Black Knights News - 2009
23/04/09 - April's Flying Meeting
Well - we finally made it and got a successful flying day!! What a day it was too! The weather started out in our usual mode - with a breeze getting up and low cloud, but soon turned itself round and gave us the sort of day you dream about, light breeze, clear skies and sunshine.
Many thanks to those who turned up to fly and particularly to Colin McClaren who gave us a masterclass in flying Hybrids without the faff-factor and to Howard and his crew from PARS. Lots of new faces and a few visitors, too, which is always welcome.
Many successful certification flights were made, both at Level 1 and 2, most of which pushed the altitude limit TO the limit! I know that you need to keep things simple on a cert flight but dual deployment would really have saved some walking, fellas!
Let's try and have a good turn out for next month and see if we can keep hold of the good fortune and weather!
11/02/2009 - Fingers Crossed!
With only four days to go to the next scheduled flying day, I have to say that I have got everything crossed for a reasonable day. I am not asking for much - just a day that complies with the forecast - whatever it is!!
If all goes well we will be hosting a qualification day for any UKAYRoC teams that have yet to qualify, including our own junior team, so any RSO's that are available would be most welcome. The ground is going to be really soggy but we should be OK for a grey but cold day.
Let's have a good turn out and kick 2009 off to a better start.
27/01/2009 - The Weather Blight!
It's done it again! The forcast was for dire days, low viz and howling gales with hail showers! What we got was unlimited viz, both horizontally and vertically, calm winds and cold but sunny. My apologies to those who wanted to fly. With any luck we will get our day in February. In the mean time we will continue to build and perfect our latest creations. I am in the process of completing the Apogee Saturn V and hope to have it ready for flight in May or June. The junior members are ready to test fly their entry in this year's UKAYRoC and we may try to get that sorted out with an extra flying day. I will email all with availability as and when.
The website will be transferred over to a new server during next month. I am backing up all the system for safety and will do the neccesary as soon as I am happy with all the content. I may well try changing some of the layouts to a more wizzy system! I have the software - let's have some fun! I am also going to try and resurrect the Galleries, so our pictures can be shared.
Have fun!!
04/01/2009 - Happy New Year!!!!
Greetings to all members and visitors! The Black Knights Rocket Club would like to wish all its members and visitors a Happy New Year and we hope that it will be as prosperous and successful as you can make it.
The new dates have been posted on the calendar page, but are there as a guide only, at the moment, pending confirmation with the landowner. I hope to confirm this week. I also hope to be able to confirm dates when we can expect attendance from our trader friends - come on guys - give me some dates!!
There are several other trips and visits planned but I will post those when I have confirmation.
05/12/08 - Chairman's Message
Let me first say that I am sorry to have had to cancel the launch day scheduled for Sunday 7th but the ground is too waterlogged to be able to access safely.
It has been a pretty grim year for the club for a variety of reasons. The loss of the Milson site due to the withdrawal of access permissions shows just how precarious our postion is in terms of our hobby. Take one miss-informed farmer, add the machinations of a scheming neighbour and a well established rocketry club with an international reputation, virtually goes to the wall. To say it was set-back for the club would be an understatement. The search was on for a new flying site and it was not going to be easy, as most of you will know.
It took a lot of hard work, many phone calls and a lot of driving up and down country lanes, but we now have a large new site with a very accomodating land owner and the future is starting to look rosy again. Currently a full "K" class site, with a possible extension to cater for "M" class motors, the future is looking up! The junior section, trawled from my local school, has been making great progress in UKAYRoC and has a good chance of being up there again in the new season. We also have the availability of the workshops at my school for club use at weekends. Loads of possibilities for some hi tech projects!
We are looking to improve the club's facilities over the next few months and the new hybrid launch trailer should be ready for the new year. The aim is to have a self-contained launch platform that will cater for all brands of hybrid motors, as well as solids, up to and including "M" power. With a possible 18ft of launch rail we should be pretty future proof! The club caravan is to be gutted and turned into a mobile display and office for our club launches and for displays at weekend events. We have already had approaches from a number of event organisers for our services, based on the limited work we have been able to do this last year.
I hope that this is the start of a new era for the Black Knights Rocketry Club, and that we can get back to where we belong, as one of the leading rocketry clubs in the British Isles. We worked long and hard for it when we started up and through a number of people's unstinting efforts, together with a strong membership that was always supportive of any activities that were on offer, we built up a reputation as a club to be reckoned with. I am not aiming to lose that reputation, but a club is only as good as its main assets - YOU. I know that I can count on you, the members, to fully support BK and help me to take it forward into 2009.
I wsh you all a very Merry Christmas and, as far as possible, a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
Best Wishes and see you in 2009
Dave Beeton
Chairman - Black Knights Rocketry Club
20/11/08 - Updates, New Dates and Thank Yous!
Well - it's that time again! The time of the year when we should be thinking of new projects and how to keep warm during the icy blasts. Why then, do some of us turn up for flying days when the forecast says it might be dodgy? Yup! We did it again!
To say that this month's flying day was a wash out was slightly understated! It looked good to start with then clouded over and then got really bad! Back to plan B and a quick dash to the school for a workshop session. Many thanks to all those who turned up, including Richard and Phil from Rocket Store. I've got my cold weather bits and pieces, and, hopefully, a couple of lengths of PML 7.5 to come fairly soon!
