NC Rocketry

Saturday was a great day for rocketry but the attendance, as at most Holiday season launches, was very light.? Temperatures started in the upper 40s, and warmed slowly until the clouds finally dispersed enough for the sun to shine through, and things quickly warmed up to the 60s.? The clouds were fascinating, almost as if the heavens had decided to demonstrate every single kind of cloud in the meteorology textbooks, all in one day.? Then, when dusk came, all of the clouds went from white, to orange, to red, and then to grey.

Continue reading →

The weekend of Oct 13-14 at Bayboro, NC was a perfect example of the many reasons that I love amateur rocketry.? We had perfect weather, great flights, good friends all around, no structural failures of rocket frames, essentially no motor problems, and almost 100% successful recovery.? It was a delightful weekend, one that I shall always remember as a perfect jewel of experience.

This weekend was a TRA Research event, which we name the WELD launch [Whitakers Experimental Launch Days] to commemorate the first all-research weekend events held on the east coast.? The WELD events at Whitakers saw some truly epic TRA research flights, and even though the excitement level has dropped a little because of the addition of TRA Research days at launches held in Florida, South Carolina, at Battle Park , and the new mega-launches at Price, MD conducted under MDRA auspices, WELD events are held at the best rocket field on the east coast under the best weather conditions to be found anywhere on earth.? If you make your own motors, and you can?t make it to Nevada in September for BALLS, the place to be is Bayboro for a WELD launch. Continue reading →