The Range Head

by Jack Hagerty, LUNAR #002

NIÑO, SCHMEEÑO

OK, if I never hear of El Niño again, it will be too soon! So all the hype we heard last summer seems to have been born out, but why was it born on our flying field? Prior to this winter, LUNAR had had only had two launches rained out in its entire four year history. So far this year we've had November, part of December, January and February. January was particularly frustrating. After what seemed like weeks of unending cold, rainy, windy skies, our scheduled launch day managed to dodge the bullet and turn out IDEAL flying weather! Sunny, calm winds and a temperature that was pushing 70! At least February's cancellation was legitimate with one of those hellatious downpours all morning. Oh, well. We have to remember that the field belongs to the City of Livermore and with it as soggy as it is, we probably would have done some damage tromping around. Still...

I'm keeping all of my fingers and toes crossed that we're going to be able to fly this month. However, I ask that you all behave yourselves. In the past when we've lost even one month (or even just lost some capability like January last year when we couldn't activate our waiver) the next launch has always been jammed with people. I'm shuddering to think what this next launch will be like, especially if it's good flying weather. I ask for everyone's patience during what will probably be a major mob scene.

SPECIAL LAUNCHES

Maybe this will help bleed off some of that pent-up demand. We have two special launches coming up in the relatively near future. One is for the Cub Scouts (two packs from Pleasanton totaling nearly 100 boys if they all show up!) at the end of April and one is for the Mendenhall Middle School at the beginning of June. The first one is tentatively scheduled for Sunday, April 26 and the second sometime during the first week of June (but a week day during school).

As usual, we need some volunteers. Not too many, just three or four. It will be pretty hectic, but the payback is that you get to fly some of your stuff as well, no charge! In fact, it's great showing some of the more advanced modeling stuff to these kids. Remember, though, that these will be NON WAIVERED launches meaning that you have to restrict yourself to 1,500 grams (53 ounces) maximum liftoff mass. Just contact me if you can make it.

CONTEST DELAYED

Last January I talked to Lou Dick about (the Contest Director) about the contest which was started way back in December. It seems that there is no problem delaying the second half of a contest, so we're planing to pick up the C Alt and Open Spot Landing at our launch on March 21. The first two events (A PD and B SD) have already been closed. However, all contestants should check with the web page or hot line for any last minute changes.

OFFICER VOTE

I had a major brain chuff regarding this point of order at the January meeting. One of the items (and the only really official item) we had to cover was the election of officers. I even put it in the newsletter, but when typing up the actual agenda it just escaped me completely. Warren Massey noted it as he was leaving. To try and regroup, a few minutes later I held a voice vote of the four senior members still in the room (myself, Lynn Kissel, Robert Taylor and Bill Orvis) which was unanimous for the slate of officers. I don't know if that's a legal quorum, and if not we'll vote again this month. That leads us to...

THIS MONTH'S MEETING

Remember that this is a meeting month (that's why you're getting a newsletter!) which means that the second of our educational programs is on tap. Bill Orvis is going to be talking about flashers and other light generating payloads as part of getting ready for our next night launch in April. The meeting, as always, is at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 19 at the Livermore Police Station's Public Meeting Room.

LOST & FOUND

A few years ago I started the Lost & Found box, only because I didn't want to start throwing perfectly good rockets away in the trash after every launch! While I want to be a nice guy about this, it's starting to get really old hauling the box of rockets (and the four big ones that don't fit in the box) out to each launch and back again. In fact, I always come home with more than I brought! I made a proposal at the January meeting which was unanimously adopted that after six months we auction the rockets off to the highest bidder. While I don't think that the bottom half of the Estes "Tornado" will bring much, we have some other really nice hardware like an Aerotech Initiator that is still unpainted (lost after its "checkout" flight). To be fair, I'm going to tag everything in there right now as "December '97" even though a lot of them are already over six months old. There are also items like two kid's sweat shirts, flashlights (lost at the first night launch) and a child's baseball mitt.

SCALE CONTEST

Finally, I've tentatively set the new "Fiction/Future Scale" contest for May since April is scheduled to be our first night launch of the year. This should give all of you fantasy scalers out there time to put together something decent! See the article elsewhere for a complete posting of the provisional rules for the event.

Information date: March 10, 1998 lk