Welcome To The JMRC!

JMRC Meeting/Party

2011-11-30T15:53:00.005-05:00

There is certainly something to be said for having a great membership. The past couple years have been rough for the club in a few different ways; the membership dropped, launch attendence went down, and weather and field access certainly didn't help matters.

This past year we tried to make a big effort to do what we have to do to pay off the loan on our trailer... not an easy task when low turn out launch days we lose money. However, there were a couple of plans that saw fruition including the Maker's Faire which brough in a few hundred dollars towards our (PTO) Pay the Trailer Off fund. The second plan was a 3" Carbon Fiber rocket kit donated by Terry Leright which we sold 40 tickets at $25 a piece for a nice donation of $1,000 to the PTO fund.

This afternoon we had all 40 tickets sold and held the official raffle with Bob Dickinson being the lucky winner. Bob is our treasurer and gets to see first hand what our income and expenses are... after some quick calculations he figured we were $400 short of paying off the trailer completely. Bob immediately made an announcement that he would sell the kit right now for $400 so we can start the next year debt free:

Chris Palmer stepped up to that role and covered the last of our debt. A huge thanks goes out to Terry for making the extremely generous donation and Bob Dickinson for turning it right around so the kit pulled in $1400!!!

Needless to say, our Party/Meeting probably had one of the lower turn outs that I can remember for many years, but thanks to countless donations and generous members that bought raffle tickets and even bought auctioned items (some above retail prices) it turned out to be a great close of the business year for our club.

Thanks to everyone that helped us get to where we are, and hopefully next year will bring some more pleasant surprises for everyone.

-Scott

JMRC MMAR Joint Launch Report - July, 9, 10 2011

2011-07-20T13:26:00.000-04:00

On July 9th and 10th JMRC and MMAR co-hosted a launch at the MMAR
field near Muskegon, MI. The field is adjacent to a water treatment
center with a large "lake" south of the field. The wind was primarily
from the South-South West ensuring that we all were aware the
treatment lake was nearby. The main launch field is an area of old
spill over ponds with many hay fields nearby and a thin line of pines
directly north of the site. The weather for both days was hot with it
considerably more humid and windy on Sunday. Regardless, the skies
remained rain-free and a lot of rockets were flown. People traveled
from as far away as the Cleveland, OH area and Indiana. Chris Pearson
from Skybusters was in attendance. Chris was involved in the very
first LDRS's and was a founder of North Coast Rocketry. I haven't seen
Chris in a long time and it was great to chat with him again. We also
had vendor support from Red Arrow Hobbies and Miller Motor Works. MMAR
provided food and drink support.

Memorable flights;

Bob and Rob Dickinson were involved in two big projects. The first one
flown on Saturday was a 12" dia, 14' tall Red Crayon. It weighed 100
lbs and was flown on a central Loki M1882 and 2 CTI L640's that were
started at first motion. It was a perfect flight to 3,584' and
recovery was on the main field. Bob and Rob built the model while
Eldred Pickett did the electronics. Scott Miller performed the igniter
prep and switch for the L640's.

The second project was a giant 16.5" dia, 13' tall V-2 that weighed in
at 130lbs! The motor configuration was similar with a Loki M2550
central motor and 2 CTI L640's started again at first motion. The Loki
M2550 has a remarkable blue flame that was visible for a long time.
The V-2 made it to 2,516' and was recovered nearby. Unfortunately the
lower fin can section landed in the water treatment "lake". The
Dickinson's claim it's a loss despite recovering it intact.

Tom Kurecka flew many of his beautiful rockets including Purple Haze
and his scale Mercury Atlas. Tom shot a lot of video, on-board and
ground based. He creates outstanding DVD's of our launches which are
greatly appreciated by the members.

Tony Haga flew his Rapid Oxidation on a SRS J261 to 1761' on Saturday.
Sunday he flew Dixie on a CTI K445 and 2 air-started CTI H295 Smokey
Sams to 3,750'. Tony also flew his Little John to 2,274' on a Loki
I430.

