Issue 117__________Sep-Oct 2004

ROCKETS & RELAXATION PICNIC . . . 5
A GOOD DAY AT LDRS 23 . . . . . . . . 6
NOTES FROM THE PREZ . . . . . . . . . . 8
BABY BERTHA BLASTOFF RESULTS . . 9
MORT’S COLUMN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
LAUNCH WINDOWS . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
THE GIRLS !! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
SEPT. - OCT. 2004
The Best Week of the year - NARAM WEEK!!
NEWSLETTER OF THE PITTSBURGH SPACE COMMAND - NAR SECTION #473 - SINCE 1986
NARAM 46 Report
Of the Flying I-Beam Kids
Team 473
Steve Foster / Rod Schafer
By Steve Foster
NARAM 46, July 31 - Aug. 06
Saturday – Sunday
We both got to the field Saturday
to check things out and had planned to start
participating in the RCRG championship
that afternoon, but it was quite breezy and
none of the RC flyers were attempting any
flights. We did meet up with Jerry Kraus
and Don Lindich from the Pittsburgh area
who were both very actively flying on the
sport range. The weather Sunday morning
was much better for flying the RC gliders
so Rod flew the A RC Boost Glider that we
had been working on the last few months.
He was able to fly it twice in the competition with the best flight lasting for 79 seconds, for a score of 158 seconds (bonus
time was added for models using smaller
than D motors). I had just finished rebuilding a Cuda clone RCRG and hadn’t had
much time to work on trimming it. So I
flew it several times working on the adjustments during these flights. A couple of
them made for some very interesting flight
paths during the boost phase. I was able to
get in one flight of 141 seconds in the
championship before the wind picked up
and then rained out the remainder of the
afternoon. These times placed us 6th and
8th for the RCRG event. Sunday evening
we attended the competitors briefing and
Continued page 3
Above: The Flying I-Beam Kids pose (with a
little help from their friends) next to Rod’s F
15 on the launch pad at NARAM 46.
Below: An impressive liftoff of Steve’s Little
Joe scale model!
Top photo by Kevin Johnson.
Bottom photo by Rod Schafer.
Warning: front and back cover ink is not
water friendly.
PAGE 2
TEAM PITTSBURGH
editor’s note
TEAM PITTSBURGH
is published bimonthly by the
Pittsburgh Space Command
NAR Section #473
Uncopyrighted material
appearing in Team Pittsburgh
may be reprinted provided proper
credit is given to the author and to
Team Pittsburgh.
AD SPACE in Team Pittsburgh
is available free to
members in good standing.
PSC Yearly dues:
17 & under --- $6.00
18 & over & family-$12.00
(Membership includes
newsletter subscription)
TP subscription only-$8.00
Send PSC dues to:
Mike Hardobey
409 Mallard Drive
Cranberry Twp., Pa 16066
ISSUE NO. 117
D’oh !
That word at the top of my
column is what Homer Simpson
exclaims every time misfortune befalls him on his television show
“The Simpsons”. Yes, I watch the
Simpsons and I’m borrowing
Homer’s oft used word to describe
the way I feel after the newsletter
award was given out at NARAM
46. Win or lose, I was determined to
use it for the title of this column. If
we had won, I would have had the
misfortune of not being there to receive the award on behalf of PSC. If
we had lost (and we did) then the
use of D’oh is obvious. We did
place in the top 5 but not #1 or #2.
But not having received the
award this year does not dampen
my enthusiasm for editing Team
Pittsburgh or the prospects of winning the newsletter award sometime
in the future.
That’s because I am confident in the membership of PSC and
the quality of their submissions to
this newsletter. Rival Sections would do
well to keep on their toes as our club will
not only try to maintain but also improve
the quality of Team Pittsburgh.
So, where do we go from here?
Frankly, I’m not sure what areas we need
to improve on. Although I have a list of
the judging criteria, the judges actually
give very little advice on an individual
basis. Something I personally want to see
changed. In the meantime, it’s business as
usual.
And please don’t let up on sending
in your articles and photos to Team Pittsburgh. Remember, winning the newsletter of the year award is a team effort.
