AERO-PAC Aeronaut 1 Volume 14, Number 1

AeronautThe Newsletter for the Association of Experimental Rocketry of the Pacific

Triploi Rocketry Association, Inc. Prefecture no. 23

February 2002: Volume 14, Number 1

First Commissioner’s Cornerby Tom Rouse

First off, I would like to take this opportu-nity to acknowledge William Walby for allthe years he has volunteered his servicesto our AERO-PAC club. William has servedboth as treasurer and Prefect. As a thanksfor all the years of service, William wasvoted in as a lifetime member by the Boardlast year.

I miss his presence at the meetings andlaunches. Hopefully we can entice him toagain serve when his career workloadlightens up again.

THANKS WILLIAM, FROM ALL OF USIN AERO-PAC.

The 2002 year also features a new make-up in the volunteer BOD. Newcomers areBecky Green as Treasurer and AnthonyAlcocer as Second Commissioner. They arevaluable additions to the board.

To make it easier on the new people, pleasesend in all renewals as early as possible togive Becky time to settle into the new job.Last minute renewals and on-site renew-als will end up as a big inconvenience toher, so please cooperate and send in the re-newals early.

One other item of mention, is that if every-one sends in their renewals early, the clubwill generate enough cash-flow to allow usto order some more T-shirts and DaveyFire28B’s (low current ones for ejectioncharges). These items will chew up a fewthousand dollars and we wish to order allthis stuff early enough to have them avail-able for the first meeting and launch.

The 2002 AERO-PAC fees will remain thesame as the last few years, with the possi-bility of a small increase in the launch feefor the XPRS launch.

Enclosed in this newsletter, John has in-cluded the 2002 membership forms foryour convenience!

To clarify the meanings of the 2 member-ship categories, the first category is for be-

ing an AERO-PAC member that entitles youto the newsletter and membership privi-leges like being on the e-mail list for receiv-ing any e-mails regarding the club.

The second category is the full membershipwhich includes all launch fees.

We did this two tier category system, sopeople not planning on attending launchesin a season can still stay updated by receiv-ing the newsletter and e-mails.

We have just received the 2002 Tripoli in-surance certificates from the insurance car-rier that will enable us to again launch fromBlack Rock.

All of the launch dates have been set, soeverything is set for the upcoming season.

You can check out all the info on the AERO-PAC web site, which has been reworked byPaul Campbell and John Coker. A lot of timegoes into maintaining the web pages andkeeping all the e-mail lists updated. Manythanks to both Paul Campbell and JohnCoker for all their effort in these areas.

I have talked to both Gary Rosenfield andKarl Bauman in regards to motor availabil-ity for this season, and have been assuredthat we will be in good shape, even for thefirst launch. Aerotech has now secured anew facility and will soon resume motormanufacturing. By the time June rollsaround, most motors should be available.Get your orders in to Karl Bauman as earlyas possible!

Last year, AERO-PAC saw an increase invendor participation in our launches andin supporting the club. We have hadShadow Composites, Rocket Motion, G-Wiz, Black Sky, Mojave Desert High Power,BSD Rocketry, AEROCON, All Hobbies,Photos By Nadine, Igniter Man, Dr. Rocket,Blackrock Technology and Aerotech allshow up to launches. There have been oth-ers too, their names escape me, but never-theless, we are getting many vendors show-ing up. Try to patronize these folks andpurchase a few things while at the launchor order items for delivery.

On a sad note, a cherished member of our

club recently passed away. Tom Cloud, thebig happy-go-lucky fellow we all enjoyed,lost his battle with heart disease. He was arocketeer from the beginning, with a TRAnumber of 109! “Bubba” will be missed.

This year, AERO-PAC will hold the firstannual XPRS launch. We are renaming theend of the year launch to XPRS from BlackRock. This was the idea of several memberswhile at LDRS. Ken Biba, Tom Cloud, JohnCoker and a few other AERO-PAC mem-bers started talking about the need for anEXTREME launch, the equivalent of BALLS,but only with certified motors. Black Rockis the best place in the country (or the worldfor that matter) to launch rockets. Each year,AERO-PAC has people travel from all overthe US and even travel from other countriesto fly at our Black Rock launches. So, wewill now be emphasizing the advantagesof Black Rock and offer an EXTREMElaunch for people to attend with theirprojects. There will be competition catego-ries for altitude in each motor class and alsofor speed in certain classes. Trophies willbe given out for the winners.

Bob Fortune has secured Extreme Rocketryas a participant/sponsor in this event, andwill do full coverage of the launch. AERO-PAC will be advertising heavily this won-derful launch to attract the rocketeers tobring all those EXTREME rockets to thesame launch and let it all hang out.

For more information contact Bob Fortune.Bob has graciously volunteered to coordi-nate the launch activities and advertising.

And lastly, remember that AERO-PAC willbe in the spotlight with the BLM again thisyear. The continuing evolution of the Na-tional Conservation Area places anyonewho goes to Black Rock under scrutiny. So,remember, while on the playa, no fires ofany kind, cleanup everything and try toshow up early and stay late for all the setupand tear-down activities!

See you all at the next function- the trailer/equipment party.

