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June 2005 Meeting Minutes (6/6/2005)
The June 2005 MASA meeting was held on the 2nd at
the Science Museum.
The attendance for this meeting was 9 people.
- The May launch was cancelled due to wet fields.
- The June 25th launch is planned for the sod farm near
Nowthen.
- A web page for the MASA picnic will be up soon so that we
can start planning. It's not much more than a month away!
- Local rocketeer Darrel Kronemann has produced a new video:
"Exploring their Future - A Look at Model Rocketry in the New
Millenium." Planned air dates are June 6th at 6 pm on
Channel 16, June 8th at 11 pm on Channel 16, June 19th at 6 pm
on Channel 17, and July 2nd at 10 pm on Channel 16.
Check the listings for your local cable Public Access Channels
to confirm the channel numbers.
MASA member Mark Nelson was in attendance along with several
members of the Dakota County 4-H Federation TARC team - 2005
national champions! The team traveled to Virginia to compete
and cinched first place with a flight time of 59.9 seconds.
Their two-stage rocket used two D12-0's in the booster and a single
C11-5 in the sustainer. For recovery, they used a standard 36"
Top Flite nylon chute. The team put in a phenomenal
fund-raising effort to pay for their trip. Mark described some
of the learning process experienced by the team in such areas as fin
construction and choice of upper stage motor. They also built
a rig to allow testing of the staging process on the ground.
Big congratulations to the champion 4-H team and to the two other
Minnesota TARC teams that made it to the national competition.
Hey, the Hope Christian Academy team placed fourth! Way to go
everybody!
Show & Tell
- Mark Nelson brought along two "Birdie" rockets that he had
scratchbuilt. Easy and cheap to build, Mark says that they
make nice demo rockets.
- Mike Erpelding brought along his new "rocket retrieval" tool
- a 40 foot telescoping electrician's hot stick.
Hopefully, Mike can write it off as a work tool because $ouch$!
- Alan Estenson brought along a book that was a look back
three decades - "Model Rocketry, Hobby of Tomorrow" by Peter
Lowry & Field Griffith (1972)
Tube Fins!
Alan Estenson gave a talk on rockets that use tubular fins
instead of "normal" fins. Flight behavior, design,
construction, and other tips and tricks were discussed. Lots
of example rockets were on hand from 1/4A sized up to J-powered.
(Alan Estenson)
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