Category: Launch Announcements

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2014 ROC Election Results

Professor Farnsworth from "Futurama" saying "Good News, Everyone!"
The ballots are in, and the people have spoken!

Rick Magee has been re-elected as Tripoli Prefect.

Rick O’Neil, David Smith, and John Van Norman were elected for the 3 full-term (3 year) Board positions. Mike Ostby was elected to fill the open Board seat for the remaining 2 years.

The ROC Board has elected as officers:

President – Rick Dickinson
Vice President – Bryce Chanes
Treasurer – Ian Walberg
Secretary – Mike Riss

In addition, Veronica Kirk was appointed to fill the opening created by a recent Board member’s resignation (due to work travel requirements).

On behalf of the Board, Officers, and club, I’d like to thank all the people who stepped forward this year. Whether selected or not, your willingness to serve is appreciated!

I’d also like to thank the outgoing board members, Greg Lyzenga, Allen Farrington, and Lee Scott, for their service. Hopefully you’ll be able to enjoy the fruits of the time and effort you’ve put in on behalf of the club at the next launch you attend :-)

Mike
ROC Board Member and Secretary

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2015 Membership Information

As previously announced, ROC is going to simplify Executive Memberships and starting in 2015, they will run January to December. There will be no pro-ration for partial years, as the fee is only $60 (cheapest date in town) for 16 launch days per year! Executive members will still pay the $5/day fee that gets passed directly to the BLM for any days that they fly. If you fly every day that ROC is on the lakebed, you will pay a total of $140 for a year of flying! That’s cheaper than coffee and helps to sustain the club by providing working cash to maintain the equipment.

Accompanying this change is a change in our membership card policy as well. If you join between Nov. 1st, 2014 and January 31st, 2015, you will receive a membership card in the mail in early February. If you join between February 1st and April 30th, you will receive a membership card in the mail in early May. If you join after April 30th, you will be able to pick up a “blank” 2015 membership card and write your name on it (we’ll provide the sharpie) at a launch. “Blank” cards will be pre-printed just like the regular cards except they will be blank where the name goes.

The new membership cards will feature a ROC design, your name pre-printed (if you join before April 30th), and you will get both a wallet card and a card that can be punched and hung around your neck. Everyone who joins will be eligible to pick up a fancy lanyard to hang their card from registration while supplies last. When we run out of lanyards, you can get a ROC sticker. If we run out of stickers, well, you’re just out of luck!

We hope that everyone understands that maintaining the membership rolls takes time away from the hobby for the person that fulfills that role for the club, so we’re trying to lessen the burden and simplify so that there’s more time for flying!

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Notice of ROC Annual Members Meeting

Per the bylaws of the Rocketry Organization of California (ROC), it is one of my duties as Secretary of the Corporation to give notice of ROC’s Annual Membership meeting.

The 2014 meeting will be held during the November ROCStock (RS 40), taking place at Lucerne Dry Lake November 8th and 9th.  Specifically, the meeting will be called to order at 5pm on Saturday, November 8th at the Range Head on the lakebed.

All ROC Members, Daily Flying members, and Spectators are invited to the meeting.   However, only Executive (Annual Paid), Board, and Lifetime Members will be recognized for business during the meeting or will be allowed to vote.  This is a standing meeting; i.e. you must be present to participate, as no proxy voting will be allowed.

The only item currently on the Agenda is the Announcement of the results of the 2015 Board of Directors election. Additional Agenda items can be sent directly to me at “rockt_dude@sbcglobal.net”, preferably by midnight, November 2nd, 2014. Items may also be brought to the floor during the meeting after the set Agenda is completed.

Mike Riss
ROC Secretary

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August launch report

The August launch was excellent and the numbers show a good mix of low and high power.

The weather forecast was good before the launch and this was correct. See, the weather forecasters can get it right occasionally. :-) It was about 10 F cooler than normal for August. The temperature was 62 F at sunrise and by afternoon it was about 98 F.

Most of the set-up occurred on Friday afternoon with the help of Steven Seeright and the rest of the set-up went quickly early Saturday morning. We launched until around 3:00 in the afternoon and there was only a slight breeze for the whole day.

The construction on the Northbound I15 and shutdown of some lanes didn’t seem to cause excessive travel time. Many people just left for the launch a little earlier than normal. So the “Cajon Crawl” didn’t seem to cause a big problem with people getting to the launch.
Here’s the breakdown of rockets based on impulse:
A: 2
B: 15
C: 32
D: 5
E: 8
F: 7
G: 14
Note: 3 launch cards that were low power but missing or illegible motor information
H: 13
I: 9
J: 9
K: 3
L: 2

So, 122 lights total. This includes 2 NAR Level 1 (one successful), 4 TRA Level 1 (all successful) and 1 TRA Level 2 (successful).

LCO started out with Steven Seeright, followed by Rick O’Neil, then David Reese. At the end of the launch, we tested the wireless microphone system and it worked well.
I wish my narrative could do this launch justice. There were many great flights and I’m going to miss something. David Erbas-White had 5 successful flights, and Gary Schneider (Level 3) flew 4 model rockets and also his scratch-built “Gone Bananas” on an I285. Other people like Doug Sutton flew both model and high-power rockets and had the opportunity to fly multiple times during the day. Even Board members Rick Magee and Kurt Gugisberg flew rockets – how crazy is that!
I think the number of people that flew 2 or more high power rockets during the day is remarkable and an indicator of what a good day is was. The list includes Chris Cotner, Brian Sutton, Gary Schneider, Rodney Shepherd, Steve Jaben, David Reese, Dave Peterson, James Lynn, and Chris Covany with 4 good flights and the last one was a high alt on a L935 Imax!

Can’t wait for September. Thank you everyone for a great August launch.

Richard Dierking