Tom

AERO-PAC Aeronaut 2 Volume 14, Number 1

Tom Cloud Memorial

In Loving Memory ofTOM CLOUD

Born into this LifeJune 5, 1951

IndianaEntered into Eternal Life

December 28, 2001Antioch, California

AgedFifty Years

Funeral Service11am Friday January 4, 2001

Immanuel ChurchAntioch, California

by Tony Alcocer

The first time AJ and I met Tom was atAeronaut 2000. AJ and I were walkingaround seeing what was going on. Out inthe distance we could see a group of peoplegathered around some guy. As we walkedtowards the group the guy that was doingall of the talking kept getting bigger andbigger. As we approached the van a gustof wind blew one of the rockets down thathad been leaning against the van. The guysimply kicked the rocket under the van!Now we had to see who this guy was! Itwas Tom Cloud! He was telling the grouphow he made his rockets. How he madethe body tubes and the couplers, fromscratch!

To demonstrate how strong his rocketswere he had one of the guys jump up anddown on them. Everyone there was totallyamazed including AJ and I. That was thefirst time that AJ and I had met Tom. Wehad talked to Tom many of times in the chatroom and on the phone. We learned manythings from Tom. The one thing that welearned about Tom from the very beginningwas that he was always willing to help,whether it was answering our question orjust lending us a hand. We only wish thatwe had known Tom longer then we did.

We will miss the Big Ol Guy!

by Sue McMurray

Tom Cloud was my friend. He made mesmile every time I saw him. He made melaugh in surprise. He was warm and kindand he hugged me. He smelled better thanFrank. I miss him in a way I can't describeright now. I'm afraid that I will miss himeven more when he is not with us on theplaya.

by John Coker

Tom was always fun and funny. Each meet-ing he would bring some new find or in-vention.

Despite being on the “enemy” team, hejumped in and helped out with the N1 outat Lucerne when we needed him.

We will all miss him. Goodbye.

by Bob Fortune

Tom Cloud was a big guy. Tall, barrelchested, his scale hadn't seen the other sideof 300 pounds for quite a few years, deepvoice, with eyes squinting at the tobaccosmoke that curled from the perpetual ciga-rette hanging from the corner of his mouth.Maybe the squint was from the sun as hetracked the rockets that left the pads at BlackRock. Tom liked rockets in a big way, bigrockets, big projects, big plans. Ibpyronski(that's how a lot of us knew him from hisemail address "I be Pyro-n-ski") had a niceL3 project all ready to go which he talkedabout often. He was this close to flying it,I'm holding my thumb and forefinger to-gether so they barely touch, at Mudroc inJune. Formed the tubes by hand in his ga-rage using a fantastic system of his own

design which you can read here in thisnewsletter. I'm lucky enough to own acouple of those tubes, one day I'll make anice rocket with them and call it theCloudhopper or something zippy. Wewould laugh and joke about hisrocketeering. He was really homespun.One memorable get-together I called himBubba von Braun and the name stuck, hethought it was hilarious. From then on hewas Bubba von B, Werner's distant Appala-chian relative. I'm going to miss old Mr.Cloud, TRA 0109.

Adios Bubba and rest in peace.

If my rocket zips by the cloud you're sittingon, make sure the parachute deploys,would you?

AERO-PAC Aeronaut 3 Volume 14, Number 1

Our Unconventional L3by Tony Alcocer

My name is Tony Alcocer and my son AJand I have been into HPR for about 3 yearsnow. We certified L1 and 2 and it seemednatural for us to move onto L3. We havebeen scratch building most of our rocketsand wanted to do the same for L3. We hadseen several L3 flights and were impressedwith each one of them. Some of the chal-lenges we saw with these flights was thatthese M motors sure pack a punch and therocket needs to be built strong enough forthem and most L3 flight did not go thathigh or fast. And then there was the costof the project.

Being thrifty is one of my strong points,unless you ask my wife and she says I'mcheap. I needed to find a way to stay un-der budget and have a successful flight toboot. What is under budget? I was notsure.

So my search began for anything that couldbe used as rocket materials. We hit pay dirtright off the bat. We heard about some fi-berglass pipe that was being thrown awayand off we go. Sure enough we find a fewhundred feet of it in a dumpster. It is usedfor the underground delivery and transferof fuels and oils. Will it work? We startplaying with it and find, that with somework it will do the trick. The next step wascoming up with a nose cone, or cones (af-ter all we have a few hundred feet of thisstuff now) for this 3.5" body tube. We buya block of Bass wood drill a 1/2 holethrough the center and chuck it up in thedrill press and turn ourselves a nice blank.The next step was to encase this blank infiberglass and make a mold from it. It takesus 2 or 3 tries before we finally figure outhow thick to make them. We end up with4 layers of 6 oz glass and 1 layer of 5.75ozcarbon fiber and we are happy with it. Weran a quick SIM and got some encourag-ing news. With an M1315 it should go al-most 18,000' at about 1100 mph.

The next step was trying to make center-ing rings for a 3"MT in a 3.5"rocket. Thiswas not going to be easy. We decided thatwe could use spruce strips to center themotor tube inside the body tube. The stripsare 3/16" by 1/4" and with a little sandingit is a nice snug fit. We wanted to use TWCfin attachment and cut the fin slots withthe aide of a hand held grinder and a pieceof 2" angle iron as a guide. The .125 G-10fins are imbedded in a mixture of epoxyand carbon fiber pulp. The next step wasto glass the fins to the body in one fellswoop. This way we did not end up withcold joints between each layer of glass. Theexternal filets, again with epoxy and car-

bon fiber, are applied along with 3 layers of6 oz cloth. For added strength 2-part foamwas used to fill up the any remaining areain the fin can. Soda straws were used toblow the mixture down into the fin can.

