John A. Wilke

Tim Thomas – your comments are ON THE BUTTON. I don’t know what more could be said. They violated their own rules, and there you have it.This isn’t the eastern half of the USA that gets 40″ of rain annually….   Read more»

Were I a west-Texas rancher that raised 15-20 bu/acre wheat every other year (half the ground is fallowed, meaning it is planted every other year) and if I had survived drought, hail, grasshoppers etc. and was looking at bringing in…   Read more»

I hadn’t heard that about BSD? I flew a “Sentinel” many, many years ago. I’m sorry to hear about the injury…Madcow seems pretty firmly entrenched. I’m quite pleased with their availability, etc. Mike Stoop (owner of Madcow) is really serious…   Read more»

It is such a crapshoot…. no better example than today. Yesterday’s forecast for today was utterly wretched. While it was a mess this morning, I can tell you that right here, right now, conditions are PERFECT. Dead calm, mostly clear,…   Read more»

I knew about those. The Vaisala guys used to fly with us. They asked me about the H125s many years ago – and I shamelessly groveled until I was blue in the face for those motors. I even offered to…   Read more»

This is truly a topic that people have strong feelings about. I really prefer to fly a single altimeter, but everyone must do what they are most comfy with. There are sure times I have flown with 2, but it…   Read more»

What size powder charge you using. I will give you a dollar if you do the ground test. I thought I would use 3 pins.Scott, I used four polystyrene shear pins, each 1/16″ diameter on the original KestreL (BTW,…   Read more»

I have used 2 RRC Minis. I set the back up with a delay of 2 or 3 seconds at apogee and the back up on main chute at 3 to 500 feet lower than the primary atimeter. 2 switches…   Read more»

Some people are concerned about making sure that 2 charges don’t go off at the same time in the same tube. I often use one charge if I’m using two altimeters. If your systems fail (batteries or altimeters or ematches…   Read more»

8:30 Eastern (6:30 Mountain…Right now!)The first landing opportunity (orbit 122?) was ~6:30am mountain time (and it would have been far north of here – not visible from our vantage point), but they could not land on that orbit. Landing on…   Read more»

I was a bit surprised myself – I may even throw in free motor cleanup 😀

When I last talked to Carl he was getting ready to go back and get his MBA. That said, I’m surprised he let the URL, etc. go?

how about when the announcer was standing directly beneath the rig? Pretty wild…

all you want right here http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260589658241$92.95 w/ free shipping. Dog not included 😯

I got mine! I was starting to worry just a little bit…

Well I’d just LOVE to call them – except it is an Ebay transaction and there is no phone number on the listing. They also didn’t return the email (yet) that I sent them last night inquiring about a tracking…   Read more»

I may slip in there and get another one from this guy. I’ll see if he ships first, he has a rating of 99% :?Ken, I just sent you an email on this topic – let me know what you…   Read more»

I may slip in there and get another one from this guy. I’ll see if he ships first, he has a rating of 99% :?Ken, I just sent you an email on this topic – let me know what you…   Read more»

Well, I believe the Tapered Rear closure will help keep the motor in the bird and the attachment point will be the newly designed/certified Tapped Forward smoke grain holder bulkhead piece – 1/4-20 threaded hole suitable for attachment point of…   Read more»

motor retention is what Adrian and I have been doing for years – “friction fit” 😀 It works great. I’ve done it probably 150 times and never lost a motor.For shock cord attachment, Dr. J has a fwd closure that…   Read more»