Dale Hodgson flew his SS-1 on a Loki K250 moonburner to approx 5,000'.
Dale captured some great on-board footage with a key fob cam. He built
a camera holder out of a large Tic Tac box that is a really cool
design!

Chris Pearson from Skybusters flew a 54mm Kosden L1860 on Saturday.
Chris also helped out with ground prep on several projects.

Chris Palmer flew a small dia rocket on an Aerotech K1100 Blue Thunder
that screamed. Unfortunately it draped itself over two power lines and
then Chris started screaming. I can't blame him. He's had a bad
stretch of luck at this field.

Matt Johnson from MMAR flew a couple of interesting rockets. First was
a 1/13th scale Mercury Redstone that flew and recovered nicely. The
second was a tall launch vehicle looking design that used two 1/100
scale Saturn V's as strap-on boosters. There were 2 G69G motors for
the core and 5 D12's in each strap-on! The first flight on Saturday
suffered a cato when a forward closure failed at launch. The rocket
crashed a short distance away starting a small fire which was put out
quickly. Matt put it back together for Sunday and tried flying it late
in the day. Unfortunately another core motor cato'd with a near
identical flight profile.

I put up my 4' Marauder on a Loki J528 to 2,779' The flight absolutely
rocked and I got to use my new Tony Haga chute for recovery. The key
fob cam captured some really weird visual distortion during boost that
we're all scratching our heads over. It also captured the lower
section fall away when the apogee charge fired. My other flight on
Saturday was a failure that pretty much ruined my old NCR SA-14
Archer. It had a core Ellis G37 and outboard D11-Ps. Only the D11's
fired which was able to get it high enough to break several fins when
it fell. I also experimented with my Scissor Wing Transport and a key
fob cam. I captured some video, but it still needs a little work.
Sunday went much better with a great flight of my LOC Scout on a CTI
F240, and 4" dia Big Blue Bird Zero on a Loki I430 to approximately
2,500'.

Gerry Wellman flew his blue foam jet with a Smokey Sam motor for a
very nice flight. He also flew his 7 Toed Dog a couple of times trying
to light a 7 motor cluster of composites. I don't think he ever got
all 7 lit, but they were still great flights. Gerry was there with
Dave McVeigh of Red Arrow Hobbies showing off the Mercury capsules
that they have been working on. These are a work of art! Gerry is
working on an escape tower for them, though Dave said he has already
sold quite a few without the tower.

There were many more great rockets flown by folks I didn't know. There
was a nice Honest John, maxi Trident, and two Level 1 Cert Flights by
Brian Shepherd and Luther Miller

Photos
http://www.cv41.org/personal/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=14617

Videos
Maxi Marauder on a Loki J528
http://youtu.be/CBQutK0fe84

A slo-mo of the Marauder's ascent
http://youtu.be/ziGY_gMXUO4

Modified LOC Scout on a CTI F240-10
http://youtu.be/qBl7Es8goYc

Dale Hodgson's SS-1 on a Loki K250 Moonburner
http://youtu.be/h9f6ArS6rkc

Blue Bird Zero upscale on a Loki I430
http://youtu.be/RP-GPeDG4BE

June 11th, 2011 Horning Field launch

2011-06-15T21:34:00.002-04:00

Write up by Dale Hodgson and Buzz Nau

The JMRC pulled off another great day of flying on June 11 at Horning’s Field in Manchester. Many thanks to Buzz for negotiating the use of the site and to Scott, Roger and whoever else contributed in getting the waiver paperwork submitted and approved. A very big thank you goes to the Horning family who were very gracious in allowing us to use their field. They are very nice folks and stayed at the field long enough to see what we are about. I think they were impressed with how we run a launch. I should also thank all those that flew; there were a lot of nice flights throughout the day and if memory serves all were recovered within the field. Certainly no small task but we were perfect for the day.

