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 […]

First, the back story. A few months ago, one of the guys on the LUNAR club list, Paul, sent email offering a 1:70 scale Saturn V model. It was partially completed, and needed finishing. Paul realized he’d never finish it, and wanted to see it fly. It had been modified from the original 29 mm […]

Removal of the vast majority of the damage to the forward portion of the S-II is complete. This entailed cutting around the S-II aft skirt wrap, which is the most complicated of the cylindrical (as opposed to conical) wraps, and probably the most complicated of all the wraps. The S-II aft skirt wrap has a […]

I’ve made the first sets of cuts on the Saturn V.  The rough cut to remove the forward, damaged portion of the S-II is done, the body tube for that has been separated from the S-II tunnel cover, and the forward motor mount centering ring, with its gussets, is removed. I’m documenting the work in […]

It’s been eight or ten months since the bottom part of my Saturn V crashed. The parachute for the bottom part was not ejected at deployment. In the ensuing crash, one fin was broken, the forward part of the tube and its attached wrap and tunnel cover (half-dowel) were damaged, the tube was kinked down […]

I guess the options are few. Quit the hobby. Scrap the rocket. Repair the damage. I’ve said that we rocketeers are at least slightly lunatic. After all, we spend a lot of time and money creating something that we intend then to fling rather violently into the sky—and we expect the creation to return intact! […]

Planning to launch this Saturday during LUNAR‘s monthly launch window. Planned manifest: Apogee Saturn V, either on a G64W (if Paul or someone else will lend a casing and build the motor with me) or a G77R. King Tut’s Pyramid (new rocket), on a G38FJ. Krystal on D12-0, 2×A3-4T; A8-5. Perhaps Big Bertha, on a […]