The last official launch of the year for TripoliMN was back in October, but we were planning on one last experimental launch in November.  The weather dashed our hope two weekends in a row so those of us that aren’t planning to leave MN this winter will have a long wait until the Fire on the Farm launch next spring.

The winter months are a great time to finish up projects that just didn’t make it to the pad, and to build new projects for next year.  Personally, I just got into rockets in May this year.  I feel like I’ve been scrambling all year to get something ready for each launch date.  I’m looking forward to these winter months to build some rockets with a lot of attention to detail.

The future is bright!  We have a great core group of people who want to build and fly large projects.  We’ll be well represented at a number of the big launches this year, and we have a couple new projects in the works.

Our Fleet for 2009:

• Big Yeller – This rocket has flown several time and will fly again.  When and where are still to be determined, but we’re planning on flying it at our home field in North Branch early in the 2009 Minnesota rocket season.
• Locomotive Breath – This is a brand new project.  We’re planning to fly it at BALLS this year if not before.  It’s a whole lot of motor with some fins and a nose cone thrown in for good measure.
• Flying Red Bull Table of Death – It’s a table, it’s a rocket, watch it fly.
• Yet to be name Keg Lofter

Launches our members are planning to attend:

• Winter Nationals 2009
  (Palm Beach Count, Florida)
• Fire on the Farm 2009
  (Pickrell, Nebraska)
• Rocket Mavericks 2009 International Civilian Space Competition
  (Black Rock, Nevada)
• LDRS 28
  (Penn Yan, New York)
• BALLS 18
  (Black Rock, Nevada)
• Tripoli Minnesota (monthly club launches)
  (North Branch, Minnesota)

Since it’s inception in the Spring of 2008, UMERG has flown a few rockets and attended a few launches.  Hopefully the folks that participated in those flights will post more info here.  For now, here is the list:

Launches we’ve attended in some manor:

• Fire on the Farm 2008
  (Pickrell, Nebraska)
• Rocket Mavericks 2008 International Civilian Space Competition
  (Black Rock, Nevada)
• LDRS 27
  (Argonia Kansas)
• BALLS 17
  (Black Rock, Nevada)
• Tripoli Minnesota (monthly club launches)
  (North Branch, Minnesota)

Rockets we’ve flown as a group:

• Big Yeller
• Totally Screwed (this was actually flown before UMERG was formed, but those who participated in that project became the original members of UMERG.