The field proved to be a very nice place to fly. Although a little hazy in the morning conditions continued to improve throughout the day. Appropriately, the first flight of the day belonged to (name?) Horning, the son of the landowner. He flew an Alpha on a B6-4 motor that flew straight and a bit higher than expected. The breeze caught the rocket and carried it straight down field. After a long walk the rocket was recovered. As soon as the young man returned he was looking for another motor. Seems to me we have another convert.

There were plenty of great flights during the day but the one that stands out to me the most really wasn’t a flight at all. Bob and Rob Dickinson performed some ground testing on their V2 project. Nothing about that rocket is small; I believe it is a 1/5 scale of the real deal. Several of us were able to fly some dual deploy projects; Buzz had a great flight, I believe Tony flew an I-800 for some noise and a perfect flight. I flew an I-405 in my Vertical Assault and a J-320 LR in my SS-1.; both dropped in close to the rails. It was great to see the variety of rocket types flown. Kathy flew one of her Fiddle-Faddles; Chris and Tony flew Dizzy-Izzy’s and Tony staged a Snitch…he must miss Emily. Actually, we all do. Buzz flew a glider which was …no surprise….perfect. Later in the day he flew an I-110 Moonburner in one of his projects; again perfect boost, perfect flight. Carl “King of the V-Max” Wagner flew a few of his projects and as usual they were awesome. Jim Fustini put on a clinic as he usually does; great looking projects and great looking flights. It’s good to see Jim on the flight line again. I think even Roger logged a flight; I think it was a Tomahawk. I know Tom flew some stuff but can’t for the life of me remember which projects. I do know that he was quite busy, as was Buzz and Eldred running around shooting videos and taking photos. For those that missed the launch check out the photos that Buzz posted.

There were a couple of crashes during the day but that’s to be expected. Even though some did not fly as predicted they came down safely within the range. Unfortunately the biggest crash of the day was towards the end and was mine. I flew a 5.5 Mosquito on an H-90 LR but because of the weight and drag (we were looking at a 4.5 or so thrust to weight ratio. The flight proved to be not enough motor and too much delay. But, the crash wasn’t all that bad. The fins popped out cleanly and there was slight damage to the cone but is easily fixed. All that was lost was the airframe; I will be able to make a complete repair in just a couple of hours.

On a personal note I wanted to let everyone know I am very happy to be back at it after missing a few launches due to some extensive traveling due to work. Seems I always have ridiculous amounts of fun at each and every launch I attend. Hopefully I can get my long lost brother out there again; it’s hard to do some debauchery when one is a debauch short….so get back out here when you can Fred….there is much to do. BBBBWWWAAAAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

- Dale

Launch details 6-11-11

This was our first launch at the Horning Field near Manchester. It was also a demonstration to the Hornings of how JMRC operates a rocket range of the highest caliber. As usual the poor weather that was predicted never materialized. The morning started with a 200' ceiling which the sun quickly burned off by the time the range was open for business. It was fitting that the first flight of the day was Mason Horning's Alpha III on a B6-4. It was soon clearly evident that the winds aloft were much stronger than the surface winds. The Alpha sailed down the field about 500 yards before dropping out of the shear. Fortunately the wind was straight down the field and varied from light to 10+mph throughout the day.

All of the Horning's made at least one trip to the range expressing an interest in the hobby as well as some awe in the broad scope of our operation. It is our hope that they are comfortable with us using the field and will allow us to continue flying there in the future.

Andy Tomasch of HUVARS attended and was very impressed with the range operations. Andy turned in a nice flight on a BT-80 Mosquito from a past HUVARS upscale contest. In addition to enjoying the JMRC Cafe for a hamburger he was also pleasantly surprised of the wide range of rockets being flown. He wrote a great review of the launch to the HUVARS email list which will hopefully encourage more HUVARS members to join us in the future.

Two weeks ago I held a model rocket build-it, take-it session with my daughter Kelsea's 4th grade class. I was pleased to have several of Mrs Jolliffe's 4th grade students show up for the launch. I had told the class that I would help any who showed up to the field launched their Alpha III. Katie, Sarah, and Thomas had 5 successful flights between the three of them. I am pretty sure Katie and her Dad will be back.

