The Range Head

by Jack Hagerty, LUNAR #002

NEW PROCEDURES

1. Dues for new members will now be collected on a pro-rated basis. People joining in January through April will pay full dues, those joining from May through August will pay 2/3 dues and from September through December will be 1/3 dues. The Youth/Junior/Senior dues were modified slightly to make them divisible by three so they would also fit into this scheme, namely from $3/4/5 per year to $3/6/9. We've also eliminated the "family plan" as being an added complication which would be difficult to deal with at the sign-in table.

2. New RSO procedures for High Power - We will be implementing the new HPR procedures starting next month (April). Dave Redell has drafted the new procedures and is sending them to me for completion. Since this is a big change in the way we do things, we'll be phasing them in over several launches, and we'll try not to surprise you with any last minute changes. I'll try to have a written handout ready outlining the procedures as they go into effect.

FUN STUFF

Nike Tour - Pius Morozumi, the prefect of Aero-PAC, the Tripoli club in San Jose, is arranging a tour of the Nike base in Marin County. The tour has been tentatively scheduled for April 5, but that won't be for certain until after the Aero-PAC meeting on March 22. If you're interested, let me know because there aren't an unlimited number of spots and if the interest shown at our meeting on the 6th is any indication, this will be a popular event.

Theme Launches - In the last issue, Larry Baskett had an article explaining his idea of theme launches. These are very informal "contests" which are just for fun. At the February launch, though, only three people came out with clustered mini motor models and I'm sure we can do better than that! See the last issue for the whole list, but the next launch (March) will be "Classic Rockets/Fantasy Ships." So dust off that old Estes kit in the back of the closet and bring it on out!

Night Launch - The one Theme launch I want to remind you of well in advance is the evening/night launch on June 21. This will be our first evening launch and several people have already come up to me to say they're looking forward to it. So am I! That's the date of the summer solstice so the sunset will be really late. We haven't set an actual start time yet, but it will probably be around 7 PM. This will give those of you who don't care to launch in the dark a couple of hours to fly first. We'll run it until everyone runs out of rockets or we get kicked out (probably between 10 or 11).

The time is now to start designing and building the rockets you want to fly at night. You MUST have some way of locating it in the dark. This means light bulbs, strobe lights, high intensity LED's or even chemical lights (cylume sticks). Be sure, too, to bring some sort of lantern to prep by since our launch site is not illuminated.

For those of you who are NAR members (more on this in a moment) and have back issues of Sport Rocketry magazine, the April, 1994 issue contained what is probably the definitive article on night flying by David Sollberger. In the article, David describes several type of Night Illumination Tracking Equipment (NITE, get it?) including chemical (cylume sticks), high intensity LED's, incandescent bulbs and strobes. They are all evaluated for cost, effectiveness and complexity. Several designs of varying completeness are included. Complementing the NITE article in the same issue is a very complete design for a High Intensity Strobe by Mort Binstock.

This issue is still available from the NAR back issue service for $4.50 plus P&H. I'd be willing to make copies of the article for those that are interested if you'd be willing to cover the cost. It would only be about 50 cents each, but if 50 of you want a copy...

Contests - We're still waiting for someone to step forward and be contest director. It's almost too late to do a May contest, and June would be the only other chance before NARAM.

MEMBERS AND MEMBERS

I recently renewed our section charter with the NAR. For those of you that are new to this, that is the National Association of Rocketry, the national club with which we are affiliated (and what the "NAR" in "LUNAR" stands for). Membership in NAR is separate from your LUNAR membership and strictly optional. The main benefit of belonging is for those of you interested in competition since they are the ones that sanction the events and maintain the records. Outside of that, there is the semi monthly magazine "Sport Rocketry" which is filled with articles on construction, history, scale modeling and product announcements, to name just a few.

Anyway, in order to be a section of the national, like we are, you have to have at least five of your club members also be senior members NAR. When they sent me the renewal form, it listed the names that the national had on its records as being both LUNAR and NAR members. I was shocked to see that they only had 10 names which is pretty sad for a club with over 200 active members! I knew we had a LOT more than that so I fired up my e-mail machine and sent a message to every LUNAR member that I had an address for to ask if they also belonged to the national.

I got a couple of dozen responses and the consensus of everyone who replied was that they don't understand why NAR HQ didn't have them down as being a LUNAR member. I don't understand it either, but I do know that the database at HQ has been pretty messed up for a long time. NAR President Mark "Bunny" Bundick has made it one of his top priorities to get this straightened out, so getting this form back correctly filled out will help both organizations a great deal.

Following is the updated list of all the LUNAR members who also belong to the national. I know there are lots more of you out there so if you belong to the national club and don't seen your name below, please contact me by letter, phone or e-mail and let me know. I just need your name, NAR number, age Division and whether or not you have the optional insurance.

The following ranked by NAR #

Name              NAR #   Div Insured

Bruce Shay        12117   SR   [ ]
Larry Shenosky    21460   SR   [?]
Mark Weiss        23894   SR   [x]
Paul Pittenger    27104   SR   [?]
h.w. neff         40898   SR   [x]
Royce Longacre    43553   SR   [?]
Jack Hagerty      55105   SR   [x]
Lynn Kissel       57530   SR   [x]
Warren Massey     57778   SR   [x]
Travis Massey     57779   JR   [ ]
Pius Morozumi     58333   SR   [ ]
Mark Jeghers      58501   SR   [ ]
Larry Baskett     60166   SR   [ ]*
Bill Westfield    60526   SR   [ ]
William Walby     60661   SR   [ ]*
Bill Sawyers      61285   SR   [x]
Rob Powers        62387   SR   [x]
Dave Redell       63044   SR   [x]
Jim Horner        63302   SR   [ ]
Henry Simpson     63923   SR   [?]
Ron Baskett       64285   SR   [ ]
Howard Landman    64478   SR   [?]
Lee Teicheira     65282   SR   [ ]
Ken Biba          65547   SR   [ ]
Mike Holmes       65716   JR   [ ]

*currently applying for insurance
? Insurance status unknown

JUNO

The "e-mail machine" I mentioned above is, of course, a computer. It's really a great way to personally contact a lot of people at the same time. I have an e-mail list with several dozen LUNAR members on it plus many more rocketeers around the world.

Many people have a computer, but aren't yet connected with this handy tool because they think it's too complicated or expensive. Well, the service I use is the first of a new breed called "free e-mail" or just "free-mail." The analogy they use is broadcast TV where advertisers pay for the operational costs so you get to use the system for free. In exchange you get an advertising banner across the top of your screen whenever you're using the program. A small "price" to pay.

The service is called "Juno" and is available free to anyone with a Windows based computer (sorry, no Mac version yet, but they're working on it) and a modem. If you're interested in being able to contact me or any of the other LUNAR members (or even the preident of NAR) not to mention anyone else anywhere in the world with an e-mail account, give me a call and I'll make a copy of the disk for you (a practice strongly encouraged by the company since it spreads their advertising base!).

Information date: Mar. 8, 1997 lk