The electronics bay and couplers were thenext hurdles. We used the same fiberglasspipe to make the couplers. They were cutto length and then cut lengthwise. A nar-row piece was cut out of them to allow themto fit inside the body tube. They were thenglassed back together with 2 layers of 6 ozcloth.

The rocket was painted and was just lessthan 12 pounds ready to go less the motor.We figured that we needed a 9 to 10' chutefor the main. The problem was that wecould not find one to fit inside the body.Then I remember my wife saying somethingabout needing a new family tent last sum-mer. So out comes the old family Dome tent.It measures 10' across and is made of ripstop nylon! A 9 1/2' chute is made and it fitnicely into the rocket!

So we head out to Black Rock 13 in hopesof achieving L3 status.

We take our time in prepping the rocket andwork from our check sheet to avoid any

problems. AJ talks me through the build-ing of the M1315. We start prepping the G-Wiz and our new Missile Works RC2 40Kand realize that we had left the instructionsfor the RC2 at home. We head out in differ-ent directions in search of some. With theinstructions in hand we set the dipswitchesin their proper locations. We then pack thedrogue and the main and install the shearpins and feel we are ready. Out at the awaycell we continue to work from our checkoff sheet and everything goes as planned.As we stand on the flight line waiting forour flight, I begin to second-guess the flight.Maybe one more layer of glass on the fincan, maybe we should have bought a kit.As they read from the flight card I listen tothe Walston receiver, borrowed from TomRouse, beeping away.

As the M1315 comes to life the rocket streaksinto the sky higher and faster it goes untilall that is left is a trail of smoke. It holdstogether and now we wait for 20 some sec-onds until it reaches apogee. AJ sees theentire flight with the binoculars as my earsstrain to hear the beeping coming from theWalston unit. AJ says "we have a drogue"and another member of our launch teamconfirms that. I stare up into the sky inhopes that my 40-year-old eyes can seesomething to no avail. AJ and I hop intothe truck and drive out in the playa. Westop in time to see the main charge fire andwatch as the chute inflates and slows therockets decent. As the rocket touches downI breathe a sigh of relief. As we drive up onthe landing site. The rocket is in perfectcondition. We open up the electronics bayto find that the G-Wiz is blinking out20,305'and the RC is beeping out 20,831' Therocket held together had some impressivealtitude and speed and came in under bud-get. Mission Accomplished!

AERO-PAC Aeronaut 4 Volume 14, Number 1

Creating Fiberglass Tubing

By Tom Cloud

[This article was originally a set of postings Tommade on R.M.R.]

IntroductionMy name is Tom Cloud and I'll post someinfo here to show you how to roll up a glassairframe tube in whatever material that youchoose to use for the construction of thetube. I.E., Carbon, E-glass or my favorite,S2 cloth.

The mandrel is reusable and will last a longtime with a bit of care. This will spreadthe cost of the mandrel over many tubesand keep you out of hot water with thewife/SO in your life. The mandrel is cov-ered with a piece of sheet mylar. The mylaracts as the carrier for the glass tube andslides off the mandrel leaving the mandrelintact for reuse.

The mandrels that I use are made from fulllength phenolic coupler tubes that I buyfrom Red Arrow hobbies. I make the man-drels 60 inches long so that I can use either38 or 50 inch cloth widths and trim to 36 or48 inch long tubes. I use sheet mylar ineither the .002 or .005 thickness as the car-rier for the airframe, the mylar thickness isdetermined by rolling a small test piece us-ing glass tape to test fit to a nosecone to seehow tight it fits.

Mandrel constructionI make my mandrels all 60 inches long toallow the use of either 38 or 50 inch widematerial. The full length couplers are usu-ally 36 inches long in the smaller sizes and48 inches in the larger sizes (6 inch and up)so this means that you need to join 2 lengthsof coupler together to use the same pro-cess that I use. I cut a second coupler tubeto the correct length to make up 60 inchesI.E. a full 36 inch coupler and the secondcoupler cut to 24 inches long.

To join the 2 pieces you'll need to make asplit tube coupler. I allways make the join-ing coupler twice as long as the tube OD.I.E. a 4 inch (3.900) tube would have a join-ing coupler 8 inches long. It is plain to seethat you need to keep the 2 pieces asstraight as possible. I join the 2 pieces to-gether using white glue to allow a longworking time and the pieces laid in a 3X3angle iron to keep them straight while theglue sets. This makes the basic mandrelfor use.

I have found that to make it easier to re-move the glass tube from the mandrel Ideveloped the next step of adding a rein-forced center to the mandrel. I make twoend rings from 1/2 plywood scraps (cheap)with a center hole to clear a 60 inch length

of 1 inch EMT. Epoxy one of the end ringsin an end of the mandrel. Clean the lengthof EMT with a solvent like MEK to removethe oil from the surface and rough the EMTwith course sand paper. Take the secondend ring and place 3 or 4 push pins placedin the side of the ring near the top as a wayto keep it from falling inside the mandrelfor the next step. Set the cleaned EMT inthe center hole of the epoxyied in ring andplace the mandrel in an upright positionwith the first ring facing down on the floorand the EMT in the middle of the mandrel.Mix some 2 part foam and pour into themandrel, quickly place the top ring in themandrel to keep the EMT centered and atthe same time hold the EMT with a fingerdown so that it will still be flush with thefirst ring. The expanding foam WILL try topush the EMT up as it cures. Finish fillingthe mandrel with 2 part foam until it’s full.Cut off the excess expanded foam andenough inside so the second end ring canbe epoxyied in place.

