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2025 large launches

#1 · December 20, 2024, 4:44 pm

For anyone that like to travel a bit to the bigger fields/launches, there are 2 coming up in 2025 that a few of us are hoping/planning to attend:

MDRA's "Red Glare" event. MDRA flies on a farm field on the Delmarva peninsula. Word is this will happen March 28-30 (Friday-Sunday). Stay tuned to their website for details and registration: https://mdrocketry.org/ (Note that their website will be getting a redesign any day now, so it may not be up to date yet.) This field is about 2.5-3hrs drive from our field in Wall.
"URRF 10" ("Upstate Research Rocketry Festival") at URRG ("Upstate Research Rocketry Group") in the upstate NY finger lakes region (Penn Yan, NY), to be held June 20-22 (Friday-Sunday). Many of us attended LDRS last summer. This is a similar event, but not as large. Same place (about 5-6hrs north of our field). Same club running it: https://urrg.us/ (Note that this event was recently pushed back by 2 weeks from it's traditionally scheduled date.)

Caveat - after too much rain last summer at LDRS, some of us have made hotel arrangements that can be cancelled up to the last few days before. If it looks like a wet weekend (or any other bad weather), we do not plan to make the trip to slog through mud. But hotel reservations do get scarce as these events approach, so if you think you might attend and stay overnight, best make arrangements sooner rather than later.

But if conditions are favorable, you will see a lot of rockets flying at these events, from the smaller one that we fly at CENJARS, to the big Level 3 ones that are always an impressive sight!

Admin and Zielijo1 have reacted to this post.

#2 · January 16, 2025, 10:52 am

I’m in for red glare. URRF is much further drive and a week prior to my other hobby tiki weekend… unlikely. Yes the mud was terrible

#3 · March 13, 2025, 2:10 pm

Note: red glare

must register online not at field

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#4 · April 1, 2025, 2:18 pm

Quote from Eric Becher on April 1, 2025, 2:18 pm
Red Glare 2025 is in the books!

It was a nice weekend, and the weather cooperated most of the time, although Sunday was a little breezy. Temps were actually very nice for the weekend, instead of their usual chill in the air.

CENJARS was well represented. Our attendees included Brian Poohbah with Martha and Kevin, Eric & Jo Ann, Joe Z and Joan, Chris O., Matt A and Vera, Diptanshu with his parents Koushik and Moumita, Brian C, and Joe K of Rocketship Games attending as a vendor. (apologies if I forgot anyone)

Collectively, we managed to get a bunch of great flights in. Congrats to Chris O. in getting his L1. Chris also gets the perseverance award for not letting a few minor crashes keep him from that achievement.

Speaking of crashes, that was the theme of Friday's flying. Eric and Jo Ann suffered a few hard landings, mostly due to tangled chutes. Brian's "Pringles" went swimming in the ditch. Chris O, well, where do we begin? But not all was bad. Eric's "Cheaper than a Boat" managed a nice flight to 2700ft, and Chris did finally get that perfect flight in for his L1, although I'm honestly not sure which rocket finally did it for him. And those successes and others set a better tone for the rest of the weekend. Joe Z flew his X-15 and V2 to great heights (the latter also to over 2700ft). Matt and Vera got in a few nice flights, including their "Zephyr". Brian C flew a number of flights, but the most colorful being his "Pink Crayon." Diptanshu was there to, among other things, get some additional ARC flight data. He took advantage of the big field and flew a little higher as well with his fiberglass Wildman rocket (Which one escapes me. Journey 75 maybe?) Rounding out the weekend, Joe and Eric flew a drag race with their Mega Red Max versions. Who won is a matter of some dispute as the winning criteria was not settled before the flight. Joe's took off first, and went higher. Eric's was first to land, and went further away. The argument continues...

If you have never been to a big launch like this, you should. It's a lot of fun, and you will see a wide variety of rockets in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Lots of flame, smoke, and noise too. Spectators are welcome and free. (there are fees for flyers) For those of us that fly on our smaller field, it is a chance to stretch a bit and fly some larger and/or higher rockets on their big field, but there are plenty of smaller rockets that go up too. These events are also a great way to meet some nice folks, shop some cool vendors (no shipping!) and to see and learn what others are doing. Joe Z even won a cool kit from Fliskits in the raffle!

