Roger Smith's PageAKA: jadebox Location: Oviedo, FL Certification Level: L2 NAR/Tripoli Club Memberships: NAR, TRIPOLI, ROCK, NEFAR Favorite Rockets: Estes Omega Biography: Roger maintains RocketReviews.com.
Roger, and his wife, Bracha, have built and flown some of the furriest rockets of all-time. Their "Big Daddy Akavish" is a spider-themed high-power rocket standing about four-foot tall on its eight legs.
Favorite Quote: Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool.
Personal Home Page: http://www.payloadbay.com/ Club Home Page: http://www.r-o-c-k.org/ RocketReviews.com Pages:
2012-05-23Upscale Break Away (YouBee) Fixes - It's Starting to Look Like Something  Build Entry I slid the body tube over the fin unit and glued it place with epoxy. I used masking tape to hold the end tight against centering ring. What you can't see in the photo is that I attached a u-bolt to the upper centering ring for attachment of the recovery system (for motors that don't have a... [More]
2012-05-21Upscale Break Away (YouBee) Fixes - Rail Guide Attachment  Build Entry When I rebuilt the fin section of the YouBee the first time, I had to repair the spots where the rail buttons attached. I came up with a method that worked well, so I decided to use it on the new fin section.
I needed a piece of 1/4" thick, 1 1/2" wide wood. I could have cut it from the wood I... [More]
Upscale Break Away (YouBee) Fixes - Fin Slots  Build Entry Next, I cut slots in the body tube for the fins. I used ... yes ... the PayloadBay.com Fin Guide to mark spots on the bottom of the tube. To do this, I used a little trick. I taped a centering ring to the guide. It's easier to center the ring in the template and the ring holds the tube steady... [More]
Upscale Break Away (YouBee) Fixes - Fin Assembly  Build Entry The next step was pretty straight-forward. I used wood glue to glue the centering ring with the grooves to one end of the motor tube. Then I glued each fin, one at a time, to the motor tube.
I glued the ring with the notches to the tube at the bottom of the fins. Then I added another ring at... [More]
2012-05-20Upscale Break Away (YouBee) Fixes - Centering Rings  Build Entry I used the wood I bought for the fins to make centering rings. At first I tried to kill myself.
The jig I built for an old router I have can't cut smaller than 8" circles. The circle cutter I have cuts up to 5" diameter cuts. The inside diameter of the YouBee is almost 5 1/2".
What the heck.... [More]
Upscale Break Away (YouBee) Fixes - Deja Vu All Over Again  Build Entry After rebuilding the YouBee as described above, I flew it at NEFAR's Bunnell Blast last November. The flight was pretty good ... at least the up part went well. At apogee, the rocket split apart, but not as planned. I had forgotten to attach one end of one section of the recovery harness. So,... [More]
2012-05-12Using a Jasper Circle Jig to Make Centering Rings Tip Using a Jasper Model 200J Circle Jig with a Dewalt DW618PK Plunge Router:
LOC/Precision 3.90" Diameter Tube
Outside: 3 7/8"
Inside:
LOC/Precision 5.5" Diameter Tube
Outside: 5 13/16"
Inside:
The settings above create rings that require some sanding to fit. If you would... [More]
2012-05-11For Texas rocketry club and their inspirational teacher, the sky is just the beginning Blog “Where the Rio Grande and the Rio Conchos meet in west Texas is believed to be the oldest continuously-cultivated land in America. But the most precious crop you’ll find there today is dreams ….” google_ad_client = "pub-0339169957047160"; google_ad_width = 468; google_ad_height = 60; google_ad_format = "468x60_as"; google_ad_type = "text_image"; google_ad_channel =... [More]
2012-05-09JonRocket.com Trailer - Another Picture  Build Entry [More]
2012-05-07JonRocket.com Trailer - Wrapping It All Up  Build Entry Our friend, Carolyn Klages of Klages Kreations, provided decals and stripes for the trailer. She even applied them for us.
The logo decals are printed vinyl with a clear laminate. The blue stripes are highly-reflective.
[More]
JonRocket.com Trailer - Powering Up!  Build Entry Having more room to carry stuff to a launch, I naturally began to think of more things to carry.
One item that came to mind was a small generator for those times when it would be nice to have a source of electricity on site. I went online and read reviews of generators. And I talked with a... [More]
JonRocket.com Trailer - At The Launch  Build Entry Our first experience using the trailer was at the March, 2012, ROCK launch. We arrived a little early because I wasn't sure how the trailer was going to handle being pulled through the ditch onto our field. There was no problem driving on the grass, but arriving early did allow me to pull in... [More]
JonRocket.com Trailer - Fixing the Lights Build Entry I had installed the trailer hitch and trailer light connection in our mini-van. So, I knew where to start to debug why the running lights weren't working when the trailer was connected to the van. The first thing I did was to hook the trailer up to the van and ... now none of the lights worked! ... [More]
JonRocket.com Trailer - Inside the Trailer Build Entry Once we could park it in the garage, our attention turned to the inside of the trailer. How would we organize things in the trailer so that we can find what we need and ensure that things don't get damaged in transit?
