Slow, quiet progress...

Not too much has been going on, rocketry wise - at least not significant enough to write about. Over the past couple of weeks, Duane and I have attended the initial TARC meetings at Liberty and Buckhorn middle schools. We gave little pep talks and showed off our TARC rockets. Not as many kids as I expected, but today's youth have much to do after school, with homework, sports, band, robotics, etc., etc. I certainly do not remember being that busy in Junior High - except for homework and band, I seldom had to be anywhere. Truly a different world nowadays.

But with several thousand bucks prize money and a free trip to Paris, you would think it would have more appeal. I know I would have been all over it.

Anyway, the rocket building continues, but at a slightly slower pace than when I was facing the Geezer TARC launch deadline. I just finished a clone of an Estes Alpha in the current decor scheme and a Quest Payloader One. The latter is a favorite of my friend Woody and I punched a couple of small holes in the translucent red payload section to enable altitude measurements by one of my altimeters (they have to be able to sense the surrounding air or you get nada). I am about to paint the Estes scale model of the Patriot missile, and am working on an Estes Wizard and a Rocketarium scale kit of the Viking 7 rocket. It's a two motor cluster, which makes me happy :)

TARC season gets underway in September, so things should liven up a bit. Huntsville could very well field a record number of teams this year, well over 10. We shall see.

Clone of Estes Alpha (click to enlarge).

Quest Payloader One (click to enlarge).