I draw 2 lines down the length of the man-drel about 180 degrees apart with a perma-nent marker pen. One is for laying out themylar carrier sheet and the other is for lin-ing up the first wrap of cloth to keep itstraight on the mandrel. I also place linesat 38 and 50 inches (centered of course)around the OD of the mandrel to help keepthe cloth centered while rolling the tube.

I went into great detail for the constructionof the mandrel only to help avoid any ques-tions. Basically you want to have a lengthof coupler tube about a foot or so longerthan the widest material that you want touse, You need the extra length on each endto turn the mandrel and not touch the wetcloth that you are rolling the tube from. Thecenter piece of EMT gives you a way to sup-port the mandrel and a way to remove therolled airframe after its cured (more on re-moval in a moment).

Here's what makes it all so easy, the mylarcarrier on the mandrel. For all intents andpurposes the carrier is just a mylar tube thatyou make to fit over the mandrel to keepany epoxy from getting on it. (the mandrel)The carrier will slide off of the mandrel andbe stuck to the inside of the airframe. Thecarrier is the same length as the mandrel,and has about a 1 inch overlap on the OD.

Cut the sheet mylar the same as the lengthas the mandrel, in my case 60 inches long.The width is determined by the OD of themandrel, in this case 3.90. The OD (3.90) X3.14 (12.246) plus about a 1 inch overlap toseal the carrier, a 13 inch wide piece of mylar60 inches long is needed. The mylar needsto be cut square, 90 degree angles, to make

it easy to wrap the mandrel. The carrier isheld together with plain cello tape. use alength of 3/4 inch EMT between two sup-ports (I use 2 saw horses made for this pur-pose) through the 1 inch EMT in the man-drel core.

Tear off 5 or 6 small pieces of tape to holdthe mylar in place while you make the car-rier. Place the piece of mylar on the man-drel using one of the lines as a guide to keepit straight and parallel. Starting in the cen-ter hold the mylar with one hand and snugit up to the mandrel with the other hand.Put a small piece of tape on the seam to holdit in place. Keeping the mylar flat andsmooth on the mandrel tape the seam inseveral places to hold it in place. DO NOTTAPE THE MYLAR TO THE MANDREL!Only tape the mylar to itself at the over-lapped seam.

When you have the carrier so that it's flatand smooth against the mandrel and itslides on the mandrel without any slop, it'stime to tape the entire seam. Start at oneend and pull out a foot or so of tape fromthe roll, use one hand to hold the tape rolland the other to smooth the tape as you godown the seam. Seal the entire length ofthe seam and make sure the cello tape is flatand smooth. Leave the small pieces of tapein place that you used in the start and justgo over the top of them.

You now have a mylar tube that will slideup and down the mandrel but is not looseor sloppy. If you have wrinkles in the mylarcarrier you will have ridges in the com-pleted airframe. It wont hurt anything butit just looks bad when cured. More laterwhen I get home from taking the kids outfor lunch.

. . .

Back from lunch so lets finish up the man-drel.

Mylar comes in many different thicknessesand can be found online at tapplastics.comand other online vendors as well. The com-mon sizes that are listed online seem to bethe .002,.005 and the .014. The latter is veryheavy and stiff, its also hard to work withon a small tube. I usually use the .002 or.005 anyway so it all works out in the end.

To determine what thickness mylar to useits easiest to roll a test piece with eglass tapeas the material and make a glass ring to testfit to the nose cone. Before making the car-rier tube take a piece of .002 and .005 mylarabout 6 inches wide and long enough tomake a "mini" carrier of each thickness androll up a test ring from 4 or 5 wraps of eglasstape and epoxy. Allow to cure and try the

AERO-PAC Aeronaut 5 Volume 14, Number 1

Creating Fiberglass Tubing (continued)rings on the nose cone and see how it fits.You will, for the most part, be using the.002 mylar.

The phenolic coupler material varies fromrun to production run a small amount.Some of the mandrels will use the .002mylar but a few will be smaller on the ODand require the .005 mylar to roll a slightlylarger tube. I have mandrels here that arefrom the same vendor but use differentthicknesses of mylar to get a good fit. Ithappens so be prepared.

If you went to the extra time and troubleto fill the mandrels as I suggested, they willlast for years and are very tough. I standthe mandrels on end in a corner of the ga-rage and have had a few "accidents" overthe years. Dings and divots can be filledwith a mixture of microspheres and epoxyand sanded smooth and the mandrel is asgood as new. Just a piece of coupler that'snot filled with the foam can be ruined be-yond use, been there done that.

