November 29, 2009
Our November launch went very well - we had excellent weather and many successful flights. Cub Scout Pack 24 from Doylestown had a good time launching a total of 28 rockets. We enjoyed having them attend and hope to see them again.

2800 Newtons were burned. A Newton is the amount of force needed to accelerate one kilogram at a rate of one meter per second per second.
The following is a breakdown of the motors burned:
A - 26 B - 2 C - 5 D - 6 E - 4 F - 4 G - 4 H - 2 I - 1 J - 1.

We are planning a Tripoli Research launch on Saturday, December 5 followed by our regular launch on Sunday, December 6. Everyone is invited to attend the research launch. To fly or static burn at a Research Launch, you must be 18 years old, a member of PARA and Tripoli, and certified L2 or above. Everyone is invited to fly on the 6th. The launches will be held from 11:00 - 3:00 with setup starting around 10:00.
If you are planning to fly or static burn at the research launch please let Phil (pstein@arielsystems.net) know.
To verify certification and insurance, everyone should bring their NAR or Tripoli membership card.
Jim Hansen
president@para520.org

August 9, 2009

We've been enjoying great launch conditions, so come one out!!

The weather held off nicely today and we had pretty good launch conditions. Attendance was off, probably due to the weather.

The following motors were burned:

A-1        B-1        C-1        F-1        G-1        H-1        I-1

Total Newton Seconds flown were 920.

Welcome back Karl! Karl and Cody Wagonseller. Karl and Cody have rejoined the club after a long hiatus. Harrison Feiner joined the club today, as a Junior Member.

Thanks to Phil, Dean and Ken for helping clean up our launch silo. After the floor dries up and is swept one more time we will have a nice clean area for equipment storage.

Due to the Labor Day holiday the next PARA launch has been scheduled for September 13. There will be a Tripoli Research Launch on Saturday, September 12.

Tripoli Research Launches have some restrictions that our  normal launches don't have. A page explaining the differences will be added in the  near future. If you are interested in making and burning your own motors and propellant, i.e. participating in a TRL (Tripoli Research Launch,) you must be over 18, and a member of Tripoli and PARA. To join Triploi, go to http://www.tripoli.org/join.shtml,  and join in on the fun!

Jim Hansen
president@para520.org

July 18, 2009

We've been enjoying great launch conditions, so come one out!!

First, I would like to thank Phil Stein and Barney Snyder for their service as
club President and Treasurer, respectively. I hope I can do as well as
President that Phil did.

Welcome to Ken Derstine as our new Treasurer. And thanks to Dean Sheaffer for
agreeing to stay on as club Secretary. Phil has agreed to take the post of VP
and continue on as Club Webmeister. Thanks Phil!

I’d like to welcome Ed Young and Joe Latrell to the club. Ed had previously
been a member, Joe is a new to the club.

We had a good launch today. A bit warm and there was more wind than I would
like but almost every rocket was launched and recovered successfully. Ken
Derstine had a REAL long walk to recover his scratch-built Red-Sky, launched
on a J528 but thanks to his recovery beeper got it back OK.

Speaking of recovery beepers, the corn is getting high. Please review the
website section on Finding Your Rocket for recovery hints. Click here to go to "Finding Your Rocket" page.   I know from
experience that it can be a real hot, dusty, scratchy afternoon spent in the
corn if you don’t have any recovery aid.

We had a total of 25 flights with the following motors:

A – 3        B – 8        C – 2        D – 1        F – 2        G – 7        I – 1        J – 1

Total Newton Seconds  – 3008 ns

The next launch is scheduled for August 2.

Jim Hansen

President@PARA520.org

June 15, 2009

We've been enjoying great launch conditions, so come one out!!

Since the courts have ruled that APCP (the propellant that we use) is not an explosive, you  can buy all the motors you want, without a LEUP.

If you didn't get an email about our election, let me know. It's time to vote!

Phil

April 5, 2009

Winter is finally over! We've had great weather today, as well as during our March launch.

In March and April, we had TARC teams attempting to qualify for one of the one-hundred positions at the national competition in Virginia on May 16th. Click here for Information about TARC. I don't know if any of the teams qualified for the nationals. I hope being in the competition was fun and informative for the participants.

