Author Archives: CORSA_COMM

High power rocketry (HPR) is a challenge and thrill for newcomers to rocketry and those with some rocketry experience.

Learning the basics with low power rockets (LPR – class “E” motors and below), then moving up to mid power (MPR – “F and “G” class motors), before attempting high power rocketry can help ensure success. High power rockets use big motors (class “H” and above) and require advanced construction techniques. Those can be learned with experience on smaller scales, but CORSA can assist you at any level.

HPR systems and payloads can include electronics to control parachute deployment, record altitude and other data, track location, among myriad other applications. The challenges in HPR are limited only by your imagination!

CORSA will help you with Jr, L1, and L2 certifications

We encourage you to attend a club meeting to meet us and ask questions. We can team you with a member who is HPR certified to act as a mentor, if you like. 

Certification candidates must first become a member of the NAR. You should then become familiar with the high power rocketry information on the NAR web site. Certification procedures for all levels can be found here. Junior, L1, and L2 candidates must take an online test – study guides and tests are on the NAR.org website.

Getting Started

For the greatest chance for success, a kit designed for certification is your best bet. Check with eRockets in Dayton, or order online from companies like Apogee Components, LOC Precision, Chris’ Supplies, or Wildman Rocketry. The Apogee website has a wealth of how-to videos and articles on rocket construction and many other rocket subjects.

When you have constructed your rocket and are ready to fly, you can make your certification launch attempt with us at our HPR launch site. Contact CORSA ahead of the launch to let us know your intention to certify. 

Bring with you the required NAR certification paperwork, and a report from Open Rocket (free) or Rocksim, showing the CP location and the predicted performance. Mark the CP on the rocket, and be prepared to answer questions about the rocket’s construction and stability. Our certification team, including your mentor, will inspect your rocket before and after flight, and complete the paperwork. 

High power motors can be purchased directly from one of the local vendors, or you could arrange with a certified club member to acquire a motor. Ordering motors from online vendors can be done, but will require expensive HAZMAT shipping fees. Local vendors are Dayton Rocketry and  Merlin Missiles; they each attend many of our HPR launches

Direct your questions to HPR_cert_team@centralohiorocketry.org.

The calendar events page was hard to keep up-to-date, so we’ve dropped it, with Upcoming Events on the Home tab as a replacement. If that is unsatisfactory, let us know!

Wednesday, September 3

It was a little windy, but the only loss was a Double Ringer glider that just sailed. There were just three of us, until Stephanie brought Isabelle, William, and Lee to see what we were doing. Science class field trip!

CORSA Meetings will now be on the second Wednesday of each month.

Everyone is welcome to attend. We discuss CORSA business such as launch plans and outreach projects, as well as general rocketry topics. We begin gathering at 6:30, but the meeting doesn’t start in earnest until 7:00.

Westerville Public Library
126 S State St
Westerville, Ohio 43081
Check Home Page for Room

Come to learn and share about hobby rocketry!

Thanks to the generous offer of Jim Case to use his field, CORSA has received permission to launch High Power Rockets (HPR)! We’re very excited about this, and hope that you can attend at least one of our HPR launches and share our excitement. Low Power Rockets use engines up to ‘D’ impulse. Mid Power Rockets use ‘E’ through ‘G’ motors. High Power Rocketry uses motors ‘H’ impulse and above. Since the total impulse doubles with each letter increment, ‘H’ motors are 32 times as powerful as a ‘C’ motor. The largest motors we’ll see at our planned launches will be ‘L’ impulse – loud, fast, and high flights!

Case Farms field is located at 3297 Panhandle Rd, Delaware, OH 43015. There’s a long gravel lane, please drive slowly, and be aware of the railroad crossing (it has no signals!) Trains may occasionally block the lane; be patient, and it will be cleared. Parking will be ample, in the gravel lot among the buildings, and to the right of the lane past them. We will have a port-a-john on site.

We’ll have two HPR pads, with 1″ (1010) rail; two MPR pads, with 1/4″ rods; and 6 or 12 LPR pads with 1/8″ and 3/16″ rods. Our waiver will be to 6,000′ AGL, starting at 11:00, and continuing until at least 2:00. We’ll be flying under NAR rules, so commercial motors only.

