March Meeting Minutes (3/21/2009)
The March 2009 MASA meeting was held on the 16th at
Aero Systems Engineering in Plymouth.
A total of 9 people attended the meeting.
Next Launch: The next regular launch will be
on Saturday, March 28 at the Elk River VFW. TARC teams are
welcome to attend. The field is big enough for mid-power
flights, but safe recovery will depend upon wind speed and
direction.
The annual "Apple Valley Invitational Launch" will be on the
following Saturday, April 4 (rain date of Sunday, April 5) at Apple
Valley High School. TARC teams and all other rocketeers are
invited to come and fly.
Next Meeting: The date and location of
the April meeting will be announced soon.
We Win!!!: The day's big news was the
announcement of the court's ruling - IN OUR FAVOR - in the
long-running case against the BATFE. In honor of the momentous
news, cupcakes and drink were served at the meeting. For more
information on the ruling, please see the NAR web site -
here and
here.
Planet: Jeff is looking for submissions
for the MASA Planet newsletter. Please send him those
articles, photos, kit reviews, etc...
Regional Contest: MASA will be holding
its first ever official NAR regional contest on June 27 & 28.
Details will be posted on the web site soon.
NARAM Fly-It / Take-It: Remember to
work on those rockets to donate for kids to fly and
take home with them at NARAM 51. VP Carol Marple will be
collecting them in April to ship to the NARAM organizers.
NSL: Memorial Day weekend in Wisconsin.
Road trip!
Meeting Topic - Clusters & Multi-staging
A discussion was held about the use of multiple motors per rocket
flight - clusters & multi-staging. Some safety concerns were
noted - "complex" rockets always carry a larger chance of something
going wrong. These days, clustering is often just done for
fun. In "olden times", clusters were a necessity to launch
larger rockets because larger single motors were generally
unavailable. Multi-staging may be done just for fun, or to
achieve greater altitudes. Both clustering and multi-staging
bring some challenges for the rocketeer.
Jeff Taylor brought along some examples of clustered rockets - a
FlisKits Deuce, FlisKits Tres, and his NWA Renegade as an example of
a 2-stage rocket.
David Whitaker brought along some cluster examples too - a LOC
Viper III, kitbashed Renegade, and a Mini Katana II.
Alan Estenson brought along a variety of cluster and multi-stage
rockets.
Various topics related to cluster rockets were discussed -
ignition power, clip whips vs igniter lead extensions, checking
igniters and motors before flight, clustering of AP motors versus BP
motors, design & construction, available kits, failure modes...
A similar discussion was held for multi-stage rockets.
Some good reading on these subjects:
(Alan Estenson)
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