Let me introduce myself as your newest member:

My wife and I have recently moved from Minnesota to Fort Collins, where she obtained a great job in September. For the last two months, I have done nothing but drive back and forth with a U-Haul trailer each week, and by Tuesday (22 Nov 2011) this will be my final trip. On Thanksgiving day, I can finally officially call Fort Collins my new home.

While packing for this move to Colorado, I ran across my old Aerotech G64 reloadable model rockets. The last time I flew one of these rockets was 10 years ago, when I had accepted an new aerial photography job out in the middle of the Minnesota corn fields. In Minnesota, there were no well organized rocket clubs around the Twin Cities, so I was on my own. First week with my new job, I was excited to finally fly my rockets, since I was no longer living in the city. We all gathered around and watched my best rocket go out of sight, to the cheers of everyone watching...

Now, with over 200 acres of corn, what is the probability that the parachute deployment would fail, and that the “lawn dart” would hit the company’s airplane? It made a very loud noise when it hit the wing of the airplane and my new boss said: “we will not do that again!” Oh well, those rockets were left behind as I got involved with other projects, like building my own airplane, over the years.

I flew my first Estes rocket around 1965 when I was in 5th grade and model rockets have always been a part of my life in some way. I joined the Army in 1974 and spent the next four years in Germany defending that country from the USSR. In my spare time, I became an expert with microcomputers (first was an Altair 8800) and how to program them. I have been a software engineer since then.

When I returned to the United States in 1978, I was then trained as a meteorologist and eventually ended up at the Atmospheric Sciences Laboratory, White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. For the next 14 years, I was able to watch the “big boys” play with their rockets!

Side Note: As a meteorologist, we often fired off atmospheric sounding rockets. One day, my supervisor decided to set a new altitude record with our sounding rocket and demanded that we remove all possible weight from the forward section. I kept telling him that the CG must be forward of the CP, but he totally ignored what I was saying. WOW, a large sounding rocket making spirals in the air was something that I will never forget! Thank god we were safely in a bunker.

All of the following steps will use software to insure the stability of my modifications:

Step one: Restore my old G64 rated model rocket and become confident with it’s performance.

Step two: Convert the basic model rocket into dual deployment with an altimeter. Fly the modified rocket until it almost gets boring.

Step three: Modify the lower section of my rocket for an H performance engine. Fly this tried and true rocket for my Level 1 certification.

This “old fart” has been playing with rockets for almost 40 years now. However, I will need the assistance of each and every one of you on this forum. That is why I have join Northern Colorado Rocketry.

Those of you who live in Fort Collins, please send me a private message.