We will still launch at Freedom Park too, but we want to take advantage of this wonderful field while we have the opportunity. Our planned HPR 2025/2026 schedule is TBD.

As always, our launches are highly weather-dependent. So check this website for updates the night before each launch.

Our May launch was a great success! It was pretty breezy, so we could not launch anything very high. And we only launched 26 times. But I think everyone who was there would agree, that it was a fantastic day. Several of the High Point Elementary students that we met with on their Super Saturday came and had great questions, and marveled at each rocket launched. We handed out rocket kits to Ryan, Walter, Nora, Eli, Tyler, Wes, and Elias. We still have more of the Balsa Machining Service “School Rocket” kits for any of the students who were able to attend our May launch.

Impulse Report:

• 1 – 1/2 A
• 12 – A
• 12 – B
• 1 – C

No rockets were lost, despite the ~15 mph winds. The one C motor that flew was in a saucer style rocket that doesn’t go very high or drift very far.

Thanks to everyone who attended! Especially to our new visitors, but also to my fellow CORSA members who helped make it a wonderful day!

Of course, the weather is beyond our control – all that we can do is to try to work around it. We knew that bad weather was coming, but early on, it looked like it would hold off until 2:00. As we were setting up, though, the forecast and radar showed storms arriving near noon. We have a lightning detector which shows how far away the strikes are, which gives warning before we can even see the lightning – if we see lightning, we clear the field immediately.

So we launched as soon as we could, and kept a close eye on the approaching storm. I haven’t counted yet, but I think we launched about 24 times. We heard some thunder, and decided it was time to quit. Perhaps we should have quit a little earlier, because even though we were rapidly closing up our launch operation, it started raining before we had everything stowed in our vehicles. We got drenched! But it was a good day anyway.

Well, it was windier than we like, but within the requirements of the NAR model rocket safety code – so we launched…

And it was a great day! We launched 88 times – our busiest launch day yet. And what a fabulous bunch of kids to fly rockets with! They had great questions, and great rockets. Check out the photos in our gallery – and if you have some to add, let us know.

That wrapped up our home launch schedule for 2021 – but we’ll be back at Freedom Park next year!

Our hosting service has discontinued the software we’d been using to maintain our mailing list – it’s now a manual process. So, if you’d like to join (or be removed from) our mailing list, please send an email to info@centralohiorocketry.org. We mostly use the list to remind our friends of upcoming launches and meetings.

Our April launch was a great success. We had 63 launches: 1x 1/2 A, 10 x A, 29 x B, 17 x C, 3 X D and 4 x E motors. One of those was a two motor cluster of A8-3s.

Our altitude contest was loads of fun, and had keen participation. Alex somehow squeezed 526 feet out of a B6-4, and won the prize. Bob came in second, with 490 feet. The first attempt was Ed’s – and his try was marred by a shift in CG, followed by a flight directly into the woods, never to be seen again!

Our March launch was fantastic! The weather was near perfect – winds aloft were negligible when we started, but picked up a little as the day continued. We had a great turnout, with many visitors, and we had a great time!

Motor Impulse used:
1/2A 1
A 12
B 19
C 9
D 7
E 2

There were a few interesting payloads, including Moana, some altimeters, and some cameras. The cameras were the new Estes AstroCam. Unfortunately, my luck with camera payloads continues, as my camera launches failed to record. I’m hoping that John’s video came out…

CORSA member Brennan has started a great rocketry podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1539351560

Check it out!

The September CORSA launch forecast was pretty good. But as soon as we got the launch site set up, the skies opened with rain. We took shelter in our tent, talked rockets, and watched the skies. After about an hour, our hopes were fading. But the rain did ease, and we thought we might at least get a few launches off before we succumbed. We quickly prepped and flew a few rockets during what looked like it would be a brief lull. But the rain didn’t start again. We didn’t have a huge turnout, but we had a great day.

Our next launch was a special launch. Cub Scout Pack 701 joined us on a day whose forecast was pretty marginal. We hoped for the best, and set up our launch site. We got rained on a few times – but we protected out gear and rocket fleets. The Scouts and their families had a great spirit, undamped by the rain, and patiently waited out a few interruptions. It paid off big time; we launched 65 times!

Thank you Pack 701 – we had a great day working with you!

