February 2023 meeting

by Joel Cool-Panama, Secretary, RRS.ORG


The Reaction Research Society held its monthly meeting at the Compton/Woodley Airport location, February 10th, at 7:30 PM PST.

Agenda topics of the meeting were:

  • Pyro-op licenses. New applications, test materials, CALFIRE website list, renewal period reminder.
  • Newman motor pouring class interest
  • Outreach
  • CALFIRE Rocket subcommittee
  • Bill Claybaugh
  • Jim Gross meet up in San Fernando Valley for electrical firing video
  • Symposium
    • Entrance fee
  • Larry Hoffing

Past Events

On January 22nd, 2023, we hosted another work event at the MTA. The work event was productive, but the electrical and septic work are not yet done. More support during the work week was requested, and another event was scheduled for February 19th.

Keith Yoerg held a firing event at the MTA on January 28th. He, Leanna Lincoln, Rushd Julfiker, Jim Gross, and Michael Rouleau attended. Keith recorded videos of the event, including slow motion footage, of the four micrograin standard alpha rockets they fired. Larry briefly went over methods for cleaning out alpha rocket propellant tubes as a part of the discussion.

FAR’s liquid rocket symposium on the same day, January 28th, at the Flabob Airport in Riverside was a success, having about two hundred persons in attendance. Videos and presentations from the event are currently hosted on Mark Ventura’s website.

The society is pleased to announce the new Constitution has officially been ratified. While there were no opposing votes, the fact is that a majority of society members did not vote on the matter.

On February 6th, the executive council discussed the new website. We currently expect that the site will launch by the first of March. As of now, we are seeking tax exempt status from Paypal, in order to reduce the cut of our donations which they take. We also need to archive the old website.

Regarding our April symposium, we are currently leaning strongly towards holding the event at the Mary Star of the Sea High School in San Pedro, which has approved the event. It should be noted that the location has good parking, and might provide food for the event. We also discussed holding a class on their football field.

Current Events

The Society is pleased to announce that Keith Yoerg is currently getting his recommendation letters for a Class 2 Rockets pryo-op license. Wolfram is also undertaking the process for obtaining a license, and Michael Rouleau is considering it as well.

For any others who might be interested in obtaining a pyro-op license, it was mentioned that the lowest grade license, Class 3 Rockets, doesn’t require recommendations from fellow license holders. Instead, recommendations from any non-related person as to your character will suffice.

John Newman’s solid motor pouring class at the FAR site was also mentioned at the meeting. He is going to be hosting the class on the first and third Saturday’s of March. So far, nearly ten society members have shown interest in attending.

Society vice president, Frank Miuccio was pleased to announce his first class in a year at Nickerson Gardens. The class demonstrated straw rockets and Newton’s three laws of motion.

Society treasurer Larry Hoffing attended the last CALFIRE Rocket subcommittee in Dave’s place. Mark Holthaus of FAR and David Reese of ROC have been giving a lot of good guidance to CALFIRE regarding laws governing rocketry which will be taken for legislative review this year in Sacramento. Based on some language seen in a recent draft, society president Dave Nordling had strong reservations against manually relieving pressurized tanks which should be avoided by design on rockets and remote releases should be mandated instead. This will be mentioned in further meetings at the committee.

Bill Claybaugh continues to prepare for a late April launch and may need to use the MTA again in the near future.

Future Events

Jim Gross is still planning to watch some educational videos with members of the society. The location was set for his home in Northridge, but the possibility of an online meeting, potentially through Zoom, was discussed.

The date and time for the society symposium has been set for April 15th, 8am to 5pm. The society discussed using the preceding Friday evening to set up for the event. The ordering of exhibits was discussed as well, and it was suggested that universities be allotted later presentation times, as well as big ticket exhibits. A limit of twenty minutes and twenty slides was suggested for each exhibit, but it was suggest that this number of slides was in excess of the time alotment. There was also brief discussion of holding a launch at the event.

