Test what you fly, and fly what you test”
Thursday night’s meeting was another success. Attendance has been up 3 fold and the new focus of the meetings on helping people grow in hobby rocketry and show off their projects seems to be resonating rather well. I gave a 45 minute presentation on dual deployment recovery systems in our first in a series of Tech Talks that cover lots rocket building techniques. The talk covered the typical configuration of HPR recovery systems, parachute selection, ejection charge sizing and ground testing. The slides will be available very soon. Test what you fly, and fly what you test. Next month, Walt will teach us how to build fiberglass airframes. For “Show and Tell” Amit from the UAHuntsville USLI team showed everyone their full scale rocket, and Elliot brought in a very impressive F-105 Starfighter plastic model rocket conversion project. We all look forward to seeing that fly in April.
During club business, the club ratified Articles IV, VI, VIII, and IX of the new bylaws. There will be one final section of Article VII to be ratified next month regarding office vacancy nominations. 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 . The club voted to submit a Statement of Work (SOW) to the Alabama Space Grant Consortium (ASGC) for technical services for the NASA Advanced Rocketry Workshop to be held in late July. The activities would require 3-5 volunteers for anywhere between a couple of hours to a full day of support to teach rocket building techniques and assist in the build of some rockets.
The website committee will report back to the club on its actions on April 4th, and the Sport Launch Committee reported back that it had made initial contact with the USSRC regarding a low power launch on the grounds. Very exciting! The trailer has been ordered and may be delivered by March 14th, therefore the club will need to have an equipment cleanup day soon after, perhaps on March 23rd. Vince reported that the TARC teams from the Huntsville area toured the ULA facility in Decatur, which proved to be an exciting walk among giant space-bound rocket vehicles. The ULA is also sponsoring some teams for the TARC competition. Vince, Bill, and others will be hosting a TARC regional launch at Bragg Farms on March 16th. Good luck TARC teams! Fred reported that HARA will get a special acknowledgement in the credits for the upcoming feature film “Space Warriors” for the use of some launch equipment, rockets, and members as props during filming at Space Camp and in Big Spring Park.
We are in the middle of our 2013 membership drive. The membership year will officially begin in March. If you renew your membership or become a member before the end of March, your name will be added to a drawing for one of two $20 gift cards to Huff Performance. You can become a member one of three ways: 1.) you may use convenient PayPal option on the HARA website, 2.) You may print off a mail-in form from the HARA website, and 3.) You may sign up at a launch with any HARA officer. Membership dues for 2013 are $20 for individuals, and $30 for families. Additionally, there will be a $5 flyers fee for every launch for non-HARA/MC2 members. Finally, I would like to thank all members and guest for attending the meeting and look forward to seeing you at out launch on Saturday.
Daniel Cavender,
HARA President
