It was a great day at the ranch!  (Many thanks, again, to Bill Orvis and his family for allowing us to fly on their ranch!) The temperatures were moderate: not hot, certainly not cold.  In the sun, it was pleasantly warm.  The winds were very light.  The sky was clear.  It had rained lightly—just enough—a […]

The maiden launch of Die Fledermaus was on Saturday, February 2nd, at LUNAR‘s Snow Ranch launch facility. It was a beautiful day: light winds, pleasant temperatures, a good turnout of fellow space cases. Perfect situation to fly Die Fledermaus. The first flight, on a G64-4W, was fabulous. Picture-perfect. Nice, straight up, ejection near apogee, gentle […]

I finished painting Die Fledermaus, added the rail buttons, and threw some epoxy onto the eye bolt on the nose cone to close it off.  The pictures: The plan had been to fly at the Ranch on Saturday (May 5, one of my favorite days to launch rockets, especially at the Ranch: the anniversary of […]

Much progress of late on Die Fledermaus (even though all the parts for BAAH-1, my L1 cert bird, have arrived—though I have not yet ordered the parachute and heat shield). The rocket’s built, and now primed. As I type, the primer is drying. The rocket has very much become a prototype vehicle for the build […]

Continuing on the interlude build project, even though all the parts for BAAH-1 have arrived. The picture shows the rocket as things are taking shape. The MMT is installed, except for the aft centering ring. There are two centering rings now in place: forward and mid; the mid will serve as the forward structural element […]

I got a small scroll saw: small hobby size, nothing huge, nothing fancy. It fits on the workbench, with a nominal 16″ throat depth. It’s from Craftsman, got reasonably good reviews: in fact, from my combing and reading, about the best of anything in its general price class (I was not in the market for […]