LUNAR’clips 2004                        Volume 11, Number 2

Copyright © 2004 by LUNAR, All rights reserved.

The Range Head

SNOW RANCH

LUNAR has now finished its first "season" at Snow Ranch after three wonderful launches. I have heard nothing but abundant praise for the location and the events. I personally want to thank Bruce and Roma Orvis for letting us use their land, and, of course, all of the LUNAR officers and volunteers who did all of the work behind the scenes that made this look so easy. At the final launch on April 17 we had fliers coming from all up and down the Central Valley, some driving 200 miles just to check it out.

The only thing that still needs work is the volunteer situation. The analogy I've been using is that running one of these launches is like being a parent at Christmas. You have a hard deadline by which you have to pull together permits, waivers, insurance, facilities (porta-potties), equipment, etc. after which all of the members shout "Yippee! This is great! Let's do it again!" Of course, we have it easier than most parents due to the wonderful LUNAR officers and other volunteers who actually do the legwork for most of those things, but remember, we're not being paid for any of this and it takes a lot of time. I think everyone recognizes the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to put on an event like a Snow Ranch launch, and that the people doing that work would like to fly their own rockets as well. At all three of the launches, we had people doing multiple shifts at LCO and SCO, just to keep things running, and it always seemed to be the same half-dozen people. The thing that is most needed is pad attendants. We have lots of people flying with us for the first time and our pad equipment, while easy to use, does need explanation the first time. Just something to keep in mind while you're out there next fall enjoying the wide-open range and perfect flying conditions.

With James Marino's L850 launch in April, we have now moved up to a full Level 2 club. There are no legal impulse restrictions on the field, but for safety reasons, we have decided to notch our way up one impulse level at a time. For the first few launches we had an upper limit of "J" motors in general, but allowed "K" motor flights on a case-by-case basis. James's flight was a special case for a trusted member who had proved his skills at other high power launches. Our procedures are in place to allow it, but right now we are too equipment limited to let everyone fly Level 2. Our HP pads, which are fine for Level 1, are just not up to launching 20 lb rockets. During the hiatus from Snow Ranch (until after the fire season, possibly by October, but probably November) we will be building some L2 capable pads so that we'll be ready to start flying "K" next fall. We will, eventually, move up to a full Level 2 capability with "L" motors, but only after our internal safety review says we are ready.

Finally, I (and the Orvis's) have been especially impressed how well everyone policed their own areas. There has been very little trash to pick up afterwards, and no one's found any rattlesnakes :-)

Bill Orvis has put up an extensive photo page of the launches on the web site at: www.lunar.org/gallery/launches2.shtml#2004

TARC LAUNCHES

The preliminary qualification for the 2004 Team America Rocketry Challenge is now history. I want to thank Craig Saunders for coordinating the special launches and, of course, the Coopers and other volunteers that made this happen. The final qualifying list has just been posted on the official TARC website (www.rocketcontest.org ) and of the 100 teams qualifying for the national fly-offs, five of them, plus one of the alternates, flew from our field! Congratulations to everyone who participated!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Last issue I wrote about the 35-year anniversary event of the first moon landing being put on by the USS Hornet museum (the Hornet was the ship that recovered both Apollo 11 and Apollo 12). Called "Splash Down '04," it will be a 10-day event July 17 thru 26 with displays and demonstrations. We have been asked to participate along with BayNAR, to set up a model rocketry booth. You may have heard that we were going to fly demonstrations off of the flight deck, but this idea was killed by the City of Alameda due to the area around the ship being the nesting area for an endangered bird species. We will still need folks to man the tables for that period. I'm looking for some one to coordinate the volunteers.

A bit earlier, in fact in only a couple of weeks as you read this, we have been asked to act as resident experts at a Cub Scout "Rocket Day" event in Concord on May 8. Unfortunately, no pyrotechnics will be allowed there, either (just air/water rockets), but we can talk to the boys and help them build some models that they can then fly with us. Two weeks later, on the 22^nd, the city of Napa is putting on a build it, fly it event, much like San Ramon did last year. The organizer, Laura Glick, is still battling with the Fire Marshall there to find out if we really are going to be able to do it (I've made three calls, but never had one returned). She's promised a nice bottle of some Napa vintage to the LUNAR volunteers who can come up to help.

Keep an eye on the "lunar.announce" and "lunar.general" mailing lists for continuing information on all these events.

NIGHT LAUNCH

At the end of May is out first night launch of the year. Instead of the 15^th (which we had originally requested), we got pushed back to the 29^th due to the Scottish Games being scheduled on the field that weekend. They want to give the field two weeks to recover from the huge crowd they expect for that all-weekend event. Our meeting, though, is still on May 12^th, since that date was set first, and the Carnegie room wasn't available later in the month.

The 29^th is, of course, the first day of the Memorial Day weekend, so we should have quite a crowd. In fact, I'm starting the launch at noon in order to accommodate several youth groups that will be coming out with sizable crowds of their own. Club flying will start around 4 PM, but you are welcome to come out earlier if you want to help out with the kids. The Y Indian Guides plan to participate in the night flying, too, and their organizer, Corey Thompson, has made the following invitation to LUNAR members:

"I wanted to give you an update and progress concerning the May 29th Night launch. We currently have around 45 kids diligently working on their rockets (Most are first timers). To say they're excited is a real understatement! We expect our participation to be around 45-60 kids by the launch date. We plan to start arriving around 5:30 pm and have secured a 12ft trailer BBQ for a cook out prior to launching

"We'd like to invite LUNAR, it's crew and families to join us. Just bring what ever you would like to throw on the Barbie. We'll have plenty of beverages for all. Please let everyone at Lunar know that we appreciate your enthusiasm and support in this venture."

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