The Range Head,
July 1999

1) Obviously, fliers have to be at least Level 1 certified in order to fly. But L1 fliers with no "I" motor experience need to have their rocket/motor combination approved by a Class III Pyro prior to the launch to make sure the rocket won't exceed the other restrictions listed below.

2) No long burn/low thrust motors even in rockets light enough to fly safely on that thrust level. We don't have a large enough field to handle launch mishaps like ten seconds of gravity turning followed by a prang with the motor still burning in a field of dry grass.

3) No high thrust/short burn motors in light rockets that threaten our waiver. The last thing we need is to drop a ballistic model into downtown.

4) A flight simulation printout is required to prove 2 and 3 (which can be summed up as "no light rockets on I's").

5) No 54mm motors (a redundant restriction since none are approved by the CSFM).

6) We will require tighter inspections for I flights, like checking for fatigued or crumpled seams in Kraft tubing. This will eliminate possible airframe collapse.

7) The LCO will call every "I" flight as "heads up" to make sure everyone is aware of the situation.

I heard from a couple of people worried about crowd safety. One in particular felt that calling each flight "heads up" wasn't sufficient for this level of power since casual passers-by (say joggers on the sidewalk or people just getting out of their car in the parking lot) wouldn't hear it. It was suggested that we post radio equipped "sentries" at the corners of the field and out in the parking lot to warn casual spectators and passers-by of an impending "I" launch.

The field safety procedures will therefore be enhanced by both the radio sentries and by (as much as possible) batching the "I" flights together to lessen the window that we have to hold everyone's attention.

Note that I've invited the Fire Marshall, or his representative, to come out and witness this launch. This wasn't necessary as part of the license, but I thought it a nice gesture (and so did he which is probably why he gave us the license so quickly). If we all behave ourselves (and I know you will!) he will walk away impressed by our professionalism.

SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI or THE VIEW FROM THE CUTTING ROOM FLOOR

OK, I'm as much in the dark as you guys regarding what happened with the "Sci Squad" scheduling. If you tuned in on June 6th like I did, you did not see LUNAR or any semblance of a rocket program. Instead, there was the program on hurricanes. I got this horrible sinking feeling because according to the schedule, the hurricane show is the one AFTER the show on rockets. Somewhere along the line, the Discovery Channel slipped a show and the rocket one had aired a week earlier than we were told.

I wrote to the producer/director of the show, Pierre Valette who replied:

"Sorry about the broadcast schedule screw-up. We sent you the broadcast schedule that Discovery sent directly to us. I'm not sure what happened on their end since they never gave us any indication that they'd change the schedule. Fortunately, they air each episode twice a season and they'll rebroadcast the First Episodes in the Fall."

I stopped by Quest Productions in Berkeley and picked up a copy of "our" Sci Squad episode. Pretty well done, overall (for the pre-teen set, anyway). The sections with LUNAR were a bit of a letdown. Everything that we did that was scripted was left on the cutting room floor. My two lines went away (no big loss) along with the close up of my thumb flipping switches. Basically, what they showed was the actress reciting the nearly ad lib lines (pretty much written on the spot as they learned more about the launch and how it worked) with some quick shots of our members in the background. There were some quick shots of Tony Cooper's X-Wing and SR-71, then Tom Hail's D-Region Tomahawk was shown as the "teaching aid" prop for about 3 seconds. Bob Fortune's "Cub Scout" got mentioned by name with both some close ups of the marshmallows on the nose and an dummied up version of the actress "launching" it. It was followed in quick cuts through landing. There was also a quick patch of some on-board video from someone else's launch (anyone know where this came from?).

Anyone who wants a copy, give me a tape at a launch or meeting and I'll be happy to make it. Mailing it is fine, too, but please send it in are usable mailer box and include return postage if you want me to get it back to you that way. If all you're interested in is the LUNAR footage, and have a web connection, Tony Cooper has done an MPEG movie of just our 104 seconds of the show and posted it on his web site. (http://www.2xtreme.net/amcooper/rockets/rockets.html)

I NEED SOMEONE TO EXCEL

For the contest last month, I got the trackers and bases from Warren. Bill Orvis went out and bought a large supply of carpenters' chalk for use as tracking powder. We were all set to start tracking except for one thing: data reduction. Warren had written a program for his little HP hand held but that, unfortunately, doesn't come with the trackers (he's got to draw the line somewhere!).

We have all the formulas on the sheets in the tracker boxes, so I approached the contest day with a little trepidation thinking I was going to wear out the trig functions on my little Casio calculator. The only good thing, which I would have know had I read my event list a little more clearly, was that there were no altitude events at the contest!

OK, so I squeaked out of that one. Just so we don't get caught next time, I need someone to enter the formulas into some sort of portable format, like an Excel spreadsheet, that we can run on a laptop next time we hold an altitude event. It's not too hard, and might even be the basis for a NAR R&D project!

JUST A REMINDER

As long as we're talking about jobs, just a reminder that next month I'll be at NARAM rather than being here. I hope that you guys can find someone to yank the trailer out and set up / take down the equipment.

Information date: July 25, 1999 lk