LUNAR’clips 2002                        Volume 9, Number 2

Copyright © 2002 by LUNAR, All rights reserved.

The Range Head

Jack Hagerty, LUNAR #002

WE DIDN’T NEED THIS

In February we had a model go into full "cruise missile" mode and actually make it all the way to the row of condos to the north. This is serious enough that I’m going to devote pretty much my entire column to it.

The model was scratch built and not all that large, but the owner had an H45 motor in it. That is a low thrust/long burn motor which means that it has a potential of going quite high. In order to keep it down to our 1,500' voluntary limit, the HP-SCO had the owner add nearly a pound of weight to the nose. Here's where the irony sets in.

The motor did not get a clean start. It chuffed a couple of times, then burned on the pad for a good two seconds before the rocket started to move. Even then it was obviously not up to specified pressure as it left the rod very slowly and immediately started a gravity turn. The extra weight that we asked the owner to add kept it from gaining much altitude at all and it flew horizontally, under power, all the way to the apartment complex to the north. It wound up crashing tangentially into the roof of the common carport for the complex. This was a ceramic tile roof and it buried itself under the tiles, cracking/breaking a few of them in the process.

Several neighbors, out enjoying the clear, mild weather, witnessed it come in and gathered around. One of them got quite upset and called the police (just as a side note, there was a police cruiser observing the launch from our street, and as soon as this happened, I walked over and told the officer about it, saying to probably expect a call, so it's hard to say who they heard it from first). I also dispatched VP Steve Kendall over to the site with my club business card, and the authority to tell them that the club will be responsible for all repairs. The actual property manager, though, lives in Tracy and we were not able to contact him. The angry neighbor, though, gave the police officer who responded (not the same one I had talked to) an earful, and wanted to know why were weren't being criminally prosecuted for public endangerment. The police told him that since we were running a fully permitted operation, the most we would be liable for is a civil action.

Special thanks here to Steve for the great job of PR damage control. He showed up on the spot, almost immediately after it happened, and mollified/reassured all of the neighbors (except one) with our willingness to take responsible.

The total damage is a few cracked and/or broken tiles which we will pay to fix. I finally got through to the property manager in Tracy, who turned me over to the local property manager of just that complex, who said the repair decision was the responsibility of the homeowners association. I left messages with them, but have not heard anything for over a month.

No one was more surprised than I when that rocket took off, headed north and just kept going. It was deja vu all over again since that's exactly what happened in '96 with the impact within 100 feet of the same spot! The irony of the situation was almost too much to bear considering that a major contributing factor was that the rocket was really too heavy for the motor, a situation caused by our efforts to prevent exactly this sort of thing! The 1,500' limit was not so much to keep our models from raining down ballistically on the condos, but to limit the energy available so that they couldn't reach there no matter what happened. I guess, like Voyager (the airplane) showed, you can go an awfully long distance on very little fuel when aerodynamic lift is involved.

OK, so where do we go from here? At the March meeting we chewed this over, and the suggested changes in launch procedures for our remaining time at Robertson Park, ranked from least to most disruptive, were:

1. Do nothing.. The likelihood of another "event" happening in the next few launches is pretty small.
2. Get more sophisticated/restrictive with the HP-SCO checks. It's plain that the chart we’ve been using for determining the go/no go status of a model/motor combination is inadequate. We need to check for stability off the rod as well as maximum altitude.
3. Split the club. We have already been discussing setting up an "away team" that would take the club equipment trailer and head out to the central valley three or four times a year to do some Level 2 flying (several of our club members have relatives with sizable ranches in the Tracy/Stockton area). Many clubs make this their standard procedure, having an LP section that is local, easy to get to and flies frequently; and an HP section that takes more effort, but is much less restricted. With this scenario, we would stay at Robertson Park, but limit ourselves to "D" or "E" motors there, while letting the big boys play over the hill.
4. Suspend Operations. This is my fallback position should any of the neighbors get really nasty and start a lawsuit or raise a stink with the City Council. The guy whose garage we hit last August (which lead to our current restrictions) threatened to do just that. He claimed that we "just didn't want to be inconvenienced" while looking for a new site, thus putting him in danger. If it came down to it, I would suspend operations until we found a new site, on the condition that we be allowed to publish the name, address and phone number of the person forcing the suspension. In this way all of the Science classes, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, 4-H, Indian Guides, Royal Ranges and everyone else being "inconvenienced" could contact him, politely, and let him know the extent of the impact of his actions.