We also had a visit from Angus, from Warwick Uni, who has been involving the junior section of the club, from the school, in some consultancy work, running some sims on the computer system to help with one of their courses.
For our December launch we may have some visitors from South Africa, weather depending, to see how we operate. They just happen to be over in UK at the start of the month and we hope to be able to make them welcome. They are members of a club in S.A.
The dates for next year will be sent out in the next few days and I will publish them on this site after the December date. If any one has any extra dates for me to put in the list, visits etc , please let me know soonest.
A nice surprise in the post today was a letter from the organisers of the Richard's Castle Soapbox Derby, thanking us for our presence at the last event back in July. They expressed their thanks for our "professional approach and fitting finale to the day's events". We hope to be back there next year and some extra support would be appreciated. Anyone available, nearer the time, please give me a call. We might even enter a vehicle! It's all in a good cause.
16/10/08 - We're back in business!!
OK - here we go again! After a bit of hassle with a change of server by our webhosting service we are now back in business and I can start to update the site again.
One bit of news is that Malcolm is now "up and about" again, if that's the right phrase. Shortly after I contacted him a few weeks ago, he had some sort of an accident and finished up with some severe broken bones and now contains more metal than Thunderbirds!
Sinc our last news update we have had two flying days at the new site and so far the future is looking pretty good to say the least. The amount of space that we have available,allied to the view from the high ground is superb. The only downside has been the shortage of parking area but hopefully that can be resolved. The club caravan has been moved to a closer location and that will act as our flight office, loo and catering centre.
I have had a promise from The Rocket Store that they will be offering a 10% discount at the November launch date and it has been great to have had them attend the launches to date. I just wish it didn't do so much damage to my credit limit!!
28/7/08 - Altitude News
Having just received an email from the CAA, and announced that the Oxhill site was, in fact, in Class G airspace with a theoretical limit of 19,500 amsl, I then had a phone call to tell me it was a mistake!!! This was not the good news that I was hoping to give everyone, so the motor limit stays, as currently set, at K-class. I am still negotiating with a couple of land-owners to try and extend even further to allow larger motors to be used.
AUS-0ps have confirmed our radius of operation as 2 nm from the launch point, although UKRA rules will still limit that area.
A NOTAM has been requested for the next meeting, 17th August, with a limit of 7,500 ft agl. We hope to be able to ask for higher altitudes, within reason, as required. The CAA are going to try and negotiate, on our behalf, with Birmingham ATC.
Advance notice (>28 days) will be required if launches are expected to breach standard operating heights.
16/7/08 - Flying Meeting, 20/07/08
Our first meeting at the Oxhill site will go ahead on Sunday, 20th July. I've had confirmation that Richard Brown will be bringing the Rocket Store shop to the meet, with lots of AP and goodies to sell. Hopefully Paul will be there with Congreve. Start time will be 10.30-ish and duration will, obviously, depend on the weather. Fingers crossed for a great day.
14/07/08 - New site and Flamer 2008
At last we can look forward to our first launch at our new site. This next meeting should have been our Flamer meeting for this year but it has been decided that it would not be fair to the farmer to descend on him en-masse with a full on flying weekend as the very first time that he has the chance to meet us! To that end we are reducing the Flamer to a single day, on the Sunday, so that he can get used to us in a more sensible manner. Once we have established our operational requirements we can negotiate a full weekend for later on.
Details of next meeting will be circulated to all on the current mailing list. To be added to the list please email me at the addy on the contacts pages.
19/04/08 - Site Search Update
After a couple of dead-ends, I have had some better news this morning. Following on from a chance visit to a local farm I have got an invite to go back for a return visit to look over the area with the owner. It's a largely arable farm site, close to my school, but easily accessible from the motorway, for those in the North. It looks to be a K class site and Chris puts the altitude limits at around 6500. I am going to check on that soonest. More to come on that later.
Set-up for tomorrow will be at 10.30. I would appreciate confirmation of attendance or otherwise.
10/04/08 - Website Updates and Latest News
After a bit of a battle with some new software I have managed to sort out the Launch Dates and now the News pages on the site! Hopefully that will result in me being able to keep up to date with all the news. I am going to remove some of the older launch reports from the site, if any one wants copies, I will put them on a CD and I can email them out to members.
Next Flying Day
The next flying day is on, weather permitting. I will place any updates on this page.
New Site
I was hoping to have some good news about the search for a new site but to no avail. I was hoping to be able to gain access to a local airfield but the current users do not want to play ball with us! The search goes on!
UKAYRoC 2008
I'm pleased to say that the lads in the "Junior" section of BK, ie the members of my school rocket club, managed to qualify for the Final. Unfortunately they were unable to improve their flying performance on the day, due to the weather conditions, having to put on a presentation as part of the "wet-weather" routine. They are already talking about next year - what ever the competition, so it hasn't dampened their enthusiasm. Great try, Lads. We are proud of you!
Email Mailing List Update
I need to update the email mailing lists so can you contact me via the links on the contact page, with your latest email addresses? The list that I have is definintely not totally correct and I keep getting bounced mails and non-delivery warnings.
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