Launch Logistics for the February 5th, 2005 launch of LV2

We're currently aiming for a Saturday Feburary 5th launch of LV2 in central Oregon (Millican).

What to Expect

You'll find a general overview of what to expect at a PSAS rocket launch at the WhatToExpect page.

Intro

We're scheduled to launch LV2 in central Oregon, just outside of Bend near a non-existant city called Millican, Oregon. Here are GPS coordinates, maps, and driving directions: MillicanSite

It's going to be very, very, very cold.

Schedule

Date	Event
Friday February 4th 10:00am	Meet at ?Andrew's cabin
Friday February 4th 11:00am - 3:30pm	Drive down to central Oregon
Friday February 4th 3:30pm - TWILIGHT	Setup of PSAS infrastructure: launch tower, awnings, etc @ launch site
Friday February 4th EVENING	Rocket prep @ Bart's place in SunRiver
Saturday February 5th 7:00am - 10:00am	Final setup & test, rocket prep
Saturday February 5th 10:00am - 3:00pm	Launch Window for LV2

Checklists

CurrentCheckList: Pre-launch, launch, and recovery checklists.
CurrentBringList: What to bring to the launch, who should bring them, and how.

Communications

If you have an amateur radio, we'll be working on the 2m band at 146.43 MHz.
There's cell phone coverage at the launch site - you can try people on the ?PSAS phone list. If you don't have access to the list, use Andrew's cell which is 503.708.7711.

Weather Details

Andrew had a conversation 03-Feb-2004 with Alan Polan for a detailed forecast, and he says:

I just got off the phone with Alan Polan of the Pendleton National Weather
Service and got the detailed forecast for Saturday and Sunday. This time, the
models have been run several times and they all agree: A major weather system
is moving down from British Columbia and it's going to hit the Brothers area
Saturday afternoon.

Before that weather system hits, Brothers should see blue skies with high,
broken cirrus clouds.

After the system hits, thick clouds will roll in and by Midnight Saturday
night, the cloud will be cloudlocked until well into Sunday evening.

Alan thinks that we'll have great luck if we can launch Saturday morning
before the system rolls in: so let's "push it up" to Saturday morning!

So right now the plan is to leave from Portland at 11:00am Friday morning from
Brian's house in Lake Oswego. We'll get into Milican by 3:30 or so and set up
until twilight. Saturday morning, from 7:00am - 10:00am, we'll prep the rocket
and communication gear and be READY TO LAUNCH AT 10:00AM.

So this means if you're going to drive down on Saturday, you should be at the
launch site by 10:00am which means leaving by 5:30am or so.

Here are my notes from the conversation with Alan:

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Friday:

    High scattered broken cirrus clouds
    increasing low clouds ~ 10kft MSL
    low clouds dissipate by day break Saturday morning.

Saturday 10am - 2pm

    8:00am - 1:00pm: blue skies with scattered thin cirrus 18k - 30k MSL

    Temperature (degF)
         4:00am = 24-28
         7:00am = 32
         9:00am = 35
        10:00am = 38
        11:00am = 41
        12:00am = 44
         2:00pm = 47-48

    Mostly cloudy will hit mid to late afternoon on Saturday,
    between 1:00pm and 3:00pm.  A lot depends on the track on
    the center of the "trough" (will know more Friday).

    2:00pm - 3:00pm cirrus clouds 20 - 25kft MSL

    Twilight: clouds down to 18 kFt MSL
    Midnight: 10 kft MSL, with precipitation into Sunday (snow?)

Sunday

    "Cloudy" (no visible blue sky) 6-7 kFt AGL - no breaks for waiver window

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More weather info at: