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.  

It Is.......ALIVE ! ! !

 The Steampunk Protostar, that is.

This morning, the long-suffering project has once again been extracted from it's dark, dreary vault (project cabinet) located in the furthest forlorn reaches of the mysterious LaBORatory (basement shop)....

"Time to fetch the...COUGH... Protostar.... Heh, heh....hee heee..  HACK..HACK...HA-GUAAARK !!"

The model was sequestered away last Spring when the Covid-19 thing hit, literally putting my rocketry involvement in lock-down, alongside most everything else.

When things picked back up in July, building activities favored a number of other rocket projects.  The Protostar remained in the cabinet.

Now, the partially completed bird is back on the bench.

This time around, I'm going to take a wee page out of Chris Michielssen's book and not put up any further build posts until the model is completely finished. This way, if the project gets bogged down again, there won't  be the long delays between posts.

If all goes as planned, I hope to get the model completed by the end of the year.

Incidently, I don't really have a hunchback or a hunchbacked assistant......

Back In The Day, Part 34 - The Ru-Jan Demos.

 The Rocky Mountain Association of Rocketry/Skywatchers Rocket Club of Colorado Springs was featured in a series of annual Spring demonstration launches that spanned the group's entire eleven year existence. 

These large all-day events were sponsored by the Ru-Jan Party and Hobby Shop located in the Rustic Hills North Shopping Center on North Academy Boulevard, and were flown in the center's large parking lot. The store's owner, Tom Hemry, was a perennial supporter of the club.

One of the static displayy tables at the 1982 Ru-Jan demos.

The demo launches were always well-publicized in advance, and full club participation was always in effect.

The demos were conducted with a high level of organization and efficiency. Club members were assigned to various teams: model prep, model recovery, and crowd control.  In addition was the launch control officer who kept up a constant chatter and countdowns on the P.A., and controlled the launch panel. 

ROMAR/Skywatchers Club member Lester Coburn provides
launch commentary during Ru-Jan 1978.

A couple of other members served as PR representatives whose job was to man the display tables, answer spectators' questions, and hand out club and hobby information material.

ROMAR's Glade Gordon shows off an FSI Black Brant II to an interested guest at Ru-Jan 1982.

A Maxi Alpha and Cobra 1500 ready to WoW! the crowd at Ru-Jan 1978.

The display tables themselves held a large variety of models, representing all aspects of the hobby, and many different manufacturers' products.  Every club member brought along their best models to  showcase at these events.

A display table at Ru-Jan 1978 featuring a number of big birds.

The launches were usually conducted in regularly scheduled rounds of twelve models each - the number of rods on the launch racks.  Prepping of models for the next round would take place as the previous group was being launched.  Most of the demo birds flown were owned by the club for this express purpose, though individual club members could fly models from their personal collection provided they were proven designs.  I recall launching my MPC Lunar Patrol at several of these demos because it was a great 'crowd-pleaser' model.

An Estes Goblin caught at liftoff - Ru-Jan 1978.

An Estes Solar Sailer stands ready for ignition at Ru-Jan 1978.

Occasionally, a club member could even be talked into launching a Cineroc or Astrocam for the benefit of the spectators. The launch control officer would play these flights up big time, encouraging the crowd to say 'cheese' as the models lifted off.

Your humble blog author mans the P.A. and launch control panel at Ru-Jan 1982.

A Red Max streaks off the launch rack at Ru-Jan 1979.

Other popular models were, of course, the big Saturns and Estes Maxi-Brutes.

Needless to say these demo events drew a lot of spectators, and the club usually enjoyed a spike in new memberships following each one. The final two years of the demos (1982-83) we even enjoyed the presence of a local radio station broadcasting live from a mobile. The station DJ would put in a lot of on-air plugs for the event and conduct periodic interviews with club members. 

Here are some more photos:

Glade Gordon readies a demo bird for launch at Ru-Jan 1978.

Another display table loaded with club members' models - Ru-Jan 1982.

Rocket Away!....Lester Coburn launches a model while club member Dave Wright and a crowd of spectators looks on.  Ru-Jan 1978.

I've featured this photo on an earlier blog post, but it deserves to be included in this Ru-Jan demo post.  This is NAR pioneer Bill Roe visiting Ru-Jan 1978.

BlastFromThePast Workshop Update

 I haven't been doing a whole lot of posting here lately, so I thought it would be time to do a little catching up on several builds currently on the bench.

The Orbital Transport project is wrapping up - most of the detail painting and decal marking application is completed.  All that remains is the final detailing on the booster nose section. The model will then be ready for shooting the final clear coat followed by assembly of the shock cord system.   

At the same time, work is progressing on a far less complicated model - the 'Skeeter Eeter'.  This is a 3x upscale of the Estes Mosquito.  I built two of these back in 1974-1975, one being a 24mm version followed by another flying on 18mm motors.  This newest BAR version is a re-build of the 24mm iteration.

 'Mighty D Engines", folks ! 

The model is largely a Baby Bertha kit-bash albeit with a few added extra parts.  The Skeeter Eeter is nearly ready for primer at this point.

Yet another model in the works is a Quest Nike-K.  This one's going pretty quickly as there are no balsa parts to fill and sand. The model uses the standard Quest Nike plastic fin can, a plastic tube transition section, and a plastic nose.  Spiral seams on the body tubes have been filled and sanded, so all that is left is primer and paint operations.  I am currently in the process of brush painting this model. Each component gets painted prior to final assembly - a great way to avoid masking.

I still haven't been able to venture out for a flying session.  With all of the dryness and wind that has fueled all the wildfires along the Colorado front range, the entire state has been under a strict burn ban for the last several months.  Also, the high level of smoke haze from the fires has been such that it is quite unhealthy to spend much time outdoors.  

As I write, we are expecting the arrival of a cold front that will bring much needed snow to the high country.  It won't be enough to put out the immense fires, but it should help with establishing a moisture-laden perimeter to keep them from spreading further. 

Anyway, I will continue posting updates on these model builds as they continue to progress.

Check back often....