Hangin' Out With Mr. Cineroc, Part 6 - Us Guys Here In Colorado

At the time that I was corresponding with Herb Desind starting in 1976, the local rocket club I belonged to (Skywatchers/ROMAR) had dwindled to only five or six regular members.  We had lost our ability to maintain NAR Section status because we didn't have the required 10 NAR members.
Also, at the time, there were no other active clubs or sections in the vicinity. Organized model rocketry was pretty dead along the Colorado front range.
In one letter I sent to Herb, I lamented this state of affairs, but enclosed some pictures of some of my own models, some club sport launches, and a copy of our newsletter, the Cosmic Steppingstone.
Herb and his fellow Marylanders were delighted to hear from a rocketeer in Colorado, but were very surprised at the lack of activity in the place where model rocketry virtually began.
They were all really impressed with the wide-open flying fields we enjoyed here, as suitable large open spaces in the D.C. area are few and far between.
Here is an excerpt from Herb's April 4th, 1977 letter:

"I enjoyed looking at the photo material you sent and your publication is very good. I am sending you a number of items here.  I am sending along some copies of ZOG which is the NARHAM publication, and the Nike-Larc, which is the Laurel area publication.  This is all I could get as of now.  All here were very interested in your publication, especially since your club is on Estes' doorstep.
Yesterday, when I delivered one of your copies to NARHAM, the president took it and ran to his car with it amidst objections from others, but all will get to see it at our next meeting."

Herb was also amazed when I wrote him that, to date, I had only visited Estes on two occasions.  He thought that, being so nearby, I would have been down there bugging them quite often.  I did mention that I was loosely acquainted with Wayne Kellner and Dane Boles.  In a February 6th, 1978 letter, Herb wrote:

"Please tell Mr. Kellner, whom I do not know, that many here want the Cineroc and Camroc put back on the market, not Star Wars toys!"

I never passed this on, but I sensed there was a lot of frustration out on the East Coast over the unavailability of Cinerocs at the time.

Ya think?

Hangin' Out With 'Mr. Cineroc' - Part 5 - Herb at NARWIN-1

In a letter dated January 6, 1978, Herb wrote;

"Now on to other things.  I went to NARWIN-1 'Winter Nationals' in Phoenix over Christmas.  They were great and well run.  I met Stine, L. Reese, and many others."

A month later, a letter dated February 6, 1978 arrived in my mailbox with a nice surprise.
Herb had sent along some photos he took at NARWIN-1.

Here are scans of those pictures along with Herb's descriptive texts:

  "An F-100 powered Class 5 altitude of G. Harry Stine, who is seen launching the rocket."

"A blow-through of an Estes D12-7 in a super-roc--show that one to the guys at Estes."

"One of Gary Rosenfield's G-engine rockets he was showing captured at the moment of liftoff.'

There was a fourth photograph enclosed in the letter, but I am unable to locate that one.  The description Herb wrote reads:

"A scale bird which went on to crash into little bits for reasons I do not know."

If there is one of you old timer rocketeers out there who happened to be at NARWIN-1 in December, 1977, and are the owner of such a scale entry that crashed, please enlighten me!

Hangin' With 'Mr Cineroc' - Part 4 The Day I Lost Herb's Rocket

Following is a tale of woe and sorrow surrounding an ill-fated Cineroc flight which I conducted for Herb Desind:

This event occurred in the Winter of 1977 - I don't remember the precise date -when I accompanied my room-mates on a skiing trip to Breckenridge, Colorado.
Since I wasn't a skier, I decided that this might be a good opportunity to take a Cineroc and booster rocket along to see if I could get a good film shot of the resort and surrounding mountain scenery.  Herb was always keen on encouraging me to take flight films that showed mountains.  Well, now - here was a golden opportunity!
Once we arrived at the resort, I noted that the parking lot was of ample size to accommodate a single stage D-engine flight with no problem.  It was a crystal-clear day with a bright blue Colorado sky and no perceptible wind, whatsoever.
So, whilst my buddies were 'shooshing' down the slopes of a nearby mountain with boards strapped to their feet, I prepared to 'shoosh' a Cineroc into the sky strapped to the Mountaineer, an Omega rocket built by Herb and mailed to me all the way from Silver Spring, MD.
This first photo shows me in my 60s purple 'mod' cap preparing the launch 'pad'. 

