Founded 1986 The Hardobey Family-Tina, Brittany, Mike and Michael. By Mike Hardobey, NAR# Thursday July 29th - Friday July 30th -

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1 ALSO INSIDE THIS ISSUE: STEEL CITY METTLE WHAT A TRIP! PSC SHOP TALK NARAM 52 ATTRACTIONS R & R PICNIC BUSINESS MEETING RECAP Founded 1986 Sept - oct 2010 A Family NARAM NEWSLETTER OF THE PITTSBURGH SPACE COMMAND - NAR SECTION #473 4TH PLACE SECTION OF THE YEAR Thursday July 29th - By Mike Hardobey, NAR# About 5 minutes onto Route 279, coming home from work, I realized the time had come, vacation was here. We were headed to NARAM 52 in the morning and we were going somewhere neither me nor my family had ever been. My adrenaline was pumping. Six months of planning, 52 rockets built, traveling with good friends, and 10 days of no work! Friday July 30th - John Pace was waiting outside at 6 A.M. Colorado here we come. I said goodbye to Tina and wished her a good flight in the morning and we were off to pick up Mark. After grabbing Mark Cassata we got onto I-70 and that was pretty much the last turn we made for about 750 miles. We laughed and talked rockets and had a nice lunch at a Greek diner. We were hoping to go to a diner seen on the Food Channel TV show Diner's, Drive-ins and Dives but they were too far off the highway and we wanted to get to Topeka, Kansas by the end of the day. We ran into a pretty nasty rain storm that Steve Foster had warned us about earlier in St. Louis, but I did get a good glimpse of the Arch, the first time I had seen it. Saturday July 31st - The Hardobey Family-Tina, Brittany, Mike and Michael. We got up pretty earlier and started our journey through Kansas. Corn, cows, and abandoned train cars pretty much sums up the entire drive through Kansas. We finally got to

2 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 --- $ & over & family-$14.00 (Membership includes newsletter subscription) Send PSC dues to: Jerry Kraus 301 Stoneybrooke Drive Cheswick, Pa NOTE: Make Checks payable to Pittsburgh Space Command Looking Ahead editor s note The next two issues are traditionally two of the three hardest to fill each year. The holidays are approaching and the flying season goes into a minimal mode. And while they may be still hard to fill, I m hoping we ll have some very interesting stuff for you none the less. (I m hoping Rod Schafer will share photos and experiences with us from his recent trip to Serbia from his perspective as part of the U.S. Internats Team. Feeling a little pressure there Rod? LOL) We also have some additional photos from NARAM 52 to share. NARAM 52 is History. And if you didn t make it to this year s NARAM then check out the great articles in this issue by Mark Casatta, Mike Hardobey and John Pace. They gave me a real sense of what it was like to be there as I read their articles and I realized what a great time they had and that I missed. But like the old saying goes, there s always next year. Perhaps then it will be time for some of us noncompetitors to join in the official competition to help push PSC closer to Section Champions. PSC OFFICERS for 2009 President John Pace Vice President Barry Majerski Treasurer Jerry Kraus Section Advisor Rod Schafer TP Editor Art Nestor Webmaster Mike Hardobey Website Submit articles for publication to: Art Nestor 230 Arthur Street Zelienople, Pa artpeg@hotmail.com ATTENTION NAR SECTIONS: Please send newsletter exchanges to: John Pace 111 Crystal Springs Drive Cranberry Twp., Pa Phone: (724) NEW ADDRESS? NEW PHONE NUMBER? CONTACT: Jerry Kraus 301 Stoneybrooke Drive Cheswick, Pa Phone: (724) The Pittsburgh Space Command Is dedicated to the advancement of safe model rocketry. 09/07/ Rt. 228 Suite L1, Cranberry Twp., Pa HOURS: MON THRU FRI 10-9, SAT 10-8, SUN