Carl Wagner flew several new food container rockets. All flew great on the way up, but he suffered some deployment issues on a couple. Tom Kurecka put in some very nice flights as well. Noteably his Astrobee D on a I205 Imax to 2,332’. Tom also suffered on of the few prangs when his Nike Smoke core sampled.

Kathy Miller put in many flights including a scale Space-X Falcon 9, Birthday Card Rocket, Mega Sonic, Galactic Wave, Fiddle Faddle, and a Deuces Wild.

The Dickinson’s ground tested a mega sized quarter scale V-2 that is scheduled to fly next month in Muskegon. It is guaranteed to be entertaining! They also flew another V-2 on one of the few J flights of the day.

Dale Hodgson flew the other J flight in his SS-1 that landed incredibly close to the range. Who needs a large field when you can plant Hi-Alt flights near your pad? Dale also put in a great flight with his Vertical Assault on a Loki I405. He too suffered one of the few mishaps of the day when his mega-size Mosquito re-kitted itself on a somewhat underpowered and or excessive delay H90. It looked like everything broke off clean so he will just need to replace the tube.

Tony Haga put in some great flights as well as running a fine LCO shift in the morning spelling Roger Sadowsky of the duty so Roger could put in some flights. Chris Palmer was entertaining with a Barbie head rocket and a Dizzy Izzy.
I managed five flights, which is light for me. First off was a Centuri Apache 2 on a B6-0/A8-5 staged flight followed by a Sky Dart. I had successful flights with my 4" dia upscale Marauder and Blue Bird Zero. The Marauder was a dual deploy flight on a Loki I430 blue to 1,836'. The Blue Bird Zero flew on a Loki I110 for a flawless apogee deploy flight. Both flights carried a key fob cam and returned excellent video of the flights. My other flight was drag race with Tom Kurecka. We flew Madcow Rocketry Honest Johns on Ceseroni H131 Smokey Sams. Tom calls foul, but I think I was the legit winner. The G131 is a really nice motor I plan to use again in the future.

Overall it was an excellent day of flying and I hope we can secure the field for more launches in the future! Thanks to everyone who turned out and made the launch so successful.

-Buzz

June 11th Flying request

2011-06-05T10:33:00.000-04:00

For the upcoming launch in Manchester, MI we are requesting that everyone adhere to the JMRC tradition of leaving our launch field cleaner then we find it... as everyone always does! I have personally witnessed this happen countless times in the past and want to encourage everyone to continue with this habit. Trash cans will be onsite for everyone to use.

We will also be utilizing a very strict RSO table, this is because we are new to this field and want to learn all of the hazards associated with this field. (i.e. surrounding crops in neighboring fields, parking location, etc.) Now we are still encouraging people to come and fly, so depending on wind/cloud conditions we are encouraging people to fly to 1,500' with apogee deployment and even higher if you are utilizing dual deployment. We will have full hybrid support and roughly 35lbs of N2O... all that Haga left me after the last MKG launch :-)

Depending on how the day goes we will loosen up or tighten our requirements, so please keep in mind we are keeping the field and the land owner in mind before signing off on each flight. We hope to see everyone out on the field for yet another fun event... and perhaps a rocket or two will fly!

-Scott

JMRC & MMAR May 21/22

2011-05-27T17:56:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the Muskegon group for inviting us out to play in their sandbox, and we certainly did a lot of playing. Terry Leright certainly gave us a show flying a CTI N10,000 in a 4" carbon bird.

63G, 1,300mph, and 14,000'

I think the one stat we are missing is how long that flame is!

Tony Haga had a couple of Hybrid flights, probably the most notable of the 2 flights was the combo of Hyper-TEK and Barbie riding the Wocket to save the world from armageddon... or something like that :-)

If you have not yet seen the onboard video from BoosterVision, or want to see it again...

