Wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas!

The next monthly S.E.A.R.S. Launch is Saturday December 11th at Samson, AL. We setup at 8:30 AM, the waiver opens for launches at 9:00 AM. We usually go until about 4:00 PM. Beginners are welcome. Bring the whole family!. Everyone is also invited to Crews BBQ in Samson after the launch. For more info see http://www.sears572.com/sears-launch-info

Dec 11, 2010

• General: Drag Race day
• Youth: Decorate a rocket for Christmas
• Challenge: Drag race a matched rocket and motor with a friend
• Advanced: Drag race H or larger rockets

Use a green flight card for any rocket in drag race and you will entered for a drawing from the prize pool.

The next monthly S.E.A.R.S. Launch is Saturday November 13th at Samson, AL. We setup at 8:30 AM, the waiver opens for launches at 9:00 AM. We usually go until about 4:00 PM. Beginners are welcome. Bring the whole family!. Everyone is also invited to Crews BBQ in Samson after the launch. For more info see http://www.sears572.com/sears-launch-info

Nov 13, 2010

• General: Cluster Day
• Youth: Paint a rocket the same color as a pumpkin
• Challenge: Modify a rocket to take three motors instead of one
• Advanced: Cluster 7 or more motors

Use a green flight card for any Cluster rocket and you will entered for a drawing from the prize pool.

The next monthly S.E.A.R.S. Launch is Saturday October 16th at Samson, AL. We setup at 8:30 AM, the waiver opens for launches at 9:00 AM. We usually go until about 4:00 PM. Beginners are welcome. Bring the whole family!. Everyone is also invited to Crews BBQ in Samson after the launch. For more info see http://www.sears572.com/sears-launch-info

Oct 16, 2010

• General: Odd Roc Day
• Youth Build and fly an Applewhite 13mm saucer
• Challenge: Build an totally original Odd Roc
• Advanced: Fly an rocket on K or larger motor

Use a green flight card for any Odd rocket and you will entered for a drawing from the prize pool.

Note this launch is the third Saturday instead of the usual second Saturday of the month. This is due to the PMW ROCKTOBER SKIES  launch.

The next monthly S.E.A.R.S. Launch is Saturday September 11th at Samson, AL. We setup at 8:30 AM, the waiver opens for launches at 9:00 AM. We usually go until about 4:00 PM. Beginners are welcome. Bring the whole family!. Everyone is also invited to Crews BBQ in Samson after the launch. For more info see http://www.sears572.com/sears-launch-info

Sep 11, 2010

•         General: Patriot Day (Fly any patriotic rocket)
•         Youth: decorate a patriotic rocket (red white & blue)
•         Challenge: fly a red motor, white motor and blue motor during the day
•         Advanced: fly a red motor, white motor and blue motor on one rocket

Use a green flight card for any patriotic rocket and you will entered for a drawing from the prize pool.

Location: Green’s Sod Farm, Samson, AL

Author: Russ Roberts

  Our annual Boost Glider event was a hot one with very little wind. Most members flew a glider of some sort. The Edmonds pop-pod gliders were the most popular and always perform well. We got some great hang time and may have benefitted from thermal activity at a few spots.

  The launch was well attended by our younger members who kept the low power pads busy all day long. Kids always make the launches more enjoyable because their excitement and enthusiasm is contagious. Ben White had a great 2 stage flight with an Estes Mongoose. Seth’s Metalizer blinded us with its chrome brilliance. Bentley had so much fun, that his dad had to carry him away to get him to leave the launch. Alexa Stetson sold sno-cones that were greatly appreciated by all flyers suffering from the heat. Drake took frequent flyer award with 9 launches working up to E motors. William Thorne provided invaluable recovery assistance with his keen rocket tracking eyes, and saved us from quite a few long walks by fetching our rockets.

  Angel and Patty Huet from the University of South Alabama showed up to prepare for a student rocketry competition. We loaned them some rockets and showed them how to fly. They’ll probably be back when their project is ready for testing.