3 Pueblo about 2 P.M. Tina and the kids were not far behind and later we met up with Rod, Steve & Mrs. Schafer and had a nice dinner. Sunday August 1st - We went to the field to set up our stuff; thank goodness for the PSC trailer. Rod took a lot of our gear out in the trailer which helped out a great deal. The field did not disappoint. Large field with the mountains in the background, what a setting. John and I had decided that we were going to try and go for our Level 1 high power certification on this day. John went first and had a fantastic flight with an LOC Nomad on an H90. Perfectly straight flight, nice deployment. It was my turn to go and after finally securing a motor and a 40 minute wait for a pad my Aerotech Sumo lifted off on an H133. I flew it off a 1/4" rod but it still weather cocked a bit which scared me, but the flight ended up ok and I qualified. It was very cool to get my Level 1 certification, especially on the same day as my good friend John. I was proud of my Sumo and I'll never forget the experience. After our flights John, Mark and my crew headed to Colorado Springs to walk through an old mining town. It wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be but it did have a lot of old antiques and carriages. We met up with the others for dinner and later turned in our scale models. Tomorrow was the first day of competition, time to rest. Monday August 2nd - The events for the day were 1/2A Parachute duration and B Streamer duration, two pretty straight forward events. In preparation for NARAM 52, I convinced my future brother-in law into building me 3 new tower launchers for two reasons, first John's and my tower launchers were pretty beat up and both had seen better day and secondly my family needed to make 16 flights each day in a 6 hour window. Adding the Krispy Kremers 4 flights and I didn't want any of us waiting for a pad. The towers worked great (Thanks Chris! - he's a PSC member now)! Michael always likes to go first so he loaded his model and off to the pad we went. I always get more nervous when my kids fly than myself. They put in many hours of building in preparation for the trip. I just want their models to qualify. Anything after that is a bonus in my eyes. Michael had a good recovered flight and now it was Tina's and Brittany's turn. They both loaded up and launched within a few seconds of each other, both good flights, but Brittany caught great air, I mean really great air. They timed her model for over 15 minutes, but the model was still going when we lost track of it. I flew my parachute model and had a decent flight but didn't catch the air that Brittany had. Moving onto to Streamer competition, everyone had a good returned first flight expect Dad who had a separation. We all used Fibafilm streamers and I was really pleased with their performance. You can pick this up online at Everyone flew their second parachute models and had decent flights except Brittany. We were going to wait a bit for her flight. We knew she had a good flight, but she needed a return in order for her first flight to count. Michael DQ'd his second streamer model, but Tina and Brittany had good flights. Knowing that Brittany needed a returned flight we opted to use her streamer model with a 1/2A6-2 and a hole in the parachute so it would come down quick, all she needed was a qualified returned flight. Everything worked as planned. For the day, Brittany won both events, Michael had placed 4th in parachute, and Tina had finished 5th in streamer, she missed placing by 2 seconds. Tina was not only competing, she was hanging with the big dogs! The Flying I-Beams had won Team parachute and placed 3rd in Streamer. The Krispy Kremers had a really good 2nd streamer flight, but they DQ's their first flight. A pretty good showing for PSC. Tuesday August 3rd - The events for the day were E Dual Eggloft altitude and 1/4A Boost Glider. My biggest problem with gliders has always been Red Baron's (When the streamer catches the glider), so we all built spoiler pods for our models. We all flew Delties, but everyone DQ'd for separation under power except me. I had 2 okay flights that placed me 10th in the event. So the lessoned learned was spoiler pods work great but we need to improve on attaching the gliders to the pods. For E Dual Eggloft altitude we used the plan on the NAR website. We just beefed our model up a bit. Brittany and Michael had good flights and ended up finishing in 3rd and 5th place. My first flight had a track lost 3

4 and Tina DQ'd because she scrambled her eggs. She gave up on the day at that point, things weren't going to well. My second flight got to 461 meters which would have placed me but I too scrambled my eggs. The Flying I-Beam Kids had an unbelievable Eggloft flight beating everyone by over 300 meters. Think about that. They beat everyone by 900 feet, pretty impressive and they finished 2nd in boost glider. They were off to a great start in their quest for a national championship. The Krispy Kremers also had two fantastic Eggloft flights, but the first found the only concrete pad within a couple miles cracking the eggs and the second also had deployment issues. If they had qualified they would have easily placed in the event. They did however place in boost glider with Mark having a great second flight moving them into 3rd place. A good day for PSC winning 4 medals. Wednesday August 4th - No rockets for Tina, Brittany, Michael and myself. We decided when we saw the schedule to skip F SuperRoc Altitude and spend the day just having fun. We left in the morning and went to Cheyenne Mountion Zoo ( It was a really nice zoo in a beautiful setting. We got to feed some giraffes and had a nice lunch before heading up to Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun, which sat further up the mountain. You could see for miles. You really could feel the change in elevation up on the side of the mountain. Later in the afternoon we meet up with the rest of the PSC crew and went to the Garden of the Gods. Excellent trip with the PSC gang. Afterwards we had a great steak dinner at the Smithton restaurant which has won numerous awards in Colorado Springs and we capped the day at Seven Falls ( Seven falls was really a trip highlight for me. We traveled through this narrow canyon, stopped to see a black bear on the side of the road and took pictures before heading to the falls. What an amazing thing to see. They light the falls up at night and every few minutes the lights change colors. We all road an elevator through the side of the mountain to a lookout point and snapped numerous pictures. John then became the best thing since sliced bread when he bought Michael and Brittany giant lollipops in the gift shop. It was a great relaxing day with family and friends. Thursday August 5th - I really felt this was going to be our day for competing. We had a good helicopter design and had used the plans Steve had in the January issue of Team Pittsburgh for cluster altitude. I thought we were in good shape. Michael went first in helicopter using our all Quest parts rocket I have since named "Burn and Turn". We flew all of our models using the newer Quest D5 motors. If you haven't flown one of these yet, I encourage you to do so, they are really fun motors with a 4.5 second burn time. Michael's model weather cocked and it couldn't recover. I started to panic because we had all built the same type of models. Brittany loaded her model and it went straight up having a nice flight of 75 seconds. Tina proceeded to fly getting 2 qualified flights and managed to finish 9th in the event. My first flight turned in a time 86 seconds, which isn't were I needed to be. Based on other meets I needed to be at 100 seconds for each flight to be in the 4

