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 | Christopher Smith with our Joint Scepter altitude design in 29mm. We designed this rocket using computer optimization (Christopher, not me. IÍm purely seat-of-the-pants!) for a Bartlett Aerospace 54mm full L motor (impulse unknown, but it was 48" long!) that we were to acquire from Gary Price. The Scepter series was 29mm, 38mm and 54mm. This 29mm rocket really flies with an H125! I built several for the AWESOME Aerotech 29mm G300 and flew it 4 times with these motors. Now you see it, now you donÍt! The 38mm versions we built with an I132 would have been the highest altitude I motor flights if the recovery systems had worked. 14,000 plus ft running IÍs! As it turned out, Pius Morizumi acquired the L motor, and, after much ragging from me, included me into the use of the motor. His rocket (the ill fated but well known BLM tire piercing dart!) was a modified version of our Scepter 54 and I made the fins and slotted the airframe. I was NOT at the event but boy did I get the news in a hurry!!! |
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| Here I am with the second ultra scale Estes Trident at LDRS II? This Rocket flew five times successfully and once with a crash. All together if went on 3 H125Ís, 1 Vulcan K575 Hell fire,1K900, 2 K1100 reloads. It died on the pad when the K400 it was running (one of the then new Aerotech motors with the aluminum delay housings) blew its forward bulkhead and spit the propellant which all burned on the pad. I put it out with the extinguisher! Someday IÍll build one of these twice as big for L motors and then youÍd better watch out! |  |
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 | Here I am with the first big Mars Lander anyone ever built as near as I can tell. A photo of this one ran in the NAR mag. I made this one back in ï89 and flew it at many launches at Lucerne, Black Rock and BAYNAR. It would do great on a G80 and it would do great on an I160! At Lucerne (one of the fests) it actually landed upright on Hank Ascuitos? RV. Amazing! In '90 I began construction of a 22" dia version which sits, unfinished in my shop. This would have put CAL on the front of the Tripolitan! Ah well! |
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| Need I explain? An Alpha and a J-125. When I was young an Alpha to 1000ft was wild. When this photo was taken, the J-125 held the altitude record with 15,000 plus feet! Wow! |  |
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 | One of my many Micro scale rockets. I LOVE model rockets both great and small. This Saturn 1b flies GREAT on two 13mm motors and is a gem! It goes along with my micro Centuri Quasar, Micro Javelin, micro V2, complete five piece round of micro Little Joes. |
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| Here we are. The rocket bozo table at LDRS. And I donÍt mean to say weÍre the ONLY bozos. No way. Maybe 500 others qualify (not to mention the Burning Man fanatics a few miles away!) as rocket bozos! I mean, face it! We all gather with the snakes and scorpions to brave scorching temps, snow and sleet (yes snow and sleet!) dust storms that rip the tents right from the ground and send them tumbling over the desert. Where else will you find people drinking cases of beer and soda and NEVER having to piss ALL DAY LONG! It takes me three days to recover from a desert launch. Planet eXit indeed! |  |
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