There are a bunch of pictures in "The Away Cell" folder in the Gallery. Most are of the CENJARS rockets, but there are a few others too. I suspect Joe Z will be posting some video content soon too.

The next big launch event on the calendar is URRF, held by URRG on June 20-22. That's the "Upstate Research Rocketry Festival", which is put on by the "Upstate Research Rocketry Group" in Potter, NY (Finger Lakes region). Personally, I'm waiting to see what the weather will be like before I am fully committed, but I am looking forward to it.

Red Glare 2025 is in the books!

It was a nice weekend, and the weather cooperated most of the time, although Sunday was a little breezy. Temps were actually very nice for the weekend, instead of their usual chill in the air.

CENJARS was well represented. Our attendees included Brian Poohbah with Martha and Kevin, Eric & Jo Ann, Joe Z and Joan, Chris O., Matt A and Vera, Diptanshu with his parents Koushik and Moumita, Brian C, and Joe K of Rocketship Games attending as a vendor. (apologies if I forgot anyone)

Collectively, we managed to get a bunch of great flights in. Congrats to Chris O. in getting his L1. Chris also gets the perseverance award for not letting a few minor crashes keep him from that achievement.

Speaking of crashes, that was the theme of Friday's flying. Eric and Jo Ann suffered a few hard landings, mostly due to tangled chutes. Brian's "Pringles" went swimming in the ditch. Chris O, well, where do we begin? But not all was bad. Eric's "Cheaper than a Boat" managed a nice flight to 2700ft, and Chris did finally get that perfect flight in for his L1, although I'm honestly not sure which rocket finally did it for him. And those successes and others set a better tone for the rest of the weekend. Joe Z flew his X-15 and V2 to great heights (the latter also to over 2700ft). Matt and Vera got in a few nice flights, including their "Zephyr". Brian C flew a number of flights, but the most colorful being his "Pink Crayon." Diptanshu was there to, among other things, get some additional ARC flight data. He took advantage of the big field and flew a little higher as well with his fiberglass Wildman rocket (Which one escapes me. Journey 75 maybe?) Rounding out the weekend, Joe and Eric flew a drag race with their Mega Red Max versions. Who won is a matter of some dispute as the winning criteria was not settled before the flight. Joe's took off first, and went higher. Eric's was first to land, and went further away. The argument continues...

If you have never been to a big launch like this, you should. It's a lot of fun, and you will see a wide variety of rockets in all shapes, sizes, and colors. Lots of flame, smoke, and noise too. Spectators are welcome and free. (there are fees for flyers) For those of us that fly on our smaller field, it is a chance to stretch a bit and fly some larger and/or higher rockets on their big field, but there are plenty of smaller rockets that go up too. These events are also a great way to meet some nice folks, shop some cool vendors (no shipping!) and to see and learn what others are doing. Joe Z even won a cool kit from Fliskits in the raffle!

There are a bunch of pictures in "The Away Cell" folder in the Gallery. Most are of the CENJARS rockets, but there are a few others too. I suspect Joe Z will be posting some video content soon too.

The next big launch event on the calendar is URRF, held by URRG on June 20-22. That's the "Upstate Research Rocketry Festival", which is put on by the "Upstate Research Rocketry Group" in Potter, NY (Finger Lakes region). Personally, I'm waiting to see what the weather will be like before I am fully committed, but I am looking forward to it.

#5 · April 1, 2025, 6:16 pm

Quote from Admin on April 1, 2025, 6:16 pm
... and, I assume, I will hold the record for the most RSO check-ins for a rocket that never flew.

For those that did not attend Red Glare 25, I had great hopes of launching the Composite Warehouse HV-ARCAS on an Aerotech L1040DM. That's DM for Dark Matter but it's also a Dan Michael signature motor. The expected altitude would have been 7,500—8,000 feet. I had the rocket RSOd (1st RSO) and I was ready to head out to put it on a rail when the LCO announced that the waiver was reduced to 4,000 feet due to the high wind speeds aloft. What to do?

