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  #1  
Old 08-13-2015, 11:38 AM
Jerry Irvine's Avatar
Jerry Irvine Jerry Irvine is offline
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Default Claremont Rocket Society (CA 1965-92)

The Claremont Rocket Society was formed as a sponsored entity by the City of Claremont Parks and Recreation Department (now Human Services). One of the interesting facts about the club is it held weekly launches with about 20-50 participants over the course of many years. It had a dedicated building at 10th and Yale in Claremont. I am attaching a photograph of the sign from the roof of that building.

In approximately 1969 I was assisting participants with installing motors into their model rockets with club supplied motors. The launch field is a multiple baseball field just to the north of Claremont High School called Cahuilla Park, operated by the City of Claremont. It is named after the local historical Native Indian tribe. We were open to all races and genders and the fact that needs to be said is notable.

As a club 4-5 of us did regular rocket demonstrations at all the schools in the city and most in nearby cities. We did demos at High School football halftimes. We were a major outreach machine. This image is a Tall Tail 10 with a D12-3. It only went about 200 feet or less. It always recovered reliably and gracefully to big cheers! The kids (audience) love to help with the countdown!

In the back yard of the CRS HQ we had a basketball court. It was our static test facility. Here is an image of the test stand in use. It used a BBQ motor to slowly turn a large coffee can with the data paper taped to the outside. The motor is placed on a swing arm with a calibrated spring. When the can rotates to fresh paper we fired the test and got great data every time from the pencil directly writing on it. The spring had a maximum range of about 30 Newtons. Analog.

Historical Jerry
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Last edited by Jerry Irvine : 08-13-2015 at 01:24 PM.
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Old 08-13-2015, 12:38 PM
Jerry Irvine's Avatar
Jerry Irvine Jerry Irvine is offline
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Default The first G motors in California

The first "consumer grade" G motors in California were generally considered to be the Enerjet G76. These 29mm motors with filament fiberglass case, graphite nozzle and bulkhead, retained with epoxy, and filled with Flexane based APCP, used a design licensed from Irv Wait of Rocket Development Corporation.

The first known G motors in CA were sold by Iron Horse Hobbies in Tustin, CA (Kerry Hoffman) who serviced the Anaheim Model Rocket club whose members included kids Gary Rosenfield and Dave Griffith.

I had the opportunity to go and see the Enerjet motors only two of which were certified for use in CA at the time the E24 and the F52. To obtain an F67 one had to drive to Arizona, which Kerry did and had inventory at his store in the "back room". He even had a sample of a "unicorn motor", the rumored and stealthy Enerjet G76! So off to Arizona I dragged my poor parents in the guise of a family vacation! That's where I purchased my first Enerjet 2250 and 2650 kits as well as a few F67's and of course, G76's, directly from Lee Piester!

This is a report of the first ever published flight of an Enerjet G76 in California. Probably not the very first flight, but close. First published August 13, 2015.

The rocket I built for this "powerful" motor was a 2.25" thick wall tube 4FNC rocket with a 29mm mount. The rocket was prepped as normal and the G76 installed using the Larry Brown at Enerjet recommended tape thrust ring on the rear of the motor and a layer of tape to retain the motor in the rocket. This technique allowed any length Enerjet motor, E, F or G to be used without spacers.

The attached images show Jerry Irvine with the 2.25" (Nike-payload) Enerjet G76 powered "educational" rocket.

Walking the rocket to the pad with Best Friend Dave Goldberg looking on with his traditional yellow hard hat with NAR logo attached. Dave works at Disney now.

Best Friend Eric Ferm assists with putting the rocket on the pad with larger than normal launch rod and wide wood base. He has an orange hard hat denoting RSO. Eric works at IBM now.

Launch! of the first recorded G motor launch in California with launch control officer in clear view. Note the lack of smoke.

Recovery of the rocket in good condition with a happy rocketeer.

Removal of the motor shows the typical label free Enerjet G76 motor in great condition.

Approximately 1970.

