Tripoli South Florida

August events pushed the regular launch a couple weeks back but September is scheduled right on time, only a couple of weeks away now.  I was a bit disappointed with myself at this launch because I have this luck that if I rely on it, it vaporizes like a mirage. The day started nearly calm with plenty of pretty blue sky overhead, no dust and looked like a good day for an easy launch.

I was happy that I had replaced the kosdon 29mm casing that disappeared in flight during a previous launch. Performance hobbies had one and I got it and a couple of loads for just abut $100. Then Saturday night I busied myself with other things instead of getting my stuff together. It’s new, its all there, I’ll assemble it out on the field, yeh, that’s the ticket… I thought.

Well when I arrived and started to put it together I found that I forgot the snap rings back in the garage and it didn’t really matter because the delay o-rings happen to be the wrong size for the forward closure.  So what should have been a couple of  H255 quick shots fizzled out. That’s what happens when I plan on in-field engineering.

Tom flew one of his boost gliders  and lost one that grazed the top of the slough. The insects were impenetrable and Tom came out from the high grass speckled with bites. The glider couldn’t be found and looked to be another sacrifice to the field trolls.  Today Martin wrote to me that the glider has been found and is safe.

But you know what, it was a good day anyways because the conversation and the folks there make it great to get out and see them. Have a great labor day. I promise to be more ready on the 19th

Your humble prefect has plans for August 15, his birthday, and so would like to postpone the launch until August 29th two weeks hence.

July’s launch was really nice but modestly attended, summer months in the heat typically are, but it wasn’t that hot an a few misty threats of showers seemed to keep things cooler.

Martin built a stout looking pad and brought it out for trials. It worked good but needs a couple of refinements. My camera battery was dead so there aren’t any pictures this time around. If your jonesing for some rocket video there are replays of the LDRS show on Discovery channel website HERE

We have some really nice rocket recruitment posters provided by TRIPOLI for hanging in shop windows. If someone wants one of these to take to their local, let me know and I’ll bring ‘em out to the launch.

Not too surprisingly, Fathers Day at the rocket field wasn’t busy at all. We have a new Member that joined this month, Wayne P. He came up from the keys to see the rockets fly and the biggest one off was his! A fins and a nosecone rocket kind of thing that flew great in spite of some last minute modifications.
Also, Mike brought out a miniature camera that mounts onto an airframe bracket so it can go on any rocket and includes an integrated usb to plug it right in and download the video files immediately. Super cool – we’re waiting for the video to be emailed any day

It was a beautiful day at any rate.

It has been about a month since the last launch and it will be time to do it again on Father’s day.
If you haven’t been outdoors, summer is here. The mornings start out at 89 F and 80% humidity and go up from there. There will be mirages out on the sand an hopefully lots of blue in the sky.

I predict the weather will be blazing sun and afternoon showers so bring something really cool!

March had a nice but overcast day we had 3 cert 1 flights including Martin, Clay and Chris in the Level ! group.
Later, Don’s spectacular 2 stager broke through the cloud barrier, let’s do those on sunny days from now on. Go to the links to see the videos on my picasa page.

April 18th was a wash out. After looking at the weather radar there didn’t seem to be a good reason to go. The map below  shows rain all over the field for a very soggy day down south.

From 2010

Lets come back in May

Click HERE and and it will take you to the picasa page where some of these pics are videos. See Don’s Awesome Airstart and his loud sparky M take flight. Beautiful stuff! Thanks Big D.

The last day of February was cold and windy but as clear and blue as it could be without a cloud in the sky all day. later the wind calmed down to a nice 5 knots

Congratulations to  Members Mike I and Ray R for successful Level 1 cert launchs.

Don B had several spectacular launches including a redline 2 stager and a sparky cesaroni 54mm. I got video and will be posting one of these days.

It was nice to see both new and familiar faces out on the field, welcome back Bob C. Bob went with us to to Orangeburg, SC back in 2000 and helped with Deville’s 3M cluster Freedom ‘Fiter.

Next launch is scheduled for March 28

A conflict in schedule for our regular weekends has the launch moved back a week.

Looks like a good time to launch will be Sunday September 20.

We do not have a “Class 2 ” high power waiver so this will be restricted to G and below impulse.

With new rocket people joining the club there are several new members who want to certify for L1. Tripoli members should be able to buy one H-load from an actual rocket vendor like Giant Leap when they are ready without any trouble. And now storage requirements are relaxed it should be even easier. I have spent some of our club dollars from dues and donations to purchase some Cesaroni H-class hardware and loads for club sponsored L1 certs. We currently have 3 motors on order from Wildman; one 29mm H and two 38mm H’s.

UPDATE: The motors are in. We have a 29mm 4-grain H170 blue streak. this motor is already spoken for by Jose a new member. The other motors are both 38mm 2-grain loads. One is an H152 Blue streak and the other is an H125 Classic. Mark and Tom have dibs on these loads and will have to sort it out between themselves who gets which.

It is my thought that the club would keep possession of the hardware and certifying individuals would make a donation to the club so we can replace the propellant. After the flight, the hardware would return to the “officer in charge of these things”. If the casing should become damaged or lost during a flight, the flyer would have to replace it as well.

I chose Cesaroni because they are very easy to assemble and light very reliably. If you use motor ejection you had better run a sim to determine the optimum delay for your rocket. Cesaroni delays are adjustable using a drill like device to remove some of the delay grain. By drilling out the delay element it can be configured to the individual flight profile. If you want to use one of these motors you must know your delay time! And you’d better include a positive motor restraint, friction fit / masking tape retention will not be allowed. A sheet metal screw in the base ring with a wire hook isn’t ideal but it will be allowed.

Comments welcome