5 hunt. Brittany's second model weather cocked like Michael's but she still managed to place 4th in the event, her 4th medal of the week. I loaded up my 2nd copter and got a time of 120 seconds. I had achieved by goal of over 200 total seconds but I ended up finishing 5th just 7 seconds out of a medal. In A Cluster Altitude we struggled and between the four of us only managed one qualified flight which required a lot of added clay to the nose cone. Oh well, live and learn! Rod and Steve crushed everyone in D helicopter but DQ'd out of the cluster event. John and Mark managed one qualified flight in D Helicopter but ended up placing in A cluster altitude with a very cool model John built. It was good, PSC was medaling often. Thursday night we picked up our scale models and Mark and John were in first in Team Division, and Steve and Rod were a close second. We didn't fair too well with our scale models causing me a bunch of frustration. After John and Mark calmed me down, I took the whole ordeal as a learning experience. Scale modeling is not for the faint of heart. That's another article by itself. I will mention that yes my wife beat me in judging, I am very proud of her. I would also like to mention it was the first model rocket she had ever painted, ever! Friday August 6th - After the sting of judging had worn off we headed to the field to make our flights. Everyone qualified, except for Michael. His chute didn't deploy causing his model to crash. The flight's Tina and Brittany made were the first time either of them had flown F motors, another accomplishment. When we were down we just sat and watched and enjoyed the rest of the day. The rest of the day wasn't so relaxing for PSC members. Mark was in first place but he now needed to get a qualified flight to place. We joked with Mark because he usually shakes more than a Mexican jumping bean while prepping his scale models, which is totally understandable after finishing 1st in judging. His first flight was DQ'd because the booster never got out of the tower. Luckily there was no damage to the upper stage. He did manage to get his qualified flight with the booster just barely making it out of the tower. It was great to see my friend Mark so excited. Steve also was in the hunt for a medal with his scale model but he had something bigger on the line, a national championship. Steve's first flight worked perfectly and I immediately went to shake his hand. He was shaking like a leaf. It turned out that Steve had to make a second flight to try and gain more mission points as their competition was awarded huge mission points for various electronics on board their model. I watched Steve's second flight from afar. What a thing of beauty. The event ended with Steve and Rod finishing second and Mark and John finishing third. It was great to see PSC collecting more medals. The final flight of the day was Sean Guzek's Level 1 high power certification, making three folks from PSC that had gotten their Level 1 certifications in 1 week. It was an awesome week in Colorado. I want to say thanks to John Pace, Mark Cassata, Steve Foster, Rod Schafer, Mrs. Schafer, John Brohm, and the entire Guzek Tina's Black Brant II at lift off 5

6 PSC Shows Its Steel City Mettle at NARAM 52 Pittsburgh Space Command Leaves Pueblo, Colorado with the 4 th Place Section Trophy By John Pace The Flying I-Beam Kids family. Mark Cassata, Steve Foster and John Brohm provided me with excellent tips on painting and finishing models leading up to NARAM. Mark came up with changing the paint scheme for Michael's rocket and helped with the decal because the red and white paint scheme on Michael's Arcas would have been too difficult for him to mask off. John Pace and I went back and forth with model designs, tower designs and logistics for over a month before NARAM. Steve and Rod were a big help with strategy and tips on where to buy parts. Everyone was really helpful with my children on the field. It was tough to get so many flights in a short amount of time but the support of PSC is amazing. To all of you, you have my heartfelt thanks for some wonderful memories. Highlight of the trip home - waking up at 6 A.M. somewhere in Kansas to John Pace rocking out to Bennie and the Jets. Look out Cincinnati, here we come! **************** When the gang from PSC arrived in Pueblo, Colorado on July 30 th, we had no thoughts of placing in any of the top four spots for section of the year. Each of us had our own goals and objectives and sure we wanted to maximize our points to improve the club s final standings but to place was not even in our vocabulary. So when the announcement was made at the banquet at NARAM 52 that PSC had taken the fourth spot in the Section of the Year competition, all of us looked at each other in shock and amazement. We finished a mere 673 points ahead of Peak City from Colorado who had amassed 33,640 U.S. points during the 2009/2010 competition season. Sure, we were over 15,000 points from third place but that didn t matter we had achieved something totally unexpected and you could see it in everyone s eyes and smiles. So how did we manage to do so well at NA- RAM 52? It was a group effort that began Monday morning. In A Division we had Brittany and Michael Hardobey. Tough competitors that had done very well at NARAM 51 and were hoping for the same at 52. We had no one in B Division which hurt our chances to gain points on other Sections as many of the top Sections came with people in all divisions. Mike and Tina Hardobey along with Sean Guzek competed in the tough C Division with a goal of placing in an event and keeping away from the DQ s thus landing us some good qualifying points. Finally, in Team we have one of the best in the country with Rod Schafer and Steve Foster of The Flying I-Beam Kids and Mark Cassata and yours truly of the Krispy Kremers. The Kremers were expected to do well in the Giant Sport Scale event with master scale builder Mark Cassata and we were hoping to place in a couple of events and generate as many qualifying points as possible. However, PSC was looking for a great performance from the Flying I-Beam Kids who once again delivered as they always seem to do. Due to the location of this year s NARAM, the Alexander family that brings with them competitors in the A, C and Team Divisions, were unable to make the long trip to Colorado and were truly missed by all PSC competitors. Here is a recap of the NARAM 52 events and 6

