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.....

 

 

 

A Super-Cool Dumpster-Diving Find

Every so often, an unexpected object will drop right out of the blue and into our laps.
This happened to me yesterday at my workplace.
I was performing the mundane task of hauling some packing boxes out to throw in the trash dumpster. On my way, I noticed some black objects lying behind the dumpster enclosure alongside a stack of discarded wood pallets.
A closer look revealed them to be a pair of used, heavy duty audio monitor stands!

  Someone from one of the neighboring businesses had apparently tossed them out there, likely with the intention of someone - like me - finding them and making good use of them.
Of course, being a rocket geek, I immediately recognized them as a splendid pair of wide-footprint MPR-worthy launch pad tripods!
I couldn't believe my luck in stumbling across these items.
And I didn't even have to actually dig them out of the dumpster!
Everything seems to be in working order with them, and they only need a little cleaning and paint touch up here and there.
Here's a pic of one of the units set up in my basement shop, all ready to be converted into a launch pad.

At the moment, I am not into MPR, but perhaps this beastie could be the catalyst that would change all that. 
We shall see.

Back In The Day, Part 11A

That title kind of rhymes....

After writing yesterday's post, I seemed to recall something about the ROMAR section having those scopes stolen from us.
A quick check of my old back issues of the club news letter, The Cosmic Steppingstone, confirmed this.
In the March-April, 1974 issue, there appeared a write-up about the section's first NAR sanctioned Open Meet held on April 21, 1974.  Here is an excerpt:

"It was soon after we broke for lunch that we found a two-legged snake had ripped off our East tracking station.  The entire station was gone!  Although a small search party went out looking for the snake, it was not found.  A meeting of contestants was called, and due to the lack of an East station, the Peewee Payload event was dropped."

So, that explains the where-abouts of one of the scopes.   Apparently, our club had not seen fit to keep anyone on the flying field during lunch break to watch over things.
Hmmm......

Back In The Day, Part 11 - A Tracking Scope Revelation

Last night I happened to be perusing through my collection of Model Rocketry Magazine issues, looking for some rocket plans I had recalled seeing.
I happened upon the October 1969 issue which contained the results write-up about NARAM-11 held at the U.S. Air Force Academy in August of that same year.  It diverted my attention away from the plans search for awhile.
The article described some difficulties surrounding the tracking scopes used on the first day of competition, citing that the scopes were magnified 6x with a 90 degree elbow in the optics path.  Folks manning these scopes found them very difficult to use in following models in flight, and, as a result, no tracks closed.
These scopes had been provided by the Colorado Springs Peak City Section, who were co-hosting the NARAM, with Bill Roe serving as the CD of the contest.  Luckily, the article went on to say, the next day's tracking events were saved by the Annapolis section, who had brought along their through-sight tracking scopes, which were much easier to use.
Fast forward to 1973.
Shortly after my rocket buddy, Marc K., and I had joined a newly formed local Colorado Springs rocket club - Skywatchers / ROMAR NAR section, we were paid a visit by Mr. Roe himself. 
Bill generously donated to our fledgling club all of the model rocket range equipment that had belonged to the former Peak City Section.  This included multi-pad launch racks, P.A. system, communications system, and....a pair of tracking theodolites.
Subsequently, at one of our sport launches, the scopes were brought out, set up, and made available to anyone who wished to learn and practice the fine art of tracking model rockets.  Of course, I was eager to try my eye at it.
I seem to remember that the scope I attempted to use was magnified...and it did have a 90 degree elbow in the optics.  And it was impossible to keep even the largest and slowest of model rockets in the field of view!
I am fully convinced that these are the exact same scopes that were used on that first day of flying at NARAM four years earlier.
If so, I can fully understand the frustration of the trackers, contestants, and meet officials as they experienced such a dismal rate of track closures.
Sometime in the late 1970's, the size of the Skywatchers/Romar club diminished to only four or five regular members, so we started flying from a single launch pad that was equipped with a 1/8"rod, a 3/16" rod and an adjustable tower.  Others would bring their own personal launch pads.  The old multi-pad racks were still brought out and used at public demo launches on occasion.
The rest of the Peak City equipment went into storage in someone's garage, and I never saw those tracking theodolites again.
It would be interesting to know whatever became of those historic beasties.....