Garbee Rockets
Building and launching model rockets is one of our favorite hobby activities
right now.
While everyone in the family gets into the act in one way or another, Bdale
and Robert are the most serious and so most Garbee rocket projects end up
being father and son affairs...
Bdale is
NAR Sr member 87103 and holds a level 3 high
power certification,
Robert is NAR
Jr member 87104.
We have family memberships in (and regularly enjoy flying our models with!)
local clubs
COSROCS, which is
NAR section #515,
SCORE, which is
NAR section #632,
and NCR, which is
NAR section #565 and
Tripoli Rocket Association Prefecture #72.
We have also flown with
Tripoli Colorado and
ARS.
Vendors we frequent:
- Apogee Components
is a local
company. Perhaps best known as the place to get the
RockSim
rocket design and simulation software (which we wish came in a Linux
version!), but we've also bought lots of
parts
from them for building rockets from scratch, and we really like some
of their
Dynastar mid-power
kits like the Rip-Roar and Sky Torpedo.
- Giant Leap Rocketry is a
good source for components for building high power rockets. Local rep
Tim Thomas
shows up at various launches we attend, and has been
super-helpful to us.
- Discount Rocketry
seems to consistently have the best prices on kits and motors (we've
bought most of our
Estes motors,
Aerotech reloads,
and Rouse-Tech cases from them),
and they're responsive and helpful on the phone.
Bdale's L3 Projects
- A custom rocket for NAR L3 certification, called
YikStik. This rocket flew beautifully but a
significant portion was lost and not recovered. Here are a few
photos
of YikStik's first and only flight, captured by Ray LaPanse.
- A second airframe for NAR L3 certification, this one based on a
Polecat Aerospace
Goblin 10
kit and capable of flying at more launch sites in Colorado. Flew on
15 November 2008 at the SCORE Hudson Ranch launch site on an Aerotech M1297W
to 5953 feet AGL for a successful level 3 certification! See
pictures
by James Russell and a Jeff Lane
video
of the flight!
A related project Bdale works on intends to deliver a set of fully open
hardware and software designs for rocketry avionics, under the overall name
AltusMetrum.
Rocketry books we like:
Note that Topics in Advanced Model Rocketry is definitely not for
everyone, as it's heavy on math and isn't a "how to" book at all!
The others are great general books for learning about and gaining greater
enjoyment from the hobby.
We're planning to put more info here soon, including information about our
rocket fleet, projects we're working on, launch logs, and links to other
resources on the web we've found useful.
Check back from time to time and see what we're up to!