This comic summarizes CORSA’s mission:
https://www.gocomics.com/redandrover/2018/02/04
The 1960s Space Race to the moon inspired me, and the other CORSA members old enough to have seen those amazing missions, to pursue science and engineering, at least as hobbies. Every rocket launch that we attend brings back at least a touch of that thrill that we got watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon. How can that be 50 years ago?!

It was hot! The breeze made the heat tolerable, but made the rocketry a little more challenging. We had pretty good luck though, and lost only one rocket to the wind.

Congratulations to Andrew on winning the Land The Eagle contest! And thanks to all the visitors who came to watch. I’ll try to get photos posted soon.

We had a very successful launch in June. The weather was good, surprisingly, but a little windy. And we had a lot of visitors! It was great to have them, and we hope to see them all again.

2x 1/8A (Micro Maxx)
1x 1/2A
8x A
14x B
1x C

Ohio weather has been unkind to us of late. I hope I’m not the only one who is frustrated with scrubbed launches – CORSA makes every effort to keep our launches safe!
We’ll scrub a launch if the weather would make it unsafe to be outdoors in a open field, though we do have and use a lightning detector, which gives advance warning of storms moving in. We won’t launch if the field is too muddy to set up without damaging the site.
We’ll also scrub if the weather would not comply with the NAR safety code. At Freedom Park, we don’t have a lot of room, so if winds are predicted to be consistently near the 20 MPH NAR limit, we’ll likely cancel the launch.
We can withstand a little rainfall or snowfall, but not steady precipitation.

Come out and launch with us!

The Columbus Clippers celebrated National Space Weekend again this year, and again invited CORSA to participate. We had a great time, and talked to lots of people about hobby rocketry. Kids were fascinated, and grown-ups remembered their days building and launching rockets.

Hobbyland donated kits for giveaways Saturday and Sunday. Lance won on Saturday, and Logan won Sunday. Congratulations!

Logan was our prize winner Sunday

Due to scheduling issues, we’ve canceled our November club launch. But instead, we plan to go to the November 11 Wright Stuff Rocketeers launch. Their launch site near Cedarville has a waiver to 10,000 feet. We hope to  see some great high power launches there.

Our third time launching rockets with Big Walnut Cub Scout Pack 701  was the best yet! We hope to see these scouts and their families at future launches.

We used the following motors:

30 – A
9 – B
4 – C

The scouts brought a wide variety of rockets, and they performed extremely well. We had several igniter failures; we’re planning additional study. The modern Estes igniters seem to occasionally burn, but fail to start the motor. A recent Sport Rocketry magazine article had a suggestion that we plan to try at our next launch.

We used the new launch rail that Chuck built – it worked and looked great! He has a few finishing touches to apply; it should be finished for our October launch.

David Nulter shot these photos:

In two years, it will have been 50 years since Neil Armstrong, representing all people of Earth, took a small step onto the surface of the moon. As a nine-year old, I was transfixed, glued to the TV, and hanging on every word about the mission that I could find to read. To this day, that experience affects my life.

We should commemorate that giant leap for humankind event as a club. We should all build models of the Saturn V, as many as we can muster. There are a variety of Saturn V models available, in a range of scales and detail. Find one (or several!) to suit your modeling skills, and get started.

The club owns a classic Estes Saturn V kit (Estes #1236 – kit K-36). Perhaps the best use of this would be as a club construction project? I’m open to suggestions.

I’ve started on my Dr. Zooch ant-scale Saturn V, have started planing my Estes Saturn V (#2157) construction, and have ordered an Apogee 1/70th scale Saturn V kit. Should keep me busy – think I’d have time to try the Sirius kit too?

We had a great couple of days at the Sunbury Community Library working with the summer program in a rocketry class. We built Semroc My Boid and Quest Payloader One kits, and discussed rocket science, safety, and construction techniques. It’s always encouraging to see the enthusiasm and curiosity of today’s youth!

Our launch on 7/14 had to be postponed due to wet conditions, but was fine for the rain date on 7/21. We had a great day, the kids and their families had a great time. One rocket that didn’t go together well failed our swing test, but that was a great learning experience. The other rockets all flew well, and recovered well.

