Dave Bucher, who I believe calls himself a VP for FSI, is a constant poster on the NAR Facebook page. He seems to be scratchbuilding stuff nonstop, and talks about his business of making musical instruments. I'm not sure he would have any time in the day left to work on FSI business, but that's just my opinion.

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Lee Reep
NAR 55948

Projects: Semroc Saturn 1B, Ken Foss Designs Mini Satellite Interceptor
In the Paint Shop: Nothing! Too cold!
Launch-Ready: Farside-X, Maxi Honest John, Super Scamp

From photos of the inventory they acquired, I would have thought they could have put together quite a few NOS kits...I would have been a customer.

There is something else that they could likely do. When I had my little model rocket company, Nova Hobbies (I produced one kit, a 1/12th scale ASP, and I had other rocket kits in the works; unfortunately, my decline in income and health ended it), I had the Fairbanks Resource Agency (FRA) pack my kits under contract. The FRA employs handicapped people, matching them up with work that they're capable of doing, and they did top-notch work packing and sealing my kits--they even offer a parcel packaging and shipping service. Now:

If there is a similar agency near the new FSI, they could have the agency's personnel pack their kits using the NOS (New Old Stock) parts. FSI could even--if the agency offers the service--contract with them to package and ship the kits, in everything from individual-kit orders to cartons of kits purchased by vendors. I'd hate to see FSI die (again) from lack of action. Also:

I once read a similar-sounding account of the sad end of AVI, by someone--I forget who it was--who visited the company and saw enough parts for thousands of kits. Quest (I presume) eventually bought up all of them, but if someone had packed them into kits with even simple, basic-looking instructions (for schools and youth groups--for bulk-packed kits for such end users, just one or two sets of instructions per bulk pack would have sufficed), AVI could have kept going. It too seemed to have died from neglect and inaction.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

By the time the new FSI finally got a hold of what was left of the old FSI, anything of real value was already gone. Quest got any still working motor making machines. The rights to all of FSI's kits went to someone else - Semroc, I think. What was left was junk motor making stuff, boxes of old cardboard tubes and balsa parts, and who knows what else. I heard it wasn't stored very well. Not exactly a turn-key operation. In hindsight, the grand announcement seems more like an announcement of "we got all the old FSI stuff, wow!"

__________________
-Wolfram v. Kiparski
NAR 28643 - TRA 15520
MTMA Section #606 President

Yes, apparently the remnants of Old FSI were stored in several old tractor trailers that were in pretty bad shape, so some stuff was lost due to water damage and the ravages of temperature cycling.

Quest and Old FSI were involved with each other only in the sense that Bill and G Harry Stine helped them get the MPC motor-making machines up and running so FSI could finally mfr 18mm motors AND part of the payment for the Stines' know-how was supplying motors to Quest. Don't know if deliveries to Quest ever actually happened or if Old FSI gave up the ghost first.

If I'm correctly remembering the fotos posted on Facebook by the new owners right after the acquisition, they did get at least 2 of the motor machines, even found casings still in some of the stations. But they'd been exposed to the elements for years and were in rough shape.

I don't think Semroc got the rights to FSI's kits (formally, legally), except for cloning a couple-few of them. At least one - the Oso. But I think that was under Carl's SOP of cloning OP kits.

Back in the day, I knew of FSI's existence and even had a coupla catalogs, but my budget and available launch fields made C motors the largest impulse I could use. Centuri and Estes 18mm were readily available in town, so FSI's odd sized low-power motors made them a non-starter for me. All goes to say I didn't have a huge rush of nostalgia when news hit the "Interwebs" that somebody had located and bought the remaining corporate assets. But it was still good to hear of another long-dormant model rocket company coming back. Heck, if they'd released some kits, I would've probably snagged a few just to sample what I'd missed. Even kits with NOS parts would have been OK.

There was a lot of activity on the FSI Facebook page in 2013 and 2014, plus an announcement on the website that the release of rocket kits was imminent in the summer of 2014. IIRC they were even at the mfr's forum at NARAM in 2014, and it sure sounded like a revived, fully operational FSI was just around the corner (i.e., weeks or months at most). And then hangfire.

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Lawrence
NAR #29660
I am a SAM - a SAM I am! (#489)
"Who would ever trade a simple, easy-to-understand command line for a confusing GUI and a clumsy mouse? Madness!" --Doswonk, ca. 1993

Quest never received any of the old MPC/AVI/FSI motor making machines.

Bill Stine helped FSI get the old MPC/AVI machines working again. In return, the FSI machines made the initial motors for Quest.

Quest then had it's own motor making machines created and these were used on an Indian Reservation to make motors. After the fire at the Reservation these machines were mothballed and Quest procured motors from China.

Quest had two 18mm motor making machines made and later a machine to make the MMX motors. At some point, the MMX machine was at Luna-Tech where production of those motors was carried out.

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Bob
S.A.M. # 0014

They rock! They made ematches for several years.

CTI instructions on model rocket motors suggests repurposing the BP for a dual deploy system. MJG makes ATF free matches.

https://electricmatch.com

Therefore a consumer model rocketeer can now do dual deploy WITHIN the NAR model rocket safety code and ATF.

Jerry

This is still non-motor-based pyrotechnic deploy, and therefore not TARC-legal deploy.

TARC rules have to make a level playing field for 7-12 graders across the country. It doesn't matter if CTI suggests in their instructions (aimed at adults) that an ejection charge can be repurposed for electronics-initiated events. TARC rules can't, and don't, permit it.

There are lots of non-pyrotechnic ways to do electronic deployment in model rocketry, including TARC. I've seen a lot of attempts--none consistently successful, but I expect that will change.

Were those the original, plastic-cased MicroMaxx motors? The reason why I ask is because a rather large batch of MicroMaxx motors that I recently had sent to a friend of mine in France (bought from SierraFox Hobbies) came not from Quest, but from the motors' German manufacturer (Klima, perhaps; I didn't ask). The motors are paper-cased and came with starters, but not with any starter holder sleeves (the 13 mm [1/2"] lengths of 1/8" launch lug tubes that come with Quest MicroMaxx motors--I cut numerous 13 mm lengths of launch lugs and sent them to him separately).

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR