RocStock Nov 10-12

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Be aware that the closure is only for the Southbound lanes of I15 and the connector to them from the I215:

I 15
[SAN BERNARDINO & RIVERSIDE CO.'S]
IS CLOSED TO SOUTHBOUND TRAFFIC AT THE JCT OF I 215 /IN DEVORE/
(SAN BERNARDINO CO) 24 HRS A DAY FROM 0900 HRS ON 11/10/06 THRU 1300 HRS ON
11/12/06 - DUE TO CONSTRUCTION - A DETOUR IS AVAILABLE

I 215
[SAN BERNARDINO & RIVERSIDE CO.'S]
THE NORTHBOUND CONNECTOR TO SOUTHBOUND I 15 /IN DEVORE/ (SAN BERNARDINO CO)
IS CLOSED 24 HRS A DAY FROM 0900 HRS ON 11/10/06 THRU 1300 HRS ON 11/12/06 -
DUE TO CONSTRUCTION - A DETOUR IS AVAILABLE


Also, it's good to program this/these CalTrans numbers in your cell phone:
Access road conditions by telephone: 800.427.7623 or 916.445.7623


Originally posted by Saks_Russel
I just found out that the I-15 and 215 junctions will be closed from 9am Friday through 1pm Sunday. If your route takes you across that junction, a detour is available but considerable delays might occur.

Check the Caltrans website for more information https://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/

Saks
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Originally posted by Saks_Russel
If you want a particular HP reload, call or email What's Up Hobbies to check if Andy has it in stock. He's great and will put aside something for you to make sure you get it.
Click to expand...

Just curious...but do vendors at events like this now have to see your LEUP before selling you a H+ motor?
 
Just arrived home from ROCstock…

This ROCstock was filled with Great times, and some of the saddest times I have had in rocketry.

Sumo flew on M2000R and four K780R’s. All banged on the ground and beautiful flight! Pulled an Art and deployed the mains at apogee, but still a beautiful flight.

Got he call that Greg Lawson passed away at 12:05 Saturday, Greg was the President of ROC for many years, and a great friend. He accompanied the Gates Brothers to many a rocket launch helping us out and just having a fun together! We will miss him!

After recovery of the Sumo on Sunday, came to notice that my 2 Honda CRF450R dirt bikes were not leaning up against the bumper of the motorhome, and found out they were stolen…. Filed a police report, but looks like there is nothing we can do….

Good times, bad times…
 
Got there Friday afternoon and puttered around setting up, finding people, getting registered, yadda yadda. The flying conditions were not bad, but the day was getting on and I didn't put anything up. It was quite chilly and must have gone down close to freezing overnight. I know that I was freezing!!

Saturday morning I sat around catching up with a friend and prepping some rockets to fly "in a little while" since the day was looking to be very nice for rockets when....... The "W" whipped up all of a sudden and stayed for the rest of the day. There were lots of brave souls in need of exercise that launched regardless. Not me, I'm lazy.

Sunday I roused myself nice and early after a good night's sleep. Another cold night but I managed to stay warm and comfy. Prep'd my rockets and flew early, JIC. The W stayed nice and calm in the AM and started to get breezy along around lunch. Still perfectly flyable.

I hate to lose a day of flying on a big weekend like this, but I can't complain, It's not every weekend one gets their L2 CERT!!

For those with any interest... I flew a Polecat Aerospace 4" Bullpup on a J350W. Since I believe in the K.I.S.S. theory, I stuffed a 58" hot pink chute with motor ejection just to make sure I didn't get any damage on the landing and didn't have to fuss with any electronics. Perfect up and a gentle down. Not even too much of hike to retrive the empty. Missed one on my test... How much brush clearance is required for a rocket with a 2x J cluster? I'll never forget that it's 75'. Launching in the So Cal deserts, it's not an issue anyway. I think the nearest plant is usually about a mile away.

I'm just writing to put something down before my eyes close.

Special thanks to Mark Hayes for all of the advice and being my supervisor and proctor on the cert. attempt. Thanks to Andy Woerner for a great kit and checking over my work. Thanks to Greg Eyerich for the hospitality and moral support. The members of ROC for holding a well organized and well run event. Last but not least, all of the great people that make rocketry so much fun.

Attached is a picture of the Gates Brothers upscale Sumo.

More to follow later.
 
Nice pictures of the Sumo Ken. People, that picture does not do it justice, that flame was RED,RED,RED!!! Even my 6 year old said "cool" after take off.

Ken, congrats on your L2 cert, with all that was going on, I actually saw that flight, very well done. I forgot to mention that.(It was just me and my 6 year old Kole this weekend, and he's got TONS of energy). And thanx for the brewsky too.
 
The Sumo was a great flight! The first time the Sumo flew was in Texas on a N2000 and four M1315’s.

This time we flew the Sumo on a M2000 Redline and four K780 Redlines. (No motor larger than a M or combined impulse greater than an N allowed in California) The Red flames were incredible, and it jumped off the pad!

The recovery worked, but not as planned. At first we assumed we had an ARRD fail, but high resolution photos show the ARRD did not fail, and the strap connected to the ARRD was 6” too long and allowed the mains to sneak out the top of the airframe.

We also planned on flying Porthos, but stood down when we learned of Greg’s passing, and will fly Greg’s ashes in Porthos at the December launch/memorial for Greg.
 
Awesome pic of the Sumo, gotta love those Redlines!!!:D :D :D

What was the alt???

Sorry to hear about the dirt bikes, hopefully the cops will catch the punk(s) who did that.
 
Originally posted by Donaldsrockets
Awesome pic of the Sumo, gotta love those Redlines!!!:D :D :D

What was the alt???

Sorry to hear about the dirt bikes, hopefully the cops will catch the punk(s) who did that.
Click to expand...

AltAcc beeped out 4410, we simmed 4500' Fairly close!
 
Eric, the Sumo was really great!! of course we're all really keen to see the Jayhawk go!

I hope you get your bikes back in good condition. That really sucks, it's the first I've heard of anything like that at a launch.
 
good job!!!! I bet it was a lot of fun, also on youtube there is a video of a big rocket with a ten second burn that flew there
 
Originally posted by ctus
Just curious...but do vendors at events like this now have to see your LEUP before selling you a H+ motor?
Click to expand...


No. I was never asked for one, in fact I never even heard it mentioned.
 
Originally posted by Porthos II
Just arrived home from ROCstock…



Got he call that Greg Lawson passed away at 12:05 Saturday, Greg was the President of ROC for many years, and a great friend. He accompanied the Gates Brothers to many a rocket launch helping us out and just having a fun together! We will miss him!

Greg signed me off on my L1 & L2 certs, and even loaned me a casing for my L2 cert. he was always a very nice, friendly person and alway ready and willing to help. While I didn't really know him that well, it was still somewhat surreal Saturday afternoon. I am deeply saddened for those who close to him. Thank you, Greg.

After recovery of the Sumo on Sunday, came to notice that my 2 Honda CRF450R dirt bikes were not leaning up against the bumper of the motorhome, and found out they were stolen…. Filed a police report, but looks like there is nothing we can do….



I was going to complain that I think somebody stole my rocket and my 29mm casing. You see it went up, but nobody ever saw it after that. I walked about 2 1/2 miles looking for it. No one turned it in either. But compared to getting some dirt bikes jacked, never mind. It is a shame that thing like this happen. I mean, really, we are trusting complete strangers not to walk up and jack our rocket stuff. We are at times hours away from our camp, but there is just that comraderie we have between us, and respect for others. It is a shame that happened.



Good times, bad times… [/B]
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That was an awesome flight of the Sumo.
 
First off I would like to say thank you to Gary(Fuddrucker) for saving me a spot, and Mark(Metalwizard) for the chute. These guys have some really nice families and thier kids had no problem playing with Kole. You don't know how much I appreciate that. I don't think he missed turning over one dirt clod the whole time we were there.
Also got to see Ken(Saks Russell), who certed L2, sweet. Cliff, thanx for the pyrodex, Bruce Levinson, thanx for the catalog. Hey Bruce, if your son has any defective kits, I'll be happy to find some use for them. ;) ;) I know I had a good time despite the "W" on Saturday and the ballistic of my Tomahawk(more on that later). Next time I'm bringing a BBQ. Hey, I don't camp very often. Oh and a very nice young man named Connor.
Let me tell you, all the folks mentioned above are really nice people, thanx for the good time.


Now to the flights. I didn't get many flights in (no surprise, with about 500 peeps usually at this event). Kole put up his Baby Bertha first. I went with my 38mm FatBoy on a G67R. It was in the front row, and because of a backlog, they launched them all at the same time. While the FB was last off the pad, it screamed on ignition and was gone. I thought I'd lost it until someone said they saw it in the other direction I was looking. Found it after about 45 minutes and at least 1/2 mile from the launch site. This was about the time the wind started picking up, and the dust. Kole wanted to fly another rocket, and he picked the Executioner. Put E9-6 and again, another 1/2 mile trek(by now the wind and dust was getting pretty bad). I believe they suspended the launch for awhile.

