Definitely!!!

Personally I think that OVERBUILDING is one of the most pernicious things that HPR has brought into the hobby... I mean, when we see articles published on glassing a freakin' Estes rocket to make it 'bulletproof" the mindset is DEFINITELY wrong... With the proliferation of higher strength materials available (fiberglass, CF, resins, epoxies, etc) nowdays there's going to be a certain amount of "pull" in that direction anyway, but there's a lot of SERIOUS overkill that goes on that is NOT a good thing... Of course there's a lot of things about HPR that I just don't get and seem pretty irresponsible and just asking for major accident or issues, like bowling ball lofting and other really goofy things... but I guess I should shut up since I'm most definitely in the minority... LOL

At any rate, what *I* think is cool is the ability to make a rocket that's bigger than a lot of "average" HPR birds, yet can fly with MODEL ROCKET motors that don't need certification and waivers to fly-- THAT is truly impressive IMHO... and no, I don't have the skills for it (yet). Seems to me any ape can build a 4 ply fiberglass anti-tank round and shove a big HPR motor in it, but to make something light and strong that can fly as well or better than some HPR birds with only MPR motors, THAT takes SKILLS...

Later! OL JR

__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

Thought I'd post another picture of one of our S1 practice models. This is a picture taken by Emma using Hipstamatic, an app that turns the camera on an iphone into an old fashion instamatic type camera.

I love this pic!

Attached Thumbnails

 

Very pretty, Steve! Hope I get to see it in action!

Greg

I thought it was 1/64" ply...

Does he still tack the ends of the rings together with CA first or does he use a different technique now?


Bill

__________________
It is well past time to Drill, Baby, Drill!

If your June, July, August and September was like this, you might just hate summer too...

Please unload your question before you ask it unless you have a concealed harry permit.

: countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ;

Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding...

But if you are building a giant scale model of a Vertikal anyway, why not?


Bill

__________________
It is well past time to Drill, Baby, Drill!

If your June, July, August and September was like this, you might just hate summer too...

Please unload your question before you ask it unless you have a concealed harry permit.

: countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ;

Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding...

Better than that. You could contact Jim Filler and volunteer for a shift of timer duty to help out the time trials.


Bill

__________________
It is well past time to Drill, Baby, Drill!

If your June, July, August and September was like this, you might just hate summer too...

Please unload your question before you ask it unless you have a concealed harry permit.

: countdown begin cr dup . 1- ?dup 0= until cr ." Launch!" cr ;

Give a man a rocket and he will fly for a day; teach him to build and he will spend the rest of his days sanding...

I don't dare - I have too many "floaters" in my eyes to try timing or tracking. I am training on the local level as an RSO but I'm not confident enough of my judgement there yet to try it at anything higher than a regional. This is my first time at NARAM (and I'm only gonna be there for Saturday and Sunday, so no competition flying this time around) so I have no idea what to expect. It's all new to me!

Greg

You might be right... it's been about three years since some of our club guys had a get-together over at his place... he's got a LOT of amazing stuff, and it's hard to remember EVERYTHING exactly-- I was impressed with the ultra-lightweight building stuff, and the plywood body tubes, but I was trying to absorb everything he was telling us about the workings of the gimballed motor mounts and horizon-sensing self-guiding finless rockets he'd built... that was just TOO cool...

I don't recall exactly what he was using for glue on the ultra lightweight tubes... I suppose one could ask him on his accur8 website...

Later! OL JR

__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

Greg,

Definitely stop by and watch for a bit. FAI stuff is quite different from NAR competition, and very differently constructed from sport rockets. Really unusual looking stuff, all of it ultra lightweight. There are folks building Streamer Duration models that weigh as little as 5 grams (imagine a Big Bertha that weighs the same as a nickel).

The S1 altitude rockets are really fun to watch as well. Bertha size boosters gap staged to a tiny 18mm rocket that flies like an Estes Mosquito. Biggest trick is getting them back. In Serbia most of us used 10 foot long by 1/2" streamers to try to see them coming down.

Very different stuff flown by very nice people. Definitely stop by and say hi.

Steve