If you want to use a vacuum bagging setupyou need to fill the mandrel to keep it fromcollapsing under the pressure of thevacuum. I know that 14 pounds a squareinch doesn't sound like much, but look atit this way. If the material was laid out flatit would take a steel plate over a foot thickto exert the same pressure as a good bag-ging job at 29 inches of mercury (14 psi inair pressure} I never had much luck withbagging the airframe and always gotwrinkles in the finished tube. The wrapsof cloth move around on the mandrel andbunch up in different spots. Looks reallybad.

Next figuring out the amount of cloth andhow to determine wall thickness of the fin-ished airframe.

Rolling the airframeOK you now have a mandrel with a car-rier in the size that you want to make theairframe in.

Safety First! Always wear a pair of latex ornitrile gloves and a long sleeve shirt, andhave a fan moving the air in the area thatyou are working in. I work in the garagewith the door open and a fan behind meblowing the epoxy fumes outside. In amatter of a few minutes after putting theepoxy in a mixing vessel my nose will startto run from a reaction to the resin/hard-ener. It make no difference what brand thatI use I still have some type of reaction tothe material.

Don't think that you wont get to this pointafter years of exposure to the resin; you willif you don't work smart from the start in

using epoxys. Again saftey first and avoidany problems. A resparator with HEPA fil-ters is a good investment, the long sleeveshirt will keep the epoxy off of your armsif you bump in to the wet cloth.

You already know what you want the air-frame rolled from be it carbon or E-glassor something in between. We need to de-termine how much cloth is needed to dothe layup. Measure the thickness of thecloth with a cheap dial caliper or a mic. Thisthickness will determine how many wrapsare needed to get the wall thicknees thatyou want to end up with. To figure thelength of the piece of cloth thats neededtake the OD of the manderal (in this postit's 3.90, a common size) and multiply byPI (3.14) to arrive at the length needed forone wrap (3.90X3.14=12.246 inches). Let’ssay that the material is .010 thick and wewant to end up with an .060 wall tube (mostnosecones have a sholder for this thickness)so that would mean that we need 6 wrapsof cloth to make the tube. 12.246 inches perwrap X 6 wraps means that we need a pieceof cloth 73.476 inches long.round this offto 73 1/2 inches long and then we addabout 2 inches to this figure to allow forthe tube to grow in diameter and providean over lap at the seam when compleated.So a piece of cloth 75 1/2 to 76 inches longis needed to roll a 3.90 airframe with an.060 wall. Easy.

You already have your mandrel supportedin some way so that you can turn the man-drel but it stays in one place.I use a pieceof 3/4 inch EMT on two saw horses, re-member the 1 inch EMT in the mandrel,the smaller EMT passes through this andgives you the support needed.

Wax the mylar carrier with a paste releasewax and buff off the excess with a papertowel.

Set up everything that you need to do thelayup on a table next to the mandrel beforeyou start the layup. On my rolling table Ihave 4 or 5 throw away resin brushes, 4 or5 two quart mixing tubs, 3 or 4 squeegeesan X-acto knife with a sharp point tip andseveral dozen paper towels pulled from theroll.

The cans of resin and hardner are on onecorner and have pumps in them. As a notepunch a small hole in the top of the cans tovent them. It helps keep the pumps from"spitting" and also keeps the pumps fromdripping material.

If you drop a brush or squeegee while roll-ing, leave it on the floor and pick up a newone and keep going.

Put the cloth on a cardboard tube or anotherlength of EMT and roll it up and place itbehind the mandrel away from the floor sothat it stays clean.

Put on the safety items and mix some ep-oxy in a tub. Use the brush to coat the man-drel between the end lines all the wayaround the manderal. You should have aheavy coat of epoxy on the carrier the samewidth as the cloth if you have done it cor-rectly.

Turn the mandrel so that one of the lines,the one that runs the length of the mandrelof course, is facing up. Lay the cloth end onthis line and between the end lines, use yourbrush to move the cloth where you need toso that the cloth is straight and matches thelines. Start rolling the cloth on the mandrelby turning it a small amount at a time andbrushing down the cloth as you go. Onlyadd more epoxy to the spots that aren'twetted out with the brush (they will lookwhite or not as wet as the rest of the cloth).

Don't use your hands to smooth out thecloth, just the brush at this point. Yourhands will leave ridges in the tube. Onlyuse your hands to keep the material run-ning true with the guide lines on the endsof the manderal. Leave no dry areas in thelayup; you can't go back later and touch itup.

After you get about a wrap and a half ofcloth wraped on the mandrel, pick up asqueegee and smooth out the cloth andtighten it up at the same time.This will forcethe excess resin up through the cloth andremove any small air voids. Turn the man-drel small amounts at a time and use thesqueegee to press the cloth smooth andflat,use the brush to add more epoxy to anydry spots as you go around the manderal.

Only handle the cloth at the outer edgeswith the gloved hands to keep it runningtrue on the mandrel by pulling the cloth onthe side that needs to be trued up. Keepdoing the above steps untill you get almostto the end of your cloth. Use the brush tosmooth down the last few inches of cloth.

Don't brush across the end of the cloth whenyou get there. This will pull the cloth apartand leave threads on the out side of the tube.Just use the brush to push down the clothat the seam.

Roll the mandrel on the support and lookfor any dry spots and small air voids. Youshouldn't have any, but if you have a dryspot use the brush to stipple more epoxyinto the cloth (use the brush corner andwork the epoxy into the cloth). Be carefulnot to move the cloth and cause an air void

AERO-PAC Aeronaut 6 Volume 14, Number 1

Creating Fiberglass Tubing (continued)(bubble in the wetted out layup). Small airvoids can be opened by using the X-actoknife point and poking the void. Use thebrush end to push the cloth down again.