7 The Hardobey family entered the competition with a proven design of their own that had flown well at SCST in June. Unfortunately the difference in altitude between Pittsburgh and Pueblo, Colorado seemed to alter their rockets performance. Brittany Hardobey 4 th Place A Division with 115 seconds on just one flight. Her first flight was unstable. Had Brittany made two flights there is a good chance she would have taken 2 nd and possibly 1 st. Mike Hardobey 5 th place C Division with a comwhere PSC finished in each one: 1/2A Parachute Duration: Brittany Hardobey 1 st Place A Division with 961sec. The next closest competitor was at 505 sec. Michael Hardobey 4 th Place A Division with 210 sec. missing a 3 rd place finish by just 44 sec. Tina Hardobey 8 th place C Division with 220 sec. Sean Guzek 21 st place C Division with 19 sec. Mike Hardobey 22 nd place C Division The Flying I-Beam Kids 1 st place Team Division with 1176 sec. The Krispy Kremers 12 th place Team Division with 76 sec. B Streamer Duration: Brittany Hardobey 1 st Place A Division with 173 sec. squeaking out the top spot by 3 sec. Michael Hardobey 5 th Place A Division with 173 sec. missing a 4 th place finish by just 1 sec. Tina Hardobey 5 th place C Division with 272 sec. again missing a 4 th place finish by just 2 sec. The Flying I-Beam Kids 3 rd place Team Division with 199 sec. The Krispy Kremers 11 th place Team Division with 100 seconds. First flight was DQ d for unstable. E Dual Eggloft Altitude: Brittany Hardobey 3 rd Place A Division with an altitude of 490 meters. Michael Hardobey 5 th Place A Division with an altitude of 404 meters. Mike Hardobey 10 th place C Division with an altitude of 461 meters. Unfortunately Mike was unable to return his model to inspect the eggs. Otherwise he would have finished in 4 th place and only 17 meters out of 3 rd place. The Flying I-Beam Kids 1 st place Team Division and a NEW NATIONAL RECORD!!! of 889 meters smashing the old record of 600 meters. The Krispy Kremers Had two excellent flights that would have given us a medal but unfortunately one of the eggs broke on each launch resulting in a DQ in this event. Pack the eggs better next time John. 7 1/4A Boost Glide Duration: Michael Hardobey 7 th Place A Division with 4 sec. Tina Hardobey 24 th place C Division with 7 sec. Mike Hardobey 10 th place C Division with 63 seconds. The Flying I-Beam Kids 2 nd place Team Division with 126 seconds. The Krispy Kremers 3 rd place Team Division with 54 sec. Thanks to the Flying I-Beams for lending us their piston launcher which gave us the time we needed on the second launch to place in this event. F Super-Roc Altitude: The Hardobey family went sight-seeing Wednesday giving themselves and the kids a break from the competition, a very smart move. Although Wednesday was only a single event it took hours to prep each model. Peak City did an R&D project on this event giving them a leg up on the competition which paid off as Peak City took two first places in A and Team Divisions. When the day was over only one PSC team had made a qualified flight. The Krispy Kremers finished 9 th in Team Division with 176,000 points well off of fourth place at 215,000 points and only receiving flight points. The key was model length and motor. In this case bigger wasn t better. A Cluster Altitude: Mike Hardobey 15 th place C Division with an altitude of 219 meters gaining PSC valuable flight points The Krispy Kremers 4 th place Team Division with an altitude of 318 meters 10 meters from 3 rd place and miles from 1 st or 2 nd places which recorded altitudes of 364 to 366 meters. The key here was the design with two of the motors high on the body tube and only one located at the bottom of the main body tube. This kept the overall rocket diameter to a minimum thus reducing drag. D Helicopter Duration:

8 bined time of 206 seconds missing 4 th place by just 7 seconds and Tina Hardobey 9 th place C Division with a combined time of 130 sec. The difference maker was the family s first flights. In the case of Brittany and Michael their models went unstable. Mike on the other hand scored 120 sec. on his second flight but only 86 sec on his first due in part to swaying of the model during decent. In any case the Hardobey s had a nice design that brought the team a medal and some very valuable flight points. In the Team Division, The Flying I-Beam Kids, after, DQ ing in two straight events, came back strong taking 1 st place with a combined time of 353 sec. crushing the competition. The Krispy Kremers finished a dismal 13 th DQ ing on their first flight that crashed and burned in the desert and getting only 46 seconds on their second resulting in just flight points. Giant Sports Scale: Like all past NARAMS, Friday was reserved for flying giant sport scale models. Following the static judging of the models, PSC held 1 st and 2 nd in team division with The Krispy Kremers holding a slim lead over The Flying I-Beam Kids. So it seemed it would all come down to executing the planned flight points. In the case of the Krispy Kremers their model had the main motor and the booster stage motor lighting simultaneously. The Flying I Beams flight points called for the lighting of the second stage at a specific point in the flight, a very tricky maneuver. In the end both teams executed their flight points perfectly but the Flight I-Beams scored more flight points passing the Krispy Kremers. Unfortunately, the Team of Konshak-Anthony-Edmands of Peak City hung back at static judging but came to win with an array of flight points which allowed them to pass both PSC teams taking 1 st place in team giant sports scale. In the end The Flying I Beams finished 2 nd and the Krispy Kremers 3 rd. As for the Hardobey family their fight points in Giant Sports Scale were the difference between PSC finishing 4th instead of 5 th. Without them in the mix we could not have moved up as far as we did. So where did the PSC members who attended NARAM 52 finish in the meet and for the entire contest year? Here are the results: Tina Hardobey 50 th Shawn Guzek? The Flying I Beam Kids 2 nd The Krispy Kremers 15th PSC Total 4 th 23 rd 38 th Next year, NARAM 53 is scheduled to take place in Cincinnati, Ohio. How PSC does this competition year depends a lot on our members and a lot on you. We need competitors in all divisions A, B, C and Team. If you can t go to Cincinnati don t think you can t compete. We ll be holding two Regionals at Camp Lutherlyn next year. One in May and one in June. Every point counts towards our goal of Section of the Year. So come out and compete. If you re not sure of how to build a model ask. We ll be more than happy to help. You have a Section with some of the most talented competitors in the country. I want to personally thank all PSC members that made the long and grueling trip to Colorado. The road trip out and back was a pain in the neck, back, butt, and in just about every other part of the body but the time spent in Pueblo and Colorado Springs with my PSC team members will be memories I will never forget. **************** PSC st 9 th 6 th launch windows Month Day Time Where? September Camp Lutherlyn Name 2009/2010 Results Brittany Hardobey 7 th Michael Hardobey 25 th Mike Hardobey 45 th NARAM 52 Results 5 th 9 th 17 th October 02 Coalwood, WV October Camp Lutherlyn November Camp Lutherlyn December Camp Lutherlyn 8

9 NARAM 52 What a Trip! By Mark Cassata Well it's over. NARAM 52 that is. We all survived what I would call semi harsh conditions, such as the high altitude, small cactus, heat, big storms and a long drive. Not to mention the Greek restaurant that John, Mike and I stopped at in Indiana, good for them not so good for me. I ordered spaghetti with meat sauce and boy did I get a meat sauce. It had beef, lamb, chicken shrimp, and I think clams in it. Don t get me wrong it was very good. So good in fact my body did not want to give it up for 3 days!!! As some of you may know and may have read about in a few past club newsletters, I had built a scale Aerobee 150A for the giant scale event. During the drive out we were passing through St. Louis, MO and we were in the middle of a very nasty thunder storm, when all of a sudden John slammed on the breaks because a car in front of us had stopped. Needless to say, not having any time to stop and pull over because of the storm, all I could think about was the Aerobee and if it had shifted and took any damage because of the quick reaction John had to take. When we were able to stop, John and Mike knew that I was worried about the scale and were kidding that I had better check it quick or I may have a break down. Needless to say I was out and checking on it I think before the van had even stopped! It was ok. It went on to finish 1st in static score judging and took 3rd place overall in the contest because we did not have enough mission points to stay in first. John and I (the Krispy Kremers) also took a 4th place finish in A-cluster Alt. and a 3rd place in 1/4A boost glider. I had felt good about John's cluster models and knew that if they worked as he planned we would take a place in that event but I did not expect us to take a place in Boost Glider. A 1/4A motor does not give you all that much altitude. So the only way you were going to get a shot at a medal, we either hoped you found a booming thermal or piston it to try and get as much altitude as possible. Our first flight was flown without a piston and did ok but not great. It still was a qualified flight. After seeing how the other teams were doing as the day progressed I felt we had a chance for a place if I could piston our glider to really get it up there. The only thing was that our glider was designed to be pistoned and could shred because of the higher speeds at liftoff. Well, we went for it and the glider held together for a 3 rd place. Thanks Steve and Rod for the use of your piston! It made that medal possible. Talk about team work. Most of all, I think we were all surprised when PSC as a Section took 4th place in the nation as a club! More than likely 1 less place by the Flying I Beams, Krispy Kremers or the Hardobey family and we may have not received that honor. NARAM 52 was by far the most fun I have had in a long time. Let me tell you, to spend 3 days in a van with a couple of friends and drive 3/4 of the way across the country, you will have some good fun and lots of laughs. I must admit Mike and I being smokers and not smoking in the van on that long trip while driving was tough at first. So since we only had one when we stopped. Mike and I would tell John we needed a nature call every so often so we could relieve ourselves of the stress, so to speak! Colorado was a breath taking place. In some parts it was flat as far as the eye can see. Yet in other parts the Rocky Mountains seem to just want to reach out to you and say you are in a area of the world like no other. The views were beautiful, Especially the huge storms that you could see forming over the Rockies at least 20 or more miles away with the rain and lightning off in the distance. Scary at times, but also spectacular to see! I must say that I was on a pretty tight budget making this trip, but thanks to my friends John Pace and Mike &Tina Hardobey, they helped me out and gave me a trip that I will long remember. I owe them a great deal for helping me to make it possible, Thanks guys. John, for what I had to take as far as bad air in the van when we went to the falls, can I owe you a little less? Also I would like to say that It was great pleasure to have Rod s mom there with us. It was nice talking to her at the dinner table. It was also great to see Tina and the kids really make their presence known in a group of tough competitors. Tina said it best when she said, it s not as easy as it looks. Oh I almost forgot. If you get the chance, ask Mike, John or myself about the part of the trip that we left a little bit of PSC in Kansas!!! Thanks all of you again for a great time. 9

