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Old 04-18-2009, 09:29 PM
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Mark II Mark II is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Back Up in the Woods
Posts: 3,657
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I don't bring any spare parts with me to launches. I don't know - it has just never seemed to be necessary. If something were to ever break during the trip to the field, well then shame on me for not securing it better. No big deal, I just wouldn't be able to fly it that day. I usually bring many more rockets with me than I can ever find the time to fly, so if I ever have to put one on the DL, I would be able to fill its spot in the lineup with another one.

The same is true of launch pads and launch controllers. Both my home-built launch pad and my Aerotech Interlock controller are quite sturdy; I can't imagine a realistic scenario in which I would need to have spares for either one. I use a portable car starter for power, which never gets as much as 10% of its charge drained, but if for some reason it failed while I was at the field, I could still use the battery in my car. I do bring a selection of launch rods with me to local launches.

I really only launch rockets at two locations (actually three, if you count my back yard): my local school athletic field, which is less than a half-mile away, and my club's field, which is about 120 miles away. If any piece of my launch equipment was to break when I was at my local field, I would just take it home and fix it. My club has its own launch equipment, and it requests that members refrain from bringing their own equipment to club launches, so I leave all of mine at home when I go down to one.

In terms of range box supplies then, all I bring are the engines that I will need, or potentially need, for the day, a supply of wadding (I use Estes), a plentiful supply of igniters and plugs, my stash of parachutes and streamers (I use the same chutes in several different rockets), a roll of masking tape, a roll of duct tape (because you always need to carry duct tape ), a roll of aluminized Mylar tape, my Swiss Army knife (see comment re: duct tape), a piece of sandpaper for rod cleaning and clip cleaning, clip whips if I will be launching clusters, a roll of flagging tape (spare streamer material, and for trail marking if I have to bushwhack very far into the woods in search of a rocket), a small container of talc, a pair of pliers, a fish hook extractor (for removing stuck wadding and shock cord pieces from narrow tubes), some spare elastic if I think of it, some clothespins (standoffs), some bug spray and my cell phone.

I carry the engines in two Plano tackle boxes with fold-out trays (one for 13mm and the other for 18mm and 24mm BP) that I fill from my stock at home. I carry my Micromaxx engines and supplies in a small accessory tackle box. I have small snap-lid plastic boxes for my RMS motors and reloads that I will use when I eventually start bringing them to launches. Most of the tools, tape and small supplies listed in the previous paragraph fit into another small tackle box that has a removeable tray; anything that doesn't fit goes into whatever small cardboard shipping boxes that I might have laying around.

I pack all of the boxes and heavy equipment in the trunk of my sedan, and then gingerly stack or stand my rockets on the back seat and on the floor behind the front seats. That is my only glaring problem right now - I don't have an efficient and secure way to carry my rockets in the car. I do carry my saucers and gliders in a couple of large plastic boxes with lids. So far, I have managed to pack my rockets well enough to avoid having any of them get damaged during transport. I'm having nightmares about when I try to pack my FlisKits Decaffeinator into my compact car for the first time, though.

MarkII
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Mark S. Kulka NAR #86134 L1,_ASTRE #471_Adirondack Mountains, NY
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