(Checks payable to
Mike Hardobey - NOT PSC)
PSC OFFICERS for 2004
President
Steve Foster
Vice President
Treasurer
John Pace
111 Crystal Springs Drive
Mike Hardobey
Cranberry Twp., Pa 16066
John Pace
TP Editor
Art Nestor
Website
Please send newsletter exchanges to:
Mark Cassata
Section Advisor
Webmaster
ATTENTION NAR SECTIONS:
Phone: (724) 742-8692
NEW ADDRESS?
NEW PHONE NUMBER?
CONTACT:
Mort Binstock
1150 Windemere Drive
Pittsburgh, Pa 15218
Phone: (412) 244-1332
Christine Rial
http://www.psc473.org
724-779-2000
Submit articles for publication to:
Art Nestor
230 Arthur Street
Zelienople, Pa 16063
Email: newsletter@psc473.org
The Pittsburgh Space Command
is dedicated to the advancement
of safe model rocketry.
1713 Rt. 228 Suite L1, Cranberry Twp., Pa 16066
HOURS: MON THRU FRI 10-9, SAT 10-6, SUN 12-4
ISSUE NO. 117
TEAM PITTSBURGH
Continued from page 1
turned in the Sport Scale, PMC and R&D Report for
the events that needed to be judged. It was now time
for the events that we had spent the better part of the
year getting ready for to begin.
Monday
With three events on the schedule we knew
making our flights in a timely manner would be important to being competitive in all three events. We got
off to a great start putting up an excellent helicopter
flight of 85 seconds followed by a 124 second boost
glider flight fairly early in the morning, returning both
models. The great start didn’t last as we then had a
cato in our first egg attempt. By the time we did our
range duty and attempted a second egg flight, clouds
had rolled in and the wind picked up. Rod was able to
put up a decent second helicopter flight of 44 seconds.
The weather was not as kind for the second boost glider. Even though I had two other models, I should have
flown under the conditions. We did put up a very small
egglofter near the end of the day and snuck into 3rd
place with a 65 second flight. The rains held off just
long enough but the drive back to the hotel was in a
downpour.
PAGE 3
control of the sport range. Jerry, George and Don really
flew a lot of sport flights when they could. Naturally the
calmest day of the week was the day in which it wasn’t as
important for the events being flown, altitude day. We
started prepping models for both events hoping to get
flights off early while the skies were clear. I got the B
Payload model ready first and sent it up, 241 meters! Alright, we are in good shape as this was a new record. We
were then ready for one of the 2 stage (C6-0, C6-7) models Rod had built for D Eggloft Altitude. The first stage
boosted the model very nicely but the second stage failed
to light and when it hit the ground it bounced about 12’
high, a DQ and a nomination for the “Best Midwest
Qualified Flight” award. So Rod got another one ready
and by the time it was ready to fly, the number of clouds
had increased and there was a layer of haze in the atmosphere. We sent it up and got the highest tracked flight in
team division (about 70 meters higher than the wining
altitude) but we never saw any sign of the model other
than the tracking powder. We spent the better part of the
day looking for it but with no luck. We later got passed
in the payload event, so we tried another flight but it didn’t deploy a chute, so we hadn’t improved from the first
flight.
B PAY – (241 meters) 2nd
D ELA - DQ
1/2A HD – (129 seconds) – 2nd
B ELD – (65 Seconds) – 3rd
A BG – (134 seconds) – 6th
Tuesday
Was a day off for rocket flying but a tour of the
brand new creation of the Air and Space Museum, the
Steven A Udvar-Hazy Center. This very large museum
had over a hundred flying machines and featured some
very nice pieces including the Space Shuttle Enterprise,
a SR-71 Blackbird, the B-29 Superfortress “Enola Gay”
and the Concord. This place is already a fantastic place
to visit and over the next couple of year the plans are to
nearly triple the number of items on exhibit. Check out
the
website
for
the
museum;
http://www.nasm.si.edu/museum/udvarhazy/ for information on the items currently there and those that will
be there in the future.
