Washington Aerospace Club
National Association of Rocketry Section 578
Tripoli Rocketry Association Prefecture 41

4/5/2008 Meeting Minutes

Meeting began shortly after 7:00PM on April 5th, 2008 at Peace Lutheran Church in Puyallup.

Old Business

Selling Launch Pads

Not much progress has been made on selling K-pads to raise funds for the club. OROC has committed to buying three pads, "depending on price". Tripoli Idaho may be interested in purchasing one. It seems that these pads won't be the cash cow they were for the club last season.

Post meeting update: While our meeting was being held, Robert Krausert sent email to the RocketsNW list stating that he was interested in two pads.

Alternate Mansfield Launch Site

Kent Newman has spoken with Tom Snell (the mayor of Mansfield) recently about our use of his "ranch" east of town as a launch site. While Tom is OK with us launching from his land, he would prefer that FITS be held at the Sportsman club. This will allow him to better support our crowd, will provide more financial benefit to the town, and will be good PR. After looking at the area, Jim Wilkerson states that we can fly to 10K AGL from the race track area and 14K AGL from the away cell, even if the house to the northeast is occupied. The "extension" pad at the race track could be used for projects up through single L.

Post meeting update: After some more analysis, Jim has determined that the "extension" could be used for projects up through complex L and single M, provided that the entire track area is cleared for the launch. The analysis also indicates that if the house to the northeast is not occupied, we could fly to 14K AGL from the race track and 17K AGL from the away cell.

New Business

FITS 2008

Mike Wyvel and Denny Smith have been very busy getting things organized for FITS this year.

Vendors: Puget Sound Propulsion and Sunriver will be there with motors, kits, and supplies. Tsolo from Rocket Shots will be there taking photos. It is unlikely that Rockets magazine will be in attendance this year.

Raffle: Scott Bowers has volunteered to take care of the raffle.

Research Launch: Scott Bowers has offered to be the launch director for the research event. This will take place at the Snell ranch.

Launch Controllers: Andrew MacMillen has completed his work on the low-power and away launch controllers. He is still working on a new mid-power controller and expects it to be ready for FITS.

Web site: The FITS web site has been updated for 2008. Online registration and payment should be ready by the weekend of April 12th.

FITS Clothing: A contest will be held to determine the logo that will appear on the "mission patch" that will be used on FITS clothing this year. The contest will be announced when FITS online registration is ready.

Waiver: We have a waiver for the Snell ranch, but not the Sportsman's Club right now. Obtaining the waiver we need for the main site should be straightforward as it will be a renewal of an existing waiver.

Volunteer Sign-up: Greg Deputy has cleared out the online volunteer sign-up sheet used two years ago. This will be used again this year. Mike and Denny will be encouraging some individuals to volunteer for certain duties.

Food vendors: The Sunflower Cafe has been notified and will be providing food at the launch. This is something that should be promoted before the launch so that attendees can plan on bringing less food and supporting the town.

Showers: Mike will check on the availability and accessibility of the showers at the high school.

Rocket Contest: Steve Bloom has suggested that he want to organize another contest like the "Fat Boys to the Moon" contest of 2007. This needs to be pursued and promoted and should be a crowd-pleaser.

Kid-oriented Contest: Nothing has been done on organizing a kid-oriented contest. This may be something that Jim Pommert would be interested in organizing.

FM Antenna: Dan Work reports that the PVC antenna we use for our FM transmitter was over aggressively disassembled at some point and needs repair. In addition to repairing the antenna, he will add some storage hardware to the inside of the trailer so that future damage can be avoided.

Port-o-potties: Arrangement still need to be made for port-o-potties.

Marketing: Still to be done.

Astronomy Club: Bill Clugston will invite them.

April Launch

Even though FITS will be held at the Sportsman's Club this year, the April launch will be happening at Tom Snell's "ranch" east of town. The launch site can be seen here, although the north-south running road labeled "Rd 12 NE" is actually "Rd O NE". We are still looking for a launch director. We will have the reconditioned low-power and away controllers and the old high/mid-power controller, but the new high/mid-power controller won't be ready yet.

Mike Wyvel will not be at this launch and will not be able to get the trailer there. Denny Smith thinks that either he or Brad Wright will be able to tow it.

May Meeting

The May meeting will be a cleaning party at Dan Work's place.

LEUP Buddy Issues

Dave Woodard, of Puget Sound Propulsion, says that in the future all sales must be with a LEUP holder. Fliers without a LEUP can no longer buy motors and indicate who their LEUP buddy will be. This is to keep enforcement agencies happy.

Aerojet Support

At the NW Model Hobby Expo, Mike Wyvel talked with somebody from Aerojet that said his company offered grants to support local education. Mike had recently traded some email with this person confirming that the club could get financial support from Aerojet of some kind for educational, outreach, or launch site locating activities.

Motor Building Q&A

Motor building was one of the educational topics discussed toward of the meeting. Several ideas that came through were: read the directions completely before starting; make sure you have all of the parts before starting; and make sure you assemble your motor according to the instructions or you may not be covered by the manufacturer's warranty or possibly NAR or TRA insurance.

Electronics Q&A

Deployment electronics was the other education topic covered at the meeting. The take home for this one was: understand how your computer works how how your rocket will fly so that you can make good decisions.

Attendees

Andy Casillas
Bill Clugston
Bill Wyvel
Bryan Young
Carl Hamilton
Dan Work
Dave Randall
Dave Woodard
Denny Smith
Jim Wilkerson
Kent Newman
Mike Wyvel
Robert Simpson-Clark
Steve McKibbin
Chuck
Seth

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