A FEW WEEKS AGO, I was talking to a modeler who was getting ready to take the written test portion of the Level 2 high-power rocketry certification. What surprised me was that he didn’t know a lot about the technical or regulatory aspects of the hobby. Basically, he was getting all his knowledge by memorizing the answers in the test “study guide.” To me, this is very scary. But I don’t think that this was the rare exception; as I had a similar experience this past weekend with a different modeler.

Mark Newton thought the Fat Boy was a neat kit for some time, but the idea to hyper-ize it hit him when he was looking at Yitah Wu’s rocket fleet on the ‘net. Yitah built a Fat Boy for two motors, and he used different length tubes for each one, so he could deploy two recovery devices at different times by simply picking different delays. Mark liked the concept, so shamelessly stealing it, he set out to build a multi-motor Fat Boy.

MANY YEARS AGO, I attended a rocket launch with a group of people I did not know. I'd never been to the site before, was not extremely experienced at rocketry, and flat did not know what was going to happen that day. The host of the launch made me feel quite welcome. He invited me into his home, showed me around, and treated me, a complete stranger, like I was a best friend.

RECENTLY, in the aftermath of posting an article on the ongoing battle of words between a national rocketry organization and a disgruntled ex-member, I received several e-mail responses from readers who wondered about the treacherous ground around which I was treading. In fact, it caused one to exclaim that I had "crossed the POL line."

I just got through watching Ky and Jodi Michaelson's newest High Thrust Video release, and it was quite an enjoyable experience. Having gone to LDRS myself, but missing BALLS, it was a great way to see what happened at Black Rock this past summer in addition to reliving all the great flights from the Bonneville Salt Flats. Some of my personal highlights of the BALLS coverage are all the P motors flown there.

Andrew Waddell began thinking of this project shortly after getting into high-power flying. Waddell has always been a Saturn V fanatic, and wanted something bigger than most.   This project is 1/52 scale, matched to PML 7.62" tubing used for the main booster airframe. In September of 1997 he began laying out the project. 

Competition has always bred innovation and consequently innovation has led technology. Given such, new technology is indeed brewing in this Southeastern Georgia town, in the form of innovative recovery devices. Savannah, Georgia, USA is the home of Mike and Pam Barton, makers of the new "SkyAngle™" line of parachutes.

Every so often, a new product comes out that really creates some excitement. This product release from Aero Pack is one of those. The idea is so simple that it screams KISS and yet is just complicated enough that the average rocketeer couldn't construct a similar unit without significant cost.