We put a Quest How High altimeter into a payload section and flew it on a few of the Payloader Ones, with a variety of motors. We had the crowd guess what altitude would be achieved with each flight, and there were some pretty good guesses. On an A6-4, it got to 131 ft; on a B6-4, to 359 ft; and on a C6-5, it flew to 675 ft.

Club members flew some of our own rockets too. Below is a great photo of Curtis’s Maxi Alpha III lifting off. Thanks to all of the members who helped with the class!

photo by Curtis

We had a great meeting, planning for our upcoming launches and summer programs.

We spent a fair bit of time looking at the features of OpenRocket, especially the idea of minimal designs with just enough detail to get a good simulation.

Curtis and Erich showed off their projects underway.

And we installed Curtis Cox as our new Deputy Director.

With a pretty miserable weather forecast for 3/18, we’ve rescheduled our launch for the following weekend.

You’re invited to our model rocket launch at Freedom Park in Sunbury on Saturday, March 25. We’ll start at 11:00 AM, and will plan to finish around 2:00 PM.

Bring a rocket or a few; we will have plenty of launch pads, no need to bring yours. It’s not a very large field, but with little or no wind, most ‘C’ motor flights should recover nicely. Or just com and watch – feel free to ask questions!

We’re hoping that the weather is like some of the warm, sunny spring days we’ve seen already. We’ll brave some chilly temperatures, but wind or precipitation might change our plans. Check our website for updates as we watch the weather forecast, and email us if you have any questions!

See the event page: Spring Launch

The February meeting is canceled. See you in March!

We kicked off the new year with another great meeting. Due to scheduling changes at Otterbein, our meeting location has moved to room 204, in the same building as before. That will save us a couple flights of stairs; the exercise was good, but carrying armloads of stuff will be so much easier!

Kevin Rush was elected Recording/Financial Officer; Ed will transition the duties to him over the next several weeks.

Our February meeting falls on the 14th. This presents a scheduling conflict for the members who observe (or whose partners observe!) Valentines Day. We may cancel the February meeting. Final determination will be made by 2/7.

Some discussion about traveling to other club’s launches ensued. Ed will compile a list of locations and dates for further discussion. Curtis has suggested attending NARAM-59 in Muskegon, MI, 7/29 through 8/4. It’s less than 6 hours drive from central Ohio, and would certainly be interesting and fun. More discussion is in order.

Much of the meeting was spent discussing a generous donation from Doug Schmitt. He gave us well over a dozen kits that had been in his basement for a long time. Some are still sealed in original packaging, some have been opened, some partly assembled, and a few completed. There are some interesting classic kits that will be fantastic to fly. The kits that have been started will be distributed to interested members for completion. They and the already completed kits will be considered part of the club fleet, and flown at club launches and exhibitions. The remaining kits may be made available in exchange for donations to the club.

It was a cold and snowy night, but we had a great meeting. Ted Decker, a columnist with the Columbus Dispatch, visited and interviewed us about John Glenn’s influence on our lives and passions. We would have spent a lot of time discussing him anyway – he was a true American hero that we all admired. The article that Ted wrote was very well-written; it captured our discussion wonderfully, woven with a great biography of the astronaut.

We also talked about various construction and finishing techniques, including efforts to prevent zippering, and use of Kevlar shock cords. We discussed future launches, but decided against a December launch, based on an unpleasant weather forecast.

We welcomed a new member, Curtis, and talked about all facets of CORSA. We made plans for the  upcoming launch, and changed the start time from 10:00 to 11:00, hoping to avoid some of the morning chill. We also talked about launch fees at our club launches.

Ed encouraged the other members to use and become familiar with Open Rocket. We plan to post our design files to this website.

At our October meeting, the big news was that Lloyd Newman, the founder and director of CORSA, has had to step away from the club for personal reasons. Ed Hingsbergen was chosen to step in as new director.

We discussed our experience at the Cub Scout launch, and the things we can do to improve future launches. The 6-pad launcher we currently use is excellent; adding another 6-pad rack would speed up the prep during large launches. We also want to find a tent with sides for use during winter launches, and a PA.

At our meetings in April through September, we of course discussed business, and planned a couple launches. We also shared construction techniques and practices, and did some hands-on kit building. This was great experience, for both the beginners and the experienced model builders.