Back In The Day, Part 37 - The Citadel Mall Rocketry Display

 In 1979, the Skywatchers Model Rocket Club of Colorado Springs set up our largest indoor static display ever in the city's premier shopping mall, The Citadel. 

This event was actually my brain-child.   I had worked for a couple of years on the maintenance crew at the mall, so I was well acquainted with all the folks in management.  I floated the idea to them of allowing the Skywatchers rocket club to set up a well-publicized display in the main hub of the center.  The mall management went one step better and suggested expanding the event into a mall-wide hobby show extending over an entire weekend! Of course, I didn't hesitate to volunteer to contact the various hobby clubs around town and get the whole event organized.  The mall manager would schedule the date and take care of advertising and press releases in the local newspapers.

There was a lot of work to be done in the intervening weeks.  The club set to work designing and building the display boards and table layout. I began calling the various hobby clubs around town.

When all was said and done, I ended up with several organizations who committed to participating in the event:  an R/C model airplane club, an R/C model boat club, an R/C car group, a miniature military replica club, the local coin collectors' club, and even a couple of local artists.  Sadly, the nearby model railroaders declined to join us, citing the difficulty of setting up a working rail layout in time for the show.

Here is a hand-drawn flier I put together, made copies, and posted in all of the Springs hobby shops:  

Following are some pictures I took at the event:

A table showcasing some of the members' sport model rockets.

Club president Glade Gordon at the scale model display 

showing off a Saturn V to some interested visitors.

A display table with posters explaining all about model rockets, how they work, 

and an introduction to our club and the NAR.

A table showing the technical aspects of model rocketry.  Included in the display 

were a Cineroc movie camera and an Estes TransRoc transmitter.

A display showcasing the various aspects of competition model rocketry.

The show turned out to be a great success, drawing considerable crowds throughout the weekend.  All club members were on deck to man the displays and hand out club promotional material. As a result, the Skywatchers club enjoyed a decent surge of interest in club membership soon after. 

Most of all, it was highly enjoyable opportunity to show off and talk about our great hobby to a lot of folks who were unfamiliar with model rocketry.

Back In The Day, Part 36 - HOTROC-3

 The Third Annual Heart Of The Rockies regional contest meet was held in Colorado Springs over the weekend of August 21-22, 1982.

The meet was attended by 20 contestants from around the Mountain States with four NAR sections being represented: ROMAR (Colorado Springs), WARP (Utah) COSMIC (Denver), and KOSMO (Kansas).

The location of the meet had change slightly, as the field on which previous HOTROCs had been flown was purchased for development earlier in the year.  A new field was found on Fountain Boulevard on the east side of the Springs.  

For the third year in a row, I served as CD.

Events scheduled for HOTROC-3 were mostly in the duration categories.  ROMAR did not have adequate tracking equipment on hand, or enough trained trackers in the club to effectively run altitude events.  The variety of events was quite challenging, nonetheless.

Flown at the meet were:

Class A Parachute Duration, Class 1/2A Boost/Glide, Class D Egg-loft Duration, Class D Super-Roc Duration, Class A Rocket/Glide, Class B Helicopter Duration, and Streamer Spot Landing.

A new 'fun' event was added this year:  Odd-Roc, which brought out a number of creative and amusing rocket-powered objects!

Unfortunately, I do not possess a lot of photographs from the meet, as sometime back in the late 80s, I lost my 1982 rocketry log book.  Most of the photos in this post are scanned from the 4th quarter 1982 issue of The Cosmic Steppingstone, ROMAR's newsletter. These images aren't the greatest, so bear with me....

First, a group shot of the HOTROC-4 contestants:

Back row: Glade Gordon, Bill Penberthy, Larry Goldman, Ed Mitton, Roy Black, Brian Fox, Randall Redd, and Gary Price.

Middle Row: Ken Tenaka, Steve Sande, Mike DeRosier, Kevin Knapp, and George Fox.

Kneeling:  Tadd Jensen, Brian Newberry, Tim Collins, Kirk Rafferty, and Dr. Warren Layfield.

Not pictured:  Mike Mitchell and Steve Hamous.

Here is a scan of the official programme for HOTROC-3:

Randall Redd and Gary Price of Utah set to launch one of Gary's birds:

Mike DeRosier, cleverly disguised as Groucho Marx, puts a serious spin on range safety check:

The Odd-Roc entries on display:

As expected, the variety of contraptions was interesting - a flying fish, a large Pennzoil can, an 'Atlas Holding the Earth' figure, a flying Rubik's Cube, a fire hydrant, a Kootie...the list goes on. Also on the display table were the meet champion trophies for which the contestants were vying, and a number of cakes that were later raffled off.

A contestant readies his "Furry, googly-eyed, flying saucer....thing... for flight:

Odd-Roc turned out to be the most popular event of the meet, with the contestants heartily clamoring for a repeat in HOTROC-4 the next year.

After the dust had settled,Overall Meet Champion Brian Fox hoists the big trophy:

As the contestants were packing up and readying to head home, there was already enthusiastic talk of next year.....

Back In The Day, Part 35 - A Little Bit Of Ancient Colorado Rocketry History

 It seems that every time I look through my archives of things saved from my early days of model rocketry, I re-discover another tidbit that I had overlooked or forgotten about

This time it is in the form of a Range Control Card used by the old Peak City Section of Colorado Springs. 

 For those of you who are familiar with early model rocketry history, you know that Peak City was the 2nd-ever NAR section in the United States.  Headed by William Roe, the group was formed in 1959 and was active until around the early 1970s.

This card clearly demonstrates that Peak City flew from a 12 launch point rack system.

Cheers!

The Big Shock Cord Festival !

 Last Spring, when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in full force, Mrs. BlastFromThePast and myself went into full-scale cloth mask production.

Part of this endeavor included donating my entire stash of elastic shock cord material to the cause for use as ear straps.

Last week, I was delighted to discover that our local Walmart had finally re-stocked their supply of sewing elastic.  I purchased enough to install the missing shock cords into all of the models I had completed in 2020, and then some...

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!