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Old 09-25-2017, 09:54 PM
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blackshire blackshire is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Fairbanks, Alaska
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BEC
I think the Alpha was my third or fourth....I started with the cheap ones - Streak and Sprite - at 50 cents and 75 cents respectively.

The FS-5 we were using yesterday was feeding the orange first-version Porta-Pad in this picture. The Tilt-A-Pad was actually running a Centuri Powr-Control after the second Electro-Launch (on the ground) didn't give me a continuity indication even with clips tied together when we first went to launch off of it. Of course when I checked it after we were done it was indicating properly as it had been during the pre-launch checkout. I think the D-cells must have shifted just enough to break contact at some point inside the box. I'll put some foam or something behind the brass contacts to "help" them a little before I put it all the way away.

Photo by Chris Nutter
My father was the rocket builder until I was considerably older (I started pushing the button and recovering them at age 3 or so), but he built a Streak, a Falcon, a V-2, a Gyroc, and a Big Bertha (and also an MPC Viper); I guess he figured the Alpha was an "also-ran," as he never built one. I've never built an Alpha (my first or second build was an Alpha III), but I've flown one--the All-American Alpha that's on display at the space museum in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
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