Launch Recap - April 7th, 2007 We were really excited to be able to fly in April with absolutely clear blue skies. The higher and variable direction winds in the morning caused us to limit our flying to smaller engines, but the afternoon, we were in full swing launching several mid power birds, particularly with three TARC teams present. WELCOME to Russ, just settled from up north, Eddy, and Julie (who flew their first scratchbuilt rockets today!) and all from the TARC teams! We're glad that you came despite the chilly temps! We had a full day of shooting right up to the last rack just past 3:00PM. Tom D's "lost in the tree but recovered and rebuilt" lawndart started the day, with an almost true to the name separation and airframe core sample. Malcolm B's. Shuttle Express took the most flights for the day. The Odd Roc theme produced some Egg Spoon variety rockets which gyroed back to earth. We also saw some gliders, saucers and Russ' flying lampshade. Brian once again made us smile with his microMAXX version of Roger's Akavish spider rocket. Congrats Brian on the lowest altitude successful flight of the day! Welcome also to the Howard Middle School and Trinity Prep Team America Rocketry Challenge teams. Today as the last opportunity for qualifying flights at our launch was fraught with problems. The Howard team had a rough day with several Aerotech E-30 single use motor CATOs on the pad. Another of the rockets CATOed up 20 feet as the motor block let loose and the motor hit the payload bay bulkhead causing an airframe failure and crash. Though that rocket was destroyed, there were no other incidents. Toward the end of the day several further attempts resulted in satisfactory qualifications. Their two egglofters were in for maiden flights and testing. Our best to all the teams and hope to see more of you join us on the field! Robb also brought out his Outlander which also sustained minor damage after the Aerotech E21 CATOed on the pad. It seems that we had a bad batch of E motors!. Strange. We could not explain the unusually high volume of casing failures on the single use motors. Chris H also managed to get several of his cluster birds into the air after some attempts resulted in underpowered liftoffs. What a great day for a launch! See you on Saturday, May 3rd. Lot's of fun! Additional photographs from the April launch are on Roger's PayloadBay.com web site. Impulse Breakdown Motor Count MMX 1 A 29 B 30 C 15 D 8 E 7 F 4 G 0 Total Number of Motors: 94 Total Number of Launches: 79 Approximate Total Impulse: 283.18 Ns (equivalent to a large H motor)

Launch Recaps Launch Recap - August 7th, 2010 Today the thunderstorms did materialize in the early afternoon.  We never actually got wet because we decided to pull up stakes and shutdown when thunder could be heard   We had a brief stop with a slight shower in the morning,... [More] Launch Recap - June 5th, 2010 The forecasted thunderstorms never made an appearance, so our June launch was a success. Chris's cardstock-clone of the Estes Orbital Transport flew on an A10 motor. He kept telling us to keep an eye on the glider, but it never separated... [More] Launch Recap - May 1st, 2010 What a marvelous day for a launch.   Incredible weather, beautiful temps, mostly sunny sky.  Florida day in May.  Excellent.  Welcome newcomers!  We also are thankful to Nick R for hosting the ROCK May Open... [More] Launch Recap - April 3rd, 2010 Where was Tom?   Marrying off his oldest daughter, that's where!  It's nice to be missed.  :)  Florida is ideal in March, particularly for Rocket launching.  Deep azure sky, cool temps, warm sun, just a... [More] Launch Recap - March 6th, 2010 Where's Tom when you need him? What kind of lousy excuse does he have for missing the March launch? Tom normally provides our Launch Recaps each month and does an excellent job of documenting all the excitement of the last launch. In March,... [More] Launch Recap - February 6th, 2010 The February range was quiet. We didn't have a lot of flyers this time, but still had fun! Thanks to all who helped with the set up and tear down. You made a difference! Winds were still heavy and we did have a sprinkle which probably... [More] Launch Recap - January 2nd, 2010 The launch Saturday was great!   Welcome newcomers!  Conrad, Benjamin, James, Paul, Carl, and Preston!  If I missed your name, forgive me!  With several of you, it was hard to get all of your names! Winds were... [More] Launch Recap - June 27th, 2009 The launch Saturday was  a typical warm day in Florida!  Winds were from the west which would have typically meant no tangle with the trees to the West of the field.  Storm activity in the area got us a bit damp once, and cut... [More] Launch Recap - June 6th, 2009 Unfortunately upon arriving at the field, we discovered the recent rains had not had time to drain away and it was too swampy for a safe launch. The tall grass hid the water from general view, but anywhere you stepped, was 2 or 3"... [More] Launch Recap - May 2nd, 2009 After forcing a scrub for April, the drought index dropped enough to allow our May launch to proceed as scheduled. Attendance started off light, but steadily grew thru the morning. The official event for the day was gliders, but the National... [More] Launch Recap - March 7th, 2009 For the third time this year, we were blessed with beautiful rocket flying weather- temperatures in the 70's and low winds-- except for one.  We had a micro burst "dust Devil" come through our spectator area inverting all 3 of... [More] Launch Recap - February 7th, 2009 Today's launch was also blessed with beautiful rocket flying weather- temperatures in the 70's and low winds. Our flyer turnout was a bit lower than January.  Still we had a great time. The ROCK rocket contest yielded 5 entries of varying... [More] Launch Recap - January 3rd, 2009 Our first launch of 2009 was blessed with absolutely perfect rocket flying weather- temperatures in the high 70's and nearly no wind. We had 29 flyers and guests logging 80 flights. Welcome to the Maciaszek family, ROCK's newest... [More] Launch Recap - December 6th, 2008 What started out looking to be like a rainout, turned out to be another beautiful sunny day in Florida  The winds were low until the end of the day.  