I finally finished grain filling, sanding, and prepping these two Nike rockets for primer.
This has been a long time coming.
Now, all I have to wait for is a relatively windless day to get them outside with the rattle cans.
Perhaps I will get some rockets completed this year, after all.
The very day after my last post, Castle Rock and Douglas County went right back to the burn ban restrictions.
There hasn't been a drop of rain in the past week and the wind has been at a high level every single day. The area is a virtual tinder-box!
Add to that the smoke plumes from a large wildfire on the Colorado/Utah border blowing straight into the Colorado Front Range, making it unhealthy to be outside for any length of time.
Interestingly, there was a story on local news this morning about a nearby wildfire that was started by lightning - on a golf course!!
I would have thought that a well- manicured and irrigated place like that would be immune to fires.
Guess not...
Anyway, the model rocket flying drought drags on as well.
Hi, All,
I haven't gone away from the BlastFromThePast blog, I'm only on a hiatus.
Fire burn bans have finally been lifted here in Castle Rock and Douglas County, but now the problem is that there hasn't been much in the way of decent flying weather sans brisk windy conditions.
With the continued drought and the increase in warmer summer temperatures, I'm sure it won't be long until we're back on burn bans.
The outlook for a Front Range group launch seems bleak at the moment, but I am on the eagle-eye lookout for a day when weather might be favorable to do a launch excursion.
The good news is that all the weather models I have been reading speak of an El Nino weather pattern developing in the Pacific. This (hopefully) will serve to bring substantial amounts of moisture to Colorado beginning in late summer and extending through the fall and winter months.
We'll have to wait and see.
I also haven't much to report on rocket building activity. I have a couple birds on the bench close to be ready for shooting primer but just haven't spent much time with getting them finished.
Jeez! I thought when I retired there would be much more time available for rocket building.
(Cue game show buzzer sound)
Family activity, yard work, honey-do projects, and music writing have been taking up a large chunk of my time.
Anyway, I just wanted to jump on the blog here and let you all know that things will get cranked up again in the near future.
Thanks for reading. Keep 'em flying!
-Ed
This past week, I finally got my rear into gear and made the long trek to the basement La-BOR-atory to immerse myself in a bit of rocket construction.
My efforts resulted in getting the Nike-Smoke and the Nike-Apache ready for primer.
This session involved attaching the fins on the latter, applying fillets to both models, prepping the plastic parts, and filling in any spots on the fins where I might have missed some grain.
On a different subject, I've been reading some encouraging news on the rocket flying front.
Meteorologist are predicting a super El Nino weather pattern forming this year.
What this means is that drought-stricken Colorado will likely be seeing much more moisture beginning in the latter part of the year.
This also means that we should have respite from the non-stop fire danger burn bans imposed by the local municipalities, which are currently responsible for the lack of model rocket launching.
Guess it's time to spend more time in the shop and start stocking up on the motor inventory!
Cheers!
Happy and prosperous New Year to all !!
In keeping with my annual New Year tradition, it's time to post my look-back at the previous year's rocketry activity.
This year's post is very short indeed:
Launch sessions: 2
Rocket flights: 10
New rockets built: 0
I did manage to get a smattering of progress accomplished on a couple of outstanding builds, but not enough to get any of them completed and flight-ready.
So, for 2026 I'm quite ready to reverse this rocketry drought and get back into the swing of getting birds built and hitting the flying field again. After all, I'm coming up on my 10th anniversary of becoming a BAR. Gotta make it count.
Stay tuned. Lots to come in 2026 !!
Cheers!