I guess Tony couldn't let Chris Palmer hog the spotlight with his huge Stealth flown on a Ellis J148. Tom Kurecka gave us some great flights on Sunday with some CTI 54mm motors. I know I am missing a great deal of the awesome flights that happened over the weekend, so if anyone can fill in the gaps I will gladly update the site!

-Scott

March 12, 2011

2011-03-23T23:29:00.001-04:00

Pictures by Buzz Nau

The temperature was cold, the wind was strong, and there was very little reason for any sane person to be out at a rocket launch. Never the less we had a very impressive turn out and managed to fly a couple rockets. Dale started us out flying a mighty C6-3 to confirm our suspicion that is was in deed windy... Carl and Steve Wagner followed up with a couple of E9 flights. This was quickly followed by Haga with a Dizzy Izzy on an SRS G63 for a nice flight to a 200' or so.

The University of Michigan SLI team showed up with their project wanting to get a mock run with their deployment. With the weather conditions the way they were the team went with an CTI I236 Blue Streak to keep it nice and low. It was certainly a picture perfect flight, congrats to everyone involved in that project!

The last flight of the day went to Chris Palmer, as per usual this was not a conventional rocket...

Chris's "JackWagon" special complete with box of tissues was ready to go, this rocket historically loves the water and had to face the pond in the past. The joke was on the rocket this time as it did land in the pond, but there was a thin film of ice on it so it managed to slide over the entire pond while Dale and Chris fought off trees, bushes, and briar patches in order to retrieve a tissue.

To sum everything up, the weather was crappy but the crowd was great as usual. Thanks to everyone that made it out and hopefully we will see everyone in April!

- Scott

PayPal Is A Go!

2011-02-07T15:32:00.003-05:00

Hey Everyone!

We just wanted to let you know that we now have a PayPal account set up and you can just click on the button on the right if you would like to help us with our goal of Paying the Trailer Off.

Thanks.

JMRC 1-8-11 Launch at MIS

2011-01-09T10:43:00.000-05:00

Pictures courtesy of Buzz Nau

We had a surprising turnout for the cold weather, but I think everyone that made it out had a good time.

Art started out the day with a 29mm CTI G57c to test out a prototype of a new onboard Hi-Def camera; hopefully those videos will be edited and released shortly.

Carl decided to test out his new 3g CTI case with an I566V-max, the flight was beautiful until the hungry trees decided to help themselves. Hopefully it will descend some by next month then we Tony, Rob, and Scott can spend another few hours removing the liner J

Dale decided to send up a dual deploy bird on an H120 Red Lightning motor, unfortunately the cold got the better of the 9v battery inside and it only had enough juice to fire the apogee charge before shutting off. I’m guessing when the battery warms up it probably could turn back on and hopefully give Dale some data.

Chris brought out his new saucer with a minor modification; I believe it was loaded with an Aerotech D10 for a very successful flight; for now.

Tony had a 3 pack of the Aerotech D10 18mm motors that encouraged him to pushing some small kits to their limits. The first was joined the hungry rocket trees, the next model decided to shred a couple fins and separate the shock cord. I don’t believe Tony used the last motor in his Big Bertha, perhaps too much planning for other flights. Dale kept the day rolling with a G115wt in a LOC Warlock and almost landed it back on the pad.

Tony and Chris decided to team up and fly a Dizzy Izzy and a Barbie saucer together CHAD staged. ony’s loaded with an EM G37 to Chris’s C6.

Surprisingly the model held together but the EM G37-6 had roughly a 15 second delay so the saucer did not light until landing… and sitting on the ground for a few seconds. So that meant to try again. The second flight was close to perfect for timing and the C6 light close to motor burn out, unfortunately Barbie did not comeback in the same condition… kudos to Barbie for being a good sport though!

Dale had one more flight to hopefully crave his AP addiction for another month, an Aerotech Initiator on a Road Runner E25. This utilized hillbilly dual deployment for a perfect landing; you have to love it when plans work exactly as they are supposed to!

