June 2017

John Boren Joins Red Squadron

We are very pleased and honored to announce, John Boren (of Estes fame) has joined Red Squadron with his 2.76 upscale BSG Viper. The maiden flight was just a few days ago at NSL so by now some of you may have seen him and his beautiful Viper there. Ready to fly and minus the 29mm motor, she weighs in around 25 ounces.

Obviously a great looking BSG Viper! The maiden flight is below and John told us the boost was as close to straight up as it ever gets! No surprise there.

For those that might not know, John develops kits for Estes Industries and he is kind enough to spend some of his very valuable time monitoring Ye Olde Rocketry Forum. Occasionally he interacts with the flyers there and I know everyone on the forum appreciates that as much as we do.

We want to thank John for the photos and WELCOME him to Red Squadron!

Randy

Get The Entire Series On Kindle!

Just click the Amazon links below:

Prefer Paperback? No Problem!

Signed / personalized paperback copies of Rocket Babe - Dust Storm, Rocket Babe - Fallen Angel and Rocket Babe - Ant Men are all now available directly from the author!

Books are great gifts for any occasion! Holidays, birthdays or just because!

Dust Storm $10.00
Fallen Angel $12.00
Ant Men $13.00

Standard book rate shipping: $4 for 1st book; $1 for each additional book per address in the same order. Please allow 7-10 days for shipping, longer during the holidays.

*Special "Set" pricing! Get all 3 books for $32.00 includes shipping within the continental U.S.! Saves over $9 off the regular price and shipping!

*Shipping outside the USA available. Contact us for a postage quote before placing your order.

HOW TO ORDER:

Send your email order to Verna at: vernarockets@hotmail.com with BOOK as the subject.

List each dedication separately and clearly. Be sure to include the full shipping address.

Verna will reply with how to send in your money order. Sorry, money orders only.

If you have any questions PLEASE email us: vernarockets@hotmail.com

We love the Cestris!

TARC, U.K. Version

If you think NAR is the only organization with a program like TARC, think again. Each year students from schools all over the U.S. form teams and compete for a spot in the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC) by lofting a raw egg to a specified altitude and time duration and returning it intact.

Here's a quick look at some egg lofting rockets in the U.K..

Just a few days ago Pete Barrett (DSSF, General Barrett) helped Phil Charlesworth with the Range Safety duties for the UKROC finals at Stow Maries Airfield. Teams of 3 students proved their rocketry skills in a competition to design and build a rocket to carry an egg to 775 feet with a flight time of 41-43 seconds. Congratulations to Sweyne Park School from Rayleigh who won the competition.

The students from Sweyne Park now have a few weeks to finalize the design of their rocket before they compete against the American and French winners at the PARIS AIR SHOW! How cool is that!

For us it's good to see kids all over the world are working on a brighter future as they enhance skills developed through rocketry.

So heads up U.S. TARC teams; the British are coming!

Special thanks to Pete Barrett for the great photos!

Randy

Girls Bring The Bling!

(Not your average Estes Alpha)

Over the last 9 years Verna & I have helped with Bragg Middle School's Rocket Day and the one thing we look forward to more than any other is the BLING!

When you have more than 300, 14 year olds and half of those are girls you know there will be some very interesting and dressed up rockets. Take a few seconds and carefully look at the photo above and you'll see what I mean.

From building, to finishing (dressing) to hooking up the leads at the pad, the girls always seem to be ahead of the guys at this age. Maybe it's because they're not as quick to assume they know everything so they pay more attention, especially when it comes to details.

Trust me, it's always easy to see when a student, male or female, is actually into this assignment. Their pride in what they make with their own two hands is easy to see. Did you notice the rhinestone E on this one? When you put your name on it, or at least your first initial, that's PRIDE!

I have a feeling this young lady takes pride in everything she does.

This was an exceptional build for this first time flyer. From the glue joints, to the paint job and BLING, everything was neat and NO smears! Her first build looks as good as many experienced adults I know and it flew very well.

I can just hear some of you lamenting her use of bling. "It's going to go slower, won't go as high, etc. etc. etc." Well, everything doesn't have to go at light speed or out of sight to be a great flight. I mean really, what's the point?

Still others will worry about the cg/cp relationship. On this one the bling is pretty well distributed and there's a corresponding amount on the nose cone so after a quick look I was more than comfortable for her to fly as is.

After a nice, straight boost this one recovered within 20 yards of the pad with a FULLY opened, well packed chute and ready to go again.

It was another great day at Bragg's Rocket Day and about 98% of the kids went home with their rockets. The other 2% landed in trees or on the school.

If you haven't been to Verna's Photo Of The Month yet jump over to that page to see more rockets and more BLING!

Randy

P.S. Over the last 9 years at Bragg we've helped more than 2,700 students fly their first rocket. And that's just at one school. Get off your backsides and be a mentor!

Bones says...

VIPER!