Wednesday
George Pike showed up Wednesday morning
ready to try some of the competition events and to take
George Pike - Kevin Johnson photo
Thursday
By far our worst day. 130 lb Kevlar snapped on
our first SD attempt. Then we had another cato with the
second model. The weather was cool and grey all day
with little lift so we didn't have much of a chance of picking up any place with two flights after we fixed the second model. For B RG, our foam wing design, that we
tested with nice results at the spring Dragon’s Fire
PAGE 4
TEAM PITTSBURGH
ISSUE NO. 117
launch, just got into a spin glide for only 19 sec. We tried
to modify it and tested it on the sport range with similar
results. So we flew the Stiletto-B that was also previously tested for our second attempt but the wing didn't come
all the way forward for a No Glide DQ, but with little
good air it wouldn't have mattered anyways.
we did lose about 20 points for the damage.
B SD (MR) – (183 seconds) - 11th
B RG – (19 seconds) - 13th
Meet Champions - 2nd
National Championship – 3rd
SPSC - 2nd
PMC - 3rd
R&D - 2nd – Announced during the banquet Friday
evening.
Thursday night we did the oral presentation of
our R&D report on our A powered RC glider. We did
not really have time to work on a “script” for the presentation before NARAM, but overall it went well for this
being the first time either of us had entered R&D.
Vern and Gleda Estes - Kevin Johnson photo
Steve Foster & Jerry Kraus - Kevin Johnson photo
Friday
The weather was poor on Friday as well, with
winds averaging about 10-12 mph all day. The Little Joe
flew perfect for the first flight with 4 D's. There was
some rail damage and a little more scratching when it got
drug into the weeds. We went for some more mission
points on a second flight but couldn't get enough thrust
with 2 E 9's and 4 A10's, so the model flew horizontal
then into the ground without lighting 2 more D's. The
second flight also got us another nomination for the “Best
Midwest Qualified Flight” award. Just goes to show you
can have some mishaps and still do alright.
Rod’s F-15 also had a perfect flight on 2 D-12’s.
Several parts did come off on landing because only 18”
nylon chutes would fit in the intake ducts, but none of the
parts actually broke. It could have been put back together
in mere minutes with almost no noticeable difference. So
Another great week at NARAM was in the
books. It’s always a week full of things like stress, joy,
apprehension, excitement, disappointment, pressure,
elation, perplexion, satisfaction, etc…, these things and
the strive for perfection must be what make NARAM
week the best and most anticipated week of the year for
The Flying I-Beam Kids. Since perfection can never be
obtained, I guess NARAM week will always be that
way – wouldn’t have it any other way.
****************
NARAM 46 PATCH
ISSUE NO. 117
TEAM PITTSBURGH
The 2004 Rockets & Relaxation picnic
AT RIGHT: The Rockets
and Relaxation Picnic, combined with families from
Camp Lutherlyn’s rocket
camp conducted by Rich
Freed, swelled attendance to
over 80 people.
BELOW LEFT: Bruce
Hicks poses with his just
recovered BH 2000 (Bright
Hawk) from Phoenix Rockets. It flew on a G80.
BELOW RIGHT: Rob
Freyvogel and his daughter ,
Stacia, ready a rocket for
launch!
All photos by Art Nestor
PAGE 5
PAGE 6
TEAM PITTSBURGH
A Good Day at LDRS 23
By George Pike
Just back from three
great days at my first LDRS.
Even though Saturday was
tough for several Tripoli
Pittsburgh members, I wanted to share a personal highlight.
The first flight of
Saturday morning for me was
my 29mm, minimum diameter “Further on Down the
Road” ( Yes Francis, named
for a Bruce Springsteen
song). Further was designed
for an attempt at a one mile altitude, but I had so far
only done a couple of D and E powered flights. Simulated, the best I could get was 5040 feet on a G40-10
using wRASP as the simulator. I got my hands on an
Ellis Mountain G35-10 long burn motor, but that’s not
in the wRASP database, so I had no idea of the projected altitude. Then there was the problem that the odds of
recovering this 29mm, 30 inch long rocket were slim
and none. Best chance to go for the mile and get this
thing back was a calm day (obviously) and a clear blue
sky (to see the tracking smoke) and a mylar tracking
streamer (to reflect the sun) in addition to the main 3”
by 36” nylon streamer.
