of launching with a half day to a full day to travel home. Looks like they will start early and end early each day to minimize the time spent in the worst part of the heat.
 
NSL is always held on the three day Memorial Day weekend. Allows folks to have two or 2.5 days of launching with a half day to a full day to travel home. Looks like they will start early and end early each day to minimize the time spent in the worst part of the heat.

Just complaining. It won't be as bad as Lincoln Nebraska on a airport tarmac in June so there's that.
 
I would love to attend but my son is graduating that weekend.
 
I've got to make some reservations myself. I realized that we're just a few hours from Carlsbad Caverns, so I think I'm going to bring the kids and spend the week driving back to Salt Lake City. After Carlsbad, there's Four Corners, and lots of national parks & monuments. More a question of what to limit ourselves to!

Now, if I can just figure out how to buy a pickup and camper by then, we'll be all set!
 
Just bear in mind that Carlsbad Caverns and the Four Corners are on diagonal opposites in NM....and you're looking at an all day drive from one to the other. :) I've made close to that trip several times as my family lived in Shiprock, which isn't too far from the Four Corners, and my wife's family was in Carlsbad. (We met in college at New Mexico State in Las Cruces in 1976.)

Alamogordo to Carlsbad is a short four hours if you go across to Ruidoso, over to Roswell and then south through Artesia to Carlsbad. The national park is about a half-hour further on.

If you do get to the Caverns, check out the lit ceilings in the lunchroom....that my wife, working for her father, helped install in the early 1970s.
 
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I'm looking forward to this. My first NSL.

Mike
 
I am just getting back into rocketry and what do you know, a national event just 70 miles from my house. I am looking forward to the launch.

Doug Garcia
AMA 102103
AE5HE
 
It will be warm (90's), but late May isn't yet our hottest time of the year. It doesn't typically start hitting 100 degrees until mid to late June. But even so, we're going to have the range opening at 7 a.m. on all three days, so that you all can get some flying in early before the day starts to warm up. Our overnight lows are generally in the upper 60's/lower 70's at that time of the year.
 
NSL is always held on the three day Memorial Day weekend. Allows folks to have two or 2.5 days of launching with a half day to a full day to travel home. Looks like they will start early and end early each day to minimize the time spent in the worst part of the heat.

The Alamogordo launch site lies within the airspace of Holloman AFB. They let us launch in their airspace on weekends because they don't conduct training flights on weekends, but they don't normally allow us to launch on weekdays. The only way we can conduct a three day launch there is to do it on a holiday weekend, since they won't be conducting training flights on a federal military holiday. So besides the fact that NSL is traditionally held on Memorial Day weekend, we're also holding it that weekend out of necessity.
 
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Cool! I was just going to ask if there was going to be a motor vendor attending.

As of this writing, we have three vendors lined up who sell motors. We're expecting Discount Rocketry out of California, who sell Estes motors. We're also expecting Apogee Components, who will likely be pre-selling motors for delivery at NSL; they're a Cesaroni dealer so that covers yet another base. We're going to be working on recruiting other vendors for kits & components, and some of them may also sell a few motors, but we wanted to get motor vendors lined up early. We'll be adding a vendor page to the NSL 2017 website within the next week or so.

Chris will be taking up a sizable chunk of vendor row, so he'll be easy to spot. ;-)
 
I just leftAlamagordo 5 days ago, I was visiting my son a lieutenant at their AFB. There is an interesting space museum which has original and replica rockets such as a "burnt-out" V2 captured at the end or WW II. The heat is "dry" so no effect of humidity (more tolerable).Does anyone know the waiver & will the launch area be at the white sands desert (an amazingly stark yet remarkable very large area)?

Fred,
Tripoli 15606, L2
KG4YGP,
ROSCO
 
Just bear in mind that Carlsbad Caverns and the Four Corners are on diagonal opposites in NM....and you're looking at an all day drive from one to the other. :) I've made close to that trip several times as my family lived in Shiprock, which isn't too far from the Four Corners, and my wife's family was in Carlsbad. (We met in college at New Mexico State in Las Cruces in 1976.)

Alamogordo to Carlsbad is a short four hours if you go across to Ruidoso, over to Roswell and then south through Artesia to Carlsbad. The national park is about a half-hour further on.

If you do get to the Caverns, check out the lit ceilings in the lunchroom....that my wife, working for her father, helped install in the early 1970s.

Will do. I realize that the drive times are non-trivial. Planning to split things up in chunks of about 4 hours driving. After NSL, couple days at Carlsbad, then couple days in Santa Fe, then 2-3 days up near Four Corners. Would love to add more, but only have so much vacation available.
 
Chris will be taking up a sizable chunk of vendor row, so he'll be easy to spot. ;-)

Yeah, big trailer with lots of motors in it will do that :) I stock the full Loki line, almost the entire Aerotech line(currently missing about 15 reloads), and also the CTI line, which will be dependent on the recovery from the fire.
 
As of this writing, we have three vendors lined up who sell motors. We're expecting Discount Rocketry out of California, who sell Estes motors. We're also expecting Apogee Components, who will likely be pre-selling motors for delivery at NSL; they're a Cesaroni dealer so that covers yet another base. We're going to be working on recruiting other vendors for kits & components, and some of them may also sell a few motors, but we wanted to get motor vendors lined up early. We'll be adding a vendor page to the NSL 2017 website within the next week or so.

Chris will be taking up a sizable chunk of vendor row, so he'll be easy to spot. ;-)

What time will setup begin on Friday? I'm trying to figure out the drive breakdown.
 
Isnt' the waiver only like 12,000 ft???? Thats a long ways to travel for that waiver altitude. My 2 cents.
 
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