What I did last weekend

Without going into the long version, I've been enjoying the hobby of model rocketry on and off since 1967. I've been a member of the National Association of Rocketry since 1983, and we have a local Section - a fancy name for club - here in the Kansas City area.

We have 10 or so launches a year (weather permitting), and two of these include contest events (when the rocket on the pad is not part of a competition event, it's called a sport flight).

Last weekend was a two day event, our fall contest and sport launch at a field Waaaaaay up north, near Pattonsburg, Missouri. Put it this way, if we had driven another half hour, we would have been in Iowa.

Did I take pictures? But of course!

Rocket in flight.

Saturday...

In the Boost Glider event, the motor pod detaches and returns with a small parachute or streamer, while the rest glides back.

The glider is timed by stopwatch, and the longest duration in seconds wins.

Boost Gliders can be bought as kits or built from plans.

David designs his own. Here he's holding his Zephyr-High.

Tim and his
large version

of the classic

Estes

Interceptor.

Ready for a

sport flight.

"5,4,3,2,1,Launch!"

Interceptor

up and away!

After the range closed for the day and we packed up, we drove to Bethany and had supper at a family restaurant called "Toot Toot". Good food. Some then left for home, others of us stayed at a motel.

Sunday...

Got up, showered, dressed, had a brief devotion, then free continental breakfast. Took stuff out to my car, and then checked out. Before I got onto I-35 to drive back to the Pattonsburg field, I wound around some back roads to indulge another hobby.

The northern endpoint of Missouri 13.

(Now I ought to visit Blue Eye again,

and get a photo from the southern end

of 13 on the Arkansas line.)

Back to the launch range...

I mentioned we were close to Iowa.

Stan came down from Lamoni to join the fun.

If you're familiar with the classic Estes Big Bertha kit, you've already noticed the inside joke.

12 fins instead of four.

Another of Stan's

own creations,

the USS Goonlantis.

Great finish

and decals...

the photo doesn't

do it justice.

That photo below is me, posing with my D Boost Glider, built from Trip Barber's D-Light plans. (Oh, in case you're wondering, the rudder is underneath the stabilizer to keep it out of the motor exhaust during boost).

Background story...before you launch one of these, you have to add nose weight (clay or similar) to the front of the fuselage (not enough and the glider stalls, too much and a death dive results). You start with some weight (best guess), and adjust by hand tossing the glider in a wide open field on as calm a day as you can get.

Conditions were good Saturday morning at the launch field, so that's one of the first things I did. On the second toss, the glider nosed into the ground and snapped off the front four inches of the fuselage. More damage than I wanted to try to repair on the field, but with a two day event you have more time to work with.

David (one of the local glider experts) gave me good instruction as I repaired the glider in the motel room Saturday evening.

Better than new.

Sunday, not long before launch, Randall took this photo.

Unfortunately the connection between the pod body tube and the pylon failed under the thrust of the D12-3 motor. The flight was disqualified due to instability. The repair to the fuselage held, and the glider is fine. I'll have to build a new pod though.

Randall helping David load a Big boost glider on a long launch rod. The rod was then raised back up vertical, and the clip wires attached to the igniter before launch.

Four Sport Scale entries being static judged. David is comparing the models against the photo documentation - of the full size rocket - for such things as outline, pattern, color, and quality of finish. The models will later be launched and returned, and judged on flight appearance, and points taken off for damage (if any).




Group photo...part of the group, anyway.

(L-R: Dave B., Randall J., Randy W., Bob, Josh, and Blake.)

(David L. took the photo.)

A.K.A. a bunch of rocket guys having too much fun.

(Note: in the background is Randall J's rocket trailer,

built to resemble Luke Skywalker's Sky Speeder from Star Wars.)

Hey Blake, don't threaten your Mustang...

Oh, I see. You're just loading your car.

More from the Back Porch

"Bob's post has gotten me to thinking which is good because I've been a useless blob for weeks now."

I doubt that.

