Author Archives: CORSA_COMM

In two years, it will have been 50 years since Neil Armstrong, representing all people of Earth, took a small step onto the surface of the moon. As a nine-year old, I was transfixed, glued to the TV, and hanging on every word about the mission that I could find to read. To this day, that experience affects my life.

We should commemorate that giant leap for humankind event as a club. We should all build models of the Saturn V, as many as we can muster. There are a variety of Saturn V models available, in a range of scales and detail. Find one (or several!) to suit your modeling skills, and get started.

The club owns a classic Estes Saturn V kit (Estes #1236 – kit K-36). Perhaps the best use of this would be as a club construction project? I’m open to suggestions.

I’ve started on my Dr. Zooch ant-scale Saturn V, have started planing my Estes Saturn V (#2157) construction, and have ordered an Apogee 1/70th scale Saturn V kit. Should keep me busy – think I’d have time to try the Sirius kit too?

We had a great couple of days at the Sunbury Community Library working with the summer program in a rocketry class. We built Semroc My Boid and Quest Payloader One kits, and discussed rocket science, safety, and construction techniques. It’s always encouraging to see the enthusiasm and curiosity of today’s youth!

Our launch on 7/14 had to be postponed due to wet conditions, but was fine for the rain date on 7/21. We had a great day, the kids and their families had a great time. One rocket that didn’t go together well failed our swing test, but that was a great learning experience. The other rockets all flew well, and recovered well.

We put a Quest How High altimeter into a payload section and flew it on a few of the Payloader Ones, with a variety of motors. We had the crowd guess what altitude would be achieved with each flight, and there were some pretty good guesses. On an A6-4, it got to 131 ft; on a B6-4, to 359 ft; and on a C6-5, it flew to 675 ft.

Club members flew some of our own rockets too. Below is a great photo of Curtis’s Maxi Alpha III lifting off. Thanks to all of the members who helped with the class!

photo by Curtis

We had a great meeting, planning for our upcoming launches and summer programs.

We spent a fair bit of time looking at the features of OpenRocket, especially the idea of minimal designs with just enough detail to get a good simulation.

Curtis and Erich showed off their projects underway.

And we installed Curtis Cox as our new Deputy Director.

With a pretty miserable weather forecast for 3/18, we’ve rescheduled our launch for the following weekend.

You’re invited to our model rocket launch at Freedom Park in Sunbury on Saturday, March 25. We’ll start at 11:00 AM, and will plan to finish around 2:00 PM.

Bring a rocket or a few; we will have plenty of launch pads, no need to bring yours. It’s not a very large field, but with little or no wind, most ‘C’ motor flights should recover nicely. Or just com and watch – feel free to ask questions!

We’re hoping that the weather is like some of the warm, sunny spring days we’ve seen already. We’ll brave some chilly temperatures, but wind or precipitation might change our plans. Check our website for updates as we watch the weather forecast, and email us if you have any questions!

See the event page: Spring Launch

The February meeting is canceled. See you in March!

We kicked off the new year with another great meeting. Due to scheduling changes at Otterbein, our meeting location has moved to room 204, in the same building as before. That will save us a couple flights of stairs; the exercise was good, but carrying armloads of stuff will be so much easier!

Kevin Rush was elected Recording/Financial Officer; Ed will transition the duties to him over the next several weeks.

Our February meeting falls on the 14th. This presents a scheduling conflict for the members who observe (or whose partners observe!) Valentines Day. We may cancel the February meeting. Final determination will be made by 2/7.

Some discussion about traveling to other club’s launches ensued. Ed will compile a list of locations and dates for further discussion. Curtis has suggested attending NARAM-59 in Muskegon, MI, 7/29 through 8/4. It’s less than 6 hours drive from central Ohio, and would certainly be interesting and fun. More discussion is in order.

Much of the meeting was spent discussing a generous donation from Doug Schmitt. He gave us well over a dozen kits that had been in his basement for a long time. Some are still sealed in original packaging, some have been opened, some partly assembled, and a few completed. There are some interesting classic kits that will be fantastic to fly. The kits that have been started will be distributed to interested members for completion. They and the already completed kits will be considered part of the club fleet, and flown at club launches and exhibitions. The remaining kits may be made available in exchange for donations to the club.

It was a cold and snowy night, but we had a great meeting. Ted Decker, a columnist with the Columbus Dispatch, visited and interviewed us about John Glenn’s influence on our lives and passions. We would have spent a lot of time discussing him anyway – he was a true American hero that we all admired. The article that Ted wrote was very well-written; it captured our discussion wonderfully, woven with a great biography of the astronaut.

We also talked about various construction and finishing techniques, including efforts to prevent zippering, and use of Kevlar shock cords. We discussed future launches, but decided against a December launch, based on an unpleasant weather forecast.