Announcements
Feb. 15 Launch Status - DEFERRED!
Team-1,
The forecast for Saturday is low clouds and snow all day. We will see how Feb. 22 looks next week.
Norm Nazaroff, TRA04812
Prefect, Michigan Team-1
Birch Run Site Update
Team-1,
We operate our launches with the knowledge that we are just one button press away from losing flight permission on our fields. While we had a good launch day last weekend, I pressed the button many times with that thought in mind. Now, complaints from a couple of neighbors caused our main benefactor to request that we move our launches elsewhere. He still supports our mission, but his desire to accommodate his neighbors has overridden his personal preference. We will no longer be launching from the Pitcairnia Rd. site. With the loss of the NW quadrant of the launch area due to sale, our site logistics were greatly degraded anyway.
Our other benefactor, with property a couple of miles north and half mile west of Pitcairnia, has agreed to give us permission to launch there. The new launch site is on Clausdale Road, ¼ mile south of Townline road, which is also ¾ mile north of Frye. It is an east-west oriented rectangular parcel ¾ mile wide and ½ mile high. Clausdale road roughly bisects the property North-South with 60% west of the road and 40% east. Getting there is easy: follow Frye road west past Bishop until it ends and turn right onto Clausdale. We can launch from the center of the property or from the road with lower flights. There is no ditch on the west side of the road so higher flights will come from an away pad as far west as is practical. We should be able to operate here similarly to how we operated on the old site. This site is surrounded by other farmers with whom I have not had contact or have been denied permission in the past, so we must be extremely careful with flights!
An identical parcel to our south has agreed to give us permission to retrieve ONLY after being contacted EACH time we enter and ONLY if he says it is OK, wishing to control access to his field depending upon ground conditions and whatever other factors he determines. We had permission from this farmer in the past, but he is nervous about it since a rocket landed near his house a couple of years ago. He would like us to treat his property as a ‘no permission’ area to the extent it is possible, but is somewhat understanding about wind anomalies.
The common thread is that the locals do not like the thought of rockets coming down near their house. It is all about perspective. While at Alkay, rockets often come down within 500 ft. of a house (which some do not appreciate) and sometimes in a yard or on a roof! At Birch Run they are concerned when a rocket comes down a quarter mile away! It is so wide open that they can see everything, and whatever they can see concerns them. In order to continue our mission, we must respect their concerns and do our best to stay out of their sight and limit our fall radius. I will be instituting a set of RSO/LCO verification rules in an attempt to do better in that area. More to come on that later.
In conclusion, we are still good to fly on 2/15, weather permitting, but our maximum allowable altitude will be in the 5k range to limit risk until I can build a bigger coalition of landowners in that area. I continue to look at other areas as well, but it will take some time for outreach and paperwork to catch up. I will have the website updated this weekend. In the mean-time, the overriding theme of all of our future launches must be ‘Closest to the Pad’!
Norm Nazaroff, TRA04812
Prefect, Michigan Team-1
Feb 1 Launch Status is a GO!!
Team-1,
It looks like we will have good weather this Saturday! Just below freezing temp, wind about 8 MPH gusting to 13 from the ENE with roughly 50% open sky for most of the day. Higher flights should plan for earlier as the cloud cover increases as the afternooon wears on.
Plan to park north of the field access point where we willl have the trailer setup, entering Pitcairnia from Sloan Rd. Scheduled time for setup is 9am at the field. The faster we get setup, the better today, so please plan to come early and help.
Those interesed in breakfast at Cracker Barrel can meet me there at about 7:15am. Trailer and gear pickup from Alkay is at 8:15.
Jay Calvert of www.impulse-buys.com will not likely be there, so bring your stash of engines for those in need. I will be available for L2 cert tests as needed.
Bundle up warm and dress in layers, I hope to see you all there!
Norm Nazaroff, TRA04812
Prefect, Michigan Team-1
1 - 3 of 18
Events
Birch Run Launch - 17,124 AGL
Date 3/15/2025
Alternate Date 3/22/2025
At Birch Run Field Altitude Up To 17,214 AGL, exact value TBD by Prefect