Vern's original Big Bertha
 

One of the highlights of NARAM-51 for me was the launch of Vern's original Big Bertha. I had seen it many times over the years, but did not realize that it was the original. The nose cone is a REAL BNC-60L, probably one of the first off the Ranger grinding wheel. It has a more complex shape than the later more elliptical cones with the same designation. It will probably be released as BNC-60LV.

Prepping the Big Bertha was more than I had bargained for. I had an A8-3, but Vern insisted on a B6-4. The field was smaller than I liked for that piece of history to get lost. As usual, Vern knew better. It landed less than 50 feet away.

Original Big Bertha
Vern and Gleda Checking in Bertha with John, Gordy, and Bill
Original Big Bertha Flight at NARAM-51

I guess that answers "Traveler's" question about "How long does a rocket last?".

Cool pictures, thanx!

P.S. I can't play your video. I can only guess you did it on a Vista system.

Not yet.

Mario

I need help here.

John ???
Gordy - Gordon Agnello
Bill ???


Greg

I imagine that 'Bill' is Bill Stine.
John? No idea, but I'm sure I'll do a 'Doh' when we find out............

Allen

John Dyer - Red River Rocketry
Gordon Agnello - Roachwerks & Excelsior
Bill Spadafora - CMASS & S&T

Whoops..................darned imagination :chuckle:
Allen

Cool. Carl, thanks for sharing this. Wouldn't it be great if a decal set was available so we could decorate our Bertha's like this? (Hint to those with an Alps...).

Bill Stine was there earlier in the week.

Sandman got multiple views, as did I, if anyone needs them. There is so much white, it will require an Alps or silkscreen.

Thanks, Carl.

So I assume that John is the one wearing the hat with the logo of that fine institution of Higher Learning based in College Station, TX (Whoop! Gig' Em Aggies)?

Greg

Speaking of hats ... it looks like Vern is wearing a Semroc hat? Do we have one of Carl wearing an Estes hat! :D

Greg

Actually Vern asked me if I could do a decal set for it.

That is NOT going to be easy!

How do I do all those signatures???

I'm better looking than he is.

Carl,

I've tried to watch that video both from home (Mac) and work (Win XP)....and gotten the same result both times - it freezes/fails to download somewhere around 20%. Perhaps you can repost at some point? At least on my Mac I could see the first 20% before the download froze.

Neat stuff, this.

That's probably not it. I can't play it on either Vista or Win7. Media Player seems to now come with vastly fewer codecs, and no automatic way of getting the codecs it needs.

Video fails to complete the download using "Save as..." with me aswell.

LOL!!!
Most excellent!
Allen

Back in the 60's we placed the odds of Vern wearing a Semroc hat at 0.0000%. Me wearing an Estes-Cox hat is probably in the same ballpark. But I DO sleep sometimes and there is Photoshop. :chuckle:

Vern and Gleda are good friends and have been very supportive of us. We sure look forward to being able to spend time with them.

I've been test-flying my recently-built Big Bertha with A8-3s,and it's almost too heavy for that engine. The other day,it hit the ground before the ejection charge ignited. No damage,fortunately,except the parachute got scorched a little. I wish they still made the A5-2.

i can't belive that this is still around. the big bertha is a holy grail of rocketry, ant this is the first!!!!!!!! awesome!

Finally got the video to download after many starts and stops. Luckily after it would time out, when I re-started the download it usually continued from where it stopped.

Nice video! Vern flew that Big Bertha at NARAM-50, too, and IIRC, Gleda even caught it!

Vern's original Big Bertha
 

Vern did fly the Bertha at NARAM 50 in the old rocketeer launch segment and Gleda did catch it. Nice catch Gleda!!!
Mark T

Does this rocket still have the orig. rubber shock cord and paper mount?

No. There was at least one old paper mount missing the shock cord. The top of the body tube was very worn, probably from a few core samples.

I couldn't tell from the video, but was that a vintage Estes parachute?

No. It was solid black, about 2 mil plastic. Shroud lines and tape strips looked old. There was no engine hook, so the engine had a wrap of tape around the outside, taping the engine and bottom of the engine tube. Vern used that method instead of a wedged fit in the engine tube.