Here are some exceptional photos taken by SLRA member Peter Seddon at the December 9th SLRA Low/Mid Power Launch at Buder Park. Those in attendance were treated to some outstanding weather conditions for launching rockets.
Great News!! A Buder Park Night Launch has been scheduled for Saturday December 9th from 1:00-6:00 pm. Cross your finger for cooperative weather conditions.
Back-up is Sunday December 10th from Noon-4:00pm (No Night Launch)
The next SLRA general meeting is coming-up on Tuesday November 28th, 2023 at Fallon’s Irish Bar and Grill located at 9200 Olive Blvd, Apt 116, Olivette, MO
6:00-7:00 PM - Rocket Talk Social Hour
7:00 PM - Meeting Start Time
More Post-Meeting Rocket Talk up until 9:30 pm
If you’re a member of SLRA and are registered on the website, you can view minutes of previous meetings from our website’s Meeting Minutes Page, The unresolved discussions from our previous meeting will be the basis of our “old business” discussion at Tuesday’s meeting.
THE STANDARD AGENDA FOR ALL MEETINGS
New Meeting Attendee Recognition
Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting
Treasury Status
Recognition of Achievements and Contributions
Members expenses
Recent/Upcoming Launch Events (December 16th Elsberry Launch)
Old Business
New Business
Mike Fischer Memorial Raffle
A portion Mike’s packaged kits & Ready-to-fly rockets will be raffled off at the end of the meeting (The packaged kits would make for Great Stocking Stuffers…Ho Ho!).
Please email secretary@stlouisrocketry.com
if you have new business for the meeting.
Zoom connection no longer available
Tomorrow's Spooktacular Night Launch Event has been cancelled due to the cool and rainy weather forecast that's predicted for tomorrow evening. The winds are also predicted to be out of the Northeast which means we would not have use of the pavilion. There's a possibility that we may schedule a night launch event in early December if weather conditions are favorable.
Happy Rocketeering everyone!!!!
Secretary Dave
Fellow SLRAers,
The forecast is not favorable for Saturday's Spooktacular Night Launch event, The rain chance for Saturday evening is now 88% and the winds are still projected to be out of the North/Northwest. That means we will not be able to use the pavilion for shelter. We'll need lots of shade/rain canopies. We should have a pretty good idea on Friday evening what the weather is going to be Saturday for our event. Keep your eyes peeled to the SLRA website and I'll strive to get the notice out late Friday or early Saturday.
Let me know if you can provide any of the following: Generator, canopy, tables for hot dog/chili feast, hot dogs, buns, ketchup, mustard, relish plates, napkins, plastic utensils, bowls.
The Wash U contingent is bringing chili.
NOTE: There is no backup date for this event as the Night-Launch Permit is only good for Saturday and Sunday looks to be rainy throughout the day/evening
Happy Rocketeering!! Secretary Dave
The November 18th Elsberry Launch has been cancelled due to our launch date coinciding with the Missouri Firearms Deer Season. There are lots of deer blinds around the Elsberry site and we have no idea on which way the rockets will be drifting on launch day. To eliminate any chance at all of a bad situation occurring, the only true choice is to cancel the November HP Launch.
Note: The October and December Elsberry HP Launches are not impacted.
There is also an opportunity to launch High Power November 10-12 at the National Association of Rocketry's East National Sport Launch that's being held near Pence, Indiana. The host for this event is the Indiana Rocketry Society (Section #711). The launch ceiling is 17,999'. There will be vendors, Food Trucks, and Raffle winning opportunities. Hopefully SLRA will have great representation at this event!
Happy Rocketeering!!
Secretary Dave
This past weekend’s SLRA Buder Park Launch was a huge success. Despite postponing the launch to Sunday, we had the largest attendance for the 2023 Buder Park Launch season. Two concurrent Ranges were in operation, one for Sport Launching (Dave Pape Launch Control Officer –LCO) and the other for Competition (John Buckley LCO). Seventeen rocketeers were in attendance at the Sport Range launching a total of 74 rockets in a 4.5 hour timeframe. Three rocketeers were in attendance at the Competition Range launching 20ish rockets. A huge SLRA welcome goes out the newest SLRA members who were actively participating in Sunday’s Sport Launch; Andrew Fuller, Matt Lehnen, Keith Reece, and Brian Hamilton.
Happy Rocketeering everyone!!!
Secretary Dave
The following amazingly spectacular photos are complements of Peter Seddon and Brian Hamilton.
The April 29th Saturn Skylab 50th Anniversary Commemoration Sport Launch event was well attended, There was a total of 15 flyers, 11 Senior and 4 Junior rocketeers. There were an equal number of spectators as well. A total of 68 launches were accomplished in the four hours the range was open. The top flyers in the Senior Class were Doug Probst with 11 and Chris Lagemann with 10. In the Junior Class, the top flyers were Nemo Hanson with 6 and Gideon Hanson with 5.
This was a Mercury/Gemini/Apollo Era themed launch. It was only appropriate that a beautiful half-moon resided over Buder Park. Peter Seddon captured some amazing photos of the rockets flying past the moon. Nice job Peter.
A huge thank-you goes out to Dave Pape for hauling the SLRA Launch Equipment to the field and serving as event Launch Control Officer with his trusty assistants Gideon and Nemo Hanson. Chris Lagemann assisted as well.
It’s also worthy of noting that Dave Pape, Doug Probst, Chris Lagemann, Larry Hileman, Dan Crank, and Don Hanson participated in an all-day rocket launching event, attended by roughly 50 Boy Scouts, at Beaumont Scout Reservation. They went straight from the Scouting Event to Buder Park with Launch Equipment in-tow. It was a full day of rocket activity for the six of them. This may have been the first time that pizza was delivered to the Buder Park Launch Field to feed the six famished rocketeers.
Other SLRA members in attendance for the Saturn/Skylab 50th Anniversary Launch Event included Doug & Dakota Drake, Dave Kovar, Glen Arens, Mario Santos, Ian Hanson, Nemo Hanson, Gideon Hanson, John Sullivan, Dennis Thompson, and Mike Walsh.
A huge shout-out goes out to Peter Seddon for providing all but one of the photos shown below. The moon fly-by photos are spectacular. A shout-out also goes out to Dennis Thompson for providing the Saturn/Skylab launch photo.
Happy Rocketeering Everyone!!!!
SLRA Secretary Dave Kovar.