Saturday morning was the day…with a perfect
blue sky and just a hint od breeze. So “Further on
Down the Road” went out to pad Left Blue 3, loaded up
with the Ellis Mountain G35-10 motor and a Perfect-
ISSUE NO. 117
Flite Alt15K/WD logging altimeter plus 7 feet of bright
magenta mylar streamer. Here goes nothing. There was
only a short wait during the first rack of the day. Then
3…2…1… and off she goes (I’m very pleased with the
Ellis Mountain motors that I flew; good starts and clean,
long burns). Straight up for the 3.8 second burn, then
continuing “north” (LCO’s lingo) higher and higher on
the 10 second delay, trailing a good smoke trail the entire
way. Ejection occurred at apogee and within a second or
two I caught the first flash of sunlight off the mylar
streamer. With the help of Art Nestor and a couple of
sharp eyed guys who helped me look, we were able to
track it all the way during the long fall to the ground
about a third of a mile toward the airport hangar.
Now the long walk, wondering how high it went.
I got to the hayfield next to the hangar, spent a few
minutes looking around and then a flash of magenta. As I
walk over, I start hearing beeps from the altimeter. I listened for the long beep of the recycle, then for the four
numbers. Beep---beep---beep---beep---beep. OK, the first
number is a five, so it went at least five thousand feet.
Second number and critical number … beep … beep.
Beep. Sounds like it went over the mile but I realize if the
altimeter beeps ten times, then that means a zero, so only
five thousand, zero hundred and whatever. I keep listening for beep seven, eight, nine and then the magic pause.
Total altitude for “Further on Down the Road”: 5,952
feet. It was a nice walk back.
Special thanks to Christine Rial for sharing those
LDRS stories and sharing her canopy with me.
****************
Art took a picture of Steve taking a picture of Rod on the
range at LDRS 23.
ISSUE NO. 117
TEAM PITTSBURGH
Snapshots from ldrs 23, geneseo, new york
RIGHT: An historic photo of
PSC members. Left to right:
Steve Foster, Rod Schafer,
Tom Blazanin and George
Pike. Tom, a founding member and a former Section Advisor of the Pittsburgh Space
Command, hasn’t appeared in
the pages of Team Pittsburgh
for many years since he
moved away.
BOTTOM LEFT: Pittsburgh’s own Woody Hoburg
takes a moment away from
prepping his upscaled Mosquito rocket to pose for this picture.
BOTTOM RIGHT: Lift off
of an unidentified rocket.
All photos this page by Art
Nestor.
PAGE 7
PAGE 8
TEAM PITTSBURGH
By Steve Foster
Congratulations Art Nestor
and Member Contributions! - Our newsletter was
mentioned as one of the top
five among all the NAR sections at this year’s NARAM
during the presentation of the
LAC award, which honors
the best newsletter each year.
I know one of Art’s goals
(and mine) would be to win
this award. All of us can
help Art out by contributing
to Team Pittsburgh. What it
will take is contributions on a
wide variety of topics from us – PSC members. It hasn’t gone unnoticed that we have begun to get more input from more members and it’s made Team Pittsburgh
a better newsletter but we can never have too much of a
good thing – keep those articles coming.
NARAM-46 – Well Done. LDRS vs. NARAM in
2004 – I had the opportunity this year to attend both
Tripoli’s and the NAR’s “big” yearly launches, and
even though I enjoyed both events – NARAM wins!
Both events change locations each year and are each
hosted by local prefects (Tripoli) and sections (NAR)
so the events can vary from year to year in quality depending on the efforts put forth by each of the local
clubs. For this year’s NARAM, I must say that NOVAAR put in the “extra” effort to make this year’s NARAM one of the best. But I’ll elaborate on more reasons I think that NARAM is the better “value”, for me
at least. I personally prefer to have this hobby present
me some challenges rather than to just use it for relaxation. At LDRS you could have challenged yourself by
entering the bowling ball altitude contest, made your
own “Experimental” motors or come with a project of
your own like Woody Hoburg did with his “Bug”, or
fly Hybrids like Christine Rial, both excellent examples
of how you can challenge yourself without having to
compete by the way. But I feel NARAM has more opportunities with more hobbyist able to participate in
them; you could also have brought your own personal
project, but the “Imagination Celebration” event put
ISSUE NO. 117
these projects in the forefront for everyone to see and
enjoy. There was also RCRG championship along with
the 10 “Pink Book” competition events that had a wide
range of skills to attempt to master. Duration events
like Helicopter and Boost Glider, two Altitude events,
two Craftsmanship events and R&D. And also the evenings at the host hotel are packed with things to attend
like the NAR auction, a manufacturer’s forum, R&D
presentations association meetings and other special
presentations with interest geared towards the hobby.
