17 persons present.
The meeting started with a 1968 B/W video about the West Covina Model Rocket Society. Unfortunately the audio in the projector did not work, so Bill had to provide commentary to the movie. The complete video (with sound) can be seen here. The model rocket stuff starts at the 4:25 mark – the beginning moments are about Robert Goddard.
We are keeping an eye on the weather and the field for the March 14 launch in Woodville. An announcement will be made towards the end of next week. Please monitor the HARA website or Facebook page.
The Student Launch Projects are coming up during the first week of April. Rocket fair is at the VBCC and the launch is at Bragg Farms on April 4 and 5. They can always use volunteers – send an email to the officers if you wish to help out (officers@hararocketry.org)
We are still discussing how best to have a “build day” in which folks can work on rocket projects with other club members – looking into dates and possible location.
During Show and Tell: Bill brought an Estes Ghost Chaser (new kit release that snaps together), John demonstrated a really neat way of building up scale Nike Ajax fins, Josh showed off his Black Star Voyager and a 3D printed rocket shaped like a church, Doug displayed his Apogee Flying Machine (replete with rhinestone) and Vince brought a 25 year old Dynacom Scorpion kit with a pre-primed nose cone that he wants to convert to dual deploy.
The winners of the monthly giveaways were: Phillip Burroughs won the Jolly Logic Chute Release, Doug Aguilar the Estes Space Corps Lunar Scout, and James Sanderson the Estes Orange Bullet.
Officer report highlights:
1) John is working all the waivers (and doing a great job, btw). He reports that the FAA is backlogged.
2) Art expanded on the new ruling on WiFi electronics (switches) in rockets – that sort of thing is problematic because you cannot present a rocket with powered electronics to a RSO. An email from Steve Shannon suggests that another area may have to be set up on the range for flyers with these gizmos (off limits to spectators and non-essentials) to allow the “reassembly” of the electronics. Also applies to magnetic switches.
3) Vince brought up NARCON (https://www.nar.org/site/narcon-2020/ – happening this weekend in Tucson) and that Ed LaCroix has been asking him if HARA would consider hosting a NARCON or doing another NSL. HARA has hosted a NARAM (NARAM 30) and a NSL (in 2016); we have not done a NARCON. It was agreed that Vince would ask Ed LaCroix for more details so the club can make an informed decision.
The last item on the agenda involved Duane demoing his prototype wireless launch controller and going over his list of required functions and features. There was a fair amount of enthusiasm over the development, and the club agreed to provided up to $250 in funds for Duane to continue the project (software development environment, parts, etc.).
