Launch Sites

[Rocket Doctor]

Not everyone has a ideal launch site closeby, but, I am curious to know, what do you have availaable.

The sod farm at Orangeburg SC seems to be the idea spot, I'm sure that there are others.

Please list your launch site, size, any restrictions on use, any insurance problems, launch schedule etc.

Even school fields can be a hassle at times, has anyone had to deal with a school district, what were the results.

Also, if you don't have a launch site nearby, how far would you travel to launch your rockets?

[Shreadvector]

http://home.earthlink.net/~mebowitz/siteaid.pdf

http://home.earthlink.net/~mebowitz/scra2008.pdf

[ghrocketman]

My backyard in Linden, Mi borders a 500+ acre soybean farm that I can (with permission, of course) venture into to recover my rockets. Don't haveta worry about whether the motor is still certed (or ever was) either.
I can launch up to G-power rockets easily as long as the wind is blowing to the North or East.
If it was legal, I could launch H-power (with prop.wt. under 125gr.) easily as well.

I consider myself VERY lucky the farmer lets me recover in his fields.

[Phred]

My Section, ASTRE 471 has been flying on a hayfiled for approx 20 years. This field is large enough to gly up to H motors. There are several issues with this particular spot:

1) the field is 40-60 minutes drive for most club members. This hampers recruitment.

2) sometimes the hay is 3-4 feet high, which hampers recovery and the owner does not like us to fly during high hay time.

3) The land used for hunting during deer season, so our flying time ends in mid/late Oct .

This spring, we were able to gain permission to fly on a field which we can fly G motors. The field is much closer, being a 10-15 mile drive for most club members. We had several successful launches this year.

Unfortunately, we just heard two days ago that the field has been sold for development. Ugh!!
We are back to square 1, looking for a newer, closer field.

I personally fly rockets with my nieces and nephews at my local high school. I pick a sunday usually, and do not fly if there are school sports going on. I make sure we clean up after ourselves, and we do not leave empty motor casings, spent igniters or wadding behind. I do not ask anyone for permission, and have never been hassled or even questioned in the past 5 years I have flown there.

Phred

[johnnwwa]

Not everyone has a ideal launch site closeby, but, I am curious to know, what do you have availaable.

The sod farm at Orangeburg SC seems to be the idea spot, I'm sure that there are others.

Please list your launch site, size, any restrictions on use, any insurance problems, launch schedule etc.

Even school fields can be a hassle at times, has anyone had to deal with a school district, what were the results.

Also, if you don't have a launch site nearby, how far would you travel to launch your rockets?

In the past we have used a school baseball/football field -county park surrounded by RET's . We gave a demo launched for a school and the out come was the unrestricted use of an 80 acre field. No insurance issues being covered under the 4-h . We do put up with cows and what they leave behind :( other than that it's a great place to launch rockets. Nearest airport is over ten miles away. We try to have a club launch atleast once a month weather permitting. Usually from January-October. I have driven this summer 350 miles to a launch and will be going again this friday leaving zero dark thirty for a six hour drive to "Rolling Thunder" www.bmr615.org in Dayton,Wa.

John

[CJU]

I've been flying in what is now a state park, formerly just vacant land owned by a university.
Deveaux Woods State Park. (http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&q=lewiston%20rd%20and%20seymour%20rd%2C%20niagara%20falls%2C%20ny&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wl)

There are two major sections - the south section is 5 acres and rarely used by anyone. The north 10 acres has two baseball fields that are used occasionally. I don't fly during games, and I avoid it during the little league practices. It's a nice field for LPR and even works for small RC planes. I started flying there in 1983, with no problems at all, minus the occasional rocket eating tree.

[CPMcGraw]

I fly at a local elementary school, and am able to fly up to C-power safely (depending on the rocket). The school is within two miles of my home. In the years I've flown there, I have only had one person ask me what I was doing (before I had my equipment set up), and their only concern was keeping the field clean and tidy. It's usually a Saturday or Sunday afternoon when I fly, so there is no conflict with normal school activity.

[sandman]

my "local" club (by local I mean 2 hrs away), flys sport at an old landfill but it's adjacent to a very busy major highway. We also fly at MIS (Michigan International Speedway) which has a huge grass parking lot. As long as there isn't a race that day.