Both events are well worth attending for those active in
the hobby, but I’ve already made my plans to make it to
NARAM-47
NARAM-47 Announced – While were on the topic,
NARAM-47 will be hosted by QUARK (Section #624)
near Cincinnati Ohio, July 30 – August 5, 2005. Contest events are; 1/4A HD, 1/2A BG, A CA, B SRA, C
SD (MR), Set Duration, D DED, Open Spot, Giant
SPSC, PMC, R&D.
Rockets & Relaxation – Baby Bertha Blastoff! –
249 flights, a very busy day for people who were suppose to be relaxing at least half the day. Thanks, to all
those that volunteered for range duty to make this happen. Also thanks to Al Garcia and Diane Cassata for
selling the 50/50 and raffle tickets. And also thanks for
members and friend for participating in the raffles,
which will help the treasury greatly. The picnic continues to be the best launch of the year for PSC – did everyone have fun. – enough said. And we worked in this
year’s fun event into the day as well, the BBB had 21
participants and we were able to offer some nice prizes.
We’ll have to come up with another event for next
year, maybe something similar but with an additional
option in either model or recovery device choices to
add a little more strategy in the event. If you have any
ideas, write them down and we can discuss them at our
November planning meeting.
Steel City Smoke Trail - 4 – Our next “big” event is
just around the corner. This regional meet has quickly
grown to be one of the largest annual meets in the
country (it may very well be the largest event of this
type) with contestants coming from at least 8 states this
year. One reason is that it’s also one of the best organized events also, with that “extra” effort all have come
to expect from PSC I’m sure it will continue to be one
of the best meets for the participants.
Keep’em Flying
Steve
ISSUE NO. 117
TEAM PITTSBURGH
PAGE 9
The baby bertha blastoff contest
August 16, 2004
LEFT: John Pace and Christine Rial handle the range duties for the Rockets and Relaxation Meet and The Baby Bertha Blastoff Contest which
were both held at the same
time.
BELOW LEFT: Miranda
Cassata prepares a Baby Bertha for launch!
BELOW RIGHT: Rich Freed
takes a measurement for the
Baby Bertha Spot Landing
Event .
All photos this page by Art
Nestor.
PAGE 10
TEAM PITTSBURGH
MORT'S COLUMN
by Mort Binstock
WOW: First, our last
issue of "Team Pittsburgh" was
a WOW issue. Much is due to
editor ART NESTOR's editing
and to President STEVE FOSTER's printing. However,
much of that issue's quality is
due to the contributors.
That issue's contributors included: STEVE FOSTER's "Notes From The Prez."
ROB FREYVOGEL's interesting history of his and his son's
involvement in model rocketry.
Thank you Rob. More? Any interesting rockets or
launches? JOHN BROHM's column, "PSC Shop Talk"
covering making parachutes plus his review of the
"ROTC Project Phoenix" at May's launch.
Thanks guys, you made for an interesting full
issue. I would appreciate others writing about themselves,
their history of how they became involved with model
rocketry, interesting accomplishments, launches, or projects.
THIS ISSUE: I am going to experiment with my
column this issue. Hopefully it works out and I will do
more. Also, I will learn and improve as I gain more experience with my new computer tools.
The catalyst for this experimentation is an almost
new computer. My favorite computer is still my old 1985
Sinclair QL. It works extremely well, boots up almost
instantly, and is reliable. In fact, this article is being typed
using this classic computer.
Shortcomings of this computer include its inability to handle graphics or to interface with modern scanners and digital cameras.
Recently a friend gave me a very powerful PC
complete with scanner and color printer. My friend could
no longer use this PC as it would not run new software
required by his business. This PC works so well that I
subsequently purchased from Radio Shack an HP digital
camera.
I will attempt to use these new tools to make this
column more interesting by including scanned and photo-
ISSUE NO. 117
graphed materials. There will be learning on my part.
Some of my learning concerns the use of these new tools.
My learning will include communications with editor
ART NESTOR. I suspect as columns, experimentation,
and skills progress the quality of my column presentations will improve, all to insure an interesting and award
winning newsletter. Since I've still avoided getting
email, I plan to send all my pictures to ART either by CD
ROM or K-Mart printed photos.
