ROC at LDRS 19

General Comments

This LDRS was well organized and well run and possibly no larger than ROCstock XI. I would guess 1500-2000 folks were there but the flight line spread out all around the field so it was very hard to get an idea of numbers. I didn't hear anything mentioned about attendance. The pads were well organized, being 60 regular pads and 6 or 7 "large project" pads at a distance. Check in was well run and smooth. Sometimes lines were long but no worse than ROCstock. When I had a misfire, I was allowed to stay on the pad and re-prep. I have learned that you can either report on a launch or fly, hard to do both. Since I was flying, I didn't record much information on specific flights but I videotaped quite a few. The launch site was a sod farm called Super Sod. So our recovery area was lawn grass, very pleasant, and easy on rockets when landing. One experience there that was very pleasant and not common in California was an echo. There was a sharp tree line behind the launch area and when a large rocket went up you got to hear the brief launch roar twice! Very cool. The flight line didn't open till 9AM and then only slowly, flying then proceeded smoothly with lots of launches. Like last year, a helper went out to the pads with each group of flyers to see if any assistance was needed. The vendor row was great with all the major players there, except PML. Half of my time was spent browsing the booths and visiting with vendors. Accomodations were limited in Orangeburg but I managed to get a room having made no reservation. It took me four tries however. I stayed for two of the four days of the event, enough for me.

My own experience.

It was hot in Orangeburg but it could have been a lot hotter. and it was much cooler than Kansas last year. And of course it was humid but not excessively so, perhaps 70 percent. This meant that if you could just get into some shade you were reasonably comfortable. Travelling in a Ford Probe, I had very little room for accessories, let alone shelter or furniture. I travelled with 4 rockets and two field kit boxes, no reloads, no provision for rocket repair. The first day I arrived I was lucky enough to get a parking place right at the start of the vendor area, a great spot but no grassy field near. I looked at the hedge row beside the car right at the edge of the woods and realized that it would serve as a work area and it had total shade. I spread out a bunch of cloths to work on and had a very good work area. This type of area, at the edge of woods is "prime" poison ivy habitat, and I am highly allergic. I looked high and low for the telltale 3-leaf plant and could not find any, so I settled down on the ground to prep my rocket. Two guys settled in beside me with similar ideas and I learned to my delight that they were Swiss guys, Daniel Flury and Juerg Thuring, who had made the big trip just for LDRS. I was delighted because I got to practice my German. They were prepping a complex two-stager which I understand flew very well. There was no wind to speak of on either of the two days I was there. One often wished for a breeze to cool off a bit but then you'd realize how lucky we all were to have zero wind for launching.

My Millennium 3 flight.

I have been building a Level 3 project for some months now. It is 10 feet tall and 4" diameter, with a 75mm motor mount. That's just big enough for an M1315. I was trying to fly this thing on a K motor for now, just to shake it down. I had prepped the rocket and loaded a K550 at ROC Stock but had several visitors with me that day, so I ran out of time and postponed Millennium till LDRS. So on this day I was ready to fly. The rocket was mostly prepped already but I had to reattach all the shock cords and pack the chutes, modify the ejection charges, test the electronics, etc. I am flying Jim Amos's Missile Works RRC altimeter with dual deployment in the Millennium. I had one bad igniter and recycled the rocket for a second try. All this while hanging out on the range with my video camera, broiling. A recycle costs at least an hour at an event of this size, maybe 90 minutes. Finally my number came up again, Pad 56. Off went the Milly with a big K550 woosh, flying straight and true .... burnout, deployment. Just that fast. I had a "premature", with consequent aerial gymnastics. I think it was a drag separation, even though I could barely "drag" the rocket apart with my two hands. Anyhow, the two parts came swirling back to earth, the drogue chute deploying nicely, so I figured I'd get most of it back with minimal damage. Then at the prescribed 800 feet the RRC fired the main and it deployed nicely. The rocket landed with minimum damage, the separation having removed about a square inch of one coupler. The rocket is fully glassed, 3 layers, even 2 layers on the damaged coupler. A decent "shakedown" flight, I think. Now I must fix that drag sep problem and next time try an L motor.

The banquet.

I didn't go last year but this time the banquet was on site, being a catered buffet under a big tent. There was a 3 hour delay between launch and banquet so we could go get a welcomed shower. The food was great and being alone, I made the acquaintance of my table neighbors and found I was sitting near Ky Michaelson. The dinner was quite good and gave us at least an hour to eat and socialize. Then Bruce called the business meeting to order. The first item of business the announcement of LDRS 2001. It went to "us", ROC that is. It turns out, we were the only proprosing organization, so TRA had only to select the site and Lucerne was selected over Black Rock. Bruce cited "infrastructure" as the deciding factor. That is, the nearness of motels and restaurants to the Lucerne site. Next was election of officers and all board members were reelected, with the exception that Scott Bartel declined to serve another term so he was replaced, sorry I can't recall the name of the new member. Then the BOD elected officers for the coming year. No changes here, no surprise. Bruce will serve another year, his 7th I believe. A few issues were discussed like the ATF lawsuit, the new rule on "demo motors" and the budget of Tripoli for the last year. The total budget of TRA, by the way, is around $250,000. Then the fun began. First Tom Farrand had one of his "Radio Flyer" electronics sets to auction off for the benefit of TRA. The Flyer has a value of $250 or so. (You'll see Tom on the cover of the April HPR magazine. Anyway, the bidding started at $50 but quickly escalated past the $250 mark, a surprise to me. Whenever someone bid say $275, Ky the Rocketman quickly bid $300. Soon the bids were in the $500-$600 range and most had dropped out except Rocketman and Dr. Rocket (Mike Reiner). The Doctor bid $700 and Ky quickly topped this with $800, insisting that he "didn't want the item but wanted to 'help' the Doctor in his bidding". Finally the Doctor consulted with his family at length and then upped the bid to an even Grand. With that the Rocketman yielded, and a $250 Radio Flyer was had at the bargain price of $1000. Ky also pledged a $500 donation to the cause. This was the most raucus and fun event of the evening. I've never seen the Doctor smile so much. Then we had the raffle drawings and it continued for an hour or more. They were lumping three and four items together for one ticket and it still took an hour. The vendors were very generous. I was shocked when my ticket was drawn and I won $100 from Aerotech PLUS a very cool "Dr. Rocket" polo shirt, quite classy. The evening didn't end till 11:30 in the evening. I rushed back to the room to call Greg at midnight only to learn that he had LDRS 2001 news already. Nice chatting with you anyhow, Greg.

Remainder of Trip. (not relevant to LDRS but possibly of interest)

I travelled for nearly 3 weeks on this vacation, about half of that with another ROC member, Dean Allen of JPL. We left California on June 21 and hurried to a Rocket Boys reunion in Coalwood, West Virginia, where we got to meet three of the original six rocket boys, Homer Hickam, Billy Rose and Jimmy Odell Carroll. They all autographed my Millennium rocket. In addition we visited Appomattox, Ft. Sumter, Dismal Swamp, battleship North Carolina, aircraft carrier Yorktown, Petersburg, Richmond, three caves, five museums and a zoo. And Columbia, SC with the Confederate flag flying proudly on the lawn, having been removed from the capitol two days earlier. I visited family in Missouri before returning. I drove the distance from Missouri to CA in one 24 hour stretch, non-stop. It was a great vacation.