Name Dropper Jerry

Current production version:
http://v-serv.com/usr/kits/banshee.htm
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Last edited by Jerry Irvine : 08-13-2015 at 02:56 PM.
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Old 08-13-2015, 04:42 PM
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dlazarus6660 dlazarus6660 is offline
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Now that's the kinda stuff I like to read about. 45 years ago.
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Old 08-13-2015, 05:18 PM
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I can't get enough of this kind of stuff, Jerry. I love reading old Model Rocketeer mags from the 70's along with posts like this. Keep posting and maybe even pull in some of your old club members to add more to the thread!

BTW, those photos have held up extremely well. Most color that age has considerable fade. The developer did a good job washing and fixing. Storage was probably easy in your low humidity climate.
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Old 08-13-2015, 05:37 PM
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Jerry Irvine Jerry Irvine is offline
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Correct. Actual old skewl. Literally. I have to post before I am dead!

Here is 1970 ish.

Last edited by Jerry Irvine : 08-13-2015 at 07:23 PM.
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Old 08-13-2015, 06:50 PM
A Fish Named Wallyum A Fish Named Wallyum is offline
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These are awesome!
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  #7  
Old 03-17-2018, 01:25 PM
BobE BobE is offline
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Default Claremont Rocket society

This is awesome. I came across this post on a whim search for “Claremont Rocket Society” which I participated in roughly 1972-1975. I never became an expert builder or designer or anything, but it was the coolest club in the world back then, because we were 13 year old kids playing with explosives. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

I remember Jerry, I remember my friend Eric, a kid named Dave Goldberg, and our mentor: Clay Smith, a saint among men, who assisted with building, advised on design and kept most of us out of the emergency room.

As Jerry said, we had launches every week in the park near the high school. The club sold rocket engines, chute wadding, miscellaneous spare parts and of course hot dogs and soft drinks. The area was limited and we’d try to set the launch trajectory such that the prevailing wind would set the parachutes down right on the launch pad. This was rarely successful and we usually ended up dispatching a bike recovery team at some point to fetch models out of the botanical garden across the street.

You were limited to size “C” engines and below at the park, but periodically the club had campouts on a dry lake bed in the middle of the desert where anything flew. My dad drove and helped chaperone a couple of these episodes of aeronautical anarchy.

My model-building skills were subpar at best, but I can remember making a Saturn V kit that was only slightly smaller than the real thing. My favorite project, though, was this thing called a “Camroc” which, upon reaching mission apogee, would take a grainy, poorly focused aerial black-and-white photo on a round film disc that had to be sent back to the Camroc people for developing at considerable expense. The photos looked all the same, of course: a drone’s-eye overhead view of the park, the school, the street and parking lot. Eventually, in an act of double geekery, I figured out how to develop and enlarge these photographic masterpieces myself.

I don’t think I had a date until I was 23.

Pretty sure that’s me in this photo, second from left. Kids, this is why you don’t let your mom cut your hair.

http://www.forums.rocketshoppe.com/...achmentid=41736

Thanks for the great memories Jerry.

Bob Emmet
CHS class of 1976
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  #8  
Old 03-18-2018, 01:20 AM
Jerry Irvine's Avatar
Jerry Irvine Jerry Irvine is offline
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My very first model rocket was an Alpha with a B6-4 on a moderately windy day. Lost it! Botanical Gardens.

The highest power rocket I ever flew there was an Enerjet 2250 with 3xF100-10. I had recovery figured out by then.

See you at a reunion or if you live within 6 hours of socal, at a rocket launch near Cantil, CA. It will blow you away!

Last edited by Jerry Irvine : 08-03-2019 at 09:31 PM.
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Old 08-03-2019, 09:32 AM
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“Bump”

With all the recent EnerJet posts and after my four year absence from YORF it’s only fair that I bumped my favorite EnerJet thread of all time after a reread this morning of this valuable YORF repository of information.

Nothing gets me more excited about rocketry than immersing myself in a good EnerJet thread .....

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Old 08-03-2019, 06:06 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by snaquin
“Bump”

With all the recent EnerJet posts and after my four year absence from YORF it’s only fair that I bumped my favorite EnerJet thread of all time after a reread this morning of this valuable YORF repository of information.

Nothing gets me more excited about rocketry than immersing myself in a good EnerJet thread .....




What he said!
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