Category Archives: Work Event

MTA work event, 2022-12-04

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by Dave Nordling, President, RRS.ORG

The RRS spent some more time working on the restroom facility at the Mojave Test Area. This project will bring a much desired convenience to our me,bers and future guests. It was a continuation of prior work which completed the installation of the fixtures and began the shower stall and internal plumbing.

The restroom facility under construction by our membership.
sink, urinal and toilet in each of two rooms

The new firehouse container was placed on the adjacent concrete pads creating a small space in-between which will be for a safety shower in subsequent work next year.

Shower stall in the making
Space between the restroom and firehouse containers to be used as a safety shower area

Stainless steel threaded plugs were bought, lubricated and installed into the available 3/4-10 female anchors in the pad. This will better preserve the threads and minimize the sand collected in the holes. It is important that users of our pad clean out the holes and reinstall the plugs after each use.

socket head screws to serve as a thread protector and sand barrier
The 3/4-10 female anchor pattern, seven by four, 12inch pitch on width, 24-inches on length
Former president, Osvaldo Tarditti, cuts a bit of wood to finish a support.

The society is grateful to Osvaldo and Dimitri Timohovich for their continued support and labor on this project. We will have another work event on December 17-18, 2022 to finish the supply plumbing and begin the outlet plumbing. Our goal to finish the restroom by year’s end has a slim chance of success but we will continue through the winter months until it is operational.

At the next work event, members are welcome to join us and launch any rpckets they have. Pyro-ops are already present. Contact the RRS president if you’d like to use the Mojave Test Area on what will likely be the last event of the year.

MTA work event, 2022-11-05

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by Dimitri Timohovich, Reaction Research Society

We had another great work party at the MTA this weekend. Primary focus was getting the fixtures attached to the walls and start attaching plumbing to them. A HUGE thank you to Osvaldo Tarditti, Waldo Stakes, and Joe Dominguez for taking time on Saturday to help out. 

Dave Nordling met with representatives from Arbor Energy for potential use of the MTA at a later date. He was also joined by his wife Kathleen, who came out for the quick day trip. 

Waldo brought hot dogs, drinks, and chips; and I brought burger fixings. We had a nice BBQ lunch and the folks from Arbor Energy also partook. 

We enjoyed calm weather till about 3pm when the winds kicked in, so we finished up what we could and most headed home. I spent the night and took care of a few more things Sunday morning, but the winds were not letting up. I was able to add more water to the storage tanks on top of the bathroom, and we have about 1400 gallons stored so far. 

Look forward to seeing more members coming out to help next month.

Fixtures hung and mostly plumbed in the big bathroom.

Fixtures being worked on in the smaller bathroom.

New “Fire House” container for the MTA. This will house the Kawasaki Mule and trailer with an IBC and water pump.

Roughly 700 gallons of water in each storage tank.

MTA work event, 2022-10-20

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by Dave Nordling, President, RRS.ORG

The Reaction Research Society has built a new and larger pad to the west of our current launch pads at the Mojave Test Area (MTA). This has been due to the generous donation of lifetime member, Bill Claybaugh, both of his time and resources. This 12-foot square pad is angled to the southwest and is intended for larger launch vehicles soon to be launched from the MTA. This work started a few weeks back with the initial excavation which was delayed due to the extreme heat this summer.

This work event took place over a few days starting Thursday, October 20th and going to Saturday, October 22nd. Bill and the society would like to thank fellow society members, Dimitri Timohovich, Rushd Julfiker and Joe Dominguez for giving their time and sweat to this facility improvement,

Excavation and rebar supports in place.
Add gravel
Spread to an even layer
Adding water is important.
Add concrete
Leveling the pour
Finishing the edges

This is only the first steps to building a useful platform for launching larger rockets from the MTA. The pad must cure over several weeks during these cooler months before temperatures drop below freezing at night, Next steps will be preparing the surface for anchors then adding Bill Claybaugh’s launch rail which is in work right now.

This work will continue to be documented in our work event reports. We are a member driven society and deeply appreciate the hard work it takes to improve and upgrade our site to support our mission as an organization.

Our next monthly meeting is always on the 2nd Friday of the month at the front office of the Compton/Woodley airport at 7:30pm. Come join us on November 11th.