One notable, new, and exciting event occurred at our March launch. Dean left with more rockets than he brought with him, and then to top that, in April, he left with the same number of rockets that he came with.

We're having elections is the next few months. Since this is everyone's club, everyone should be thinking about how they can contribute to the club. That means that we need officers and people to help setup and tear down the range. To set up the range, we get together an hour before the launch starts - usually around 10:00. It takes about 45 minutes to tear-down the range and put everything away. Also, we need help cleaning and maintaining out launch equipment.

I assume that everyone has heard about our victory against ATF. Assuming ATF does not appeal the judge's ruling, the need for a LEUP to store APCP will go away some time in May. The ruling doesn't apply to BP or certain kinds of igniters.  More information can be found on the NAR or Tripoli website.

I hope to see many of you at our May 3rd launch. Don't forget to share the workload with the other members of YOUR club.

Phil

November 2, 2008

We've had nice weather over the last few months, hopefully, it will continue through the winter. Anyone that has missed our recent launches, has missed seeing some cool, and really cool flights.

I hope to see everyone at our launch on December 7th, and our meeting on December 9th.

Phil

August 3, 2008

Although the weather wasn't bad, we had a light turnout.  It was a very good launch because everything was successfully recovered even though the corn was about 8 feet high in some places.  We were lucky in that most rockets landed in open fields and the trees didn't eat any rockets either.  We had 9 flights using 1-A, 1-B, 1-C, 2-G, 3-H, and 1-I.

I hope to see everyone at the meeting on August 14th.

Phil

July 6, 2008 Click here to see pictures

Although it was overcast much of the day, we had a good launch.  Welcome to the new members that joined today.  Congratulations to Ron Crank for his successful Level 1 Certification attempt.  We burned 46 motors and had 40 flights. 

The following motors were used:

Of the 40 flights 6 were two stage rockets.  Multiple stage rockets are always cool and even cooler is catching a picture of one as the stages separate.  The picture to the right was Chris Cornell's scratch built rocket called Reckless Abandon.  It was taken by Nick Vitovitch just as the D20 in the booster CATO'd.  Thanks for taking the pictures and sending them to me. Other pictures that were taken will be added to our Launch Pictures link.  We also had multiple stage rocket flown by Aiden Crank, Ken Derstine and the team comprised of Dan Dufresne, Sean Bayley and Nate Elder.

I will be doing a fiberglassing demonstration at our next meeting which is August 12th.  I will show how to 'glass an airframe, apply 'glass to the fins in a way that helps hold them onto the airframe, how to use peel ply, and how to do a repair using fiberglass.  If there is anything that you want to see that I have not mentioned, please let me know and I will try to work it in.  Also, if you have anything you would like glassed as part of the demonstration, let me know as of right now I don't have anything that needs 'glass so if we can put materials to better use than just doing a demo piece, it is preferable.  

The club has received a $250 grant from Tripoli Rocketry Association to buy the receiver for a rocket tracker.  The receiver is the expensive piece.  Members can buy transmitters for $100 to put in their rockets.  We need to coordinate the purchase of everything to that everyone has a different frequency transmitter.  We'll discuss the final details at our next meeting.  You can contact me after that if you have questions or want to purchase a transmitter.  We owe Tripoli a big THANK YOU! for the grant.

Phil

June 1, 2008

We had a good launch on June 1st.  There were 38 flights and 43 motors burned.  Those motors included the following:  

Two of the flights were staged and there was one cluster.  A few firsts happened.  We had a few monocopters flights and an H250 motor that used Aerotech's new green propellant.

Welcome and congratulations to new member Ben Weaver who did his Level 1 Certification flight. 

We did a limited test of our new launch system on the mid and high power pads today.  No problems were encountered and we hope to have everything ready to use it on all pads by our next launch.

From this point forward, we will be expecting everyone to either help with range setup or tear down.  We will be arriving to start setup at around 10:30.  If we can't have the range ready to fly by 11:00, we'll start at 10:00.  Since this is new, the timing may need to be tweaked.

Please come to the meeting Tuesday June 10th at 7:00 at Wilsey Tool.  If anyone wants to meet for dinner around 6:00 before the meeting, let me know.  Click here for driving directions.

I hope to see you there.

Phil

April 17, 2008

We had a good launch on April 6th.  The wind was sporadic but it did allow quite a few flights.  There were four teams and quite a few people attempting TARC qualifications.  It is always nice to see young people working together towards a goal.  Especially when it results in some cool rocket flights.  I hope the team members will continue to attend our launches.  Congratulations to Ken Derstine for a  successful Level 2 certification attempt.

We had a meeting on April 15th at the Fox and Hound Pub & Grille.  We discussed being consistently vigilant about safety and how to get started making your own propellant.

Phil

February 3, 2008

We had a great launch today.  The temperatures were in the 50's, the sun was shining and there was no wind.  All recoveries were close to the launch pads.  Conditions were close to what we had for our launch on January 6th.  We had a nice visit by an officer from the Tinicum Township Police Department.  We chatted a while, he checked out some rockets and headed for the car wash.  The road leading to the field wasn't bad when we arrived because it was slightly frozen.  As the day progressed, it thawed out and turned the road into mud.  I also made an emergency stop at the car wash on the way home.

Today, there were 9 fliers who made 30 flights on 35 motors.  A few of them were staged.  We should give Michael Okonski an award for landing a rocket within a foot of the launch rod.  Unfortunately, the three stage Estes Cherokee did not deploy its streamer.  His rocket was damaged but it can be fixed and back in the air by our next launch.

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures at the launch.  I'm hoping that some of the people that were able to take some can send me copies for the web site.

We will be discussing Research Motors at our meeting on February 12th.  We will have a Research Launch on Saturday, March 1st.  You must be a Tripoli Level 2 Certified flyer to fly at this launch.  We will have our regular launch the following day Sunday March 2nd.  Everyone is welcome to come fly as usual on Sunday March 2nd.

I hope to see everyone soon.

Phil

November 4, 2007 click here to see launch pictures

Today, we had another great Autumn day for launching - but then again a bad day launching is still better than a good day at work.  We had a great visit from the Bear Den of Cub Scout Pack 107.  They came from Whitemarsh Township, PA.  The boys had a lot of Estes Alphas that they built and they had many great flights.  I hope they had as much fun launching as we had hosting them.  We had 55 flights with three 2 stage rockets flown by Ken Derstine and Mike Wajda. 

I'd like to welcome Scott Tyrell and Justin Gleiter back to PARA after a long absence.  Among other things, Scott and Justin flew their rocket called Beater on a G339.  This was the first time we've flown Warp 9 propellant at PARA.  I think the people that saw it were surprised at how fast it burns.  It puts out about 90 pounds of thrust and has a burn time of approximately .4 seconds.

Mike Wajda brought a new launch pad that he made.  The variety of launch rods it can use make it very flexible, and the blast deflectors make it really cool.  The picture shows Mike's G-Force getting ready to take off from his launch pad on a G64-4.

The following motors were flown: 5-A's, 3-B's, 28-C's, 5-D's, 7-E's, 3-F's, 5-G's, and 2-H's.

We have arranged for a members only discount with Al's Hobbies.  Keep an eye on your email for specifics.

See you next month.

Phil

October 7, 2007

We had great weather for most of the day.  There were a few periods where it was a bit breezy but everything landed fairly close to the pads throughout the day. 

Today we had 31 flights.  The motors used were 2-B’s, 9-C’s, 4-D’s, 4-E’s, 4-F’s,6-G’s and 3-H’s.  I think one of the highlights of the day was Jim Hansen’s Apogee Aspire on a G77.  At PARA, it is not that often that we see a rocket move that fast.  Jim predicted that it would go Mach 1.1.  The airframe might have but the fins had other ideas. Thanks for the entertainment – it was a really cool flight!  Another cool flight was Mike Wajda’s Estes Renegade which staged from a B6-0 to a C6-7.  Congratulations to Blaine Moyer for achieving his NAR Level 1 Certification.

We have several new members to PARA.  Since I haven’t written the President’s Message for a few months, I’ll mention everyone that joined during that period.  Welcome to Michael Okonski, John Charlton, Michael Wajda, Jim McGraw.  I hope you’ll enjoy flying with us.

Remember our meetings will be held the Second Tuesday on even months.  We will have a meeting on October 9^th at Wilsey Tool.

Phil

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