Once again, the weather is not cooperating with our schedule; due to weather and other factors we have elected not to go ahead with our tentatively planned launch this weekend.
We have heard that there may be a window of opportunity for a launch in Addieville in June after the winter wheat harvest, but this is far from a sure thing. If that opportunity does present itself, we will get the word out.
The model rocket launch scheduled for tomorrow has been cancelled due to flooding, along with rain and fairly high wind predicted for tomorrow.
The Meramec River at Valley Park is currently at 17.5 feet, 1.5 feet above flood stage, and expected to crest at 18.3 feet early tomorrow morning. There is no official park closure yet on the St. Louis County Parks website, but there were already ponds forming in the fields and attracting waterfowl even before the river came up.
Please stay tuned, and hopefully we'll get to launch soon. We have one more high-power launch scheduled for either April 7th or 8th in Elsberry, and our next model rocket launch at Buder is scheduled for Sunday April 29th.
Dan Crank
Secretary, St. Louis Rocketry Association
SLRA is having our regular monthly meeting on Tuesday evening, March 27th, at our regular meeting location:
Fallon's Bar & Grill
9200 Olive Blvd. #116
Olivette, Missouri, 63132
The room will be available at 6:00 PM and the business meeting will start at about 7:00PM.
If you're a member of SLRA and are registered on the website, you can view minutes of previous meetings here: Meeting Minutes Page, The meeting minutes will be the basis of our "old business" discussion.
1. Treasury Status.
2. Recognition of Achievements
3. Recognition of Contributions
4. Members expenses.
5. Old Business - please review minutes for last month's meeting for topics
6. New Business
Online and paper membership forms with payments received by mail to be processed by treasurer and president.
Please email admin@stlouisrocketry.com if you have new business for the meeting.
The announcement we were hoping not to make...due to field conditions in Elsberry, the launch scheduled for tomorrow is cancelled.
We have one more weekend scheduled for an attempt at a high-power launch - April 7th / 8th. We'll hope for better weather then.
One important item I forgot to include in the launch announcement. If you will be attending the launch and are planning to fly anything larger than an I motor, please email admin@stlouisrocketry.com as soon as possible so we can make sure to have the launch equipment you need. If we do not need a lot of equipment, we may not take the trailer up to Elsberry for this launch.
Thanks,
Dan Crank
Weather permitting, there will be a high-power launch held at our field in Elsberry, MO on Sunday, March 18. We apologize for the late notice, but we had some logistical issues to work out as well as an uncertain and ever-changing weather forecast.
Launch fees for this launch are $10 for high power and $5 for model rocket fliers. Our FAA waiver at Elsberry allows us to fly to 6000 feet MSL (5500 feet AGL) with windows available on demand during the day of the launch to 15000 MSL (14500 feet AGL).
Setup will start at approximately 9:00 am, and launches will start at approximately 10:00 am. There is not a fixed end time. Please consider arriving early to help with setup or staying to help clean up afterwards, if you can.
Directions to launch site: from I-70, take MO state highway 79 approximately 30 miles north to the intersection of state highway JJ, just before reaching the town of Elsberry. Turn right, proceed across the railroad tracks and continue straight onto the dirt road into the field. You will cross a small bridge and pass a lagoon on your left; from this point you should be able to see the launch site.
High power launches are held under the Tripoli Research Safety Code. Flyers who are NAR members but not Tripoli members may still fly high-power with certified commercial motors. Flyers who are not members of either organization may bring model rockets to be flown by a club member on your behalf, under the same conditions as at our Buder Park launches. Email admin@stlouisrocketry.com if you have questions about these policies and we will help you out.
SLRA is having our regular monthly meeting on Tuesday evening, February 27th, at our regular meeting location:
Fallon's Bar & Grill
9200 Olive Blvd. #116
Olivette, Missouri, 63132
The room will be available at 6:00 PM and the business meeting will start at about 7:00PM.
If you're a member of SLRA and are registered on the website, you can view minutes of previous meetings here: Meeting Minutes Page, The meeting minutes will be the basis of our "old business" discussion.
1. Treasury Status.
2. Recognition of Achievements
3. Recognition of Contributions
4. Members expenses.
5. Old Business - please review minutes for last month's meeting for topics
6. New Business
Online and paper membership forms with payments received by mail to be processed by treasurer and president.
Please email admin@stlouisrocketry.com if you have new business for the meeting.
Due to bad weather this week, we have elected to cancel the February high-power launch. Even though the weather Sunday might be acceptable, the fields will all be very muddy due to this week's rain and rocket recovery would be extremely difficult.
Our next high power launch is tentatively scheduled for the weekend of March 17th / 18th. One date or the other will be chosen based on the weather forecast, and an announcement will be made to this mailing list.
Dan Crank
Secretary, St. Louis Rocketry Association
At last night's meeting we sat down with a calendar and worked out a launch schedule for this year! All of the events are now shown on the calendar on the SLRA website, so please bookmark that for your reference.
First off, here are our planning dates for high power launches this year. All of the usual disclaimers apply (field availability depends on weather and whether crops are currently planted in the fields) so these dates are somewhat tentative. You will also notice that this is a list of weekends - each high-power launch will still be a one-day event, but the day will be selected once we have a reasonable weather forecast, about a week ahead of time. This way, we hope to avoid confusion if we have a situation like we did last month, when we scheduled for Sunday and then changed it at the last minute based on the weather forecast. Finally: there are no locations attached to these dates yet. We will decide which field we're going to based on whether crops are going to be out, and we don't usually know that this far ahead of time. However, we're thinking that any spring launches will probably be in Elsberry because the winter wheat won't be out in Addieville.
2018 High power planning dates:
February 24 / 25
March 17 / 18
April 7 / 8
October 20 / 21
November 17 / 18
December 1 / 2
Next up are the Buder Park model rocket launch dates. These are pretty much set unless we have a scheduling conflict with the park. Same as last year, the model rocket launch will be on the weekend following the monthly meeting, and will alternate between Saturday and Sunday. However, since our meeting are now near the end of the month, this sometimes pushes the launch date into the next month (e.g., the "June" launch is actually scheduled for July 1).
2018 Model rocket launch dates:
Saturday, March 31 (the day before Easter)
Sunday, April 29
Saturday, May 26 (Memorial Day weekend)
Sunday, July 1
Saturday, July 28
Sunday, September 2 (Labor Day weekend)
Saturday, September 29
Finally, there will be a two-day event at the Teeniemunde field near Springfield, MO - "Heavy Metal III". This event is scheduled for May 19th and 20th. We'll have more details on that event coming soon.
If you have any questions, please email admin@stlouisrocketry.com, and we hope to see you at the field!
SLRA is having our regular monthly meeting on Tuesday evening, January 23rd, at our regular meeting location:
Fallon's Bar & Grill
9200 Olive Blvd. #116
Olivette, Missouri, 63132
The room will be available at 6:30 PM and the business meeting will start at about 7:00PM.
If you're a member of SLRA and are registered on the website, you can view minutes of previous meetings here: Meeting Minutes Page, The meeting minutes will be the basis of our "old business" discussion.
1. Treasury Status.
2. Recognition of Achievements
3. Recognition of Contributions
4. Members expenses.
5. Old Business - please review minutes for last month's meeting for topics
6. New Business
Online and paper membership forms with payments received by mail to be processed by treasurer and president.
Please email admin@stlouisrocketry.com if you have new business for the meeting.