The tube when rolled around will look aneven green color with a few shiny spots.The shiny spots are excess resin and needto be removed. Take a paper towel thatsbeen folded several times and touch it tothe shiny spots to blot up the excess resin.Go around the tube several times while theexcess epoxy is bleeding itself through thecloth and remove it.

After you are happy with the layup. Leaveit alone and let it cure on the mandrel. Ihave a birthday party to go to. I'll post re-moval and finishing info when I return.

. . .

Removal from the Mandrel

I so sorry to have taken so long to makethis last post on the airframe constructionthread. I have been very busy and also theWTC has been in my mind instead of this,again sorry.

The mylar carrier/fiberglass airframe willslide off of the mandrel in most cases with-out too much effort if you made the carriercorrectly to begin with. A lot of times youcan hold the manderal/airframe in yourhands and give it a sharp jerk and it willstart to slide apart, then you just hold theairframe with one hand and pull the man-drel out the rest of the way.

If you rolled the tube a bit too snug youmight need some one to help pull the tubeoff the manderal. After many tubes I madea simple removal system that works everytime. This is just another length of 1 inchEMT the same length as the mandrel and alength of 3/4 inch EMT two feet longer

than the manderal. The 3/4 inch EMT actsas a guide to keep the mandrel and the sec-ond length of 1 inch EMT alined.

To use the removal setup just slide the 3/4inch EMT into the mandrel and then slideon the second length of 1 inch EMT. Set theend of the second length on the garage floorand pull down on the airframe, thingsshould slide apart without to much effort.If you got super carried away with thesqueegee when rolling your airframe andits stuck on the manderal, just raise themandrel up a foot or so and hold the air-frame and slam it down on the secondlength of 1 inch EMT like a slide hammer.

A few sharp raps like this will remove theairframe from the mandrel. When the air-frame/mylar carrier is free from the man-drel you can remove the mylar by startingat one end and peel the carrier away fromthe airframe with your fingers.

Once you have an area free on the end, slidea long wooden dowel down the inside ofthe airframe between the carrier and theairframe untill the dowel is exposed onboth ends of the airframe.Push down onboth ends of the dowel at the same timeand the mylar carrier will pull away fromthe glass tube.

Turn the airframe a bit and repeat untill themylar if free all the way around the insideof the airframe.

Keep the mylar depressed and pull it out.The carrier will slide out with no effort.Even a small area that has not be peeledaway from the carrier will hold it in theairframe; just keep working untill the car-rier is free of the airframe. You now havethe airframe (YEA!), the mylar tube and themandrel. Carefully slide the carrier back onthe mandrel and re-wax and roll more air-

frame. I always remove 1 inch of the air-frame from each end to play it safe.

I have made at least a hundred lengths ofairframe in sizes from 54mm to 11.41 inchesin diameter using the method that I havedescribed here in this thread. It works andyou no longer need to buy phonelic tube;just roll it in glass and enjoy.

A quick tip is to square up the cloth on bothends before you start rolling the tube. Youcan do this by pulling the loose threads offiberglass on the end untill a thread pullsclean all the way across the material. Takeyour sissors and trim the end fuzz untill youhave about an 1/8 of an inch exposed.

Also remember to work the epoxy upthrough the cloth. This will help control theamount of epoxy that you use and will keepair voids out of the finished airframe.

You want to use about 50% by weight ep-oxy. I.e., if your cloth for the tube weighs12 ounces total, you want to use about 6 to7 ounces of epoxy to roll the layup.

Remember that a squeegee is your bestfriend in rolling.

Plain weave cloths are the most stable andmake good tubes. Start simple with openstyle cloths called boat fabric to learn with.Once you have the hang of the rolling, buysome tight weave, plain. The tubes will belighter and stronger.

Also roll the tube from a single length ofcloth, it makes a stronger airframe.

Carbon is super strong and you can roll astraight carbon tube easy enough. Remem-ber that it lacks the mass for a good alti-tude. Save the carbon for the high velocitybirds.

Enjoy!

Meet the New Board Members

Tony Alcocer, Second CommissionerMy name is Tony Alcocer and my son AJand I got into HPR about 3 years ago. Wedo our flying based out of Santa Rosa CAwhere I am a Firefighter. We did our L1 atLunar and our L2 at Tripoli CentralCalifornia and out grew their launch sitewhen we found Aeropac. We achieve ourL3 cert at Black Rock 13 with a flight of20,000' We have slowly turned into Speedand Altitude junkies. We both love scratchbuilding and pushing our rockets to theirlimits and on occasion past their limits.

Why did I join the BOD? Fresh meat, newblood....kind ot thing. I'm looking forwardto helping the new members advance inthe hobby and am really looking forward

to the demonstrations at next yearslaunches.

