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