I went back to my area and checked my OpenRocket on my MacBook Pro. I found that a CTI 2010K675 would sim to just shy of 4,000 feet, so I pulled out the L1040DM and proceeded to get the K675 prepped. The ARCAS has a 75mm motor mount and the L1040DM was a 75mm motor. In fact, it was cross-loaded in my 75mm 4-grain CTI 75mm casing. The K675, however, is a 54mm motor. No problem there though as I have an Aerotech 54mm to 75mm adapter kit. So, I prepped the CTI K675, screwed the adapter onto the casing and put the motor into the ARCAS. With a different configuration, I needed to get the ARCAS RSOd (2nd RSO) again.

Just after RSOing the ARCAS, the Queen Anne County Sheriff vehicle and several other Queen Anne County vehicles arrived at the launch site. The LCO announced a stand-down, so launching was ceased until the MDRA officials could deal with whatever evoked the arrival of the authorities. Due to several ground fires, some of the locals, apparently, complained to the authorities with their concerns for fires on their properties. After the launch hiatus, launching was recommenced; however, there was a prohibition of all sparky motors.

I was back at the proverbial drawing board because the K675 is a skidmark (a sparky).

I searched my inventory list on my MacBook Pro to see if I had anything else that I could fly in the ARCAS with enough I𝑠𝑝 and sufficient average thrust to boost the ARCAS. I came to the conclusion that I did not. I was not to be deterred. I grabbed the MacBook Pro and scurried off the Tim Lear's trailer to see if I could find a suitable motor. His pickings at that time were getting slim but I was able to find a relatively suitable motor — an Aerotech K805 Mojave Green. Mojave Green motors seemed to be a theme for Saturday's launches. The I𝑠𝑝 for the motor was 1,762N•s. I would have liked a little more total impulse but it was the highest I𝑠𝑝 K-motor Tim had left.

I had to pull out an Aerotech 54/1706 casing and build the K805G motor. When I was done, I removed the 54—75mm adapter from the CTI casing to the Aerotech casing and installed it in the ARCAS. Off to the RSO (3rd RSO) table again.

Chris Oliver and Eric accompanied me to the pad to ready ARCAS. I armed the GPS tracker and then we slid ARCAS onto the rail (1515). I was about to climb the ladder to arm the electronics when I notice that the rail was tilted well in excess of 5º — more than the other rails in the C-racks. We tried to prop it up closer to 5º with rocks and debris in the field. That's when the LCO announced that we should NOT be adjusting their rail angles. Tan(5º) is about .0875 whereas Tan(15º) is about .268! Launching a rocket to 4,000 feet would mean a downrange from normal of ~350 feet and ~1075 feet respectively. Rockets were already drifting much too far without adding 2 tenths of a mile downwind at apogee. A little miffed at all that, I over-torqued the switch to arm one of the two altimeters and gave up. We pulled ARCAS from the rail and marched back to my area.

Sunday started off well. I took ARCAS out of the trailer, took it apart, and attempted to fix the broken switch. Happily, I had my portable soldering station and I have 110Vac in my vehicle. There was only about ½ of the copper tracing on the screw switch left but I was able to solder the screw backing in place. I had ARCAS it RSOd (4th RSO) because it was now Sunday.

Both Eric and Joe were readying their MDRM for a drag race, so Chris helped me get the ARCAS on the pad. Again, the GPS tracking was enabled. The ARCAS was slid onto the rail and I climbed the ladder to enable the altimeters. Damn! That solder didn't hold! Also, I noticed that the lower rail guid was not in the track too. That was it. ARCAS was pulled off the rail and we return to my area.

It was like a series of bad omens. I'll hold out hope for an ARCAS flight at URRF!

... and, I assume, I will hold the record for the most RSO check-ins for a rocket that never flew.

