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Old 02-04-2017, 04:14 PM
A Fish Named Wallyum A Fish Named Wallyum is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Ft. Thomas, KY
Posts: 8,596
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I got a Deluxe Starter Outfit for my birthday in 1977. It had the Alpha and all of the tools necessary to build it, paint included. I think we celebrated my birthday on Friday that year, and I spent Friday night and all of Saturday building the Alpha and attempting to build the Solar Launch Controller. The rocket turned out okay as I had the necessary skills by that point, but hand painting was obviously not a talent of mine. On Sunday my Mom took Dave, Jen and I to NKU where I had done most of my flying earlier that summer. It was calm on the ground, so I took for granted it would be calm up high and loaded the Alph with a C6-5. (At the time, C6-5 meant high power in my mind.) It flew like the BOOH I expected, arcing to the north a bit, but that was acceptable until the chute popped. It floated away in a hurry, landing deep into the tangle of brush that would later become one of the Scooby Do parking lots when I was in school there. I thought of the Alph every time I parked there. Didn't have another one for almost thirty years.
(BTW, I still have the Solar Launch Controller, the field box, hobby knife, Alpha Book of Model Rocketry and recovery wadding from that set. Never did get the launcher working.)
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Bill Eichelberger
NAR 79563

http://wallyum.blogspot.com/

I miss being SAM 0058

Build floor: Centuri Design Contest F-150 Hurricane Estes - Low Boom SST Semroc - Gee'Hod, Shrike, SST Shuttle

In paint: Canaroc Starfighter Scorpion Estes F-22 Air Superiority Fighter, Solar Sailer II Semroc Cyber III

Ready to fly: Estes - Multi-Roc, Solar Sailer II Semroc - Earmark, Snake Jumper
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