At last night's monthly club meeting, we discussed high-power and park launch plans and decided on some planning dates. Rob Chapie has taken care of the FAA paperwork for our high-altitude waiver in Elsberry (thanks, Rob!) so our primary concerns will be landowner approval (i.e., scheduling times when he is not busy working his fields) and, of course, the weather.

• Our planning dates for high-power launches in Ellsberry are February 28, 2015 and March 21, 2015. We are going to try handling weather delays a little differently than in the past. If weather prevents us from holding a launch on the originally scheduled date, we will roll over once to the following Saturday. (For example - if the field is too wet to fly on February 28, that launch will be rescheduled for March 7.) If weather prevents a launch on the roll-over date, the launch will be cancelled. By keeping to this policy, we hope to reduce the amount of confusion and miscommunication we had last year, when we rolled over multiple times and flyers were frequently unsure whether the club would attempt to hold a launch or not.
• We are planning to hold model rocket launches in Buder Park as usual, but they will be held on the first Saturday of the month and begin in March, weather permitting. This does raise the possibility of a conflict between the first park launch on March 7 and the roll-over date for the first high-power launch; in the event that this happens, we will make a decision whether or not to hold both launches, or direct model rocket flyers to Ellsberry. Either way, please watch this website for announcements closer to the launch date.
• We will be collecting launch fees from all flyers. This has been done inconsistently in the past, but during our budget discussion we determined that this was a necessity to offset our equipment expenses and remain funded as an organization. We will have another discussion at the February meeting to decide how to set the fees, but we can say at this point that a) it is likely that launch fees for high-power fliers will be higher than those for model rocket fliers, as they have typically been in the past, and b) it is possible that launch fees for SLRA members will be discounted from the fees collected from non-members. If you would like to take part in the launch fee discussion, please join us at our next club meeting on February 10.

As always, the launch dates on our calendar represent our current plan and are subject to change for a wide variety of reasons. Please check this website regularly for the most current information. If you have any questions, please email me at danno@danno.org.