For those that did not attend Red Glare 25, I had great hopes of launching the Composite Warehouse HV-ARCAS on an Aerotech L1040DM. That's DM for Dark Matter but it's also a Dan Michael signature motor. The expected altitude would have been 7,500—8,000 feet. I had the rocket RSOd (1st RSO) and I was ready to head out to put it on a rail when the LCO announced that the waiver was reduced to 4,000 feet due to the high wind speeds aloft. What to do?

I went back to my area and checked my OpenRocket on my MacBook Pro. I found that a CTI 2010K675 would sim to just shy of 4,000 feet, so I pulled out the L1040DM and proceeded to get the K675 prepped. The ARCAS has a 75mm motor mount and the L1040DM was a 75mm motor. In fact, it was cross-loaded in my 75mm 4-grain CTI 75mm casing. The K675, however, is a 54mm motor. No problem there though as I have an Aerotech 54mm to 75mm adapter kit. So, I prepped the CTI K675, screwed the adapter onto the casing and put the motor into the ARCAS. With a different configuration, I needed to get the ARCAS RSOd (2nd RSO) again.

Just after RSOing the ARCAS, the Queen Anne County Sheriff vehicle and several other Queen Anne County vehicles arrived at the launch site. The LCO announced a stand-down, so launching was ceased until the MDRA officials could deal with whatever evoked the arrival of the authorities. Due to several ground fires, some of the locals, apparently, complained to the authorities with their concerns for fires on their properties. After the launch hiatus, launching was recommenced; however, there was a prohibition of all sparky motors.

I was back at the proverbial drawing board because the K675 is a skidmark (a sparky).

I searched my inventory list on my MacBook Pro to see if I had anything else that I could fly in the ARCAS with enough I𝑠𝑝 and sufficient average thrust to boost the ARCAS. I came to the conclusion that I did not. I was not to be deterred. I grabbed the MacBook Pro and scurried off the Tim Lear's trailer to see if I could find a suitable motor. His pickings at that time were getting slim but I was able to find a relatively suitable motor — an Aerotech K805 Mojave Green. Mojave Green motors seemed to be a theme for Saturday's launches. The I𝑠𝑝 for the motor was 1,762N•s. I would have liked a little more total impulse but it was the highest I𝑠𝑝 K-motor Tim had left.

I had to pull out an Aerotech 54/1706 casing and build the K805G motor. When I was done, I removed the 54—75mm adapter from the CTI casing to the Aerotech casing and installed it in the ARCAS. Off to the RSO (3rd RSO) table again.

Chris Oliver and Eric accompanied me to the pad to ready ARCAS. I armed the GPS tracker and then we slid ARCAS onto the rail (1515). I was about to climb the ladder to arm the electronics when I notice that the rail was tilted well in excess of 5º — more than the other rails in the C-racks. We tried to prop it up closer to 5º with rocks and debris in the field. That's when the LCO announced that we should NOT be adjusting their rail angles. Tan(5º) is about .0875 whereas Tan(15º) is about .268! Launching a rocket to 4,000 feet would mean a downrange from normal of ~350 feet and ~1075 feet respectively. Rockets were already drifting much too far without adding 2 tenths of a mile downwind at apogee. A little miffed at all that, I over-torqued the switch to arm one of the two altimeters and gave up. We pulled ARCAS from the rail and marched back to my area.

Sunday started off well. I took ARCAS out of the trailer, took it apart, and attempted to fix the broken switch. Happily, I had my portable soldering station and I have 110Vac in my vehicle. There was only about ½ of the copper tracing on the screw switch left but I was able to solder the screw backing in place. I had ARCAS it RSOd (4th RSO) because it was now Sunday.

Both Eric and Joe were readying their MDRM for a drag race, so Chris helped me get the ARCAS on the pad. Again, the GPS tracking was enabled. The ARCAS was slid onto the rail and I climbed the ladder to enable the altimeters. Damn! That solder didn't hold! Also, I noticed that the lower rail guid was not in the track too. That was it. ARCAS was pulled off the rail and we return to my area.

It was like a series of bad omens. I'll hold out hope for an ARCAS flight at URRF!

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