Greg Smith's quest to spend even more money on rocket science Blog

Greg Smith's Blog Posts

Sport Rocketry / Motors and Igniters / Motors / Hybrid

Certification complete... GREAT SUCCESS!! (2008-08-10)

Yesterday's flight went swimmingly well despite the complete lack of water on the lakebed :) All photos ©Jaime Fritsch. Prepping the recovery system. This was one of Jaime's favorite shots. ... [Read More]

TAP pursuit update (2009-02-07)

As I'd mentioned at the bottom of my L3 cert entry I continue to build experience pertinent to becoming a TAP member for San Diego's Tripoli club.  Dok and Kurt encouraged me to fly more M and ... [Read More]

First vacuum bagging project (2009-02-22)

Having watched Dave Triano's composite videos twice I've been ordering all the goodies necessary to create high-strength composite materials with optimal weight. Several mistakes are likely but I ... [Read More]

Layup... FAIL!! Then success! (2009-04-29)

Alright so I completed my layup as planned below.  Again the Mylar stuck preferentially to roughly 50% of the cured surface.  It took me 3+ hours (no exaggeration) to peel/cut/scrape/wedge ... [Read More]

Progress galore (2009-07-18)

Alright so I masked off the fins and applied the black high-temp epoxy fillets: I had a scare while preparing the epoxy. It's approaching its shelf life of 6 months and the curative is ... [Read More]

Der Red Mix - fin reinforcement time lapse video (2010-05-25)

I sped this video up roughly 50x so as not to bore you. The fins turned out pretty well. They were initially fairly warped so I took them to work and placed them in an environmental chamber at ... [Read More]

Improvement via iteration... (2010-10-24)

I hate crashing expensive, time-consuming rockets but there is one advantage: the same design turns out WAY better the second time. I wasn't very happy with the carbon fiber fin reinforcement on Der ... [Read More]