General

I plan on being there to help set-up.

Bruce

782-820-5386

Thanks for giving everyone the heads up Guy.

There will be limited parking later in the day, but happy to accept help in the morning at Pakachoag Golf Course. I will be there bright and early to set us up. If you wanted to stay to do some launching it's probably fine but will need to move everyone's cars to a side street except for Guy's and the trailer. I will call the town to ask where we can park a few cars.

If you would like to come to Goddard Park for the rededication, you can follow me to the mall or HS parking lots and walk to the ceremony. There will be shuttles provided from there to the golf course at noon. I can make sure anyone helping with the launch gets priority and up to 4 can hop in my truck as I have a reserved spot.

So,

Setup 8:30-9:30 at Pak Golf Course. I'm assuming Guy and I could get it done pretty quickly but extra hands...

Move to Auburn Fire Station for park rededication. Speeches from 10:30-11:30

Move to Pak for Centennial celebration. Public starts at 1, speeches from 2-3 with Nell launching about 2:30

That's all I have. Please give me a virtual show of hands to those that can come and support. If you were already committed to the Ecotarium, that will screw up your plans. You'll have to choose between the two. Sorry.

That also means that unless I can build a launch stand today (unlikely), I will have it in Auburn and not available for the Ecotarium until Sunday.

Let me know if you have any questions. My cell is 508.330.8127. I'll update here if there is anything I forgot.

Pete

The location is at the golf course, but I think you would need a parking pass to park there. Hopefully Peter will chime in if I have anything wrong.

Guy.

I plan to meet Peter with the trailer at 8:30am for setup. He needs to be available to give a speech and open festivities at 9:30am at a nearby locatin. I believe those speeches and activities will last until around noontime. The flight we want to launch above all others I am told is Nell at 2:30pm. The rest of the planned launches (100 scout launches) I believe should occur during the afternoon. I may either try a couple of test launches in the morning or attend the speeches and such until noon. I am going to set up a 6 position saw stand and a 3 position saw stand. I also have an 8 pad controller with integrated PA, and a single pad controller to connect to the 9 pads. With this set up we should be able to alternate between 6 and 3 launch volleys.

Guy.

I'm assuming you will still need help. I should still be available.

What time and where.

Bruce

I just spoke with Peter and because of an absolutely terrible weather forecast for Monday the 16th, the planned Monday activities are being moved to tomorrow, Saturday the 14th. I will be meeting Peter in the morning to set up for the planned afternoon lunches.

Guy.

I'm happy to help out as RSO Monday. I am bringing two Nell rockets, one fliskit and one 3D printed. Two questions:

1: Can I drop my stuff of at the trailer?

2: Weather report doesn't look great. When will there be a go/no go decision?

Bruce Strong

https://www.auburnma.gov/839/Robert-Goddard-Centennial

EVENT PARKING Saturday march 14th at goddard Park 

THERE IS NO ONSITE PARKING AT goddard park WITH THE EXCEPTION OF APPROVED HANDICAP placards

Off site parking for Saturday is at the Auburn High School, 99 Auburn St. and the Auburn Mall, 385 Southbridge St. on top of the west parking deck. 

EVENT PARKING monday march 16th at pakachoag golf course

THERE IS NO ONSITE PARKING AT pakachoag golf course WITH THE EXCEPTION OF APPROVED HANDICAP placards

Offsite parking for Monday is at the following locations. Bus shuttle service will run from all locations to the Pakachoag Golf Course. 

Auburn High School, 99 Auburn St.

Auburn Mall, 385 Southbridge St. 

Pakachoag Church, 203 Pakachoag St.

Pappas Recreational Complex, 203 1/2 Pakachoag St.

Pakachoag Elementary School, 110 Pakachoag St. (after 1:00 p.m.)

North American Martyrs Church, 8 Wyoma Dr. 

For all monitoring this forum thread, the town has decided that they will not allow or support BYOR (bring your own rocket) during the celebration on the 16th. Outside of scale kits that have already been identified and the rockets that the local scouts have built with the support of Estes, no other rocket launches will be allowed. Please do not bring your own launch equipment or rockets. The town is happy for you to come and attend and enjoy the program that they have created for the centennial.

Pete

My primary concern is safety. I anticipate very small to no crowds during the early morning hours and probably after the speeches and primary launches. In those cases where it's just us rocket geeks, I have no problem allowing launches that don't require a waiver due to altitude or weight (propellant and/or rocket). I cannot guarantee those conditions so travelers beware.

During the primary event hours of 1:30-3:30, I don't see a need for anything larger than a C and that was reserved for the FlisKits Nell. If we had a saucer or something similar with high drag, I could see using a D.

Pete

Hi Pete,

Thanks for the map and the update, when you say "model Rockets" you're talking up to which impulse?

Again, I'm trying to avoid driving an hour out there with a bus full of rocketry students to be told, sorry you can't launch that.

Let me know when you get a chance.

