More Time For Rockets !!!

Today, as of 11 a.m. MST, I officially leave the work force and begin my retirement years!

After 42+ years in the electronics technology industry, I'm finally hanging up my oscilloscope probes.

Of course, this will mean having plenty more time for hanging out with family, as well as pursuing my two major passions: model rocketry and music.  

I can safely say that I am another one of those individuals who can claim that involvement in the hobby of model rocketry played a major role in steering me into a lifelong technical career.

My journey has led me through working at places like Ampex Corp., Apple Computers, Echostar Technologies, the A/V shops of large school districts, a company that produced Gallium Arsenide Crystal's (Crystal Specialties), Minolta Copiers, and two medical device companies (MKS and Diversatek Healthcare).

It's been a ride!

Now, I can perhaps find the time to finish up that Steampunk Protostar.....

A Late, But Cool Christmas Gift

 Because of Covid precautions a couple of weeks ago, we missed a few family members at our Christmas celebration.

Yesterday, we were finally able to get with them for a 2nd Christmas at the BlastFromThePast home.

I came away with another awesome model kit for the build queue: an Estes Interceptor.

I never got around to building one back in the Old Fleet days, so I am delighted to have this iconic classic in the new BAR collection.

Cheers!

Looking Back At 2020

 2020.

What can we say about that?

The BlastFromThePast model rocket fleet saw very little flying action in the past year.   The combination of the big not-to-be-discussed-here C-word/number and the burn bans put in place in Colorado because of the ongoing drought and the massive wildfires it spawned served to keep me away from the parks in which I usually fly models.

Here is the meager run-down:

2 flight sessions.   These took place prior to the Colorado Stay-At-Home order.

7 model flights logged.  Incidently, this put me at a total of 108 flights since I BAR'd in 2016.

1 model lost - the Estes Firefly glider clone.

No destroyed models - a positive!

Production of new models on the workbench during 2020 was sparse as well.  The shutdown put me into kind of a model rocketry 'blue funk' for several months.  It wasn't until around June that I started pulling projects out of the cabinet and resuming building activities.

I managed 5 new models.  Actually, I came very close to having an additional three completed, but recent Holiday activities curtailed that.  I couldn't quite realize completion on those before I ran out of year.

Even the frequency of writing entries to this blog saw a slowdown.

But that will all change pretty soon.  I have high hopes that 2021 will be much better.  Possibly not until sometime in Spring, but I am getting my build list and flight agenda plans in order, and will be hitting the ground running.  I hope some of that will be in the form of chasing after model rockets on the flying field!

Anyway, here is my 2021 New Year photo of the current BlastFromThePast fleet:

I thank you all for following this blog.  Upward and onward....

Happy 2021!   Stay safe and keep 'em flying.

Cheers!

A Little Christmas Bonus

 

Last Monday night, Mrs. BFTP and I finished putting up the last of the Christmas lights on the house.  I stepped outside to snap a quick picture of the whole affair.

I didn't notice until after I went back inside and pulled up the pic that the image included a little extra bit of coolness.

That bright object appearing in the background sky is the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction. 

I had forgotten all about the event, so after viewing this pic, I grabbed my little 60mm refractor telescope and 25mm Kellner eyepiece and had a good look-see of the planetary pair.  It was quite a treat seeing the two planets in the same telescopic field along with Titan and the Galilean moons of Jupiter...

Merry Christmas From The BlastFromThePast Blog!

 ...and a happy, prosperous, healthy 2021.

Stay safe !

The BlastFromThePast Shop Has Been Invaded...

...by Christmas!!

Yep, it's that time of year again when the normal model rocketry activities are swept aside in favor of breaking out the the many large totes full of Christmas light strings from storage that need to be sorted, tested, inventoried, inspected, repaired, staged, and installed.

Over the past 40-odd years, I have accumulated a LOT of lights!  Many strings date back to 1980, and still work, but not without some small amount of repairs and TLC to be done annually.  

The lion's share of the strings are incandescent, but I have been in the gradual process of switching over to LED in the past few years.  Less current draw and IMO easier to maintain.

We are definitely not the Griswolds in terms of light displays, nor do I have a penchant for the dazzling (garrish?) computer driven / music synced affairs often seen on the 'extreme lighting' shows, but I still put up a hefty amount of lights.  Somewhere in the 8,000 - 10,000 individual mini-bulb range.  I've never counted. 

And I've not tripped any of the 15 amp breakers.    Yet.

All I know is that I typically spend at least three weekends on the install, and quite a bit more time in the basement la-BOR-atory repairing mal-functioning strings and modifying others for special custom applications.  The scope of this work tends to take over the entire workshop. 

Perhaps I should start another blog sub-page on the subject of outdoor Christmas lighting.  I certainly have enough material to effectively do so.

Anyway, model rocket projects will be resumed once the Great Mini Bulb Frenzy is over.

Cheers!

Launch Lug Standoffs

 

 On most of my recent LPR model builds I have adopted the practice of mounting the launch lugs on short standoffs rather than gluing them directly to the body tubes.

The primary reason for doing this is the added height makes for the formation of smoother and better looking lug/tube glue fillets. It eliminates those unsightly bumps and gaps in the joints that usually require multiple applications of glue to fill.

The standoff for a standard 1/8 lug are made from 1/8 inch wide strip of 1/16 balsa cut to lug length.  The ends can be rounded over if desired.

Sure, the added height may increase launch lug interference drag by a small amount, but this might be compensated for by the presence of a smoother fillet.

Anyway, these are after all, sport models, where optimizing for flight performance is not the primary concern.

Another small advantage of the standoff - the effects of the inherent slop in the fit between lug and launch rod causing the latter to contact the rocket airframe during liftoff are greatly minimized. I'm not sure how much this would effect the model's initial flight path in terms of rod tip-off and/or angle of attack.  Perhaps there has been some past investigation in this area that I haven't yet encountered.  Also, the effect wouldn't be as large with models using two widely spaced lugs versus a single longer lug.  Again, we're talking sport models. At the least this build technique might help to prevent the launch rod from marring the model's finish on the launch lug side during liftoff.