Summary update on BAAH-1, the L-1 cert bird. Okay, more than simply update: more of a recent history, since it’s now been quite some time since my last BAAH-1 posting. In fact, I started this update back in November 2014! Construction at that time was mostly complete. The only things remaining were the avionics bay […]

April 4, 2015. It’s been a long time since then, but that’s when my AS-501 model flew. Waaaaay back in March, I posted my previous AS-501 entry. In our last episode, we left the bird all in white. Here’s the reset of the story. AS-501 is, in the true sense of the word, unique. For […]

It’s a another lunatic project. First, scratch-build my L-1 cert project (see these posts; yes, I finished the project, even though I’ve not written about the final build portions and flight: that will come). Then, repair and complete another 1:70 Saturn V, modeling AS-501 (aka Apollo 4), which has numerous differences from Apollo 11 (AS-505), […]

(What about rocket building? Very much underway. Too busy working on BAAH-1, my L-1 certification project, actually to write up the progress. But, I’ve taken lots of pictures. Quick summary: airframe done, fins painted and attached, motor mount complete, nose cone painted, rest of airframe primed and ready for final sanding and paint.) This past […]

Most of the recent work has been on BAAH-1’s paint prep. Not quite all, but most. The balsa nose cone takes an enormous amount of work to get it as smooth as I want it.  I don’t need a polished hardwood furniture-grade finish on it, but I don’t want all the lathe pits and typical […]

The nose cone: it fits, but it doesn’t fit. The nose cone is a reasonably nice plastic cone, sized, at least roughly, for high-power tubes. They’re probably just about perfect for what appears to be the standard 2.56″ (65.0 mm) I.D. and 2.63″ (66.8 mm) O.D. tubes, with a 0.035″ (0.89 mm) wall thickness. I’m […]

So many clichés. The best laid plans… Measure twice, cut once. Missed it by that much. A miss is as good as a mile. And the grandaddy of all rocketeers’ clichés: Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem. (This one is famously mis-quoted.) The problem is hardly as life-threatening as that experienced by Lovell, Swigert, and […]

Work continues, albeit slowly. At this point, the fin slots are cut in the airframe and fit to their respective fins and the fins are finished. I need to drill a few holes (launch lugs and rail buttons), start to build the motor mount, and begin the motor mount installation. Getting each fin slot to […]

It’s going slowly, for at least a couple of reasons, this building my L-1 cert bird. I’ve been spending a vast amount of time over the past six months on a short-term, important, urgent volunteer role, I’m intentionally working slowly and carefully when I’m working, and, despite the care, I’m having to revise the implementation […]

At long last, after conceiving, then thinking, then thinking some more, then researching, then thinking again, then doing more research, then designing, then reviewing the design and having it reviewed—at long last I’m building. The L-1 cert bird will be about 6′ (1.8 meters or so) long, about 2½” (6.5 cm) diameter. It will have […]