No, I didn't just stick the launch rod into the snow and call it good.  I was actually using a vintage MMI-style wooden launch stand (remember those?), secured in place by packing snow on top of it.  Nice thing about this setup is that no blast deflector was required.
The next photo is of the Mountaineer ready for its flight.

Upon ignition, the rocket and its camera took off on a straight-up trajectory.  The sudden noise startled a nearby group of skiers who were unloading gear from their car.  The model boosted very high in the rarified mountain air, arced over, and popped the ejection charge.  I gleefully watched the parachute blossom out.
My glee was short-lived however, when I noted that the model began drifting - very rapidly drifting  - toward a pine-wooded area outside the bounds of the parking lot!
Even though air conditions were dead calm at the launch site, there appeared to be a very brisk cross-wind going on at a few hundred feet aloft!
With growing dismay, I helplessly watched the parachute carrying the Mountaineer and its valuable payload drift over the forest and disappear from view.
@#$%^&* !!
With a heavy, sinking feeling, I set off to see if I could hopefully, maybe, possibly, recover this thing out of a whole forest of RETs.
When I reached the edge of the parking area, I discovered an altogether different heavy, sinking feeling - 4 feet of snow!  I nearly fell down and buried myself in my own little personal avalanche!
OK, what do I do now?  I really do want that rocket back.
Thinking quickly, I ran back to the launch area next to the car and grabbed the launch rod. Taking bearings toward the direction I had last seen the Mountaineer, I walked to the edge of the lot and planted the rod in the snow as a directional marker.
Since the car keys were on the person of one of my buddies up on the slopes, I walked to the town of Breckenridge.  I found a shop where I was able to rent a pair of snowshoes. Now this was SERIOUS Colorado-style model rocketry!
I valiantly spent two full hours traipsing through those woods on my big webbed feet searching both the ground and treetops as far as I could see.
I never found the Mountaineer.
Needless to say, it was a very dismal ride home that afternoon from Breckenridge, Colorado.
Not only did I lose a Cineroc and its booster rocket, but with it went what I am sure would have been a magnificent piece of film footage that Herb would have been extremely delighted with.  Luckily, this flight was made with a new film pack that didn't have any previous flight footage on it.
Later that week I called Herb and told him the bad news.  He took it well, saying he wished he had a dollar for every Cineroc he had lost, or had destroyed by a crash or CATO.  He even thanked me for the attempt, and shared in lamenting the loss of what was probably some really nice footage.

Nowadays, as a BAR, I don't think I would have tried something like this with such an expensive rocket vehicle.  If I did, I would probably take along an expendable small 3FNC marker rocket to test the prevailing wind conditions before risking a camera-carrying vehicle.
Hindsight is 20-20  (And, at my age, 20-20 is hindsight!)
Cheers....

Hangin Out With 'Mr. Cineroc' - Part 3 - One Of Herb's Rockets

Here is another photo which Herb Desind sent along in one of his letters....

 Following is an excerpt describing this flight:

"This rocket pictured is my very first 2-stage F-100 Cineroc carrier, the Janeine II.  It was named after a rock-and-roll 'pirate' music ship I visited in the North Sea when I was in Europe. The station was Radio Atlantis on the ship Janeine in the North Sea.  That rocket flew to a high altitude of about 4,000 feet and the film came out real nice, except the second stage spun a lot."

I would have loved to have seen the video of that flight.

Speaking of F-100 two stage Cineroc flights, Herb describes one that he launched at the Estes Industries plant during a visit to Colorado: 

"...launched at Estes and which got 5,000 feet above them and saw so much it is really great."

I wonder to this day if that flight stands as the highest powered rocket launched by a visiting guest witnessed at Estes Industries .  Herb didn't describe too much more about it, but I would wager to guess that a good sized crowd of Estes employees may have turned out for that one!

Herb did go on to say that he was surprised at how many body tubes and nose cones in great shape  were strewn about Estes' flying field.

"I put the grab on them and made a few good Omega rockets out of those parts."

Likely, these were the leftover pieces of many a Big Bertha which was Estes' go-to demo launch bird for visiting guests.

