Article: 0945
By Marty Weiser, November 2009

Weiser, Marty
TRA #10353
NAR #77973

Facebook ImageI was involved in rocketry from about 1968 – 73 and then became a born again rocketeer (BAR) in either late ’99 or early 2000 when I took my boys out to a SPARC launch after seeing one of the flyers posted by Kirk. We flew a couple of the models that had survived in my folks’ attic and we were hooked. Since then the rockets and motors have gotten bigger including my L3 on an oversized Mosquito at Brothers in 2004.

I bought my first mid-power rocket, a LOC Aura, from Ursula of AllHobbies at the SPARC launch in June 2000 and flew it in July. I then built a stretched version called the Blue Danube which I flew on an H128 motor for my NAR level 1 certification in October 2001. Over the winter I built a stretched version of the LOC Caliber to include an avionics bay which I named Caliber-X and flew for my level 2 certification in June 2001.

My boys, Matt and John, used to attend almost every launch with me, but have moved on to other pursuits such as college and track/XC.  As a result I primarily hang out with the DAWG Pack as we explore the research side of the hobby and I push my min diameter construction techniques.
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I also have this thing about the Estes Mosquito and have now flown the original and upscales on every motor from 1/4A to N except for L. I’ll have to fix that gap next year. To build these without huge amounts of nose weight I have had to develop methods to build light, but strong fins – an effort I have documented in an article here on the website.

My latest project is definitely an Odd-Roc. SPARC member and frequent launch director Joe Cooney is a big fan of Halloween and was very happy that he had an opportunity to serve on Halloween this year. Unfortunately, things came up and pushed the launch back a week. So I hunted down Joe’s twin brother Jack O’Cooney and arranged for him to come to the launch and dispense some Halloween candy. Jack flew to a few hundred feet on an I284 which is a far cry form the several thousand feet I normally get from this motor. However, Joe and the rest of the gang liked his flight and his broken leg from a hard landing has already been been repaired and knee brace installed for his next flight.
Jack_in_flight

This winter I will be back to my min diameter builds and repairs. I plan to do some smaller two stage and boosted dart flights at SPARC and Mansfield and then either repeat the 75/54 mm flight (without the upper stage CATO) or a 98/75 mm at BALLS. However, I am sure there will be an Odd-Roc or two mixed in there somewhere.