LUNAR'clips - The Range Head

LUNAR’clips 2003 Volume 10, Number 5

Livermore Unit of the National Association of Rocketry September/October 2003

The Range Head

September/October 2003
By Jack Hagerty, LUNAR #002

RECYCLED ITEM

Last issue I mentioned in my column that there was an article elsewhere summarizing the continuing tale of our schedule this year. I'm sure you all tore your newsletters apart looking for it. Seems there just wasn't room after I'd run off at the mouth, uh, fingers like I normally do. I've updated it to account for the intervening two months and it's in a separate article elsewhere. Really.

OCTOBER

No meeting this month, but remember that our launch on the 18th is the night launch. I'll be out there around 1 PM or so to start setting up for several scout groups and science classes scheduled to come out and fly early. Regular club flying starts around 4:30. We'll call night rules about half an hour after sunset and fly until 10 PM or until people run out of stuff; whichever comes first.

The weekend before the night launch, October 11 and 12, the Boy Scouts are having their big "Rocket Jamboree" at Camp Parks. If this newsletter gets out in time, you might want to stop by and help out. They are always looking for expertise and. they are inviting any LUNAR members who want to help out with RSO, SCO, LCO (or any other "O" you can think of). You get paid with food and a good time. Note that one of the three demos they'd like us to help put on is after dark. It would be a good rehearsal for our own night launch.

Incidentally, they over-bought their "F" and "G" motors for this event and want to sell them off at their cost. This might be the best reason for stopping by and helping out! If you're interested, please contact Mike Gentile" smmike@comcast.net 510-461-0863.

SPEAKING OF SCOUTS

On September 28, we had a great time performing the noontime demo for the annual EBRC (East Bay Radio Controllers) airshow, which raises money for local scouting activities. Even though all of our "heavy hitters" were torching off the big stuff at Blackrock that weekend, the "second string" did pretty well for itself. Joe Pettinicchi and Bill Orvis were snapping plenty of photos. Hopefully some will have made their way to Geoff for this issue.

Special thanks to all that came out and did the grunt work: Bill Orvis (for towing the trailer and supervising the setup), Greg Wong, Joe Pettinicchi and his kids Jessica and Zack, Ken Gott and his daughter Erin, Matt Spence and his son Kyle, and Jamie Lent who apparently emptied out his entire arsenal onto the pads.

They wanted "more rockets" this time, at least two racks; so we set up two racks (12 pads) but they wanted two of those! We scrambled to fill them, and the crowd was very appreciative. Rockets flown ranged from Jessica Pettinicchi's Quest "Tracer" on an A8-3, to a tie for the biggest between Greg Wong's "Initiator" and Joe Pettinicchi's "Sumo," both on G35's. There were four multi-stage flights, three two-stage and one, Greg Wong's scratch built "Big Stick" D-D-D three stage. There were two glider flights, an Edmunds "Ti-nee" by Erin Gott on an A3-4, and Greg Wong again with his Edmunds "Gemini Thunder" dual glider painted in Blue Angel colors. The long distance walk award was a tie between Greg's Big Stick, which landed in the hills to the north, and Gen Gott's V2, which landed almost on the freeway to the south. I also have to put in a thanks here to Boy Scout Troop 917, and the Cub Scout Pack helping them (didn't get the unit number) who did most of the recovery for us. We finished off the demo on a humorous note with Bill Orvis flying his Micro-Maxx Saturn V on its 1/8A.

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