He was also amazed at the number of old expended engine casings lying around the field.

Hey, it is the proving ground at the 'Model Rocket Capitol of the World', after all!

Hangin' Out With 'Mr Cineroc' - Part 2 - The Mad Scientist

In a November 17, 1977 letter, Herb sent along this photo...

Referred to as his 'Mad Scientist' picture, it shows Herb and the launch of a two-staged Vigilante carrying, (what else?) a Cineroc. 
Here are Herb's comments on this particular flight;

"I am enclosing a photo a friend took of me with one of my Cinerocs going off.  I fired the camera on a two-stage D12 powered Vigilante.  It was launched at a field by the World Weather Building in Suitland, Maryland, about 30 minutes from where I live.  The Vigilante has to be adapted a bit to fly it D power and with a Cineroc, but once done it flies really nice."

Herb liked to get very much up-close and personal with his rocket launches.  This was so he could switch the camera on as close to T minus 0 as possible, while another rocketeer did the launch button pushing for him.
He found that he could usually squeeze as many as five flights onto a single Cineroc film pack. Herb felt that having the camera sitting idle while filming the launch pad during a countdown wasted a lot of that valuable film time.

Hangin' Out With 'Mr. Cineroc' Part 1

Back in 1976, I received a letter in the mail from Silver Spring, MD, dated October 16th  and signed by a gentleman by the name of Herb Desind.
In the letter Mr. Desind stated that he was a member of the Starlords International Association of Rocketry (This was a correspondence-based club run by Dennis Bishop out of Hawaii),  and had found my name on the membership roster, noting that I lived in Colorado, the perceived heart of model rocket country.
Herb stated that he was an avid flier of the Cineroc movie camera, and that he sought contact with model rocketeers all over the U.S. and the world.  He went on to say that he often sent Cinerocs and booster rockets to folks at many locations with the idea that they could take some interesting Cineroc film sequences for him at various scenic locales.
This letter was the beginning of a correspondence friendship that lasted well over two years.  I never had the opportunity to meet Herb in person, but we had several phone conversations, not to mention the dozens of letter communications that passed between us.
During this time period, Herb sent me a booster rocket - an Estes Omega upper stage which he re-named 'Mountaineer', along with one of his own specially modified Cineroc cameras.  I flew the camera for him several times, after which I would send him the film cartridges.  He would process them and always sent me back a copy.
Also, at Herb's request, I scoured the local hobby shop scene to find new Cinerocs for him. He was definitely a voracious buyer and user of the product! All told, I remember locating and purchasing a total of seven in the Colorado Springs area, which I sent to him, and for which he always re-imbursed me.  A short time later, Herb sold me two of the cameras, equipped with his own special modifications.
Unfortunately, I lost touch with Herb in the early 80s.
A short time later, in 1985, I exited the model rocket hobby.  Establishing a home, career, and family took precedence over model rocketry.
Sometime in the mid-1990s, I toyed with the idea of picking the hobby back up (BAR-ing in today's parlance). I began perusing the internet to see what the state of model rocketry was, since I hadn't kept up with it in over a decade.  It was then that I learned that Herb had passed away.  I was greatly saddened by that.
What made me even sadder was the fact that, when I had sold off all of my model rocketry stuff in 1985, one of my Herb-modified Cinerocs was in the lot.
I still kick myself in the butt for that one. 
If I could only get my hands on a time machine....
Anyway, that's all water under the bridge.  Spilled milk.  Etc., etc.
I still posses a notebook containing all of the correspondence and photographs that Herb sent along.
I still have the memories of my friendship with that remarkable individual.
I will now share all of that with the modern model rocketry community through this new blog series.
I hope some of you readers who knew Herb will enjoy this latest offering.
Stay tuned.

Back In The Day #12 - The Space Shuttle Enterprise

I finally located the photographs I had taken of the Space Shuttle Enterprise strapped to the back of a 747.
The tandem made a two day stop at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs on May 16-17, 1983.  This was the shuttle's first stop after departing from Edwards Air Force Base on its way to the Paris Air Show.  The 747 and shuttle were on public display during their visit.  I was there to witness the departure takeoff.  Awesome. 
But enough blabber...here are some pics.....