Becky Green, TreasurerMy first exposure to rockets came in 1994when my husband Jim bought his firsthigh power rocket kit. He did rockets as akid but this was so much larger than any-thing he ever had built before. He triedtalking me into making one and going toBlackRock but I wasn’t interested at all.Finally, he and a friend went to their firstlaunch and came back telling me I just hadto do it. Reluctantly, I agreed and wentahead and built my first kit. My firstlaunch was July, 1995 where I certifiedlevel 1. Well, I guess you know what therest of the story will be. Yes, I was hooked.The next launch, I certified level 2 and in

June of 1996 I certified level 3. I was thethird person in Aeropac to certify level 3and was the first woman ever to certifylevel 3. I guess you could say once I started,I couldn’t stop. I was hooked. I have beenpart of the ARLISS team since it startedthree years ago. I enjoy building rocketsso much that I have been working with twoboys ages 12 & 13 helping them build rock-ets from scratch.

For a few years, I have thought about be-ing a board member of Aeropac and finallydecided I should just do it. It will give meanother angle into rocketry. There is somuch that goes into keeping an organiza-tion working well that I thought it was timeI step up and help out.

AERO-PAC Aeronaut 7 Volume 14, Number 1

AERO-PAC on the Webby John Coker

Paul Campbell and I have revamped theAERO-PAC web site substantially. Forthose of you who haven’t been to it recently,it is much changed.

The most obvious changes is one of format.Pages now have a consistent structure anda designed appearance.

However, the changes which are most im-portant are only partly done. Good looksare important, but content is king. If youhave more information to include, eitherin a newsletter or on the web site, pleaselet us know.

It’s easy to think of new things that wouldbe nice to have on the web site. The harderpart is coming up with the actual content.

One thing that we are woefully lacking inis launch photos and reports. At the launch,everyone is busy with their own projectsand no one is free to be the reporter. How-ever, if you do find yourself with free timeat a launch, consider taking some generallaunch pictures and pictures of otherpeople’s rockets. And don’t forget to writedown the rocketeer and rocket names. www.aeropac.org

June 21 Mudrock EXJune 22-23 Mudrock 9.0

Night launch on Saturday June 22

August 2-4 Aeronaut 2002ARLISS launches on Friday and SaturdayNight launch planned for SaturdayNo EX launch

Sept. 27-29 XPRS (Extreme Performance Rocket Ships)Certified motors onlyEvents are in the planning phase

2002 Launch Schedule

Minutes of the Members MeetingMembers Meeting Dec. 8, 2001

The December 8 members meeting was lessof a meeting and more of a large gatheringof old and new friends talk'n rockets. Ev-eryone had plenty of opportunity to stufftheir faces with pizza and discuss their win-ter building projects. Ken and Zack Adamsmade the trip all the way from Nevada andKen showed his video creation of his level3 rocket being built, prepped and flown.Very nicely done.

The results of the big raffle were:PML 29mm motor mount: Don DowdJohn Coker's "Big Bertha" kit: Zack AdamsIgniter Man Kit: Kevin McGrathAeropac adaptors (2): Becky Green andGeorge Delli-SantiAeropac 54" motor retainer: Elton DaviesAerocon parachutes and other items (2):Scott Bowman & ?PML "Baby Pterodactyl": Paul HopkinsJohn Coker's ARLISS fin can: Don DowdG-Wiz Deluxe LC: Thomas BrumleyG-Wiz MC: Kevin McGrathRocketman RC-7 parachute: Paul HopkinsJohn Coker's "Honest John": Carl ReisingerShadow Composite's "Raven": A.J. AlcocerAssorted Rocketman videos: Assorted

The donations for this raffle were obviouslyoutstanding! Our collective thanks to thesefine folks and vendors. The next time youneed a rocket kit, parts, accessories or elec-tronics, look to PML, Igniter Man, Aeropac,Aerocon, G-Wiz, Rocketman and ShadowComposites.

Minutes of the Board MeetingBoard OF Directors Meeting Minutes

December 8, 2001

1 - Board of Directors Nominations

a) Nominations for the 2002 BOD are:Tom Rouse - PrefectTony Alcocer - 2nd CommissionerSteve Preston - Launch DirectorScott Bowman - SecretaryBecky Green - TreasurerJohn Coker - Newsletter EditorPaul Campbell - WebmasterKen Biba - Member at Large

b) The discussion on the concept of the 2ndCommissioner position as being the train-ing position for Prefect, ended with thegeneral consciences that BOD experienceis more important than the position held.

We cannot expect a person to accept a 2ndCommish position that comes with the ex-pectation that this person is agreeing to be-come the next Prefect. We will need to dis-cuss and plan for Tom's successor through-out this coming year.

2 - Membership issues

a) Annual renewal dates will remain thesame. The first newsletter of 2002 will in-clude a membership application.

b) Fees will remain the same for 2002.Regular members $20 plus $20/launchContributing members $60Nonmembers regular launches $30Nonmembers EX launches $30Spectators fee $5/day per person

c) Improving membership communica-tion/participation:

The plan is to have some type of event ateach launch. At Mudroc, Jim Green hasagreed to host a motor making class. Thetentative plan is to have a demo flight onFriday morning at the EX launch with aclass being held Friday (June 21). Otherevents for the other launches are open fordiscussion.

d) Policy towards new members:

New members will be sent their AERO-PACbadges, a letter from the Prefect and a copyof the latest newsletter. These items will besent out in a timely fashion.

3 - XPRS

Bob Fortune will occupy a "Chair" position

AERO-PAC Aeronaut 8 Volume 14, Number 1

Minutes of the Board Meeting (continued)on the BOD for the purpose of managingthe promotions for the XPRS launch. TonyAlcocer will also help. XPRS will replacethe "Black Rock" launch. Bob will worktowards a collaboration with "ExtremeRocketry" magazine. Contests, prizes andother activities are open for discussion.

