Newsletter of the Northern Illinois Rocketry Association, Volume 24, Number 3 NAR Section #117 May/June 2001 Club News Hobby Show News NAR Standards &Testing News By Bob Wiersbe R69: NAR S&T NEW MOTOR CERTIFI- MRFF 2001 – The Midwest Regional Fun Fly is I'm co-chairing the event this year with Mike CATIONS less then a month away! Information and a regis- The following motors have been certified by tration form are located on pages 4 & 5 of this Jungclas, and need to start lining up volunteers for this year. NAR Standards & Testing for general use as issue. high power rocket motors effective May 7, 2001. Volunteers are still needed to work a shift on the The dates are September 8th & 9th, at the Rose- They will not be certified for NAR contest use as range. More information about how to sign up is mont Convention Center, 10 am-5 pm on both they are not model rocket motors. days. Please note: This is almost two months included in the MRFF information. Working a The following are Aerotech reloadable motors, range shift not only helps the launch but it’s a earlier then in previous years so check and mark your calendars! certified only with the indicated size casing and great way to meet a lot of new and interesting manufacturer supplied nozzle, end closures, de- people. We are looking for people to work on both days, lays, and propellant slugs. All use the new At the last club meeting, there were some safety whatever they can fit into their schedules. “Redline” propellant. issue brought up. As a reminder, there will be no The deal is that if you work a shift (3.5 hours or Aerotech: smoking in the prep area and no grills either (this more) you get a pass to get into the show. The 29mm x 238mm (RMS-29/240 casing): should be common sense, but it needs to be ‘standard’ shifts are 10 am to 1:30 pm and H210R-10 (220.0 Newton-seconds total impulse, brought up). 1:30 pm to 5 pm Saturday and Sunday. We usu- 110.8 grams propellant mass) ally have about about 18 tables, so we need at Field Search – Although a new High Power 38mm x 203mm (RMS-38/360 casing): capable field wasn’t found before MRFF this least 13 - 15 people per shift, plus runners, plus someone up front to run the show. That's 18 peo- I218R-6,14 (330.0 Newton-seconds total im- year it doesn’t mean that we should give up pulse, 172.7 grams propellant mass) looking. ple minimum per shift. Jim Cook, Secretary for Adrian Butler contacted the manager of a sod Please mark your calendars today, and let me know you're planning to help out! I can be NAR Standards & Testing farm where R/C airplane are known to fly. Un- <[email protected]> fortunately the manager evidently had some reached at (630) 979-1336 (work), by email at problems with them because he told Adrian that [email protected], or by signing up at a Jack Kane, Chairman % “the airplane people are bad enough.” So much monthly club meeting. for a promising field. R70: NAR S&T NEW MOTOR CERTIFI- If you know of a possible field (or think you April Model of the Month contest – CATIONS have a good way to find one), please tell Steve Victoria House – FireFlash (Youth) (Winner) The following motors have been certified by Piette (who is heading up the search) so we can NAR Standards & Testing for general use as follow up on it. Adam Goodwin – Bandit model rocket motors effective May 7, 2001. All Equipment Storage & Transport – One of the Loni Howard – PML IO (Adult Winner) are certified for NAR contest use effective July more pressing needs for the club is to find a Ken Goodwin – Phoenix 6, 2001. place to store the club’s equipment and a means Adam Elliot – NARAM Cluster Altitude model Estes: to transport it to launches. Rick Gaff – Estes V2 13mm x 45mm: Bob Kaplow – AOL.CON A10-PT (2.50 Newton-seconds total impulse, 3.8 One of the better suggestions is to buy an en- Cal Jestice – Big Daddy closed trailer and store the equipment in it. The grams propellant mass) only problem with this idea is where do we store May Model of the Month contest – 24mm x 70mm: the trailer? Victoria House – X-Ray (Youth) (Winner) D11-P (18.0 Newton-seconds total impulse, 24.5 If you have a place that a trailer could be stored Dave Ketchledge – PML Bullpup (Adult winner) grams propellant mass) between launches (and is easily accessible prior Adam Elliot – ‘Battle of the Worlds’ A23 Jim Cook, Secretary for to launches), please let the club know. Also if Dave Dornblaser – Phantom % NAR Standards & Testing you have a better suggestion for storage or trans- <[email protected]> portation please let the club know about that too! Jack Kane, Chairman % May/June 2001 Page 1 CLUB MEETING DATES North Ave. All meetings start at 7:30 pm. Bring a model for Swift Rd. St. Charles N ‘Model of the Month.’ We always need volunteers for Geneva Rd. Volume 24, Number 3 pre-meeting lectures, contact Rick Gaff if you want to Glen Ellyn schedule a date. The location is the Glen Ellyn Civic May/June 2001 Chicago Northwestern RR Center, 535 Duane Street (usually the 3rd floor, but check the board in the lobby). NIRA Officers Duane St. 53 President – Rick Gaff June 1 July 6 Vice President – Pierre Miller Civic Parking Secretary/Treasurer – Ken Hutchinson August 3 Main St. Center RSO – David Wallis September - To Be Announced Leading Edge Staff Editor – Jeff Pleimling Lombard Rd. Roosevelt Rd. Production – Julie, Beth & Brian Pleimling Wendy's This Issues Contributors CLUB LAUNCH DATES Jonathan Charbonneau, Norm Dziedzic, 88 Rick Gaff, Kurt Gunther, Tim Johnson, Mark Kotolski, Launches are BYOL (bring your own launcher). The Steve Piette, David Wallis, location for our launches is the Greene Valley Forest Bob Wiersbe Preserve (see map at right). Call the NIRA infoline for pre-launch information: 630-483-2468. THE LEADING EDGE is published bimonthly June 16-17 – Midwest Regional Fun Fly Hobson Road by and for members of the Northern Illinois 355 July 15 – Greene Valley Forest Preserve Rocketry Association (NIRA), NAR Section August 19 – Greene Valley Forest Preserve 53 #117, and is dedicated to the idea that Sport Parking Rocketry is FUN! September 9 – Youth Group Launch at Greene Valley Articles, plans, photos, other newsletters, and September 16 – Greene Valley Forest Preserve 75th Street news items of interest should be sent to: Greene Rd Jeff Pleimling, Editor October 21 – Greene Valley Forest Preserve The Leading Edge November 18 – Greene Valley Forest Preserve 245 Superior Circle Greene Valley N Bartlett, IL 60103-2029 Forest Preserve or emailed to [email protected] Photos will be returned, other material returned upon requested. Any item appearing in the Leading Edge may be reprinted by Sport Rocketry Magazine with proper credit given; all other uses require prior written permission of the author or the Northern Illinois Rocketry Association. Send membership applications (dues: $6 per youth, $8 per adult, $12 per family, including a six issue subscription to the Leading Edge), non- member subscriptions ($10 per six issues), and change of address notifications to: Ken Hutchinson 82 Talcott Avenue Crystal Lake, IL 60014-4541 NIRA’s web site is at: http://nira.chicago.il.us/ Model of the Month Winners! (photos by Jeff Pleimling) April – Loni Howard won the Adult category with his PML IO (named ‘My First “Missile” ’) and Victoria House won the Youth category with her Estes FireFlash. May – Adult winner was Dave Ketchledge with his PML Bullpup and Victoria House was the Youth winner with her Estes X-Ray (and a different hair style then in April). Page 2 The Leading Edge, Vol 24, No. 3 I took the opportunity to try out April 2001 Club Launch - Flights April 2001 Launch Report 50 160 my own new odd-rock, the 45 155 45 148 151 By David Wallis 140 “Space Shuttle Cock-lumbia.” I 40 38 built this one from a standard 120 35 110 NIRA held its first official club launch of the badminton birdie, or shuttlecock, 29 100 30 new year on Sunday, April 15. After having a mini motor mount, and a bit of 27 25 80 rained all night, and with dark skies and drizzle hot-melt glue (hmmmm…. does- 20 65 60 all morning, I wasn’t too hopeful that this launch n’t that sound a bit familiar?). It Flights Total 15 would take place. flew well on low-thrust motors 40 Flights per Motor Class Class Motor per Flights 36 10 6 like the 1/2A3, but was only mar- 4 20 By the time we arrived to set up the range, how- 5 2 3 ever, the skies had begun to clear, and the sun ginally stable on higher thrust 1 1 3 9 motors. All in all, I was happy 0 0 took some of the chill out of the air. Somehow, 1/10A 1/4A 1/2A A B C D E F with its performance, especially Motor Class the field had dried out enough that it wasn’t Flights Per Motor Class Total Flights muddy. By mid-afternoon, everyone had taken considering how much time went off their jackets, and enjoyed a wonderfully into building it! warm Sunday under a clear blue sky. C. Hammerslough (darn, I can’t remember his F Flights: 4 G Flights: 0 The turnout was small, due mostly to the first name!) flew a really unique rocket, and the weather, I think, with about 35 or 40 people to- only Micro Max flight of the day.