  Thanks to a NAR safety grant, we now have a set of fire swatters. Hopefully we won’t ever need them, but they’ll be on the trailer just in case.

  My 29mm mongoose flew into the sun and was not found. The (soybean?) crop is now over a foot high, and will hide smaller rockets that would have been easy to spot if they were lying on the sod. I will start flying my tracker more often and am going to get an audible beacon for smaller rockets.

  Photos have already been posted to the gallery, so I won’t recount who flew what; the pictures tell the story. Greg Lane’s Applewhite 54mm Stealth was the flight of the day. This huge draggy odd-roc has a slow liftoff that really amplifies the noise and smoke from the K-550 motor. Tumble recovery on a HPR just doesn’t seem right, but it works well and makes for a short recovery walk.

Russ brought one of the most impressive rockets yet. It is a plastic model conversion of an F104 and had a successful flight!

See more F104 pictures and the rest of the launch pictures in our gallery.

The next monthly S.E.A.R.S. Launch is Saturday July 10th at Samson, AL. We setup at 8:30 AM, the waiver opens for launches at 9:00 AM. We usually go untill about 4:00 PM. Beginners are welcome. Bring the whole family!. Everyone is also invited to Crews BBQ in Samson after the launch. For more info see http://www.sears572.com/sears-launch-info

Jul 10, 2010

•  General: Glider Day
• Youth: Bring a hand glider and fly it
• Challenge: Glider Duration
• Advanced: Fly an glider with 24 inch wingspan or greater (Maybe R/C)

Use a green flight card for any glider rocket and you will entered for a drawing from the prize pool.

Location: Green’s Sod Farm  Author: Russ Roberts

  We had great flying weather with no winds or rain. Many members stayed home due to the heat, but turnout was better than expected. All adult members flew at least one HPR.

  Our monthly event was staged rockets. Greg Lane had the LPR flight of the day with an Edmonds Cici stage 2 glider. The booster glided back as the upper stage glider powered on. Both gliders circled back for a smooth landing. My Omega disappeared in the trees making it my 3^rd to be lost at Samson. The booster always comes back, so I’ll have to build another sustainer for next year. Bob Mullins launched his 2-stage Blue Goose HPR. The Goose did not want to leave the nest and it took about five attempts to get the motor lit. Ignition finally occurred and the 2^nd stage lit as planned. There was a recovery failure with the booster, resulting in a core sample. Chris Short’s 2-stager flew as a boosted dart. The sustainer coasted ahead of the booster after separation without lighting its motor. Both sections deployed their chutes for a perfect recovery. I won the random draw and took home an Estes Condor ARV kit.

  Kendall’s Grandson, Drake, flew his 1^st rockets with us. His Baby Bertha stayed pretty low on A motors. Drake worked his way up to Cs and then added a booster for a 2-stage flight that went to the edge of the field.

  Riley flew a Mean Machine painted in Iron Man colors. He also built a small rocket at the field with scraps and super glue. It hung up on the rod and then crashed.

  Tim had the highest flight of the day on his Firestorm 54. The nine grain J570 motor blasted the rocket to 7400’.

  John Hansel enjoyed a lazy summer day napping under his shade. He made a single flight with his ¼ scale Patriot.

  Tom Mac Phearson took frequent flyer award with his arsenal of scale missiles. Sea Wolf had a huge arcing trajectory to the edge of the field and Barracuda was lost again.

  Eldon had an interesting flight in his Magnum5. A failure at the Av-bay coupler caused it to separate under power. The pieces came down mostly intact and the rebuild will be pretty simple.

  Kendall had the HPR flight of the day in Nos-A-Gator. He left the gas on the trailer and used a Loki blue L1482 motor for a spectacular launch.

Kendall Brent’s NOS-A-GATOR

Click here for more pictures.