The consensus at the meeting was a combination of 2 and 3. Joe Heckenbach has already started a new series of charts that not only flags the max altitude, but also a minimum launch rod speed. Anything over 1,500’ altitude, or below 40 ft/sec rod speed is disqualified. This requires running a LOT of sims, and I want to thank Joe for his efforts. His chart for "H" motors was tested at the March launch, and he is working on more for "F" and "G" motors. In the mean time, I have talked to LARPD about staying at the park indefinitely, if we restricted ourselves to "D" and below motors. They have no problem with this, but I sure don’t like the idea of splitting us up, even temporarily. A lot of the fascination and interest in the hobby that I see at the launches comes from first-timers coming out and watching the HP birds fly.

SITE SEARCH

OK, the real solution is, of course, to find a new site where we can fly everything well beyond the range of any housing. Here’s how that’s going.

1. Vineyard Gravel Pits - Up until the second week of March, I thought we had it knocked. The gravel pit area along Vineyard avenue is ideal being fireproof, relatively close to towns and transportation, while still being more than a mile from any housing. I contacted RMC/Lonestar (the gravel company that owns the property) and manager Rich Baer. The good news: Rich had already heard of us and knew of our reputation. It was almost as if he was expecting my phone call. He was perfectly willing to let us use the gravel area for launching, but …the bad news: The city of Pleasanton has decided to move ahead on the re-alignment of Vineyard Ave., moving it about 1/4 mile north; essentially right on top of the site we're looking at. The new road will run pretty much the whole way from the hard turn at the west end almost three miles to Isabel. He has already terminated the least of the small tractor company (who Bill Orvis had talked to earlier) to move them off of it. Preliminary construction is supposed to start next Summer or so. However, a few things don’t ring true here, so I’m following up with the City of Pleasanton to see when this alignment is really gong to take place. Bill has also suggested that we talk to Lone Star about possibly using one of the active pits, since they don’t operate on weekends, and we certainly aren’t going to hurt any of their equipment!
2. Sunol BMX park – The BMX park on Vallecitos road, directly across from the GE plant, is another possibility. Behind the park is a very large field of completely open space. This property, as I understand it, is owned by the San Francisco water district. In addition to being open, there are already bathroom facilities at the BMX track and the airspace over it is already restricted since it’s next to the GE site which has four nuclear reactors (only one currently active). The only downside to this area is that there are several high tension transmission lines beyond it which would be the end for any model winding up there. Someone also suggesting flying from the GE property itself. Both of my parents worked there for decades, so I could probably find an "in" with them, but it’s very hilly compared to the property directly across the street.
3. Los Vaqueros Reservoir area – Bill Orvis has also suggested looking into the flood plain directly in front of the new Los Vaqueros dam. This is large, flat, and will NEVER be developed.

I have to admit that I was not able to do any follow up on these during the rest of March as I’d intended. My plan is to get in touch with County Supervisor Scott Haggerty again after I return from NARCON (which I leave for in about 2 hours, as I type this). He was quite willing to work with us on this, and our general reputation holds us in good stead. I will post things on our "general" mailing list as I find them, and then in the next newsletter.

PAST EVENTS

A much more pleasant occurrence at the February launch was our hosting LARK, the Livermore Amateur Radio Klub, for their monthly meeting. They were interested in the payloads of the models, especially, naturally, anything with a transmitter in it. Jamie Clay was there and gave them a demonstration of his video downlink system. They did a tremendous write-up of their experience in their current newsletter. Those of you with web access can find it at: http://www.livermoreark.org/news/lark0203.pdf

Incidentally, one of the original suggested names for LUNAR was "LARC" for "Livermore Area Rocket Club" since Lynn Kissel (LUNAR #009) is also a member of LARK.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Just briefly, remember that the April 14 launch is a night launch. We will be setting up early (just after noon) to accommodate several groups (4H, scouts and science classes), which you are all welcome to come out and help with. You can even fly some of your own stuff in return for helping out. The general club flying will begin around 4:30 and continue until we run out of night-models. Being a Sunday, the curfew is 9:00, but we’ve never gone that long in the past.

Also, I haven’t heard any response from people who might want to put a LUNAR float together for the Rodeo parade, or an exhibit for the "Young California" building at the fair. Both of these could be pretty exciting, but I need participants!

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