In this picture you can see the dust in background. It got so bad for awhile, it looked like fog.
 
Then the clouds started rolling in and it actually started to rain, very, very light, but it was rain nontheless. Well, I had my Horizon already prepped for it's maiden flight with a H165R. I was flying this for my friend who moved to Tennessee. It was still fairly windy, but I had nothing else to do. It was getting late, starting to get dark, and I was having igniter problems. Got that resolved, 3,2,1 launch. Nice flight, arced slightly over to the left into the wind, and then I never saw it again. The LCO after ignition turned and started talking to someone and didn't track it. No one else saw it either. ****, lost a casing. Didn't think it was possible. Here was the rocket.


here's the caption: "Have you seen me? I miss my daddy and I want to go home."
 
Never found it. Well, now it was time to just relax and get ready for the night launches. Hung out with Gary and Mark and their families, had dinner, a couple beers, got a rocket prepped. Then they said no night launches. Kole was dying to get in the tent and tell "stories" as he put it. Oh yeah, the colorful camp fire was sweet. thanx Mark. That's all I'm saying.
Once we were in the tent, we were out. Then they started to night launch, but I was too tired.
Got up early Sunday morning and went on a walk about trying to find my rocket, but to no avail. Made some coffee, and started to prep my Tomahawk with an I195J. All was good. Here it is on the pad.
 
Well, I thought all was good. It took awhile for it to light, and once it did I knew something wasn't right. It really seemed to struggle to get off the ground. It was like it was moving in slow motion. I thought maybe I chose the wrong motor, but it only weighed 6lbs, so it should've been no problem. Well it went up, arced over and started down. And down, and down, and down. BAM!!! Almost like the real thing. Here is the carnage. Ouch.
 
Believe it or not, it's not as bad as it looks. The fins are all still intact. I just need to cut the tube at lowest point and add a coupler and bondo the NC. A little work, but definately salvagable.
What happened? I was using a 38mm to 54mm adapter. My only form of motor retention was all thread holding a brass clip. It never occured to me to add a spacer to keep the adapter from moving up. As the motor was firing it was moving up the inside of the motor mount tube, which explains why it seemed to struggle. I don't know why the ejection charge didn't fire in time, unless it just didn't get enough altitude. Oh well, live and learn. I'm going to retro fit a retainer of some sort so that doesn't happen again.

Got wind of a Fat Boy drag race. I'm in. Got a AT H242T. The other guys had an I
something, don't remember, and 54mm FB. Ken, what'd you have? Anyway they were bragging about how they were using Thermalite and motor powder and such and all I had was FFI. In fact one of them said, "Well, you'll be last off the pad." Anyway 3,2,1.. guess who's first off the pad. Yep, my FB screamed to about 3000 ft maybe. So I've got bragging rights until next time.

Tried to get one more flight in. My Richter Recker. Only one of the motors lit. It moved very slowly up off the rod (I added rail buttons for windy conditions) and hit about 25 feet and then came right back down and landed on the fin can and of course broke the whole bottom section right off. Hey Jim, you got a replacement motor mount for the RR? That about sums it up. Not overly exciting, but good company. Look forward to next time.
 
Oh yeah, one more thing. It's Hi Vis Orange chutes from now on!!!! Learned that the hard way too. Man I've got a thick head. Doh!!!
 
My 29mm FatBoy was loaded with a G54W RMS reload. I should have set the rocket at least halfway up the rod. The bugger whipped something fierce and sent me for a long hike. Last off the pads, but I didn't do anything special to get the motor to light.
 
Tim,

It sure is hard to spot a light blue rocket against the sky.

I learned the same way and started using nothing but nylon chutes in the most unnatural colors I could find.

BTW, if anyone was taking pictures on Sunday morning and has one of my 4" Bullpup launching, I would really appriciate a copy. That was my L2 cert flight. It had a 5' hot pink chute.
 
Working on getting the pics sorted in between homework and studying for midterms. Unfortunately I accidentally left my camera on ISO 800 the whole weekend (I was shooting indoors the previous Tuesday) and as such all the pics came out a bit grainy. Oh well. (Also pardon the compression... the forum's max filesize is too small ;))

Here's one of the Sumo. More to follow later.
 
Another Mark Hayes creation... the UFL (Unidentified Flying Lampshade). I forgot to get a picture of the rocket during the day and this night shot is interesting, but not great.
 

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