Hi All

 

I thought it might be a good time to provide an update on some of the activities that are happening in the club at the moment that you may not be aware of:

 

Myself, Len and David Skinner are working with the Dalby Council to identify a suitable site for high-altitude launches in Western Queensland. The Dalby council is very keen to be involved in this project and has already identified a number of sites around Tara, Chinchilla and Miles that may be suitable. Please note that there will still be a number of hurdles even when a site is found, including working with CASA and Tripoli.

 

Trailer storage   

I have been looking at alternate arrangements for trailer storage that will allow us to keep the trailer closer to the launch site. Stay tuned. 

 

New Jimboomba Launch Site     

Members at the May launch would have noticed that a section of the field was roped off. The intention of this "DMZ" is to ensure that there are no members or spectators 'camped' under the powerlines who may be adversely affected by a rocket coming down on the power lines. In this instance, it resulted in a shift of the flight line roughly 5m forwards. 

Myself, Len and Brendan Hawkins will be meeting with the Energex State Head of Safety in the coming weeks to agree an appropriate plan to manage any risk. Brendan, Mark Johannessen and Len have already started drafting a document to capture all of the risks at the launch site and a series of mitigations for each risk. An outcome of the meeting may be that we shift or re-orient the launch area. Please note that there are no intentions to move from the current LCC Cedar Grove launch fields. Going forward, please do not linger in the DMZ, transit through either to car parking or the flight line.

There are a number of enhancements we would like to make to the site: fixed distance markers, permanent shade facilities and concrete launch pads in particular. We need to wait until a final decision is made on the specific launch area and then submissions / quotes can be given to council.

 

The first batch of orders was delivered to members at the May launch (free postage!). I've spoken with the owners of Endeavour Aerospace about attending a future QRS launch. The only approach that we can take at this point is to order motors / hardware online and collect from their gazebo. Note that you will receive motors much sooner if you order items that are listed as 'in stock'.

 

Unknown ETA at this point.

Note that I asked for a number of motors and cases in 38mm and 54mm sizes. The motors will be sold to members looking to undertake their L1 and L2 certifications and the cases will be loaners for all members of the club.

 

The intention is to have the AusRocketry trailer travel to site on launch days. Most likely the arrangement will be similar to the arrangement with Endeavour Aerospace. There are still some actions needed to be taken before this can happen e.g. restocking the trailer, finding a resource to run the trailer, etc.

 

Great thanks to Len for creating a new forum for the club and the Australian rocketry community. We are looking making a read-only copy of the old forum data and have this accessible from the new forum web site. I have been assured this has now been removed from the data warehouse and should be in transit to AusRocketry HQ at some stage. Once it is received, we will clean it up and make available to all members of the forum.

 

For those members looking to take on an L3 certification at some stage, a key requirement is to have two TAPs (Tripoli Advisory Panel members) review their plan, follow construction progress and have at least one TAP present for the launch. Without any currently recognised TAPs in Queensland, this has limited our ability to see members move successfully to their L3 certification. I have been in discussions with existing Australian based TAPs and have a plan to move forwards. Nothing has been approved by Tripoli as yet but stayed tuned for more information on this front in the coming weeks.

 

Some of our newer members (and existing members) are interested in flying hybrid rocket motors. I'm definitely not the expert in this space and Matt Rolley has offered to investigate what the club could provide to members to reduce the cost of entry into hybrid rocketry. Matt has pulled together a list of ground-based hardware and is just sourcing a few additional items. Once all items can be sourced the club will look to purchase the ground-based hardware required for hybrids. Members will just need to supply rockets and fuel! Disclaimer: I don't know if that's all that is needed...

 

When retrieving his rocket last Sunday, Brendan stumbled across a number of fire ant nests. These have been reported to the appropriate authorities, however if you check the fire ant map ( https://www.fireants.org.au/fireantmap ) there are a number of reported fire ant nests on the council land we launch and recover from. Keep your eyes peeled for them and report to the RSO if you get stung. Risk and Mitigation Plans are currently being written.

 

This folder should now be available to all members of the club and has a lot of magazines, books, etc. I'll update these folders over time when new releases are made e.g. peak-of-flight newsletters. Please let myself or anyone on the committee know if there is any other information that you would like to see included in these shared folders.

 

The club has acquired a printer. A new cartridge needs to be bought and we should be able to maintain a steady supply of membership forms, flyers and flight cards.

 

The club has been banking with Heritage for a number of years and we are in the process of changing the way we bank from a cheque account to online banking. This should make it easier for club members to pay membership fees, receive money for claims and for committee members to purchase necessary equipment to keep the club functioning.

 

As always, looking for a volunteer to take on producing the newsletter each quarter... This would include a launch report for each of the previous three months, highlighting new members and certifications, some technical articles, a presidents report and as many photos as can be included.

 

To everyone involved in the above activities as well as the monthly launches: thank you for your hard work. We are a volunteer club that will only survive based on member engagement.

 

See you at the next launch!

 

Matt Barton

QRS President