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Reported by Robert H. Brigham
All photos by Jeff Stai
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Page 1 |
| Lucerne Dry Lake Bed, California. (RHB). The Rocketry
Organization of California (ROC) turned 10 years old this year, and
because rocketeers are the kind of people that get a thrill out of watching
the odometer roll over, an extra special ROCstock was arranged.
Sidebar: FunStuff
at ROCstock 19
Sidebar: Identified
and Unidentified Launching Objects
Sidebar: More
Unidentified Launching Objects
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"Where's the litter box?" |
Momentum was building
all spring. ROCchat was alive with
comments about who was bringing what, how do you build this, and will Nibbles
the Astrocat complete training in time? This was punctuated by announcements
from Andy Woerner of What’sUp Hobbies regarding availability
of the largest motors. Despite excellent weather, attendance at the May
launch was unusually light, indicating rockets and motors were being hoarded
for the big event. Other factors were also at work: Aerotech’s new Utah manufacturing facility was hard at it all winter filling up the
pipeline with new motors of all types, and many had already found their
way into member range boxes. (Also, the ruling that rocket motors are
propellant-activated-devices has, for the time being, removed critical
restrictions on motor handling
and ownership.) |
Special hats,
pins and tee shirts were minted, thanks to Troy
Monroe Stacey and Rick O’Neil. And finally, at the last
minute, a for-real 15 minute fireworks display was arranged with PyroSpectaculars for
Saturday night! With all this preparation, expectations were getting
pretty high.
Sidebar: Pyro Spectaculars Fireworks
Show |
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That's only Friday's flight line!
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We were not disappointed.
Weather was excellent throughout
the launch. There were rare moments when wind became a concern, but
the persistent afternoon zephyrs which
typically shut down the range never materialized. On all three days,
range shut down was dictated, not by wind, but by lack of rockets or
launch crew exhaustion. (“It’s 6pm.
It’s Saturday. Why aren’t we eating Chinese food?”). |
| The set-up crew
and early birds started to arrive on the lake bed on Thursday afternoon. By sundown, the club trailers arrived
and the flight line was put in place. Setup of nearly 50 club and member
pads proceeded throughout Friday morning and the first rockets went up
shortly after the waiver opened after lunch. After the expected slow start – a “wind-free” Friday
afternoon was not anticipated by most and attendance was light – flight
activity on Saturday reached a level not seen since LDRS XX. (There were
560 flights that day.) By the time the last rocket touched down Sunday
afternoon, 326 fliers had launched 831 rockets consuming almost a thousand
rocket motors. Total impulse expended exceeded 297,000N-s. |
Some of us had more trouble with the new vests than others... |
Greg conducts LCO 101 |
Troy (everyone's favorite dork) and Lisa |
Chris and Kelly |
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| Copyright © 1995-2004
Rocketry Organization of California. All Rights Reserved. |