JMRC Maintenance Day December 4, 2010

2010-12-08T08:55:00.000-05:00

JMRC Maintenance Day December 4, 2010

By Dale Hodgson

Although the launch scheduled for December 4 was cancelled due to an unavailable launch site it did not deter the JMRC from getting things done. Roger offered to host a “maintenance day” at his house so that any member could come over, hang out with friends, talk rockets and work on either equipment or special projects.

As it turned out only four folks attended. Roger Sadowsky, Scott Miller, Tony Haga and Dale Hodgson were determined to make a day of it and chose to do something a little bit different. Roger had acquired the launch equipment and miscellaneous containers from GLAR; a club that had previously existed and flew on the east side of the state. The club had disbanded some years ago; Roger was contacted to see if he could make use of any equipment. It was decided to look at the electronics and check the control boxes. Although upon initial inspection it appeared as though renovating the controllers would be a long expensive process Scott decided to accept the challenge and try to work a miracle. So, after removing switches, old cord and what seemed to be pounds of solder the boxes were resurrected. It was like sitting around a camp fire while Uncle Scotty regaled the rest with stories just how this stuff could be made functional. After a few hours of reworking the boxes are very close to being functional after some minor switching around and some quick-connects are installed. The plan is to run the boxes to our relay boxes at the pads just as we do now. Once done the boxes will compatible with the rest of the launch equipment. It was decided that after field testing the controllers would serve as backups or as loaners should someone need them. It was quite an accomplishment. But….it wasn’t over just yet. Upon opening several other totes and other containers rockets were discovered…lots of them. Some were missing parts, needed very minor repair and others were ready to fly. Several unopened kits were also found. It was decided that this “wealth” should be shared. So, the rockets were sorted by condition and were to be placed on the raffle table to serve as prizes. All ended up going home with their new owners on Sunday; we will certainly see them again.

The day was not over…..

Scott left for home but Roger, Tony and Dale remained. By this time Emma Sadowsky returned home and despite repeated warnings decided to hang out with dad and those other old guys anyway. After a dinner break Roger decided to work on his L3 project with absolutely no prodding by Tony and Dale.

So, out came the tubes, glass, epoxy and saw horses. With Emma doing the photo documentation three 11.5” Teal Steel tubes from Dave at Red Arrow were wetted out with 10 oz. and 6 oz. fiberglass. A project this size definitely requires more than one person. Each tube was prepped, rolled and glassed, trimmed and allowed to cure. Each tube turned out better than expected and should prove to make an excellent airframe for Roger’s project.

All in all it was a great day, much was accomplished and at long last Roger’s L3 is under way. That cert flight will be one for the books without a doubt.

Annual JMRC Christmas Party/ Club Meeting

2010-12-06T09:05:00.002-05:00

This past Sunday was the annual JMRC Christmas Party/ Annual Meeting. A great time was had by all filled with great food (thanks to everyone who brought a dish and or supplies) and even better friends, how could we go wrong?

Some of the hi-lights during the meeting were:

- re-election of all board members

- anticipation of completing payment on the club trailer this coming year

- continuing of club fundraisers such as the ‘turkey shoot’ and the ‘2011 altitude contest’

- expanding the capabilities of the current launch tower

- future plans for a small equipment trailer for towing by the mule

Again this year the club raffle and auction was a huge success. There were many great items to choose and bid on (thank-you again to all those who donated items).

It was a wonderful afternoon having another opportunity to get together with all our amazing friends and at JMRC we are truly lucky to be such a big rocket family. Thanks to everyone who was able to attend and we certainly missed those who weren’t.

A special thanks to Ace Miller and The Grotto Club of Jackson for giving us a wonderful venue to host our party/meeting.

See you all next year!

Welcome To Our New Website

2010-11-23T12:00:00.000-05:00

This is our new club website designed to keep everyone updated as to all the going ons within our amazing rocket club. We hope you enjoy our new site and check back often for updates.