10 TMRK Pegasus A Builder s Kit Part 6 John Brohm NAR #78048 Step 9, Installing the Wing Well I hope you re still with us, and that the progress on your Pegasus is coming along. With these next steps, our Pegasus starts to take shape, and soon we ll be confronted with filling, sanding, and painting. But before we get there, we need to complete the assembly. Let s resume with Kit Instructions Step 9. I encountered some difficulty with Step 9-3. Yellow wood glue was recommended for the installation of the wing, although I noticed that as the glue began to set that the wing assembly began to warp: first the trailing edge began to curl upwards, and then there was a noticeable upwards warp along the front to back center axis of the wing assembly. The effect became very noticeable as time progressed. The warping was occurring due to the swelling of the bottom glued surface of the wing. The warpage was very noticeable, and for fear of a ruined model (suppose the warp doesn t come out once the glue is completely dry?), I removed the wing before the wood glue had entirely set. Once the glue had completely dried on the separated components, the glue was sanded off, and the saddle and wing bottom surfaces were re-trued. The wing assembly was then re-positioned on the saddle using epoxy as the adhesive; once set, 3/32 epoxy fillets were added to the underside interface joints, as shown in Photo 1. Photo 1: Underside Wing Fillets Step 10, Installing the Motor Mount: This step is pretty straightforward, and should pose no difficulty. Step 11, Slotting the Airframe: Again, the kit instructions make this step very easy to complete. Step 12, Tail Fin Construction: I read the instructions for Step 12 several times, and despite multiple attempts felt that the objective was not as clear as perhaps it should be. The general notes in Steps 12-1 and 12-2 are helpful, but the reason why the aileron stock center line needs to be parallel with the work surface is not fully explained the answer goes to the geometry of the aileron stock itself, the fact that the aileron stock is not symmetrical (isosceles), but blessed with a right angle in the base of the stock. For the intended application in Step 12, this right angle, and its effects on the cuts, has to be removed so that the finished aerofoil will sit symmetrically on the fins. This right angle leads to the next ambiguity in the instructions: in Step 12-2, a procedure is described that is intended to balance out the angles. But should the right angle side of the stock be placed on the work surface or should it be the other angle? Does it matter? Which angle should be facing up on the work piece? 10

11 Then there s the matter of the base edge of the aerofoil. Once the pieces are cut, the base edge still needs to be sanded to render the aerofoil into a truncated isosceles triangle. Photo 3 shows the dorsal fin during its trial fit; the final wedge shape of the trailing edge can be clearly seen. In my case, once the parts were cut as described in the instructions, I then carefully sanded the base of each part so that it would butt up against the relevant fin area in the intended symmetrical way. The following photo shows one of these parts: Photo 3: Dorsal Fin Trial Fit Photo 2: Aileron Stock Sanded Symmetrical It should be noted that I found it more reliable and consistent to cut the aileron stock with a fine toothed razor saw, rather than a hobby knife. This was accomplished by using a steel straightedge as a cutting guide while holding the razor saw vertical through the cut. Sanding the cut pieces was necessary to arrive at a tight joint fit. The parts were then assembled with wood glue as per the instructions, and then finished with Silkspan and 3 coats of Nitrate dope prior to installation. 11 Step 13, Tail Fin Installation: Installation of the fins proceeded without difficulty. Yellow wood glue was used to fillet the fins. Photo 4 on the next page shows one of the installed fins:

12 Step 15, Conduit Details: Conduit details were prepared and installed without difficulty. Photo 6: Rear Conduit Installed With this step complete, the model will be prepared for priming and painting. The next installment of PSC Shop Talk will cover these items in more detail. Photo 4: Installed Fin Step 14, Launch Lug Installation: Preparation and installation of the launch lug proceeded without difficulty. Photo 5: Launch Lug Installation 12

