Current Projects

This is a better life than wasting it in front of a terminal or screen of any kind. AND it keeps me away from the refrigerator.

Copy that about the fridge. It's hard to mix and apply epoxy with a sandwich in your hand. Funny you should mention a terminal or screen. In the late 70's and early 80's my hobby was racing motorcycles. After that my hobby was computers. When I became an IT professional my wife said I should find a non work related hobby. So here I am 18 years later still flying. Back in the day Honda had the tag line, "You meet the nicest people on a Honda." You meet the nicest people at a rocket launch.

Whenever I order from AC Supply they send me their catalog with a beautiful photo of the Estes Red Nova on the cover. The kit is new for 2018. After seeing the one Tony V had I put it on my wish list. I started working on it last night. I found a great post on the rocketry forum from someone that built one.
www.rocketryforum.com/threads/estes-7266.../page-2#post-1829046

It's amazing how long it takes to build even a skill level 2 rocket when you take your time to do it right and make those small modifications to make it better. I got as far as assembling the motor mount, marking up the body tube and gluing on one fin. All this while watching election results and an episode of the original Lost in Space. It was the one where Will Robinson teleports back to Earth in some small town in Vermont and brings back a much needed bottle of carbon tetrachloride.

New 4inch upscale deuce, with 4 grain 29 mm motors. The current one got so heavy with all the repairs, that 3 grain is no longer enough. Probably got 25-30 flights out of it

That's a lot of flights. I have been keeping a flight log since 2015 and I don't have anything with that kind of record.

The Red Nova flew on Sunday in Berwick and almost got lost. At the time it was a white Nova. Last night I put on the first coat of red. I got some paint crack near the lower launch lug and near one of the conduits.

The package lists using a D12 engine. I flew it on a C11 and it was fine. Before flying it I weight it and compared it to some of my other kits and the C11 makes sense.

Last night I fell asleep on the coach when I got home from work. I thought my plans of painting were shattered. When I woke up at 11:00 PM I was wide awake and could not sleep. When looking out the window I could see the branches on my trees and plants bending from the wind. By that time I was already to paint and went for it. The painting went well!

Can anyone that has the luxury of painting indoors tell me what it's like compared to painting outdoors. I have NEVER spray painted indoors.