I plan to review and document in this column my
construction of an innovative boost glider by a company
called Kopter, their unique and patented Jet-i-Son glider.
But first, a product review and a tech tip.
NEW PRODUCT - "INSTA - FLEX" BY BOB
SMITH INDUSTRIES:
I now quite often use CA glues. I like the ability
of CAs to instantly harden and when sprayed with its
"kicker", to instantly harden on demand. One characteristic of CA that I do NOT like is this glue's brittleness. It
can crack on hard impact. This can be a bad characteristic, especially on high shock prone model rockets, thus
sometimes a poor choice for attaching fins, etc.
In the past, for high stress areas, I have used Bob
Smith industries IC-2000 formulation. This is a black
colored CA with a rubber like additive. IC-2000 works
well! However at times the black coloration mars the
model's or repair's appearance. It is also harder to paint
over. Also, the black rubber tends, with time, to settle
out.
ISSUE NO. 117
TEAM PITTSBURGH
New "Insta - Flex" is a clear product. It is transparent, not too visible and therefore easier to paint over.
"Insta - Flex" is available in thin and a thicker gap filling
formulation. Like most CA's, "Insta - Flex" is NOT foam
safe so be careful. "Insta - Flex" is an improved variation
of CA. A bottle of "Insta-Flex" costs about a $1 more
over regular CA, but is well worth the extra $1 for high
stress/shock applications. I use both types of CA, the
cheaper CA for normal applications, "Insta - Flex" for
shock prone applications.
PAGE 11
KOPTER'S "JeT-i-Son" GLIDER, a $1,000 RETRO
REVIEW: I hope you readers appreciate this review. I
estimate that this review is costing me over $1,000. Why
$1,000+?
JOHN PACE told me at a recent launch of an old
Centuri rocket kit being auctioned on the internet for
$750. Wow, a lot of money for an old (I may review that
Centuri kit next - I think I might have one) $10 kit. The
kit I am reviewing in his column is even older and more
rare.
"Insta - Flex" is manufactured by Bob Smith Industries and is available at hobby shops. It is normally
sold under your hobby shop's name, as a house brand.
CA APPLICATOR:
I have been searching for a low cost easy to use
CA applicator. Applying CA directly from the bottle is
not a good idea. Too much CA is applied, too much
wasted, and the nozzle eventually becomes contaminated
with hardened CA and clogs.
I have found the best applicator to be round wooden
toothpicks purchased from the supermarket. I purchase
both toothpicks and small 3 ounce plastic Solo brand
bathroom cups.
I now CA my models by placing a small amount
of CA in the cup and applying with the toothpick. The
CA in the cup often stays usable for several hours. The
toothpick allows precise application with no runs, neat
CA glued joints, and the minimal amount of CA usage.
The use of the cup and toothpick has reduced my
usage through waste elimination of CA, allowed lighter
and neater CA joints, and stopped the annoying CA bottle tip plugging. When done I throw the cup and toothpick away.
Kopter's patented Jet-i-Son glider was manufactured right here in Pittsburgh. Kopter manufactured several innovative high performance gliders. This glider is
unique in that its boost pod ejects from the front rather
than the more traditional rear rocket ejection. At ejection
the nose is blown off. Two nose cone assemblies were
available for this glider. The first nose cone assembly
was a normal nose cone connected to a rod and piston.
This ejected nose cone assembly descends on a streamer.
A more complex helicopter nose cone assembly was optionally available. Upon ejection helicopter blades unfold
allowing the assembly to descend as a rotating helicopter.
The folded blades, during lift off, are stored folded up
inside the rocket body.
TEAM PITTSBURGH
PAGE 12
ISSUE NO. 117
With either assembly, a SECOND internal nose
cone slid forward to replace the ejected nose cone. This
provided for an interesting effect, a nose cone being
ejected yet the glider mysteriously still had a nose cone.
I wonder if this model, with only one launch,
could qualify to compete in two events simultaneously,
boost glider and helicopter duration? What about this,
STEVE and ROD?
The glider itself is a delta wing glider similar in
appearance to Estes' old SST glider. Most of the construction is straight forward except for a complicated
wooden pivot device. This pivot device releases the
elevator at ejection allowing it to reposition for the
glide.
