rharshberger
Well-Known Member
through the grapevine I heard Brothers, Oregon.
Yepthrough the grapevine I heard Brothers, Oregon.
LDRS 40 will be in early June and NARAM will be in mid July.Oh my goodness....I've been wanting to do a Brothers launch at some point.....
And to think that I was, just earlier today, thinking about the next NARAM, which is going to be in Springfield, Missouri.
I wonder if they're going to overlap, dates-wise, like they did this year.
Not far from Bend to Brothers.That’s not exactly close, but it’s also not exactly far. I could probably do this one! We visited Bend a few years ago, and it was GREAT!
Some info on the site for everyone: Google Maps Link
It's high desert, 4530ft. Early June weather could be anywhere from near freezing to 90+, I would expect an average of 65 to 80. Likely windy, they seem to peak in the late afternoon. Sparky motors are usually not allowed, depends on how dry things are. Ceiling is typically 25,000ft AGL with a call-in option to open up 50k if needed. Night flights OK.
I believe the club will try to improve the access roads, but right now they are rough. Go slow, it will take you 15 minutes to get from the highway to launch site. Don't bring your sports car but neither do you need a lifted 4WD. Close the gate to the highway behind you, it's open grazing land (but I've never seen any cattle there).
Terrain is sagebrush, knee-high at most. Easy to walk a path through but hard to keep a straight line as you're dodging bushes. Long pants recommended for walking through sage, although I do shorts with care. It's surprisingly good at hiding rockets. Terrain is flat with some small hills to the south and east which you might get to for a high flight. IIRC there is ONE tree on one of the hills. If you can hit it you deserve some sort of prize. I do not believe motorized vehicles are generally allowed on the sage (for retrieval), but there are plenty of access roads (some very rough, like ATV or mountain bike only) where you should be able to get close to your rocket (1/8 to 1/4 mile, maybe 1/2 mile if really unlucky) for a shorter walk.
Ground is a coarse pumice sand, known locally as "kitty litter". Bring LONG stakes to anchor your awnings against the wind. It totally ate one rocket that came in ballistic this year, not even a crater. Expect clothes and camp to get dusty, but I imagine this isn't as big of an issue as salt is. The upside is that between the kitty litter and sage it's pretty mild on rocket landings. I bet you can get away with a smaller chute than the salt flats.
There is potable water in the horse corral at the rest stop in Brothers. I've used it several years, good water and flows great--I hope it can keep up with our demand but bring enough for drinking at least just in case. Also expect some trucker to be parked and sleeping in the no parking zone in front of it so you can't back your trailer up to the spigot, especially nights or mornings.
Cell service is great on Verizon and US Cellular. OK on T-mobile. Poor to none on Sprint. I don't have AT&T, but a friend says it works.
Don't count on any services in Brothers. There's one run-down gas station (and c-store?) that I've never been in.
Nearest town is Bend, about an hour drive counting the slow dirt roads into the launch site.
Muffin-Man was optimistic or doesn't fly high .... prepare to easily walk a mile or more to your rocket and have to cross barb-wire fences.
Don't fly anything you can't hump out of the sage on foot.....you WILL NOT be able to drive to the pads or to recover.
Dual-Deploy is needed for anything high. The highway is 2 miles away downwind -> DO NOT LAND ON THE HIGHWAY.
Are small ATV's (like quadrunners) going to be allowed for recovery?
I've tried likely 2m and 70cm repeaters in the area, and never been able to get a hit. Maybe someone could set up something temporary, up on the hill, for this event.I believe there are also HAM repeaters that work here, but I haven't tried them.
I'm so excited that LDRS XXXX is going to be hosted by my home club!
And before it starts, if you want an LDRS in the east, ask your Prefect to bid and offer to help with the organization and work. The Tripoli board actively solicits bid from the eastern Prefectures. We know that people want an LDRS in the east, but if eastern Prefectures don’t bid, there will not be one there.
40 miles.Not far from Bend to Brothers.
And before it starts, if you want an LDRS in the east, ask your Prefect to bid and offer to help with the organization and work. The Tripoli board actively solicits bid from the eastern Prefectures. We know that people want an LDRS in the east, but if eastern Prefectures don’t bid, there will not be one there.
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