July 9th Meeting
HARA’s attendance was a bit larger than average Thursday night as we hosted the Russellville TARC team for some congratulatory snacks and to hear about their experience at the Paris Air Show and the international Rocketry Challenge where they took 1st place. The team members shared their individual storied and answered questions from club members about how they approached TARC and ultimately managed to become the 2015 world champions. Something that stood out was that the team had over 60 launches on their TARC rockets and had very well characterized their rocket and its sensitivity to changes. That work would pay off. Now, their team members are talking about starting an SLI team.
Woody Bevill delivered a personal account of his experience with the Nike-Hercules missile system in Germany during the height of the Cold War. The Tech Talk is available on the HARA website at http://hararocketry.org/hara/resources/tech-talk-videos/. Woody describes some exciting moments being a maintainer on the complex and now obviously very dangerous weapon system. Woody’s wife wrote a story about the life of a Nike-Hercules maintainer, and he challenges you to read it and ask him what parts are true and what parts are made up. The answers he promises will astound you.
The HARA trailer is beginning to show signs of fatigue. We now know that the single axle trailer is overburdened with the weight of the equipment and action needs to be taken soon to mitigate the problem. We agreed that the best time to seek a permanent solution is during the off season. We have agreed to remove some equipment from the trailer and store it separately and limit the use of the trailer if equipment can be transported by truck bed alone. I recommend that we sell the single axle trailer and seek to purchase a similar size tandem axle trailer.
The weekend of July 25th, HARA will host a workshop launch at the Manchester TN site for NASA’s Advanced Rocketry Workshop. We will expect to launch around 18 Madcow ARCAS kits on a CTI H125 motor. The launch has already been announced to NAR HQ for insurance purposes. The launch will be for the workshop participants, but we will not curtail the privileges of club members if they wish to come fly. We are planning to carry only enough equipment to service the needs of the workshop participants.
Our next meeting is August 6th.
July 11th Launch
HARA hosted a launch at Manchester TN site. The weather at 10AM was sunny and in the 90s with some clouds and light wind. Turnout was light also, being that Southern Thunder was a couple of weeks earlier. UAHuntsville was present to tryout their new trailer launcher which sported auto-levelling hydraulic outriggers and rail mast. Three rockets, including one L3 rocket powered by a M1550 got to launch off the impressive pad. There were several visitors from as far away as Knoxville and Atlanta. All were interested in HARA. They had found us on an internet search. Chris Short (Chris’s Rocket Supplies) and Darryl Hanks (Wind Man Kentucky) were on hand to sell hardware and motors. Thanks guys for coming out.
The RSO/LCO had an assistant by the name of Gavin who helped work the controllers most of the day. Joseph (GT & SOAR) brought some custom built mid-power kits, including his nearly 3 foot long 3D printed & laser cut plywood SR-71 which flew nicely. Our young visitor Cade successfully certified NAR L1. Around 2PM, a storm rolled by and caused us to shut down range ops, but nearly everyone was finished flying. Thanks to those who came out.
Our next launch is August 8th. Range duties will be managed by MC2.