There are no laser or die cut parts, not even
print wood. Printed templates must be cut out from the
package's wrapper then the balsa sheeting must be cut.
I will not go into further construction details as they are
straight forward. I will let the photos provide details.
The model is not finished at the time of this
column’s completion. My next column will cover finishing, painting, balancing, and of course test flying. I
have included digitally photographed pictures of the
rotor and sketch from the package of the Kopter itself.
The Kopter "Jet-I-Son" glider is an interesting glider
and should fly well. Too bad it’s not made any more.
I look forward to continued flying with you.
Please keep sending in your articles.
Mort Binstock
NAR 27182
In the top photo above (from the July 1977 issue of the
Model Rocketeer), Walt Senoski is showing rocketeers his
unique designs at the 1977 Pittcon. Below that is the Kopter Rockets logo and address from the 1978 catalog. Both
photos above supplied by Art Nestor. All other photos in
this article taken by Mort Binstock.
****************
Mort in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
The August 10, 2004 (Tuesday) issue of the
Pittsburgh Post Gazette featured a photo of Mort in
Schenley Park entitled “Plane and Simply Fun”. Mort
was flying one of his RC planes and just happened to
be in the right place at the right time when a newspaper photographer happened along. His photo appears
on page A12.
ISSUE NO. 115
TEAM PITTSBURGH
PAGE 13
2004 LAUNCH WINDOWS - EVENT CALENDER
Please consult our website at www.PSC473.org for directions to local meets or contact a PSC officer.
Month
Day Time
Event
Where?
Comments
September
12
Noon
Sport Launch
Camp Lutherlyn
September
18
9:00
Dragon’s Fire
Launch
Charloroi, PA
High Power Launch
October
9 & 10
Charloroi, PA
Regional Meet
Events: *1/8A PD, A FW, C Payload, C ELD, E BG
November
14
Noon
Sport Launch
Camp Lutherlyn
December
12
Noon
Sport Launch
Camp Lutherlyn
9:00 Steel City Smoke
Trail 4
WEB SIGHTED
The Aurora Rocket
Christine Rial found an interesting site at
www.aurorarocket.com/aurora/index.htm. The Aurora
rocket, nicknamed “The Supreme Goddess of the Sky”,
is 20 feet tall, 8.5 inches in diameter and powered by a 5
1/2 foot long “P” motor. It was featured on the Discovery Channel. Lots of cool pics!
Johnny’s Rockets and Choo - Choos
And our own John Sarosi has a website devoted
to his hobbies of rocketry and model railroading, appropriately called Johnny’s Rockets and Choo Choos. There
are some old 1987 PSC launch photos! Check them out
at: http://home.earthlink.net/~jws979/.
****************
Photo above: To the Bat Cave! Actually, it’s
John Brohm (front) and Mark Halinaty (behind) setup
at August’s R & R Launch.
Only on EBAY By Art Nestor
One of our Pittsburgh NARAM 41 patches
turned up on EBAY recently. Strangely, it was described
as a USAF/NAVY Missile Squadron patch. The starting bid was $7.99. I couldn’t leave behind the patch I had
designed. So, I made the only bid, purchased it and
brought it home. No, I didn’t tell the seller the real story.
****************
Photo left:
Peg Nestor
poses next to a
Chinese scale
model at
LDRS 23.
Nominations Wanted for 2005 PSC Officers
Nominations are being sought for President, Vice
president, Treasurer and Section Advisor for 2005. If
you are interested in running for any of these positions contact Steve Foster. All current officers have
decided to run again.
PAGE 14
TEAM PITTSBURGH
ISSUE NO.117
THE SOFTER SIDE OF PSC
(photo taken at PSC’s R & R picnic).
Left to right: Marilyn Schafer, Laurie Foster, Tina Hardobey, Christine Rial, Peg Nestor, Diane Cassata. Photo by Art Nestor
TEAM PITTSBURGH 09/01/04
Pittsburgh Space Command
Send returns to:
Mort Binstock
1150 Windermere Drive
Pittsburgh, Pa 15218 - 1144
Twenty of the entries that competed in the very popular Baby
Bertha Blastoff Contest. See page
9. Photo by Art Nestor