Hi everyone!
This was a pretty hard call, but we're scrubbing the Black Rock Desert
launch ("BALLS 18"), for a variety of reasons:
## Weather
The weather would *probably* have been OK. The cold temperature (30 - 50
deg F), wind gusts of 10's of mph, and the possible snow Sunday evening
would probably have not been a show stopper. The predicted 70% low
clouds sky coverage would *probably* have allowed us to launch on
Sunday, and the light rains throughout the weekend would *probably* have
only made it slightly damp/muddy.
Even though the official BALLS 18 event has *not* been canceled, I think
that as a group, it's not worth risking probably nasty weather.
## Roll Control
Dan and Dave's have kicked some serious butt on the roll control, and I
think they have a shot at getting it launched this weekend if we were to
go. However, it'll be largely untested and pretty rushed. Putting off
the launch by a week or two would give us time to get it done without
the hectic rush, and provide time for testing and review.
## Rocketober, Saturday and Sunday October 17-18
Oregon Rocketry is going to have a launch in Brothers, Oregon on
Saturday and Sunday October 17th and 18th. Since we have a commercial
motor now, and our simulations are well under the 35,000 ft launch
window, we can launch at that event. This is only two weeks away, which
is pretty nice timing. And there are a lot of people in our group who
can't make BRD who could make a weekend-only Brothers launch, which is good.
## Consensus
I polled a lot of people yesterday and this morning, and the consensus
seems to be:
- Four days is a long time to risk bad weather and possible lack of roll
control.
- Having a Brothers launch is better logistically, so we'll have a lot
more people show up.
- The predicted weather sucks, even if we do launch.
- The "suddenly open" weekend can be used for... rocket work!
So that's why we decided to scrub. Let me know if you have any problems
with that. We'll be scheduling some rocket workshops this weekend, and
we're still on for next Tuesday to nail down the logistics for the
Rocketober launch.
Talk to you soon,
Andrew
--
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Andrew Greenberg
Portland State Aerospace Society (http://psas.pdx.edu/)
and...@psas.pdx.edu P: 503.788.1343 C: 503.708.7711
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