The subject of fundraising at the Symposium was also discussed. It was suggested that some or all visitors pay an entrance fee, but it was mentioned that another society encountered issues when they sought to do the same. It was suggested that the society could have a dedicated RRS table to collect donations which would require constant monitoring. It was also suggested that donations might help cover expenses and the need for cleanup volunteers after the event was mentioned.

The CALFIRE Subcommittee has deliberated on some new rules. Among them are a requirement that blockhouses have two layers of sandbags on their roof or the equivalent to slow down projectiles. Although the idea is not new, there is some question about the exact and specific need of sandbags to provide adequate protection versus other means of construction providing similar or even superior protection.

Larry Hoffing needs a blueprint for a new blockhouse which Chris Lujan is to assist with. It should be noted that the contractor who worked on the septic system is a mason, and could be asked for assistance when time requires.

Following the completion of the restroom, the next project which the society wishes to tackle is the creation of a sixty-foot launch rail for liquid propellant rockets. Many universities have requested this and Mark Holthaus of FAR may be able to give us the design for the one used at FAR.

Another potential future project is the surplus LNG container that the society owns. While it isn’t ready for use and requires some refurbishment, some groups to the MTA have inquired about our capacity to deal with LNG. The society will need someone to work this project.

The next society meeting will be on March 10th, 2023. Contact the secretary for details.


80th Anniversary RRS Symposium

by Dave Nordling, President, RRS.ORG


The Reaction Research Society is pleased to announce we will be holding our 80th anniversary space and rocketry symposium on Saturday, April 15, 2023. Invited speakers are from universities, government agencies and local industries. We will have exhibitions and demonstrations throughout this all day event starting at 8AM and ending at 5PM.

Mary Star High School, San Pedro, California

The symposium will be held at the Mary Star High School in San Pedro, California.

https://goo.gl/maps/112MqaEXF6VSqM3GA

More details will be forthcoming including our list of speakers and our fundraising projects.

The society had a successful series of symposiums from 2017 through 2019 until the pandemic forced us to cancel the 2020 Symposium. After three years, we’ve decided to relaunch just in time to celebrate eight decades as an educational and research focused organization. The prior symposium was such a success that we have already begun to confirm speakers including Aerospace Corporation, Northrop Grumman, Ventura Energy Systems, Cal Poly Pomona, CALFIRE and the FAA.

Contact our vice president, Frank Miuccio, for information. We look forward to sharing our past, present and plans for the future at the symposium.

vicepresident@rrs.org


RRS attended the 1st annual FAR Liquid Rocket Symposium

by Dave Nordling, President, RRS.ORG


Representatives of the Reaction Research Society were invited to attend the 1st annual Friends of Amateur Rocketry (FAR) liquid propellant rocket symposium at the EAA Chapter 1 headquarters at the Flabob Airport in Riverside, California, on January 28, 2023. Dimitri Timohovich and I came to observe and participate in the all-day event including a range of topics related to safe design and operations with liquid rockets. There were hardware demonstrations giving attendees a direct appreciation for the importance of safety and careful planning with their system designs.

The intended audience was university rocket teams looking for best practices and expert advice. Mark Holthaus (president of FAR), Mark Ventura (RRS member and owner of Ventura Energy Systems) and Derek Honkawa (FAR member and private business owner) all gave excellent presentations covering igniters, propellant handling, part cleaning, and pressure system safety with a generous amount of examples of successful and unsuccessful projects at FAR.

FAR will soon make their presentation files available on their website for download. The RRS was glad to be there for this first of its kind event.

The RRS similarly has experts that have supported liquid rocket projects for decades at the Mojave Test Area. Contact the RRS president for requests and scheduling.

Also, the RRS will be holding our 80th anniversary symposium on April 15th at a venue location to be announced soon. This will be our first symposium since the pandemic and we look forward to having many speakers from industry, government, academia and the hobbyist community on topics related to liquid propellant rockets and many other subjects of interest to our public audience.

Sunrise at the Flabob Airport in Riverside, California.
For early cold mornings, coffee helps.
Pressurized water flow testing rig on display.
A full day of presentations on topics related to liquid rockets.