13 Area Attractions at NARAM 52 by John Pace NARAM 52 was quite an adventure. The drive covered eight states in roughly 24 hours non-stop (on the way home). We saw a lot of country but scenic it wasn t. If you re looking to go out west and want to do some sight-seeing along the way, don t travel Interstate-70. This year s NA- RAM was more special to me than some of the others I ve attended. It allowed me to spend a lot of time with my rocketry friends, see a part of the country I have never visited before except on business, do some sightseeing and achieve one of my rocketry goals that I had placed on the back burner for several years (Level 1 Certification). If you plan to attend a NARAM and as I have said in the past I recommend you do, take some time to see the sights. At past NARAMS, I never took the time to enjoy the area attractions which in retrospect was a big mistake. Most NARAMS are in some very nice areas of the country and offer a wide variety of things to do and see. The Pueblo, Colorado area was no different. Colorado Springs which was about 40 minutes north of Pueblo is a hot bed of attractions from Pikes Peak, to the Garden of the Gods, to Seven Falls and a host of other attractions. Nature definitely blessed this city. After looking over the event schedule we decided to get in some sightseeing Sunday afternoon and Wednesday following the F Superroc Competition. Sunday we went to a Ghost Town. Unfortunately, it wasn t what you would expect. The town was real and it was from the early or mid 1800 s but it was inside a warehouse to protect it from the weather. The artifacts were outstanding but the environment made me feel like I was in a museum. I think they should have changed the name to Western Gold Rush Town. I really didn t see any ghosts while I was there. Wednesday afforded us more time since there was nothing planned that evening. We had initially planned to go up Pikes Peak but Team Pittsburgh # a bad storm accompanied by heavy thunder and lightning had the road to Pikes Peak closed at 13,000 feet. Bummer!! We left the Peak and headed for The Garden of the Gods. Not knowing what was in store for us all I kept thinking of was an array of flower gardens. Boy was I wrong. The Garden of the Gods is a remarkable 1,360- acre park so full of weird and surreal red, white and gray sandstone and granite rock formations that it looks like Mother Nature teamed with Picasso in forming it. The best part of all it was free. I left the park with a great appreciation of Mother Nature and a pile of photos. After dinner we decided to go to Seven Falls, an attraction better seen at night. Seven Falls is a water fall situated in a very large and deep gorge. It s actually one fall with seven different cascades. On the way to the falls we got to see a large black bear. Mark Cassata must have thought it was a stuffed animal because he wanted to get out of the car and take its picture when it was about 30 feet from the car. To get to the falls, you drive and walk up a deep gorge to where they are located and what a sight they are with different colored lights highlighting each cascade. There are two ways to view the falls. One is to take the mountain elevator to an outpost that overlooks the falls. A second is to walk up along the falls to the top where it begins. The walkway was closed due to the bad weather so we took the inner mountain elevator. We spent quite a bit of time admiring the falls before heading to the gift shop and then back to the hotel. The sightseeing trips were a great way to relax and they seemed to re-energize and prepare me for the competition that lay ahead. If you re planning on going to Cincinnati next year for NARAM 53, be sure to locate the area attractions. If you like amusement parks they have Kings Island. They have a very nice zoo, and even a real major league baseball team and I m sure much, much, more. NARAM s can be a great family vacation allowing those who don t have the competitive rocketry spirit to spend the day doing the things they like while you run yourself ragged chasing that duration flight that may land you a medal. In either case balance your time competing and enjoying the area attractions. I think when the week is over you ll feel like you ve learned more about the events you competed in as well as the area around you. ****************

14 PSC R&R Picnic August 22, 2010 The Pittsburgh Space Command held its traditional R&R picnic at Camp Lutherlyn in Prospect, Pa on August 22 nd. It s always been a time for relaxation, reminiscing about highlights from past competition and sports launches over a smorgasbord of covered dishes from all club members and for generating funds to help pay for the expenses for the upcoming year. The picnic has always been a well attended event by both members and prospective members and this year was no exception. Besides just flying rockets, we had our 50/50 raffle, rocketry raffle and what has now become an annual event - the Fun Fly, a creation of John Brohm s. The raffles have been an important revenue generator to pay for various club expenses and this year even with a tough economy, our members dug deep to help support the club. The 50/50 raffle generated $65 while the rocketry raffle brought in $172 for a total of $ Another benefit of the R&R event is for current members to bring new or prospective members to the launch to get an insight into what our rocketry club has to offer. We were fortunate to have two new people not only join PSC at R&R but also become NAR members. The newest members of our club are Jake (Jacob) Herzog and John Ridings (son Kaleb). Jake plans to compete in B Division this season. He also likes sports flying, staged models, as well as parachute and streamer models. John was involved in model rocketry when he was younger and joined the club more for his son s interest in flying than his own. Kaleb has applied for a NAR membership and plans to compete in A Division. This year s Fun Fly Launch events were quite different than the standard duration or spot landing competitions that we had typically done in the past. Once again, the competition had both a youth (junior) and adult (senior) division. However, the events were more advanced than in the past with both random and predicted duration events for the youth and craftsmanship and predicted duration events for the adults. The competition in the junior bracket was fierce with Michael Beamer and Michala Alexander slugging it out with each taking a first and a second. In the seniors bracket is was no contest in either event as John Brohm took the craftsmanship award and Steve Foster the predicted duration event leaving the other competitors in their dust. Team Pittsburgh #154 The following are the results from the competition. Youths: Random Duration (50 Sec.) 1) Michael Beamer 24% 2) Michala Alexander 30% Predicted Duration Adults: (1) Michala Alexander (64 Sec) % (2) Michael Beamer (38 Sec) % Predicted Duration (1) Steve Foster (41 Sec) 2.4% (2) Mark Halinaty (31 Sec) 16.1% (3) John Brohm (42 Sec) 23.8% (4) Dick Beamer (43 Sec) % (5) Scott Alexander (118 Sec) 59.3% (Note Scott avoided being last by choosing such a high number that it was nearly impossible to miss by more than 70%) (6) Russell Cummins (43 Sec) 60.5% (7) Gary Sluser (50 Sec) 72% Craftsmanship: (1) John Brohm won the craftsmanship award (2) Everyone else came in tied for last! As planned the R&R event came to a close around 5 pm with everyone worn out from a day filled with flying rockets. In all, over 120 model rockets were flown on Sunday. I look forward to seeing you all at the September 19 th launch. John Pace President PSC

