January 2022

It’s the road to 2022! Time to wipe the slate clean and start another year and rocketry is no exception. Have you made any plans or set your goals yet? Consider taking your skills to the next level. Maybe it’s time to try staging or clustering or better yet, staging and clustering and if you’ve done that for low and midpower, try doing it for HPR. Maybe add a video camera payload to your favorite rocket, it’s not that hard or expensive to do these days.

As we start the new year, I have a couple of suggestions for your new year’s list of things to do. For one, start paying forward. Find a teacher or youth leader to assist in the coming year. It doesn’t have to be rocketry, just find a place to help. Scouts, 4H, Little League, it doesn’t matter, and you don’t have to put in all your spare time, just a bit.

Second, if you’ve never been part of a rocketry club, join one and pitch in there. Like teachers and youth leaders, clubs never have enough volunteers. You’ll make new friends, learn some new building and flying tricks and maybe help someone too. Some of our best friends we met at rocket launches and even though some have left the hobby over the years, the friendships remain.

Whatever you do, stay safe.

For those that oppose sparky motors there are two main complaints. The most obvious is the possibility of a pad or grass fire but the one that gets the most volume, at least in the States is, “They’re too much like fireworks.” And that’s understandable given the constant fight to maintain the fine line between fireworks and model rocketry.

Sparky users however, would argue they love the enhanced display and would tell unbelievers that they use them all the time with no problems. In addition, they are a real crowd pleaser that adds to the photography opportunity and visual experiences.

Common sense would tell us, if you don’t like sparky motors, don’t use them and if you do like sparky motors, use them with care. The only problem I see with either is that common sense is usually not very common.

So which side of the issue do Verna & I land on? Did you read the name of this page? It’s called Fire & Smoke!  As far as we’re concerned the more the better! But of course, always with great care.

I’m sure the debate will rage on as long as there are sparky motors to be had but may I suggest that regardless of your side of the issue, try not to let it cause harm or hard feelings to friendships or your club. Whatever your club or field policy happens to be, just go with the flow.

After all, in the end, rocketry is just a hobby. It will never be more important than the people who enjoy it.

Now… about all those evil drones…  ; )

Most of you have built and flown your share of low power or HPR model rockets. Millions of us have enjoyed hundreds or thousands of launches over the years but have you ever thought about what brought you into the hobby in the first place?

I have to be honest and say my involvement with model rocketry came about because of my love of the 1950's & 60's science fiction movies, i.e. mainly flying saucers and outer space flight. From the age of 5, I truly wanted to believe what I saw in the movies but it wasn't just the spaceships and aliens that captured my imagination. As you might have guessed, it was... the space ladies. And yes, from the age of 5.

Even the genre of space sci-fi has it's classics like Forbidden Planet and Star Trek and every movie or TV show had it's own Altaira, Yeoman Rand or Captain Starr. I've never seen a classic sci-fi movie worth watching for 5 minutes that didn't have a deadly starship or beautiful space girl. 

The harsh reality eventually set in years later when I discovered building and flying a deadly spaceship was the easy part. Finding the beautiful space girl was much more difficult but if you’re lucky, and don’t give up the search, you’ll find yours.

In fact, if I had it to do over again I'd find the girl first, because if you do, all the rest will fall into place. And that's something, you can believe.

"Happy New Year"