Oh, wait ... first I took care of some minor rust spots on the tongue. I... [More]
2012-05-06JonRocket.com Trailer  . Build This build is a little different. For more than ten years, two or three Saturdays each month, my wife, Bracha, and I packed our mini-van with rockets, motors, supplies, a tent, chairs, cooler, and everything else we thought we would need at that day's launch.
Arriving at the launch site, we'd... [More]
2012-04-23Photo Album T-Shirts, Posters, Postage Stamps, and More …. Blog When viewing an image in the RocketReviews.com Photo Album, you may see a link under “What You Can Do” for ordering a t-shirt, printed photo, poster, genuine US postage stamp, or other product featuring the image. The currently link appears only under images you have uploaded to RocketReviews.com and under photos that I contributed (such as the photos I’ve taken at ROCK, NEFAR,... [More]
2012-03-23Rockets by Manufacturer / LOC/Precision Photograph 
LOC/Precision - LOC IV (PK-3) [1985-]
2012-03-20A First Look at the New MPC Rockets Blog MPC, which produced model rocket kits from 1969 to 1978, is coming back. Round 2, a “collectibles” company which has re-issued classic toys and plastic model kits, is producing new model rocket kits under the MPC brand. The new MPC’s first kits are a series of easy-to-build model rocket kits featuring colorful pre-printed body tubes and unique parachute designs which will be... [More]
2012-03-19Rockets by Manufacturer / Quest Aerospace Photograph 
quest_flat-cat-finished.jpg
2012-03-18TTRA’s March Launch Blog I had nothing to fly, but decided to attend the March TTRA launch as a spectator. And it turned out to be a great day for watching rockets fly. Can you ask for more than a bright, blue sky and almost no wind? We’ll, I guess it could have been a little cooler. You can see the entire collection of photos I took in the TTRA Photo Album. But, I’ll point out a few of the most... [More]
TTRA Launches / March 2012 Launch Photograph 
Two-Stage Red Max Lift-Off
2012-03-07Up and Down – RocketReviews.com’s Roller Coaster Ride Blog RocketReviews.com was down a few times over the past few days after the primary hard drive generated I/O errors. Once an I/O error is recorded, the operating system sets the drive to be “read-only” to prevent corruption of the data on the drive. When this happened, RocketReviews.com and the other sites hosted on the server, began returning error messages. When it first happened, I... [More]
ROCK’s March Launch Blog I’ve posted photos from ROCK’s March, 2012, launch in the RocketReviews.com Photo Album. I arrived early to show off the new Mobile-edition of JonRocket.com. For a day in early March, it was quite hot. But, “in like a lion” held true as high winds plagued us all day. We had to watch the anemometer and stop the launch when the wind speed exceeded 20 miles per hour. In... [More]
2012-02-23D L C Enterprises Full Circle (Book) Review Full Circle is an autobiography by David L. Cisco. Cisco worked on the Lunar Module which carried men to the surface of the moon during the Apollo program.
Ciscos tells the story of his life from a 13-year old kid working part-time in a junkyard after school, to a successful businessman and... [More]
2012-02-09“How to Build Model Rockets” at NAR.org Blog Chris Michielssen’s “How to Build Model Rockets” tutorial is now featured on the home page of the National Association of Rocketry’s web site. The series of articles is the first reference listed in the sites’s “More Rocket and Rocketry Information” section. Chris recently donated the tutorial to NAR which quickly moved it to its new home at nar.org.... [More]
Team America Rocketry Challenge Featured at White House Science Fair Blog Each year, about 7,000 students from middle and high schools across the nation compete in the Team America Rocketry Challenge. Each team designs, builds, flies, and tests a model rocket that must reach a specific altitude and duration as determined by a set of rules which change each year. Teams make test flights to qualify for the finals which are held each May in Washington. DC. The top 100... [More]
2012-02-06ROCK’s February 2012 Launch Video Blog We had a record turnout at the February launch! [More]
2012-01-30How to Advertise on RocketReviews.com Blog I recently received a couple of emails asking how to purchase advertising on RocketReviews.com. We don’t directly sell advertising, but you can advertise your products or services on RocketReviews.com in one of several ways as described below. List your products on eBay - Since eBay is an excellent resource for finding out-of-production kits as well as current kits and other rocketry... [More]
2012-01-07Shadow  Flight Straight up - almost perfect. - G38-7 - ROCK [More]
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Roger Smith
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