Brad Morse

Hey Bruce, those of us who studied English have to stick together. I hear ya’. Incidentally, my wife gave me one of those t-shirts that says:ENGLISH MAJOR(you do the math)Now if someone needs a sonnet written about their project, Bruce…   Read more»

To clarify, having too many or too few ports, too large or too small should NOT cause your altimeter(s) to fire when you power them up. If the ports are too small, that would not do it. If they were…   Read more»

I’ve used one static port on probably 95% of my rockets. I did use 3 on my L3, but I think that is the only time I did so. That was a very large ebay, and the requisite hole was…   Read more»

hmm… I’ve thought about this a bit. I think I’d like to keep it at 10k feet (2 miles)Brent, I think it is great to start at 10K, but I would still suggest tighter increments thereafter. For me, 15K was…   Read more»

Warren, those look great. Eric K made me some of those once. They survived a core sample (of course!) and they flew again on another iteration.Are you going to be ready to attempt your cert at MHM?JW

I wouldn’t do ANYTHING until I tried to let it cure in warmer temps. Heat lamp, perhaps?It is minus 6 (with gusts to 43mph) in Iowa tonight. No epoxy will cure in my garage tonight 😯 Spring seems like a…   Read more»

The fresh-laid glass was very sticky on my 4″ minimum diameter project. I was quite concerned. I let the works sit in the garage on a hot summer day, and that took care of a lot of it, but not…   Read more»

RATT and SkyRipper are indeed awesome. Incredibly easy to assemble and clean. The K240 has the most unique sonic feature I have ever heard. The M900 has 12 second burn. If that doesn’t get your blood pumping, I don’t know…   Read more»

Kevin, LDRS is a big venue that is a HUGE launch, but a better choice than BALLS for the kids, at least in my estimation.I say this for a number of reasons. First of all, nearly everything at BALLS is…   Read more»

As the web page says, it is *not* a family enviroment. Motors are EX and sometimes the “E” stands for “ERROR”. If you have a R-class hyrbid CATO, you really don’t want to have kids around.The launch administrators are a…   Read more»

The dust is invasive, pervasive, abrasive… pretty tough place. It is also the epicenter of our hobby.Go to http://www.balls17.com/ and click around, especially on “Precautions” and “Serious stuff”.Were I not going to be out of the country that week, I’d…   Read more»

Hence one of our club mottos: “I’d go ahead and do that if I were you…”Ha!

Thanks, Warren – I seem to have miscalculated a wee bit 😯 and I may need to get creative in my drogue compartment. That, or I may just hang it out an inch or two (really). Won’t be pretty, but…   Read more»

That sucker was $1800 five years ago. I have a hard time taking them serious. There is a reason they don’t put a price on the website. I wonder if they have ever sold any of them? I’d bet if…   Read more»

Looks great to me. My only question is what keeps the uprights so rigid? You’d think w/o a ring or similar brace up top it would “splay” outward? Guy lines or wires will only make that more of an issue.If…   Read more»

There is a commercial tower out there that runs $1800 (no, I’m not kidding). I think a tower like we are discussing would be a good addition to the club’s equipment collection.Some of these things probably don’t need to be…   Read more»

It needs to have a substantive base and blast deflector and should be usable without guy lines.WarrenActually, I feel very strongly about guy wires. I think they MUST be used. Imagine a beefy motor like a J570 or a big…   Read more»

Adrian, my hunch is that a tower that is capable of bigger rockets may not be well suited for smaller rockets. As you know, I am interested in both. The engineering likely means two separate towers.BTW, I also have a…   Read more»

Good advice, Art – I’m going to feel bad if I cover this stuff up with primer 😯 That said, I’m going to go all out for performance here. I’d rather have it go a wee bit higher vs. looking…   Read more»

John, you’ve laid up some carbon with me if I recall right – weren’t you there when I laid up the UprOar fins?WarrenI was there to wet the fabric and apply the material, but was not there when it was…   Read more»