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Old 11-26-2011, 10:25 PM
Initiator001 Initiator001 is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: San Diego, CA
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Upon returning to Las Vegas after the LA RCHTA Show, it was time to flight test the D13 reloadable motor.

I told Gary Rosenfield about the Dark Star model I had been given at the RCHTA Show. The model was built completely stock and would make a good test rocket for the RMS-18 motor.

The finished RMS-18 cases and closures were now in production and we could use these for testing. I decided it would be a good idea to take pictures during the flight testing of the motor for historical/marketing use.

The flight testing took place at a NAR contest launch outside of Las Vegas on May 11, 1991. While the competition events were being flown, the RMS-18 casing was prepared with a D13 reload. The motor was loaded into the Dark Star model and the rocket was launched.

Wow! That thing really took off!

The Dark Star was recovered with a minor 'zipper' to the forward end of the body tube. We still wanted to do more test flying so a quick wrap of masking tape was applied to the front of the body tube.

It was at this point that I remembered to start taking pictures so I had Gary hold the Dark Star in one hand and the RMS-18 casing in the other with the motor placed close to the aft end of the rocket.

After some more flights and picture taking, we concluded the flight testing.

(To be continued)
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Name:  Estes 1991 LA RCHTA Booth 001.jpg
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Name:  AeroTech RMS-18 & Estes Dark Star 001.jpg
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Name:  AeroTech President Gary Rosenfield loads the RMS-18  Dark Star.jpg
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Name:  AeroTech D13-7W motor in Estes Dark Star.jpg
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