Come watch us fly ‘Big Yeller’, on Sunday May 24th. We will be setting up and preparing the rocket starting around 10:00 a.m. The rocket takes some time to prep, so be patient. When the rocket is set to go, we will launch as soon as possible. The prep process should probably take a couple hours.
If weather is not good, Monday the 25th is our alternate launch date.
Photos of the nozzle for Big Yeller before assembling the motor.
Here is a proposed press release for the planned Memorial Day Launch of Big Yeller.
200lb Rocket Scheduled to Launch at North Branch Sod Farm
Tripoli MN (www.tripolimn.org) is hosting a rocket launch this Memorial Day weekend at the Harley sod farm located just east of North Branch, Minnesota. There is a rumor going around that there will be an 18 ½’ tall rocket weighing about 200lbs scheduled for the event, According to President, Dave Leininger. This will be one of the biggest rockets ever flown at this location and has an expected altitude of about 14,000ft. The public is invited so check their web site for directions and bring a lawn chair if you would like to witness this auspicious event. “This should be the event of the season” according to Dave and he expects a large crowd for the event. During the summer months Tripoli MN hosts a monthly launch the second Saturday of each month May through November at this same location. “At a typical launch we launch around a hundred rockets varying in size from the small Estes type rockets all the way up to the big bruisers” Dave told us. “You never know what to expect, when we have a good day we can have flights up to 12,000ft 2 or 3 times a day with many other High Powered flights ranging anywhere from a 1,000ft or more” he explained.
This isn’t the first time that this rocket has took flight, as a matter of fact it’s last flight was this past September in the little town of Argonia, Kansas known best for hosting the Tripoli National Launch known as, LDRS. Before that she took flight in the Black Desert located at a remote dry lakebed in Nevada. This year this ambitious team of Minnesotans plans to fly a rocket to over 60,000ft in the Nevada desert. Dave told us that the rocket that they are building will be almost 14’ long and 6″ in diameter holding about 75lbs of fuel and should easily break mach 2. “We should have had this rocket done last year but due to injuries to the main designing engineer it was pushed back to this year’s event” explained Dave. Along with the Minnesota team there are many other teams and individuals that go to this remote spot every year to test their designs at a place so remote that the FAA will allow flights up to 100,000ft. This event is called BALLS, for obvious reasons, and that is where you will see some of the biggest and baddest projects put together by anybody short of the real pros. Dave told us that a rocket achieved an altitude of over 93,000ft at this very same spot just 3 years ago and was followed up by two flights the following two years that went over 80.00ft.
For more information on the upcoming launch or how to join the Tripoli MN club please visit our web site www.tripolimn.org. To find out more about our national organizations or find a club near you look into www.tripoili.org or www.nar.org for more information. To watch the progress of upcoming projects designed and built by the daring young, or maybe not so young, men that brave the desert southwest you should take a peek at our newest group www.umerg.org. Come join the fun and exhilaration of High Powered Rocketry, you won’t find a better group of people anywhere. Remember that big or small we fly’em all at Tripoli Minnesota.
