billmi
Member
Hello,
As one might surmise from my username, I am Bill.
I started in rocketry somewhere around 5th grade in the '70s with an aeronautics lab kit from Radio Shack. It included a launch controller that was housed in molded EPS foam with a molded plastic faceplate and switch that I assembled from parts - button, brass contacts and spring. I built the included rocket - with carfully aero-form sanded balsa fins. It used a separate parachute for the nosecone which disappeared in a fallow cotton field on the second or third launch.
I built Estes kits and a few scratch builds after that (after a couple of pages in the Aerolab manual about the importance of aerodynamic fins I was shocked by square sanded edges). By junior high I was launching on a 2 channel launch controller I built from a county schools surplus headphone source selector box. In high school I and my friends were launching with a 3 channel box with proper tumbler keyswitch safety, that I'd built for effects triggering in a school play (not yet aware until later apprenticing, what California's pyro laws were).
College.. no rockets.
A decade or so later my wife and I were on a business trip that somehow diverted to a trip with the business' engineers to an HPR launch. I was inspired, and just getting into microcontrollers, had some grand ideas about steerable parachutes. I built a new launch controller and a couple of rockets, flew once and after not getting where I wanted with parachute design, promptly forgot about it.
Fast forward a couple of decades and a coworker is into LPR rockets. When doing a background check on a new hire I find a picture of him with a model rocket in major magazine and figure he'd fit in our team well, and he did. The two of them recently went to a local club launch (large local club on the Spacecoast - excellent launch area) and have been coaxing me to join them for a future launch....
Which means I need rocket(s). LPR, HPR is a commitment beyond what I'm interested in.
Last look I had Centauri was gone and Estes seemed more about pre-built plastic than rolling embossed paper onto tubes. I've come to realize, like with model planes and quadrotors, I get more out of building than flying.
I was pleased to see Estes recently released a proper kit of the Saturn 1B, but it wasn't long before I convinced myself that given the skills and tools I've built up since I was building rockets as a kid, I'd get more out of scratch building than kit building.
I sat about research, and started plotting and planning a scratch Saturn 1B in 1:100, with my eye on other scale projects as well.
I decided to hone my skills and develop workflows by starting with a replica of one of my favorite Estes rockets from when I was in high school - the Attack Craft Orion. The fins went on today and it's taking shape. The only premanufactured part it will have is one that I added as a functional "upgrade" to my original Estes model back in '83 - a snap swivel.
I"ve been lurking through the forum for a while while researching, and finally got around to creating an account to view attachments fullsize.
As one might surmise from my username, I am Bill.
I started in rocketry somewhere around 5th grade in the '70s with an aeronautics lab kit from Radio Shack. It included a launch controller that was housed in molded EPS foam with a molded plastic faceplate and switch that I assembled from parts - button, brass contacts and spring. I built the included rocket - with carfully aero-form sanded balsa fins. It used a separate parachute for the nosecone which disappeared in a fallow cotton field on the second or third launch.
I built Estes kits and a few scratch builds after that (after a couple of pages in the Aerolab manual about the importance of aerodynamic fins I was shocked by square sanded edges). By junior high I was launching on a 2 channel launch controller I built from a county schools surplus headphone source selector box. In high school I and my friends were launching with a 3 channel box with proper tumbler keyswitch safety, that I'd built for effects triggering in a school play (not yet aware until later apprenticing, what California's pyro laws were).
College.. no rockets.
A decade or so later my wife and I were on a business trip that somehow diverted to a trip with the business' engineers to an HPR launch. I was inspired, and just getting into microcontrollers, had some grand ideas about steerable parachutes. I built a new launch controller and a couple of rockets, flew once and after not getting where I wanted with parachute design, promptly forgot about it.
Fast forward a couple of decades and a coworker is into LPR rockets. When doing a background check on a new hire I find a picture of him with a model rocket in major magazine and figure he'd fit in our team well, and he did. The two of them recently went to a local club launch (large local club on the Spacecoast - excellent launch area) and have been coaxing me to join them for a future launch....
Which means I need rocket(s). LPR, HPR is a commitment beyond what I'm interested in.
Last look I had Centauri was gone and Estes seemed more about pre-built plastic than rolling embossed paper onto tubes. I've come to realize, like with model planes and quadrotors, I get more out of building than flying.
I was pleased to see Estes recently released a proper kit of the Saturn 1B, but it wasn't long before I convinced myself that given the skills and tools I've built up since I was building rockets as a kid, I'd get more out of scratch building than kit building.
I sat about research, and started plotting and planning a scratch Saturn 1B in 1:100, with my eye on other scale projects as well.
I decided to hone my skills and develop workflows by starting with a replica of one of my favorite Estes rockets from when I was in high school - the Attack Craft Orion. The fins went on today and it's taking shape. The only premanufactured part it will have is one that I added as a functional "upgrade" to my original Estes model back in '83 - a snap swivel.
I"ve been lurking through the forum for a while while researching, and finally got around to creating an account to view attachments fullsize.
