The launch on November 14th went well. The weather ended up being nearly perfect -- it was mostly sunny at the start of the launch and was overcast by the end of the launch. The temperature was in the upper 50's to low 60's. The winds were light around 10 mph and they dropped as the day went on, to around 5 mph.

   We had 35 launches for the day, with a total of 645.5 Newtons. That was the largest number of rockets launched at a single launch this year. The most prolific rocketeers for the day were Mark Grisco with 13 launches, followed by Dennis McAuliff with 12 launches, and Bill Stearns who launched a total of 203 Newtons. For further details on who launched what, you can check out the launch logs.

   The launch was attended by Darren Morton, Mark Grisco, Dennis McAuliff, Bill Stearns, and Jim Finks. You can see pictures from the launch in the photo gallery. Jim Finks brought out his helicopter. It is very impressive and he pilots it very well. We had many great launches and a lot of very long walks. Among them, Darren Morton launched his Loc Precision Lil' Nuke on an Aerotech G40-10 to around 3000 feet. He also launched his Estes Mercury Redstone a couple of times, which looks great launching with its slow liftoffs.

   Bill Stearns launched his Aerotech Mustang on an Aerotech F12-5, which is a perfect motor for the Mustang with lots of smoke and slower lift-off than what you normally see with a Mustang. He also launched his Estes Big Daddy on an Estes E9-6 with some not so good results. The ejection charge went off but failed to eject the nose cone, so the rocket came in and actually hit a sidewalk. You can see the results in the launch gallery. The rocket actually hit a joint in the sidewalk and stuck there. I have never seen a rocket come in and end up like this one did. Bill also launched his Estes Blue Ninja a few times on Estes E9-4 motors and had some very long walks to recover the rocket.

   Mark Grisco had many good launches for the day, among them was his Apogee Aspire on an Estes C6-5. The rocket flew great but landed a bit hard with only a streamer for its recovery. He also launched a Dr. Zooch Ares 1-X on an Estes C6-7 motor. This is a very nice looking rocket and also flew great. Dennis McAuliff also had many good launches. Among them, an Estes Hi-Flier on an Estes C6-5 motor. The rocket was actually recovered and launched again later on an Estes A8-3 motor. He also launched his Estes X-Prize Canadian Arrow and X-Prize Rubicon both on Estes D12-5 motors. There was a great variety of rockets launched for the day with good results for the most part. Everyone who attended had a great time.

   I am not sure when the next launch will be. If we get very lucky, we will have a launch on Saturday, December 12th from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm. If we don't have a launch in December, we will probably not be launching again until March or April of 2010. If this was our last launch for the year, I want to thank everyone who made it out there this year and hope everyone had a fun year. I hope everyone comes back out to launch with us next year again and maybe we can get a few more people to come out and join us.

   Also, continue to check out the website for any updates about the club and feel free to email me with any suggestions you might have on improving the club. Thanks again to everyone for making this a successful year for the club.

Dennis McAuliff -President