My local field is a well maintained but relatively unused grass airport. (mostly ultralights)

BTW the airport I use is for sale. :D

If anyone has the better part of $1,000,000 they can get a deal at todays real estate prices.

[Eagle3]

JMRC Launch Fields (http://jmrconline.org/launchfield.htm)

[MKP]

Most often I launch in an area about 10 miles from my home, it several square miles of fairly flat (a few deep washes and low hills but nothing bad) BLM land, so really no engine restrictions. There's an even larger area just a little farther out if we feel like it.

If we want a quicker trip, there's the Jr. High my dad teaches at, which is only a mile away, but C motors are nerve wracking there.

[luke strawwalker]

http://www.artapplewhite.com/fields/robertsranch/farmphoto001.jpg

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&ie=UTF8&t=h&msa=0&msid=109889942138595454307.00045679cc707c2517406&ll=29.352778,-95.861667&spn=0.009931,0.019226&z=16

Here is our farm in Needville, TX which we provide as a launch site for Challenger 498 NAR Section in Katy. We're on 87 acres of rotationally grazed cattle ranch former cottonfields so it's pretty smooth and we rotate the cows out of the launching field (the SE field in the second website above) and the adjoining SW field so that recovery is unimpeded. That gives a roughly 1/4 mile by 1/4 mile 40 acre or so uninterrupted launch/recovery area with more on the other side of the fences. The neighbor's place is row crops, generally cotton and grain sorghum, and any errant recoveries are usually over there, though we did have an errant G flight go over Buffalo Creek (as can be seen to the south on the second website listed above by dragging the picture around to look at the area and zooming in or out) The first link shows the layout with the fences--That's about where we set up shop:)

Check Art Applewhite's launch calendar and come on out and fly with us! OL JR :)http://www.artapplewhite.com/launches.html

[luke strawwalker]

I've been flying in what is now a state park, formerly just vacant land owned by a university.
Deveaux Woods State Park. (http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&rls=en&q=lewiston%20rd%20and%20seymour%20rd%2C%20niagara%20falls%2C%20ny&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&sa=N&tab=wl)

There are two major sections - the south section is 5 acres and rarely used by anyone. The north 10 acres has two baseball fields that are used occasionally. I don't fly during games, and I avoid it during the little league practices. It's a nice field for LPR and even works for small RC planes. I started flying there in 1983, with no problems at all, minus the occasional rocket eating tree.

Hey that's cool!!! How many of us can launch a rocket and have it land in a forein country??
LOL:) Must make recovery tough though... :)

Have a good one! OL JR :)

[CJU]

Hey that's cool!!! How many of us can launch a rocket and have it land in a forein country??
LOL:) Must make recovery tough though... :)

Have a good one! OL JR :)
:)
Never had one cross the river... But there is a nice bridge about 1/2 mile upstream.

[Mark II]

Here is my local launch field, about 1/2 mile from my home. It is the softball field for the local school district, and is located on the grounds of the elementary school (because that school had sufficient land available). The football field/all-weather track is located just north of it, and is surrounded by a chain-link fence, with a gate that is usually locked. It is hard to tell in the photo, but the football field is on another level of the field, almost 15 feet higher in elevation that the softball field. Just south of it is the somewhat larger combined soccer field/boy's baseball field, and just south of that (off the bottom of the picture) is the Natural History Museum of the Adirondacks.

I usually set up on the softball field because it is adjacent to the parking lot (just to the left, or west, of it, separated from the field by a row of boulders). This way, I don't have to lug my stuff quite so far from the car. At 300 feet by 150 feet, the field is large enough for B motors, and C motors on a calm day. The woods at the east (right) edge of the field contain the notorious Rocket-Eating Trees. If the photo had enough resolution, you could probably pick out a few of my rockets artfully draped on the upper branches of some of those trees. (If you see my Alpha III, let me know.) Just at the upper left corner of the field, next to the parking lot and just below the playground, is another small stand of RET's. Yes, I've lost a couple of rockets in them, too.

I have never had any problems at all from either school personnel or fellow citizens (or soccer moms) about launching my rockets in this or the adjacent field. I have been launching there since I became a BAR. In fact, school district employees have at times come out to watch my launches. I pretty much have the fields to myself all summer long, and I wait until they are not being used for school functions or events before I launch there during the academic year. On one occasion, some school groundskeepers even came to my aid (without being asked) to try to help me free a rocket from one of the trees near the parking lot.