Love the video! Thank you very much. Nice to at lease see a "tractor" style version of the Nell with the motor at the top like Goddard actually had, even though for obvious reasons he later abandoned that idea. Too bad there was no recovery system other than free fall where it destroyed itself.

So I now have a flight test video of that full scale Nell that I posted about earlier. It flew closer to the 40 ft than I expected and looked a lot like what I expect the original launch was like. Amusing at least. We still don't intend to launch it, but I attach it here so people can enjoy it from a distance...

Pete

Ok. Lots of new folks here and new requests. Let me give everyone an update.

Auburn has a safety plan that accounts for more than 10K people. No one can predict how many people will actually attend based on weather and the amount of snow remaining on the ground. The current launch location is based on the need to clear snow from the golf course as well as the desire not to damage the course itself. I have attached the picture. There are 2 options. The first (small crowd) option keeps us closer to the road and launching over the 1st fairway. The second (large crowd) option moves us between the road and the monument location. We would be launching through the break in the trees over the 9th fairway depending on the prevailing wind that day. I have circled the new planned location and indicated launch direction. We intend to revisit the plan closer to the launch day and may even make adjustments that day depending on field conditions and crowd size.

We are also in controlled airspace for Worcester Regional Airport. I would not be in favor of getting a waiver for reasons listed below.

With those current constraints, there will not be adequate space for high power launches. Additionally, depending on crowd location and size, as well as their lack of experience with rocketry, we are best to stick to model rockets. I do not want the news coverage, which we are anticipating at both the local and national level, to be about any incidents related to our launches. Coverage on the 17th of March needs to be about a successful commemoration of Goddard's first launch.

Model rocket launches (low power) will more than wow the crowds, especially since we are attempting to launch 100 rockets on the day. I hope this doesn't change your desire to come to Auburn on the 16th to launch. It should just temper your expectations about what we are willing to launch. I anticipate selecting an RSO and LCO in the coming days and they will make any launch day decisions within the limits already imposed by the town.

Pete

That was me, I had to look again and I can't find anything on maximum height for low power rockets, like at all. Google AI says 400ft AGL, but that is for Part 107 drones, not Part 101 rockets (always double check AI). So, as high as the RSO allows is the real answer here I guess. Edit: just found it in the NFPA code 1122 - 4.9.3.1 "It [minimum field dimension] shall be not less than one-half the maximum altitude" so 2000ft is the ceiling. But I don't think I want to test that.

Additionally from the 2018 NFPA code, 1000ft field dimension is good for 1G motor. 1500ft is needed for 2G (or 4 F motors).

So, is there a sign up sheet or do we just do it the same way as we do a typical CMASS launch?

(Flight card, the RSO checks the vehicle and then we set up pad and launch?) Do we need to notify or register with the town or with anybody else?

Ideally I'd like to avoid a situation in which we transport a bunch of students and equipment 1 hour out to Auburn just for someone to tell me "No, sorry you can't launch here today! In order to launch today you needed to register weeks ago with _____" We're planning on being there from around 11 to 3ish so I hope we'd be able to get a launch in.

This would definitely be under 1k ft (target 750). I think I saw a 1200ft ceiling in a post earlier, but I could be wrong.

We also have many vehicles that we've built. So if we land it in an obstacle, it probably won't be as big a deal. Definitely still want to avoid them thoough.

Thanks for the info,

If you're looking at the Pakachoag Golf Course, it's certainly big enough for an E-F impulse flight, however there are quite a few trees and a water hazard in the field, and as I've been there scoping it out for smaller rockets, you'd certainly be taking your chances.

From the NAR safety code with the minimum sized launch field described as "in an open area at least as large as shown in the accompanying table", you would need 1000ft of area for E and F rocket motors.

Is there any possibility of getting a TARC team to launch a mid power competition rocket during the event? We’re thinking of taking a field trip over there arriving around 11ish. It would be a group of 20 students or so. Is there a launch sign up sheet? We are very good at launching and landing in tighter fields. We have our own equipment and lots of tri pods too that we could bring if needed. Our team could help with set up.

Man I wish I found this thread sooner, thankfully I think my flight is already counted in the register of the 100 flights.

Part of why I wish I found this sooner is because I believe I may have found a field that is suitable for HPR flights, sadly we are way too close to launch to organize it.

Either way - For those who don't know me I've been the president of the UMass Lowell Rocketry Club for the past 3 years, anyone who has shown up to a few Amesbury flights in the past year has likely met me or seen us work.

We were contacted by Dr. Supriya Chakrabarti who is a research professor at UML in the Space Science and Technology lab (LoCSST), they have a nanosatellite they are hoping to demonstrate at the flight. He has been working with Charles Slatkin, so I've fairly sure we are in the 100 flights, however we are on the larger side, so I wanted to get in contact to help get things sorted ahead of time. At the very least, we are going to need a rail. 1010 - 6ft should be fine (and I know CMASS has one). Do we know who will be the RSO for the day?

Additionally, is there a waiver? or are we capping flights at 1200ft (I know the field is small, we are going to run dual deploy).