Today I received a lot purchase in the mail, four and a half rockets from an auction that I thought I'd be the only board waving for. One of the rockets, a Beta, had 1.75 motors stuck in it and the stages seemed to be glued together. I did a little shimmy with it, hard enough to hear something crack loose, like a glue seal, but not hard enough to break anything. It's a delicate balance. Anyway, the crack was the paint seal on the connector giving way. When I pulled the stages apart, the upper stage had a perfectly good 1/2A3-4T in it. It's blue, with a born on date of 5-11-73. The booster motor had been savaged by someone trying to get it out and could only be called 3/4 of a motor at this point. I managed to get it out by pulling it up through the booster instead of out the back end. Not sure what motor it was, but I'm thinking 1/2A3-0T based on how little propellant is present. That would have been a cool combination to fly it on. Party like it's 1977. I've got a soft spot for Betas anyway, so this one will definitely get to fly at some point this summer. Whoever built it did a nice job on the fins. They line up nicely and are almost seamless, so it's nothing like 1977 in that regard.

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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Marauder, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc - Starfighter Scorpion Centuri - Mini Dactyl Estes - F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II, Xarconian Cruiser Semroc - Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark