Rocketry Planet

Meet Ed Bertschy. Ed is a 43 year old graphics artist with a knack for turning ideas into reality.

A member of the Southern Arizona Rocketry Association, Ed has been involved in rocketry for six years, three of which as a "BAR", prefering low power and experimental rocketry.

When I asked Ed about his favorite rocket, he responded that it was his scratch built Lockheed X-7.

Ed's most special memories in rocketry surround that project.

"It was my introduction to highpower. It introduced me to the sort of people who do rocketry. I have made a lot of friends, and received a ton of help." said Ed during our interview. "My original idea was to build a 'next level' rocket which used a 29mm motor mount and I could use F and G motors in.

But, as it turned out, my scale was a bit ambitious, and as I started building it, the weight kept increasing until I realized this thing was going to weigh about 5 pounds when finished.

I asked my Level One certified friends, and they gave me a very good piece of advice right from the start:

"Put in the biggest diameter motor mount your tubing can hold. You can always adapt down. You just can't go the other direction."

 As the shot at the left reveals, the project was a complete success.

Two flights were made during the Demonstration Launch held by SARA at the TIMPA Modelplex where NARAM 39 was held.

The first flight was to determine if the X-7 would fly on an H123. Ed said, "Because my software was telling me that it would hit apogee at 4 seconds, I decided to use my Adept ST210 timer with a Robby's Rockets Loadable Ejection System as primary, set at four seconds, and the 6 second delay on the H123 as backup. This also was the first launch off my homebrew launch pad of the X-7."

"The first flight was perectly straight up, no roll. The X-7 is definately better behaved with less weight in the nose, and an H123.

The timer worked well, but when the RMS delay went off, the rocket tangled a chute line, and it came down a little fast, banging its tail badly. A little 5-minute epoxy straightened it out."

The photo is of the second flight, which Ed added, "This was a perfect flight, and would have qualified for a Level 1 certification.

This time I used only the RMS delay for chute ejection set at 6 seconds, which turned out to be the perfect delay. It drifted waaaay off in the wind, and re-banged it's tail."

Ed is probably best known for his "Sci-Fi" designs of model rockets. His Mars and Willie Ley versions are equally exciting. And, it adds to his website's uniqueness.

"I try to put everything there. I want people to know how I built something. I use illustrations for this. If I put a completed project on-line, I want there to be no mystery as to how I designed and built it. I feel this is much more valuable to a visitor to my site than just putting up images of my finished project."

While discussing his website, Ed added, "I hope that it helps a lot of people, especially new people to the hobby. I also hope that it inspires people to try new designs, and to encourage experimentation.

Ed's graphic artist experience shows when he develops his illustrations as prototypes to work from. It definitely must help to be able to visualize the final product before mixing any epoxy.

I asked Ed what he has in store for his website, and he replied that his current plans for expansion include an illustrated guide to determining CP, CG and how to perform and interpret a swing test as well as an image archive of vintage rockets from film, TV, toys and books. I'd be willing bet we'll probably see some more abstract designs on Ed's webpage in the near future!

When asked what he would like to see available on the web, this was Ed's comments:

"I would really like to see an illustrated dictionary of rocketry terms.

It would have to be simple, and searchable. If I wanted to see what an Aerotech igniter looked like, and what type of clip it needs, I would be able to go to the dictionary, read a short description of it, and see what it looked like.

A picture is worth a thousand FAQs. I think if people were allowed to submit entries, like say 'engine hooks' with a scanned image, it could grow rapidly. I think it would be a great resource."

"Another neat tool would be a field guide to rocket models. So when someone mentions an Estes Tornado, or Aerotech Mustang, I could look it up an see what one looks like, and maybe even find out if it is still in production or not.", Ed added. Sounds like something to keep us web programmer-types up even later at night.

Ed had this to add about his experience with model rocketry on the Internet, "When I started my web pages back in '95, there were few resources and no plans that I could find on the web. I wanted my site to help correct this problem."