The biggest motor I have ever launched there was an E9 in an Art Applewhite saucer (several times). This is also where I famously flew my No. 2 Estes Skywriter on a C6-7 on July 3, 2005 on the calmest day that I have ever seen at that field. For that launch, I set the pad up right near third base. The Skywriter went close to 2000 feet, and came down on its 12" chute just shy of the fence around the track, just above the upper right corner of the field. It was the most thrilling launch I have ever made at the field, and best of all, that time I actually brought several relatives along to watch it!

I could probably launch my 38mm Cinco (or similar designs) there without any problems, on anything that rocket could handle, but I have not done so yet.

Mark \\.

[scigs30]

I have to travel 60 miles to fly my rockets. So. California is not rocket friendly. The only way to fly is join a club and fly on their launch days. So I don't get to fly that often.

[Solomoriah]

I think I've posted this before, but here we go again:

http://rocketry.newcenturycomputers.net/images/launcharea.jpg

The area within the yellow line is our launch area. The left half (between the houses and the alley) is the back yard belonging to Justin's parents and their neighbor; the right half is a field, presently planted in beans, in which we are permitted to recover rockets if they land there. The red-and-white bars are 500' long.

[PaulK]

I'm fortunate to be in an active club (WOOSH) with 2 launch sites, both about a 30 minute drive for me.

Our large site for L/M/HPR is within the Richard Bong state rec area. We launch on the Bong Runway (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=42.629,-88.172&mrt=all&ie=UTF8&ll=42.629234,-88.172788&spn=0.009867,0.010858&t=h&z=16), which is hard packed gravel. Nice for parking cars & launching from, but rough if your rocket lands on the runway. Being a rec area, there are lots of interesting places for your rocket to land, including tall prairie grasses, ATV trails, cattail swamps, and shallow lakes.


Our LPR site is in New Berlin, and we are graciously allowed use of it by the Sod Farm owners. The main field is close to 40 acres, and somewhat gravelly. Scott, what is the story on this, my understanding is that it is some sort of former landfill that can't be developed?
Sod Farm (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=43.004396,-88.140543&ie=UTF8&ll=43.004396,-88.140543&spn=0.009808,0.010858&t=h&z=16)

[Ltvscout]

Our LPR site is in New Berlin, and we are graciously allowed use of it by the Sod Farm owners. The main field is close to 40 acres, and somewhat gravelly. Scott, what is the story on this, my understanding is that it is some sort of former landfill that can't be developed?
Sod Farm (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=43.004396,-88.140543&ie=UTF8&ll=43.004396,-88.140543&spn=0.009808,0.010858&t=h&z=16)
I'm not sure to tell ya the truth. I know it's called the "sod farm", but if they ever grew sod there it was many, many moons ago. ;)

[Initiator001]

I have to travel 60 miles to fly my rockets. So. California is not rocket friendly. The only way to fly is join a club and fly on their launch days. So I don't get to fly that often.

I'm in the same boat here in San Diego.

I drive up to L.A. and fly with SCRA (NAR Section 430). It's about 130 miles each way and I can only fly rockets on Sundays as I work on Saturdays. :(

Bob

[Hutch]

These days I launch from a school field which is a 10 minute drive away. We tend to do "gureilla" launches early in the morning.

I recently emailed the field booking clerk for the school district to see if I could officially book the field for a competition. They have a policy of booking to local community organizations if the school is not using the field. I asked about booking for any weekend morning in Sept. or Oct.

The reply said: "I'm sorry we cannot accommodate your request."

I emailed back to ask for clarification - was it booked every day, or was there some other reason?

I did not get any reply back whatsoever. A friend advised that it would be best to just leave it alone, or we may find ourselves confronted with a complete ban. At least this way we have plausible deniability.....

[scigs30]

I'm in the same boat here in San Diego.

I drive up to L.A. and fly with SCRA (NAR Section 430). It's about 130 miles each way and I can only fly rockets on Sundays as I work on Saturdays. :(

Bob
I know the feeling, I can only fly during the weekday since I work weekends. I have to pay 25.00 for the permit.

[reduc]

The club I'm launching with is a two hours drive. I attend once or twice a year. I have a second launch site, at my summer chalet located in front of St-Lawrence River. I have an instant launch site when the tide is low. It's muddy, but it's fun to just walk out and launch a few rockets.