Weather cleared up early and we had a full day of flying.  The low turnout... [More] Launch Recap - November 1st, 2008 We live in Florida for this kind of day!   Winds from the North/ North East on this beautiful day were significant and contributed to several smaller rockets leaving the field and entering the woods/brush.  As far as I know,... [More] Launch Recap - October 4th, 2008 The launch Saturday was great!  What a beautiful day for the first of our fall launches!  Winds from the North East were significant and contributed to several smaller rockets leaving the field and entering the woods.  Over 30... [More] Launch Recap - August 2nd, 2008 The launch Saturday was great! We found it to be a typical August day in Florida - hot! Winds were either from the west which would have typically meant no tangle with the trees to the West of the field. Still, we did have two flights into... [More] Launch Recap - July 10th, 2008 Today was a bit unusual in that we did our normal monthly launch on a Thursday. Our purpose was two-fold: 1) to avoid the association of Model Rocketry with fireworks and 2) to accommodate the launching of a second set of rockets built by kids... [More] Launch Recap - June 7th, 2008 This launch Saturday was a great day. Winds were either from the east or non-existent. We did have some flights into the woods, but to my knowledge all but one was recovered. Our first launch of the day was a sweet little Swift on an A engine.... [More] Launch Recap - May 3rd, 2008 We got started a little late on Saturday, but that did not dampen the full day's launch! Later in the afternoon we felt a few drops as a small shower passed over, but that didn't stop the launch either. Winds were from the south giving us the... [More] Launch Recap - April 5th, 2008 Saturday was a nice but windy day.  Winds were from the south, so we had a good opportunity to fly into the field for recovery.  The winds became stronger in the higher altitudes. As such, thehigher power rockets didn't fare well... [More] Launch Recap - March 1st, 2008 Blue skies, Temperatures in the 70's, minimal winds, open fields, quiet... wait, except for the occasional whoosh of  a rocket leaving the pads--yes--that was today at ROCK's monthly launch! A perfect day allowed for many really nice... [More] Launch Recap - February 2nd, 2008 What a full and fun day This launch day we had a great turnout and lots of fun predicting our flight durations. While we had some durations go longer (and farther - into the trees) than we hoped, we still managed to only lose two... [More] Launch Recap - January 5th, 2008 We had a slightly smaller turn out than usual (possibly due to the New Years holiday), but that didn't limit the fun or number of flights! In addition, we had guests from the Seminole Chronicle covering the launch. An outstanding article with... [More] Launch Recap - December 1st, 2007 What a great day at the field! We had Sunny skies until mid-afternoon, and it was a bit windy above 100 feet, but we still had a great time. This launch was dominated by the Steamer Spot landing contest. We had a number of other fun flights, but... [More] Launch Recap - November 3rd, 2007 Greetings after a BEAUTIFUL Saturday of fun in the sun flying rockets!  The moderate temperatures finally arrived!  Only the moderate Southerly (up to 10 MPH) winds gave us some challenges and we did lose a few rockets to the trees and... [More] Launch Recap - September 1st, 2007 Greetings after another WARM Saturday of fun in the sun flying rockets! Our turnout today was about average in terms of numbers but certainly not with regard to flying! Glad to have you all out after the soggy field in August!... [More] Launch Recap - August 4th, 2007 Today was different! Besides the reality that many of our regulars were unable to join us, we had several new faces at the launch. Welcome David and Andrew P, the Charleton family visiting from Phila, Jay and Brandon, and Trent, Alex, and Andrew... [More] Launch Recap - July 7th, 2007 We were really excited to be able to fly this month. As you may recall from our June meeting, we are now flying year round, and started the new cycle with this launch. We also decided to set up earlier to avoid the potential of early afternoon... [More] Launch Recap - April 7th, 2007 We were really excited to be able to fly in April with absolutely clear blue skies. The higher and variable direction winds in the morning caused us to limit our flying to smaller engines, but the afternoon, we were in full swing launching several... [More] Launch Recap - March 3rd, 2007 After losing our opportunity to fly in February because of the weather, we were really excited to be able to fly in March. Though the lower cloud ceiling and higher wind in the morning cause us to limit our flying to smaller engines, but the... [More] Launch Recap - January 6th, 2007 Wow! What a wonderful way to start the New Year- flying rockets! The unseasonably great weather not only attracted many Section regulars and a few old-timers, but also some new faces! WELCOME! We had twenty flyers and spectators and launched so... [More] Launch Recap - December 2nd, 2006 Another day of great flying! Welcome to all! Gliders and copters were definitely out today. We logged 63 flights across motor classes A thru F. With minimal wind and partly cloudy skies, we had prime flying conditions for the gliders and... [More] Launch Recap - November 4th, 2006 We had another great day of flying!Welcome to all, particularly Tom, Madeleine, and Jack C., hopefully your first time experience will result in many return visits! Thanks to Winston C. for your help yesterday in assisting as LCO! We logged 44... [More] Launch Recap - October 7th, 2006 We had a great day of flying at the October launch! Many new faces and a few new section members. Welcome to all, hopefully your first time experience will result in many return visits! We logged 62 flights across motor classes A thru G, a few... [More] Launch Recap - September 2nd, 2006 We had a great day at our new launch site. Turnout was small, probably due to the Labor Day holiday weekend. A total of ten flyers launched 38 successful flights- no rockets were captured by rocket-eating trees! Winds were light and variable,... [More]