Houston, We have a Problem” ~ Apollo 13 – April 13, 1971
At the last HARA meeting, Walt Stafford, our resident expert composites and XP motor maker brought in some samples of his fiberglass airframes and nosecones as a primmer for the composites workshop we had of April 6th. Attendance was lower than the last few meetings, but the audience had a lot of questions for Walt. We had a good group of people attend the composite airframes workshop at Walt’s house. We rolled a 54mm tube about 48” long, then grilled some hotdogs. Thank you Walt for hosting us.
We ended our membership drive with 26 people having joined or renewed their memberships with HARA. John McCullough and Ken Philippart won the raffle and received a $20 gift card for Huff Performance. Congrats guys. Memberships will be $20 through the rest of April & will begin being prorated on May 1st. Remember that there will be a flyers fee of $5 for non HARA & MC2 members at each launch so if you have not renewed or become a member yet, you can join online, by mail, or in person. HARA ball caps will be discounted to $10 each, now through our next launch May 11th. Show your support and pick up a hat. You can order one from the HARA website, by mail, or at the meeting or launch.
During club business, the club ratified the final section of new bylaws. They will now be posted to the website. The club finances are doing well, even after we purchased our new club trailer. The club agreed to sell the old trailer for around $600 and agreed to give Chuck Pierce the authority to negotiate the sale on behalf of HARA. Some of the revenue from selling the old trailer will be applied to future work within the new trailer. The new trailer requires a 2-5/16” ball and HARA will reimburse the expense of a ball purchase for those willing to occasionally tow the trailer.
We discussed launch equipment issues and have decided to “retire” the large yellow pad. The missing blue pad was found in the MC2 club’s trailer after a week-long search, which prompted the discussion of better managing our club’s equipment. The new trailer will have an equipment log on the inside of the trailer’s side door. The range crew using the equipment that day is responsible for ensuring all items are accounted for and writing up any needed repairs or replacements. Chuck Pierce has agreed to check that list and coordinate any work needed with club members. Thank you Chuck.
The website committee has recommended namecheap.com to host the HARA website and the club has authorized the move and the expense $3.45 per month. The new site will allow us photo sharing, unlimited bandwidth, good tech support, and data base support. Those activities will begin at the discretion of the website committee.
There is some exciting news about TARC! HARA (i.e. Vince, Bill, Woody, & Dave) has been a big part of helping 5 local Huntsville teams make it into the TARC finals. Covenant Christian Academy, Falcon Rocketeers, Pope John Paul II Team 2, Liberty Middle School Team 2, and Liberty Middle School Team 4 are among the top 100 TARC teams in the nation. Alabama has the 3rd highest representation in TARC behind California and Texas. Congratulations teams and good job HARA!
HARA will be a part of a few upcoming local rocketry events. We will be at the 4-H 2013 Urban Youth Farm Day (May 3rd) and highlighting Horizon Elementary School’s Space Week (May 17th). Please volunteer to help out with these events if you can. Also, NAR will be renting pads from HARA in support of NASA SLP launch on April 20th. If any club members are interested in supporting range operations, please contact John Lyngdal (NAR) at john_lyngdal@frontier.com.
Our next HARA meeting will be on May 2nd. We will have guest speaker Mike White, the chief historian for NASA MSFC who will share the important role that Huntsville and the surrounding communities have played for NASA over the past 50 plus years. We will have free pizza as well, so come join us. Also, the Redstone Rocket Challenge is coming up on May 11th. Learn more about the RRC on Facebook. I look forward to seeing you all at our next meeting.
Daniel Cavender,
HARA President
