Something interesting on Maryland eastern shore 1-10-09

[THier]

One of my hobbies is high powered rocketry, I am not flying anything Saturday,, but the club I fly with  Maryland - Delaware Rocketry Assoc, (MDRA) is having their first annual christmas tree launch. I have seen many cool things launched,, but never an xmas tree. The launch is in Ingleside Maryland, 9Price MD is a little easier to find on a map. If you want to go watch let me know and I will get you better info.

Tom

[Brkeatr]

LOL....sounds like a pretty cool thing to witness Tom. If I didn't live so far away I would come and watch. What kind of rockets are they? I was wondering if they were like the Estes rockets or something different. Anyway, sounds interesting !!   

[THier]

We fly anything from 1/2 a Estes,, to very large stuff, I have a 90% harpoon anti-ship missile, it is 12" diameter, 16' tall and 180lbs on the pad, it flew on 3 M6000 motors, how powerful is 3 M motors? 180lbs pulled 9Gs at launch do the math.

This was our "Liberty Project" 30 feet tall, 1,000 lbs one "P" motor, two "O" and two "N" motors http://www.mdra-archive.org/photos/LibertyLaunch/liberty.html

Tom

[Alexander215]

You guys need to do a youtube segment!

[Brkeatr]

That's incredible Tom. I had no idea you could shoot off rockets that large. Do you need special permission from the State or Feds to do that sort of thing??   

[andrew]

Wow, that liberty rocket is giant.   That could easily be reported as  a UFO.

[Cam]

Man, that sounds badass. I wish I lived closer, I would love to see a Christmas tree go flying!

[THier]

That's incredible Tom. I had no idea you could shoot off rockets that large. Do you need special permission from the State or Feds to do that sort of thing??   

Propellant is classified as an "explosive" so you have to possess a "low explosive user permit" (LEUP). We have a 16,000 ft restriction by the FAA.

There is a Saturn V 1/10 scale that is supposed to be launched there sometime this spring. 36ft tall

Tom

[champ007]

That's incredible Tom. I had no idea you could shoot off rockets that large. Do you need special permission from the State or Feds to do that sort of thing??   

LOL, I shoot off my large rocket without a permit.... I'm a rebel 

[PeripheralxMvmnt]

That's incredible Tom. I had no idea you could shoot off rockets that large. Do you need special permission from the State or Feds to do that sort of thing??   

LOL, I shoot off my large rocket without a permit.... I'm a rebel 

Gotta love Champ, The Purveyor of Penis Jokes     

[Timmay]

LOL I was gonna say...which rocket you talking about ? LOL

[SlyHigh]

I'm an engineer for a private defense contractor.  We are one of two companies that makes rockets for the military.  It's cool to work on things that most people don't know much about.  It's pretty interesting science.

So yeah, I call myself a rocket scientist.

[Rafter]

LOL, I shoot off my large rocket without a permit.... I'm a rebel 

Champ, did you ever shoot it off with a Christmas tree attached?
 I'm a rebel too, but that's something I would never consider. You know laws in GA. are strictly inforced. You better get a permit before you launch another one of your rockets.

Tom, wish I could come up to Maryland for the launch. That should be a sight.