4 - 2002 Launch Schedule

After discussing potential scheduling con-flicts with LDRS, Burning Man, Balls, HayBurner and hunting season, the followingwas decided upon:

June 21 Mudrock EXJune 22-23 Mudrock 9.0

Night launch on Satur-day June 22

August 2-4 Aeronaut 2002ARLISS launches onFriday and SaturdayNight launch plannedfor SaturdayNo EX launch

Sept. 27-29 XPRS(Extreme PerformanceRocket Ships)Certified motors onlyEvents are in theplanning phase

Tony will check on obtaining 100K waiv-ers for all the launch dates.

Ed Hackett will write up a list of nightlaunch rules.

5 - Web Site

a) Paul will work on developing a "howto" page explaining how to join AERO-PACand Tripoli.

b) Regarding on line membership sign-up:We would need a corporate identity and atax number. It was decided that this is nota viable option.

6 - Equipment etc.

a) Insurance for trailer contents - Currentlythe contents are (or should be) covered bythe individual policies of those who towthe trailer. If the trailer was to be stolen orbroken into at the storage facility, we arevulnerable. Steve will purchase a lockingtrailer ball to reduce our risk in storage.Tom will do further research into addi-tional insurance coverage.

b) Rails - Tom will donate 2 pro rails. Stevewill buy a couple of 80-20 rails to try outthis season. No aluminum rail buttons willbe allowed. They damage the rails. Theclub will buy a bunch of plastic rail but-tons and have them available for sale at theRSO (or Treasurers) table so that fliers havereplacements available if needed. KarlBauman also has plastic buttons available.

c) Equipment to eliminate - The Hypertechequipment will be removed from the equip-ment trailer. It hasn't been used for years.It may be decided at the equipment clean-ing party that other items should also beremoved. The date for cleaning the equip-ment was set for Saturday May 4 at Bob'sshop (the same place as last year).

d) Satellite Phone - Steve was authorizedto purchase the phone. Steve has re-searched providers extensively and hasdetermined that the costs will be about $500for the phone and $40/month. The phoneis needed to communicate with the FAAand also in the case of emergencies. Wecan recoup some of the cost by allowingfolks to use the phone at launches for a feeof $5/minute.

e) Signs with launch rules - Tony has vol-unteered to create signs to be posted at thelaunches which list the basic rules of be-havior at AERO-PAC launches.

f) T-shirts - We need a local member to workon the design and art work for a newAERO-PAC T-shirt. This will be a genericdesign (not launch name specific). Bob willalso be working on shirt designs for XPRS.

7 - Treasurers Report

a) Per Richard the current account balanceis $3693.00. All outstanding bills (includ-ing the trailer) have been paid.

b) For the year 2002, Becky and Scott willwork on developing a cash flow projection.

c) Treasurer items need to be transferredfrom Richard to Becky.

8 - Club functions and meetings

a) Field trips:

AeroJet in Sacramento - We are planningon holding the second members meeting(after the May 4 equip. cleaning party) inSacramento. We will try to plan a trip toAeroJet as part of this get together. We needa member to volunteer to set up a tour at

AeroJet and find a place for a before or af-ter tour meeting place. Tony also suggestedthat we invite the Sacramento area clubSARG to join us.

NASA AMES - Per Tom, Bob Twiggs maybe able to get us in for a tour.

b) Promotional activities:

1) Bob and Tony will work together for ar-ticles on XPRS for "Extreme Rocketry" and"High Power Rocketry".

2) Scott will work up launch reports for theother launches for publication in either orboth of the aforementioned magazines.Members are encouraged to submit digitalpictures of the launches for possible sub-mission with articles.

c) Dates and places for the remaining mem-bers meetings have not yet been set. Theseand other club activities are open for dis-cussion.

9 - Newsletter

It was agreed that the content and schedul-ing of the newsletters is quite good as is.Members are encouraged to provide articlesand pictures for future newsletters.

10 - BLM issues

There is the outside possibility that ourlaunches could be ruled as being "commer-cial events" by the BLM. This would in-crease our fees to the BLM dramatically andwould discourage vendors from participat-ing for the same reason. So far, it doesn'tlook like there is a very high probability thatthis will happen. As long as Burning Manis not considered a commercial event, thenthe AERO-PAC launches appear to be safefrom this designation.

11 - Discussion of the policies and directionof AERO-PAC

Time restraints prevented further discus-sion.

Respectfully submitted: Scott Bowman

How to Contact the Board

First Commissioner Tom Rouse tomr@aeropac.org (408) 997-9586Second Commissioner Tony Alcocer tfish38@aol.com (707) 526-4631Treasurer Becky Green apfueled@aol.com (415) 499-8214Launch Director Steven Preston spreston@highpower.com (408) 729-3401Secretary Scott Bowman scottbow@sonic.net (707) 894-3823Newsletter Editor John Coker john@aeropac.org (650) 685-1890Webmaster Paul Campbell paul@aeropac.org (510)652-9396Member At Large Ken Biba kbiba@forvalue.com (415)665-1812

Other AERO-PAC email addresses: board@aeropac.org and members@aeropac.org