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I have flown the new Astrocam three times and have not yet gotten usable video. The most recent flight resulted in good audio (I think) but the video was just one partial frame and then it froze. Getting the files out hasn't been trouble free either. As a test I copied a file from my hard...

For quite a while now I have been attempting to resolve a problem. NFPA 1122 has an alternate site dimension requirement of half the expected altitude but the NAR model rocket code does not. The problem is that NAR insurance cares only about the NAR safety codes. Which means that I cannot use...

NFPA 1125 (Code for Manufacture) is in the middle of its revision cycle and is open for comments on proposed changes. Most changes are benign but the increased motor case temperature limit of 600F for single use non-metallic cased motors of more than 80N-s is not. Take a look...

USC just released their flight report claiming to have gone past the Karman line. There is a lot of intersting stuff in there but I want to focus on one item: GPS Two GPS receivers were on board and both lost lock at launch as expected. What wasn't expected is the long delay before lock was...

I mangled some data to show the importance of sensor alignment and built a web page. I had been waiting for the Earthlink web servers to return but that will never happen. I received notice today that the service is being terminated although they say that they will keep the pages up for a while...

So that I don't completely hijack the Lance thread I will start this one. As near as I can make out, the T22 design was a notional replacement for Lance. Sometimes referred to as Lance II. I don't think that it ever flew. The design was used for the SIG-D program but that appears to have been...

I recently noticed that the 2013 revision of NFPA 1127 had an error where the published version did not agree with one of the changes approved by ballot. Somehow the word "twice" was added to the minimum safe distance requirement when launching three or more high power rockets. This doubles...

I noticed in the Federal Register that DOT is considering including some of the Special Permits in the regulations. None of the rocketry permits made the cut but they are requesting comments. https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2015-01-30/html/2015-01263.htm Of interest to any manufacturer or...

I noticed that the NAR L2 practice tests aren't really quite like the real thing in that they include every question. So based on the HTML I found there I created some code to create a practice test with the correct number of questions randomly selected from the pool. A new test is created every...

In late July I noticed that a Rocksim design file on my website started generating many more hits than usual. (Usual being close to zero.) This has continued with almost 500 hits for September. For comparison my home page had 80 hits and the page the file is linked off of has even fewer hits...

While at NARAM 46 I made a point of attending the B division R&D oral reports because one title caught my attention: "All-Fire/No-Fire Tests Estes Igniters using the Neyer D-Optimal Test" by Cody Steele At the time I was fairly certain that I was likely the only person in the audience...

I have had a problem with two 29mm RMS Aerotech reloads I have flown. When disassembling the motor I have noticed sooting on the aft closure threads. On the last occasion it was an H180 reload and the sooting was so bad that a wrench was required to remove the aft closure. Examination of the aft...

I was mucking around with putting some flight data up on my web pages when I noticed that it appeared that the software was filtering the acceleration data. So I started digging. I was using the Posix version of the DOS tools that I found on the net several years ago. In looking at the code I...

I periodically check various web sites to see if the ATF is up to anything new. Today I found a very interesting item on the Institute of Makers of Explosives web pages. They have posted a copy of a letter sent from the DOJ to Vice President Dick Cheney and the Speaker of the House Dennis...