I know I'm a tad late but I wanted to say it was quite awesome to meet several rmrians and Internet colleagues I hadn't the pleasure to before:
Phil Stein - you are what you write :-)> BTW, stop that! You're gonna go blind! Marcus Leech - cool and suave, just like on rmr Joel Rogers - he flies a Nuke... 'nuff said (Sorry 'bout dat motor retainer, Bro) Bobby D AKA RDH8 - flies - and makes - some of the most advanced toys around Jim Seekol - renderer emeritus Paul Robinson - another guy with all his hair :-)>
(I'm sure I missed somebody but I took a muscle relaxer for a pinched nerve about an hour ago. When my memory comes back biochemically, I'll get to you... Right about now, I know what Phil Stein feels like at any given moment :-)> )
It's always a great time when I see some of the fringe crew, too:
The guys from MDRA: Fred Wallace, Neil Mac, Bob Utley, Jerry O, Lester Sherman, Ted Proseus, Dave Weber, Kathy G, Darren Wright The New England Contingent: Dr. Jeff Taylor, Rob Bazinet, Al Goncalves, Todd Harrison, Ryan Sebastian BRS: Lloyd and Mickie Wood, Al Sterner, Murray Lampert, Dean Oberg and last but CERTAINLY NOT least Ray Halm and Andy Shechter (or is that Schechter?) Who gets sick of seeing METRA guys either, huh? Dennis Lappert, Bobby B, Fred Taverni, Ed Enyart, John Novalis and Jeff davenport (AKA JDCluster 'round these parts)
If you haven't already reverse-peristalsized the Taco Grande you ate for lunch, I made two EX flights. First pass Tuesday morning was my extended
2.26x48" ARG EV-1 (ARCAS-ish) on a 29mm, 23.5" long I700 Red (~550N-s). The formula was vibrated, vacuumed and vulcanized by my bud and technical guru, Scotty R who also made the motor hardware. The 3.6# rocket wanted to jump out of its skin when the business end came up, 6 foot fire engine red flame behind it. 4003' at the big end. Unfortunately for me, I was a tad weighty on the charges and the aft seperated at apogee, coming in ballistic WAY down range.2nd flight I made was Tuesday morning in Scott's 4" Performance Rocketry quasi-BBX. The motor was a 1700 N-s K1500 in a classic APS case. When Mickie hit the button, the nozzle shattered and the motor made a fiery mess at the pad. I torched some of the gelcoat off one fin and some of the G10 motor tube was delaminated, but it looks fixable (yeah, I say that now with a buzz).
By now they'd be playing music over me at the Oscars, but I can't finish without congratulating new L3's Jim Oslander, Mark Lerner and Mark Stackpole whom I had the pleasure of working with as their TAP. Great job guys!!!!