Just Rockets 4X Thor on the cover of LDRS26 issue.

GAITHERSBURG, Maryland USA — ROCKETS Magazine's October 2007 issue is in the mail and being delivered now.  Featuring LDRS26 and nothing but LDRS26, the issue is action packed and full of information about the Tripoli Rocketry Association's annual national launch event.

Neil McGilvray and Bob Utley went to Jean Dry Lake in southern Nevada to capture the awe and mystique of this event and the October issue of the magazine exudes LDRS from every page. 

Beginning with a prelude by Melinda Cartalano, the basis for the event is laid out giving a behind the scenes look at what it takes to plan and pull off an event of this size.  As most of the readers may know, there has been a lot of change for the hobby from a regulatory perspective, and LDRS' planners would feel the heat as they worked through various logistical hurdles such as flight waivers with the FAA and land management issues with regard to the potential for fires, with a three-year on-going drought in the area. 

And let's not forget to mention the gremlins that would raise their heads for rocketeers en route to the event, such as Tim Lehr's tragic roadside fire and the total loss of his entire inventory or the two members of the Rocketry Organization of California, LDRS' hosting prefecture, who rolled their Chevy Suburban and wrecked a launch support trailer on the way to the event, one of whom was the prelude's author.

But the excitement was just starting, and McGilvray takes the reader through each day of the LDRS event, covering each of six days in individual chapters, including a separate chapter for the LDRS Bowling Ball Loft, a open competition that calls for hammering a bowling ball aloft with an H-999 motor.

The cover-to-cover full-color ROCKETS Magazine LDRS26 issue is wrapped up by closing comments and a road log from John Van Norman chronicling the long road home, and makes for the perfect ending to the perfect event, Large and Dangerous Rocket Ships.  If you aren't already a subscriber, support your high power rocketry hobby organization's magazine and get a subscription.

Website: http://www.rocketsmagazine.com/