Recycling Container Oddroc

JLRockets said:

Jackson concocted a zip line so that the fins would not scrape against the house on the way down. He's one heck of a Chief Engineer!

Click to expand...

Wow, now that's thinking outside the box! Great idea, and probably a lot of fun to boot.

The TV folks have taught me a thing or two. I figured that my viewing public wouldn’t mind waiting an insane amount of time for the launch report of the rocket’s first flight. Just trying to give you the feel of the actual launch - TWO HOURS sitting on the pad while the TV folks fed us lines! All kidding aside, my apologies for the delay.

AP Soda’s first flight was SPECTACULAR! Our Chief Engineer is top notch. We were almost the only rocket in the odd rock competition that performed like an actual rocket, rather than a stunt.

We put it up on the CTI M3400 White Thunder. The rocket went straight up – perfectly stable (one of its defining characteristics in the competition). Accelerometer says we got about 4000 feet. We didn’t have it ported for barometric, so that’s the best data we have, but it looked like it went a bit lower. It landed a stone’s throw from where we were watching. Couldn’t have hoped for better.

Second place! First place was a very cool crowd pleaser, but a stunt. We stand by our approach to focus more on engineering and less on show, and graciously accept our second place trophy.

Much thanks to our hard working ground crew: Sather Ranum, Tim Lehr, Steve Lohr, and Tom Lubin. (Ask them how much they enjoyed carrying the 105 pound rocket all over the field so the TV crew could get just the “right” footage.) Thanks also to Frank Nobile, for ground crew duty on the Dark Star.

Next flight is at Midwest Power on an N3400 - 6 grain XL Skidmark. Yes, you read that right. We bought the N3400 for the Dark Star, which was lost at LDRS. Gotta make use of the motor somehow. Reuse, renew, recycle. Wasn’t that the theme all along?

Because we were busy giving exaggerated responses to the TV crew, we were not able to take any pictures of our own. We are truly grateful for the generous snapping of the broader rocket community. I will post by photographer.

This first group is by Sather Ranum.

This next bunch is by Neil McGilvray/Rockets Magazine. Check out all of Rockets Magazine’s great photos at: https://www.libertylaunchsystems.com

Don't we look like we have so much fun with that furry microphone chasing us everywhere?

This beauty is by Ray LaPanse. Don’t those winglets look great! Check out all of Ray’s great photos at: https://ral-photos.smugmug.com/Rocket-Launches

These photos are mine.

That trophy saved us. Flying home from Kansas, my shoes were “randomly” selected by TSA to be swiped for explosives. They passed, but it was a tense moment, especially after all the time I spent carrying around the thoroughly charred remains of our post-CATO Dark Star. I just kept thinking that the rocket trophy in Jackson’s hands was my only hope of talking my way out of something awful, should it come to that.

JL Rockets is pleased to announce that Chief Engineer, Jackson Lubin, has been awarded the first annual JL Rockets Award for Excellence in Engineering. This award was created to recognize exceptional merit among JL Rockets team members.

Jackson earned this top honor through his outstanding performance in the engineering, design and construction areas of the AP Soda Odd Rocket project. Taking on the exceptionally difficult task of turning a garbage can into a rocket, Jackson out-performed numerous adult teams and delivered a straight flying rocket on a windy day.

In recognition of his valiant efforts, Jackson has been assigned to lead the team’s hottest new project. He has been promoted to Chief Engineer for the JL Rockets Stratosphere 2012 project.