9/12/09 Meeting Minutes

Meeting began shortly at 7:00PM on September 12th, 2009 at Holden's Hobbies in Auburn.

Old Business

There was no old business to discuss. Hopefully, with the end of summer, there will be more continuity from meeting to meeting.

New Business

Holden's Hobbies

While not really club business, Chris Holden, our host, took a few minutes to talk about his hobby shop, Holden's Hobbies. Chris stocks kits from Estes, Mad Cow, and Public Missiles. He also stocks Blue Tube and other parts and pieces. He is constantly expanding his inventory and can special order items, so stop by or give him a call. There have been issues with Blue Tube warping, but Chris has spoken with the owner of Blue Tube and reports that the problem only occurs in high heat, high humidity environments (e.g. the Southeast US) and is being worked on.

Rocketry/APRS Talk

A Northwest ham radio group invited somebody from the club to join them at their "Summer Digital Conference" to talk about the use of APRS for tracking rockets. Carl Hamilton volunteered and gave a mostly rocketry talk with a small amount of APRS thrown in. The slides for the presentation can be found at http://go.mousetrap.com/rocketry101. Despite the minimal of APRS-specific information in the presentation, feedback from the group was very positive. It's likely we'll get a few new flyers from our appearance.

Mentor for Ingraham SLI Team

One of the Ingraham High School TARC teams, lead by Peter Schurke, finished 7th at the finals. This has given the team the opportunity to participate in the NASA Student Launch Initiative (SLI) program. As part of their proposal, the team needs to secure a NAR level 2 or level 3 mentor. This mentor would be the flyer of record for the team's rocket if/when they travel to Huntsville, AL from April 14th through 19th, 2010. NASA will provide a stipend to cover the mentor's travel costs to the launch. Please contact Peter (pmschurke@seattleschools.org) if you are interested in helping out.

September Launch

Carl Hamilton is the launch director for the September launch, to be held at the Snell Ranch the weekend of the 19th. Tom Snell will mow an area close to the intersection of O Road NE and 13 Road NE where we can camp and launch. This will be north and west of the area we used in April, which should reduce the likelihood of rockets landing on the land to the south of Tom's. Nobody volunteered to tow the trailer to the site, so Carl will be hauling over just enough GSE for a "small" launch. Hopefully he won't forget anything and what he brings will be sufficient.

In addition the the club GSE, PSP will be providing hybrid GSE and Robert Simpson-Clark will have an away cell controller available.

Due to fire danger, skidmark motors are going to be banned from this launch. Carl will contact Tom Snell to see whether fire pits will be permitted at the site.

Carl will also attempt to meet with the landowner to the south, describe who we are, what we do, and ask for permission to occasionally walk on his land for recovery. We'll see how it goes.

October Launch

Mike Wyvel has volunteered to be the launch director for the October launch. Robert Simpson-Clark wasn't sure if he had volunteered for the same position earlier in the year, but has agreed to assist in any way he can. Thanks guys!

NAR Level 2 Exams

Andy Barwick and Robert Geer both passed the NAR level 2 written exam at the meeting. They both hope to do their certification flights at the upcoming September launch in Mansfield. Nice work!

Show and Tell

Bob Jimerson brought in a section of 4" tube with a beautiful fiberglassing job, except in one area about 2" in diameter. This particular area was blistered and appeared to be devoid of any resin. Bob had used heat shrink tubing, from Soller Composites, to compress extra resin out of his fiberglassing job and wondered what could have caused the problem. Robert Simpson-Clark's theory was that Bob moved too quick from the center of the tube toward one end with his heat gun, trapped some resin, rather than pushing it out, and that resin began to boil, resulting in the blemished surface.

Chuck Tenesch's level 2 flight at FITS failed due to a zipper in the lower airframe. He has rebuilt the fin can, and has taken some precautions to prevent a repeat event, but still had questions about what else he could do to assure a successful flight at the September or October launch. It sounds like his flight at FITS used a delay grain that was too short. He plans to use a longer, more appropriate delay for his next flight, and that should prevent any zippering.

Attendees

Aaron Evans
Andy Barwick
Andy Casillas
Bill Munds
Bill Wyvel
Bob Jimerson
Carl Hamilton
Chris Holden
Chuck Tenesch
Dave Woodard
Mike Wyvel
Robert Geer
Robert Simpson-Clark
Ryan Williams