All Rocketry Blogs

Greg Smith's Blog: Slightly late... Plaster Blaster 1/1/10 launch report (2010-01-25)

Yeah this has taken awhile but I sorta got hung up editing vid. I marvel that Apple's Final Cut Pro 7 supports neither AVCHD nor Flip MinoHD formats natively. Guess what though -- Adobe Premier CS4 ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: Plaster Blaster 2010: A new personal record of 21,915'!! (2010-11-10)

This last weekend's Plaster Blaster 9 launch featured amazing weather, many cool projects, more spectators than I've ever seen at Plaster City, and my parents even drove out from AZ to visit. Nice! ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: President's challenge design for 20,000+ (2009-03-16)

The San Diego club has a standing "President's challenge" to reach or exceed 20,000 feet. I've decided to take a crack at this at Plaster Blaster on October 3rd. Here's my preliminary design: I have ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: Coefficient-Of-Drag-Tard (2009-08-05)

Ya learn something new every single day... Jack Garabaldi of What's Up Hobbies informed me of a feature of my ARTS2 altimeter that I didn't even know about. After a flight you download the a ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: M750 flight APPROVED... Drag race style! (2009-08-20)

I completed my altitude prediction report for EM-SEM-FITY on an M750 and our president and range safety officer approved the flight for Plaster Blaster ! (click the thumbnail below for a legible ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Big a$$ rocket of the day - 1/3 scale X-15 dry fit (2009-09-06)

Via TRF . Will fly at Plaster Blaster . [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: M750 for EM-SEM-FITY (2009-10-19)

One 9,345 N•s, 14 second burn M-motor now in stock for Plaster Blaster : [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: New Vessels for Plaster Blaster (2009-11-04)

From left-to-right: 4" Em-Sem-Fit y (also known as " Frank's worst nightmare ") 54mm minimum diameter Viciously Mean Machine (106" long for a roughly 50:1 aspect ratio) 3" Vertical Assault mark II - ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Loudmouths are coming to a launch near you (2009-11-08)

And, I'm not talking about select members from the rocketry forums :) I see from their Facebook news feed that AeroTech successfully tested a K345LM 'Loudmouth' yesterday at Plaster Blaster.  ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Big a$$ rocket of the day - 1/3 scale X-15 at Plaster Blaster - RIP (2009-11-08)

Find out more about this totally awesome but ill-fated project on TRF . [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Colonial Viper at Plaster Blaster (2009-11-09)

Now, this is a purty picture! (should be Verna and Randy's next photo of the month) Photo by kbaird ; Title may be incorrect as I thought this was last weekend's launch and the photo data says it was ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: Sport Rocketry Nov/Dec 2009 (2009-11-09)

This is the NARAM 51 edition and my main feeling after thumbing through it is...I wish I had attended!  The coverage is typical to past NARAMs and includes plenty of photos.  It started ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: Plaster Blaster 2009 report forthcoming (2009-11-12)

I'm still editing video, cleaning photos, and reducing data. I hope to have my report done this week. Executive summary: GREAT SUCCESS!! [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: PB2k9: Em-Sem-Fity on M750 - 20,212 feet! (2009-11-12)

Frank and I conducted the successful M750 drag race just after 10AM on Saturday. Here's a video covering prep and flight: Here's a liftoff photo verifying Frank Hermes' clear victory in this M750 ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: PB2k9: 7.5" Nike Smoke on M1939 (2009-11-12)

For my 2008 birthday present my parents kicked in half of the cost of an Aerotech M1939 motor. They drove all the way out from Cochise, AZ for last year's Plaster Blaster which was almost completely ... [Read More]

Rocket Dungeon: ROCKETS Magazine, June 2010 (2010-06-15)

What's inside: Review of an Estes Saturn V complete with scale gantry; Pt. 5 of Black Magic Missile Work's electronics series; Rocket girl Haley Allen; Launch report from the Phoenix Missile Works ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: On the mend (2010-08-21)

So I've now overcome the sadness of Der Red Mix and embarked on DRM mark II: Last night I think I thoroughly mastered both the Parrot2 and Raven altimeters via manuals, testing, and marking of the ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: Lesson learned: Inspect thoroughly then comment (2010-11-09)

At Plaster Blaster 2010 this last weekend I was asked to inspect the connections in a friend's electronics bay. I immediately noticed that the stripped portion of the e-match wires were too long and ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: If I were 2.72 miles tall... (2011-10-15)

...the view might look something like this: Here's the onboard video from my M1230 Imax flight this last Saturday at Roctober/Lucerne Dry Lake (best in 720p, full screen)(note the ill-fated desert ... [Read More]

Wayne Hill's Blog: 1/9 Scale Delta II Rocket Launch – Plaster Blaster 10 (2011-11-10)

[Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: Productive Sunday (2011-11-13)

I'm a week late on my Plaster Blaster 2011 entry but I'm still waiting for a few elements to come together.  I'll foreshadow a problem with an otherwise great M840 drag race flight last ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: I posted my Plaster Blaster 2011 shots from Sunday (2011-11-15)

And you'll find them here .  I also cleaned up my M840 drag race GPS data and plotted in Google Earth (looking east): More info coming this week-ish so hang tight. [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: Belated thanks to Mike "Sparky" Jerauld! (2011-12-29)

Near the end of this year's Plaster Blaster event Sparky asked me to check out a rocket he was trying to identify.  My jaw dropped when I realized he'd found my minimum diameter 38mm design! ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: Plaster Blaster 2012 launch report (2013-01-19)

PB2012 was a great launch for me featuring two days of amazing weather, no camping required as I've discovered El Centro hotels,  and I was very pleased with the fourth flight of my sc ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: ToDo... Back in it! (2013-10-06)

Hi there, loyal readers.  I've pretty much taken a break from rocketry since about May of this year as work has taken priority but I'm wrapping up a successful fiscal year through 10/31. ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: Roctober, M2045: "...and when I get to one you push that button!" (2013-10-26)

It's been several months since I've flown so... feeling blog-rusty.  I attended Roctober at Lucerne Dry Lake on 10/12/13 and let's jump right into my first 7388M2045 Blue Streak ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: Wha's over that'a'way? (2013-10-31)

I... ...designed and built Der Red Mix from scratch a few years back and promptly crashed it according to an otherwise impressive cacophony of errors. ...rebuilt my design as Der Red Mix mark II a ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: Plaster Blaster 2013 for the win! (2013-11-10)

What an amazing weekend with perfect weather and record attendance at Plaster Blaster!  I was grateful that my parents trekked from Cochise, AZ and they were the icing on the desert cake. ... [Read More]

Greg Smith's Blog: Quadcopter amazingness (2014-03-08)

With the cancellation of the Lucerne launch due to water on the lakebed I just realized I haven't flown since Plaster Blaster in November '13!!  That's a bummer, man.  I'm not slacking, ... [Read More]