The next monthly S.E.A.R.S. Launch is Saturday June 12th at Samson, AL. We setup at 8:30 AM, the waiver opens for launches at 9:00 AM. We usually go until about 4:00 PM. Beginners are welcome. Bring the whole family!. Everyone is also invited to Crews BBQ in Samson after the launch. For more info see http://www.sears572.com/sears-launch-infoLaunch Events:

• General: Multi Stage Day
• Youth: fly a two stage rocket and find both the booster and sustainer
• Challenge: fly a three stage rocket
• Advanced: fly a four stage rocket

Use a green flight card for any event flight and you will entered for a draw from the prize pool.Greg Lane SEARS President

Alien Invasion Threatens Earth (reported by Russ Roberts)

  The Space Exploration and Alien Research Society (SEARS) responded to an incident on May 8 at Green’s Sod farm in Samson, AL. This location has become famous for UFO sightings and reports of experimental aircraft activity. Numerous alien craft were identified in what can only be described as a mass invasion.

  A Dragonship 7 from the Asteroid Greb Sing was the 1^st ship to arrive. A Colonial Viper from the Battlestar Galactica landed safely on a scouting mission. Luke Skywalker crashed his X-wing again, but managed to miss the swamp this time. R2D2 bailed out safely. Darth Vader’s Tie Fighter suffered a CATO from a defective Aerotech propulsion unit.  A Venus Probe that was launched by NASA 37 years ago returned from its mission with an alien hijacker onboard. We saw a brief glimpse of a Space Invader as it was cycling its Warp9 motor. Sneaky aliens flew in a cloaked Stealth spaceship. A total of 8 Snitch saucers with aliens onboard landed at the site.

  SEARS president, Greg Lane, assessed the situation and determined that this was obviously a threat to all life on Earth. Unfortunately, due to recent budget cuts at NASA, we were left on our own to defend our planet. John Hansel called the FAA, and we were granted an airspace waiver. SEARS retaliated against the alien invasion by launching a barrage of missiles, fighters, interceptors and space exploration vehicles.  

  Chris Short supplied SEARS with rocket motors and had a great flight on a new AT Metalstorm. He also flew a high powered two-stage rocket that went out of sight.

  Tom Mac Pherson and Keith Stewart launched an arsenal of missiles from the surplus military store. Tom flew a Strong Arm, Exocet, Phoenix, and Sea Wolf. His X-15 and Satellite Interceptor were shot down by the aliens. Keith flew a Phoenix, Falcon, and an AMRAAM with cow spot camouflage, codenamed MOORAM.

  Kendall Brent flew an ARCAS sounding rocket and also released a Black Arrow fly from his quiver.

  I compromised my journalistic integrity and became involved with a few counterstrikes of my own. Starbreaker left a sparkly trail of comic debris in its wake. My E class Interceptor engaged its Warp drive and never returned from its mission.

  Brave children were recruited to help stop the invasion. Seth Jackson flew a metalizer and a Sting Ray. Bentley Kelly orchestrated many of the Snitch landings and was chosen by random selection to build more aircraft for the SEARS arsenal. Bentley, please come out to our next event to claim your prize. Bentley’s dad, Kerry trained the young cadets and flew a Reliant, Clipper and Sizzler.

 Marty Wiggins flew a Maverick fighter and a Snarky drone. His Shuttle Thang launched 2 space shuttles from 1 booster, a great solution to the NASA budget cuts. Randy Wiggins tried to obliterate their planet with a Big Nuke, codenamed Big Red.  The flight did not go as planned, and failure analysis will surely show that the crash was caused by alien sabotage of the electronic recovery system.

  The situation was beginning to look dire when reinforcements arrived from Tripoli Louisiana. Whitney Richard’s Little Dog barked fearsomely. Eddie Williams’ Pheonix left a fiery trail in the sky. Scott Taylor saved the day with his 65lb XST-3. Words cannot describe the exotic unconventional design of this sleek experimental aircraft, so you will have to see the photos in the SEARS gallery.  This spectacular flight was an awesome show of force that caused the aliens to call off the invasion.

More photos are available at http://sears572.com/gallery/2010-05-08