Launch!

Definitely the plan we're following. We're flying 36" chutes on 3lb rockets. should have us falling at 20fps. total flight time Launch to landing is ~30s. You might see us cutting a spill hole on the field tomorrow too, definitely going to watch 2-3 flights before we head to the line.

The bulk of our certs this year ( 3x L2, 12+ L1) are going to happen at other launches. This is just our first flight of the season so we are itching to get out. Final call will ultimately be at the field.

Due to the crosswinds and after the last two launches( CMASS 10/4) and RIMRA 10/18), I've decided to ground my planned high power flight on a J motor. I'll be there with some smaller stuff though.

I've had a rocket drift quite a bit even using dual deployment. My goal for tomorrow is keeping everything on the field.

In my honest opinion, those who are looking to cert tomorrow, should use a smaller chute with spillhole, that'll bring it down safely, make sure your chute release is in good working order, or even wait til April.

NAR# 86455

L3

UMass Lowell is planning on flying ~4-6 Cert flights. Definitely concerned about the wind (especially since JLCRs are so expensive).

Was running the Open rocket simulations for our kit (that we recently upscaled to 4"), the simulations put our rockets between 1100-1600ft, and shows us drifting in for landing about 300ft SE from the pad. Hopefully popping the JLCRs at 200ft will save us from the trees to the east.

Last year I know we had a close call and got saved by the parachute failing to deploy. We've noticed that one of the 8ft 1010 rail has a tendency to kick rockets to the WSW despite being angled towards the sheep pens. Has this been inspected recently?

NAR#112971

L2

From the pessimist in me, an amusing calculation:

Parachute on my Cherokee G (via Openrocket) will allow a rate of descent of about 18 fps. With an H165 it'd hit 1000 feet (more or less). That means about a time of 55 seconds to hit the ground assuming apogee deployment. With the wind blowing at 10 mph (as Windy is suggesting before noon), and assuming the chute is deployed at apogee, the rocket will drift at that 10 mph speed (15 fps) about 830 feet. Fortunately the pads (from looking at google maps) are roughly located around 1300 feet (with the HP pads an additional 200 feet beyond that) from "the swampy area" which the wind seems to be heading towards as indicated by windy.

It gets better if you consider a cross breeze will provide some upward lift on a parachute so that the descent time could be somewhat longer. It'll DEFINITELY be a chute release/dual deploy kind of day.

The wind is finally cooperating. The forecast shows the wind direction is favorable for the bulk of our launch window, although it will be fairly strong with gust above our safety code limit (this means a temporary halt to our operations). Anything we launch should be recovered on the field, so match your rocket and motor to the conditions and always be sure the rod or rail is angled toward the sheep/llama pen.

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NRC contest flying will be available. Certification flights can be conducted but depending on your expected flight profile, we reserve the right to deny the attempt; maintaining our use of the field is more important than your attaining your cert that day.

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Here's my pitch to have more people sign up for the open volunteer positions; set-up and tear down, pad assistance, food service, safety check and launch control all have open slots. Without volunteers, we can't have a launch. If you want to learn the ropes for any of these jobs, we offer a shadow program where you can observe someone doing the job and learn from them. The safety check and launch control spots require being a Senior member of NAR, but anyone can help with the other duties.

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Remember, Daylight Saving Time will be over; set your clocks back. This will give us our annual opportunity for a joint night launch with N.O.R.G. out of Salem, MA. Bring your rockets with lights on or in them. The night launch is limited to low- and mid-power.

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When you arrive at the field, you can park off the roadway on either side. All set-ups and prep areas should be between the flag line and the power lines; do not set up by your car unless it is parked between the flag line and the power lines. This is another concession to the NAR Safety Code.

I’m waiting for Kenn’s call regarding HP before I put the motor together. The flight in have planned is simmed to around 1700.

NAR# 86455

L3

windy is predicting the right direction for HP.... but at 9-10 mph for most of the day, I'm not enthusiastic about putting up a high power flight with that kind of wind.

Safe to say there will be high power on Sunday?

NAR# 86455

L3

Thank you for the write up. Hindsight being 20/20, I should’ve checked the rail angle. I do have a good feeling that if I fit that same flight in Amesbury, with a decent angle towards the pen, like a good 10 degrees maybe, it would’ve landed on the field. Am I willing to try it anytime soon? No, lol. However the forecast for Sunday has been saying 10-15MPH winds. I’m thinking of putting up a couple clusters for a little fun.

NAR# 86455

L3

Thanks for the write up. I'm happy for RIMRA that they have their field back. It makes me think how fortunate CMASS is to have Amesbury and Acton available on a regular basis. RIMRA has had issues with their field over that last few years. The CATO club in Connecticut has had problems. CRMRC has to cancel several launches a year because of corn. METRA has not had isssues with their field.

Yes - Dan said he might do something on the 8th or 15th of November after our launch on the 2nd. I don't have many photos but here's a link to the sub-scale launch:

https://youtube.com/shorts/O89HChgUtx4

It sounds like it was a really good time, and I'm really glad RIMRA got their field back. If you or any of the other CMASS'ers took pictures, please post them.

Do you know if RIMRA have another launched planned for this season?

A few of us headed down to Rhode Island for the RIMRA launch which turned out to be really great! Dan DiMase and the rest of the gang down there were super accommodating and ran a really nice launch. Their range equipment is top notch with 5 high power pads and a couple of banks of mid and low power pads.

The field was a lot nicer than I remember it being - maybe they just have access to more of it now. You enter it thru a different entrance than directly thru Peckham Farm and you can park and set up along the road. The grass was cut and very manageable. All in all a very relaxed, fun launch.

I was there with the UMass Amherst Rocket Team who very successfully flew their sub-scale rocket they built for NASA SLI on an I303. Rosie, one of the team members also got her NAR Level 1 certification. Josh Drummond and Happy Chutes was there successfully flying some big motors in big rockets and demoing those awesome chutes of his! And Peter Waithe had some beautiful flights with one unfortunately landing in the woods. With his tracker and a visual from my drone we were able to locate it in a bit of a swampy area where Karen was able to recover it for him. (You owe her Big Time Dude!).

Dan and I did talk about doing another joint RIMRA / CMASS launch next year which could be a lot of fun and provide an alternative to Acton during the summer.

We will have a launch in Amesbury on 18 October but the wind forecast is toward the wires most of the day. There may be a small window of opportunity very early but high-power launches will be limited to known, experience flyers and only if the wind conditions are favorable. We will not be conducting any certification flights due to the limited time window we may have.

For those who absolutely need to fly HPR, RIMRA will have a launch on the same day.

https://www.rimra.org/

One thing I noticed about the volunteer list is that for the LCO slots, the last slot on the list for the last several launches is the 1:00-2:00 pm slot., just after 3:00-4:00 pm. I went ahead and corrected this prior to the last launch, but also found this issue in the upcoming Nov. 2 list, so I fixed those as well.

Great, Todd. Thanks. BTW, do we have any Scouts coming this Sat.?

I just added the 10:00am slot.

I know I speak for Deb as well in saying it seems to make good sense to add the slot. I don't see any downsides? As I said, when we have Scouts on site, it's often the first 2-3 hours that are the busiest and need that kind of support.

I asked Kenn and Guy the times for volunteer slots and they said 11:00-4:00, hourly (the exception setup/teardown). We can add a 10:00 slot if you think that's necessary.

Hey All, how come the volunteer listings never have a Pad Assistant slot from 10-11? I'd think that slot would be much needed on days we have visiting Scouts and such.