10/3/09 Meeting Minutes

Meeting began at 7:00PM on October 3rd, 2009 at Microsoft building 43 in Redmond.

Old Business

September Launch

Despite questionable weather on Saturday, the overall feedback on the October launch was positive. As far as we know, no rockets drifted onto the neighbor's land to the south, thanks in part to moving the launch site to the northern edge of Tom's property.

The weather on Friday was perfect for flying, but the waiver hadn't been activated. It has been suggested by a number of people that we activate our waivers to include Friday, just in case the range is setup in time and the weather is conducive to flying.

New Business

Membership Cards

Several people have asked about club membership cards. Carl Hamilton hasn't seen the need for such cards and has been reluctant to take on the administration of them, but Dave Randall pointed out that a card will be helpful to remind people whether their membership is current or not. Making this information easily available to members does make sense, so Carl is going to consider how it could be done. This may involve cards or it may be done online somehow.

October Launch

The October launch will be held the weekend of the 24th, with Mike Wyvel acting as launch director and Robert Simpson-Clark his backup. Due to deer hunting season, it will be held as the Sportmen's Club, not the Snell Ranch. The flight ceiling will be 8,000' AGL from the track and 14,000' AGL from the away cell.

Puget Sound Propulsion wants time to fly at this launch, so they will only be bringing pre-ordered motors. If you want propellant from PSP, get in touch with them soon.

Historically, this has been a popular launch and usually larger than the launch director expects. It's likely that the full trailer will be towed to the site from Federal Way. Volunteers for towing are always appreciated.

Show and Tell

Bob Jimerson showed the almost completed, fiberglassed fin can of his PML Eclipse that he will be flying for his level 2 certification.

Robert Geer brought what looked like a pile of parts, but what turned out to be a partially disassembled HD video camera that he bought online for $60. His plan is to put the camera and its LCD display on his next "Barbie" rocket, named simply "Barbie 2". It sounds like this will be a fun project.

Dave Randall picked up some of the new Cesaroni 29mm hardware at XPRS and passed that around for people to "oh" and "ah" over. He also described the new spacers that Cesaroni has developed to allow shorter reloads to work in longer cases.

Attendees

Bill Wyvel
Bob Jimerson
Carl Hamilton
Claudette (Patrick's mom)
Dave Randall
Dave Wall
Dustin (friend of Robert Geer)
Ian Wall
Melissa Rogers
Nate (friend of Robert Geer)
Patrick (Ingraham High School SLI lead)
Robert Geer
Robert Simpson-Clark
Robert Winglee