15 Business Meeting Recap August 22, 2010 An unplanned business meeting was held at the annual PSC R&R picnic following lunch. The purpose of the meeting was to develop a plan of action for the many items and issues that had surfaced since our last launch. The following is a recap of those issues and the appropriate club action. Based upon ideas from other section presidents during the Town Hall meeting at NARAM 52, PSC has decided to implement a section based Take It/ Fly It program. We have new junior members at many of our launches that have an interest in our hobby but have not taken the first step and bought one. Our program will provide a bin of rockets donated by various club members where the prospective junior member can select a rocket. It is important that all rockets have a recovery device in the body tube. Hopefully as members we can donate an engine to this junior rocketeer thus allowing him to make his first rocket launch. We have received 200 NAR tri-folds. Our goal is to get them into as many local hobby stores as possible. However, before we can place them there, we need to determine who will be the contact person on the PSC label affixed to the tri-fold. In the past the section advisor has been the contact person for prospective PSC members. Steve Foster recommended we get Rod s approval before listing him on the label. Steve also recommended we label all models at the hobby stores provided we have the owners approval. Art Nestor informed the members of the club that he would be resigning as editor of the PSC bimonthly newsletter on or before newsletter #159 which is the July/August issue for calendar year After numerous s trying to coax Art into staying and revamping the position to provide Art with an assistant, John Pace decided to bring this matter to the attention of all club members at the picnic. After some discussion John Brohm volunteered to assume the role as PSC newsletter editor on or before newsletter #159. Thank you John for volunteering your time and effort for this very important club role. I know all club members will help John in his new role by supplying him new and creative articles for OUR newsletter. Team Pittsburgh # The club members unanimously decided to go forward with a kit for our 25 th anniversary. To make the design of the kit an interesting and fun club activity, a contest will be held yielding both a junior and senior winner and from there an overall winner. The prizes for the winners of each age group have not yet been determined. The design must use only Semroc parts since Semroc has agreed to produce the kit for us. The kit price should fall within the range of $15 to $20. Since we want to celebrate our 25 th anniversary at next year s May launch, we will need everyone s Final design by sometime in November or December. Again a firm date has not yet been determined. The judges who will select the best rocket design that represents our 25 th year as a NAR Section are Steve Foster, Scott Alexander and Mark Cassata. In addition to a commemorative model rocket to celebrate our 25 th anniversary, the club members also recommended we produce a 25 th anniversary complementary patch. Since the patch requires less lead time to produce, the final design needs to be ready for production as early as January but no later than the end of February. How the patch will be designed was not discussed but tabled until the next business planning meeting. I would expect Art Nestor and possibly John Brohm to be instrumental in the design of this patch. The club is positioned to make a run at the Section of the Year in We ve made an effort and encouraged younger NAR members as well as some of our more talented senior members to participate in competition launches during the upcoming competition season. In order to be better prepared to compete in the 2011 events, PSC will hold two regional launches. The dates and events for these two regional launches will be determined at the annual business planning meeting. Considering all the club activities currently underway and the need to establish our 2011 calendar as quickly as possible including events for the competition launches, we have decided to hold our annual business planning at 9:30 am prior to the Sunday launch on November 14 th. This provides us more than two hours to complete the business planning meeting before the scheduled launch. Otherwise we will continue the meeting if we need more time. Although it was not discussed I believe the club wants to continue the Fun Fly event as an activity at the August R&R launch. We will need to decide not just the model but also the events for Again you should be prepared to discuss this issue at the November 14 th business planning meeting. The meeting concluded around 3 pm. John D. Pace President

16 Left: John Brohm poses with his winning entry in the craftsmanship portion of our August s Fun Fly event. Right: John Sarosi attaches the microclips to one of his pyramid rockets at the R & R Picnic/Launch. Photos by Art Nestor. TEAM PITTSBURGH Pittsburgh Space Command Send returns to: Steve Foster 125 Crestline Drive Leechburg, Pa