"Poppy had a refrigerator on the back porch and I thought, as a youngster, that this was most interesting. There was a refrigerator in the kitchen AND ANOTHER ONE on the back porch. Such luxury!!"

Yes, and I almost mentioned the refrigerator…but I thought the previous post was long enough. That, and I wanted to tie in straight to the fireworks while it was still kind of timely.

What I remember about that fridge…
It was bigger than the one in the kitchen,
I think it ran on Propane,
And on the top of the left side our uncle Buddy had written something in magic marker, in his secret code. The letters had extra lines, slashes or curlicues on them, but it looked something like

VBBS

Bud had showed me his secret code alphabet once, and I sure wish I had drawn a copy (I’ve been interested in alphabets and codes since grade school). Anyway, “VBBS” was his code for LSSI, which stood for “Loyal Southern Sons International”. I don’t know if this was something he and his friends came up with, or if it was all in his head. I do recall us play acting a meeting once, where we were supposed to stand when the national anthem was sung. Bud then stood and started to sing “Dixie”, and I just sat there looking at him. (That’s not our national anthem!)

He kidded me about that, something to the effect of “What do they teach you kids in that school up north?”. That LSSI meeting only happened once, a fun diversion for a summer afternoon. I do remember hearing various members of the family say “The South shall rise again!”.

More than once.

"I don't recall what exactly was kept out there early on…"

I’m not sure, but I suppose whenever he’d get a good buy in bulk quantities, or when he was given more food than the other fridge would hold. Maybe Connie would remember. Or your mom.

And I don’t remember how Poppy came to have that second refrigerator in the first place. Maybe it was given to him.

"...but I do recall some Buckhorn being there later, I suspect to help manage whatever ailment eventually took Poppy's life."

Buckhorn was cheap, and it wasn’t that good a beer. Er, um…so I heard. Yeah, that’s it.

"Bob, I also remember your mom being laid up on a bed on the back porch after an ugly encounter with some sizeable thorns during one of your visits. I don't recall any details except that as, again a young boy, it seemed like she had to stay in bed an awfully long time."

Mike, I had forgotten that, but yeah…sizeable wasn’t the word. I’d never seen thorns more than an inch long until then. She got infected from that, and was in bed some days. It ruined that trip to the farm for her, and I seem to recall we delayed our trip home an extra day or two.

I also slept on that bed during another trip, and I remember it being the tallest bed in the house. You really had to climb up to get on it.

"I do remember the fireworks displays that we had at the farm - it was great fun! It seemed as if the dark would never come."

Truly, the high point of the day.

"I remember watching my dad hold a roman candle out to his side while it discharged and thought that was one of the coolest things ever"

I had forgotten until you mentioned it, but I remember your dad getting into the fireworks show. What a time…not only the fireworks, but lightning bugs and a darker sky with more stars than you could see in the city. And we had the energy of youth without all the cares of adulthood.

"I begged and begged to be allowed to do that and finally he let me...And when it was all done, it wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be. Bob, was the balsa glider actually your first rocket? Do you have Bud to thank for your hobby?"

Well, not really, though I’m not sure now what year we did the bottle rocket powered glider flight. That glider was mainly Bud’s project.

As for model rocketry, I discovered that in 1967 when a classmate of mine told me “There’s these really cool rockets you can buy in the hobby store. You put them together and they really fly”. I found an ad in a magazine, it was either “Boy’s Life” or “Popular Science”, so I sent in for an Estes catalog.

(Do I still have my first Estes catalog? Why, yes!)

My birthday was approaching, so I asked for and got an Astron Alpha. Then later for Christmas, my dad surprised me with a homemade launch system and a tool box I used for my first range box.

Now I could go on and on, The Hobby has given me a great deal of fun over the years. But that would make this a long post indeed, so I’ll save that for another time.

And of course, there’s much more I could say about those days at Poppy’s farm. Great times, but they sure went by fast. So, I’ll post this much now, and compose more later.

So Mike, what’s your favorite memory about Grandma, Poppy, Uncle Bud…their house and the farm?