Reference / Paper · 2023
Peak of Flight #597: Displaying your Completed Rocket & Tim’s Messy Desk
Apogee Components' Peak of Flight newsletter, issue 597 (2023-04-11).
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- apogee-components
- model-rocketry
Reference / Paper · 2023
Apogee Components' Peak of Flight newsletter, issue 597 (2023-04-11).
Apogee Components' Peak of Flight newsletter, issue 597 (2023-04-11).
ISSUE 597 / APRIL 11TH 2023 IN THIS ISSUE Displaying your Completed Rocket & Tim’s Messy Desk https://www.apogeerockets.com/Model-Rocket-Kits/Skill-Level-4-Model-Rocket-Kits/Black-Brant-VC Displaying your Completed Rocket By Tim Van Milligan If you drop by for a visit at Apogee’s headquarters in Colorado Springs (visitors are welcome), you’ll walk into our display area where we have hundreds of different rockets out for viewing. This isn’t a museum where you can’t touch, as none of them are in a glass display. Nearly every one of them has their own display stand. gluing that onto the dowel. The advantage of this is that the model is more stable and doesn’t flop around on a dowel that might be smaller in diameter than the engine mount tube into which it is inserted. In my opinion, having a rocket standing up vertically is a great way to show off all of their best qualities. Since rockets are launched ‘up,’ why not display them in a vertical position too? But every rocket is unique, and sometimes it doesn’t quite fit onto a generic stand. So what I wanted to talk about in this article is some of the designs that I’ve had to come up with in order to get them to stand up and look good. But first, let me say that there are some display stands that accentuate the appearance of the rocket, which is fine. Think, for example, of a V2 rocket sitting on a scale launch pad. But in my store display area where I have hundreds of rockets, I want all of them to have an equal amount of time in the spotlight. I kind of think each rocket has a soul, like in the Disney Toy Story movie. They each want to be held and launched. They’re all saying to customers that walk through the lobby: “pick me, pick me.” In that case, the one with the fancy stand would have an edge; not for the rocket, but for the pedestal that it is on. So I want to say I have nothing against the eye-catching display stand. I’m simply talking about the everyday stands that we use for our own rockets. The first display stands were probably simple wood dowels that were attached to a scrap piece of wood. The dowel is an obvious choice as the core of any display stand, because it fits nicely into the round hole of the engine mount tube. Soon after someone put a rocket on a dowel, they then got the idea of taking a spent rocket motor casing and Figure 1: Wood Dowels in a sheet of wood, with engine casings to secure the rockets. I’ve made plenty of display stands like these over the years because they are simple and cheap. In our display area, I put the entire set of rockets from the “Maker’s Dozen” assortment onto dowels like this, see Figure 1 (https:// www.apogeerockets.com/Rocket-Kits/Bulk-Rocket-Packs/ Makers-Dozen) . When you have a collection of rockets that have the same theme, this is an appropriate way of showing them off. To make it look even nicer, I typically paint the display stands. Why? In my opinion, the brown, natural wood color of the dowel just looks bland. I typically use the cheapest “flat black” paint that I can find for all my display stands. See Figure 2. This is just my personal preference, but black seems like a very neutral color. And I want it “flat,” so that it doesn’t have any shiny spots or reflections from a glossy paint that might distract the gaze of the viewer towards the rocket itself. The stars of the show on our stage are the rockets, not the display stands. Here are the criteria that I use when designing a display stand for our collection of rockets that are in our showroom: 1. Puts the spotlight on the rocket - The rocket is the celebrity, not the stand. Therefore in the grand scheme of things, just a simple dowel would check Newsletter Staff Continued on page 3 Writer: Tim Van Milligan Proofreader: Michelle Mason Layout: Sky Luther Page 2 Issue 597 / April 11th, 2023 Displaying your Completed Rocket Continued from page 2 this criteria off. An intricate stand that draws attention is great for just a single special rocket. But I’ve got hundreds of rockets on display, and I want the visitors’ eyeballs to go to the rockets. To my recollection, no one has ever complimented us on the display stands themselves. That is totally fine with Figure 2: A 3-Legged Stand me. - My Prefered Stand - onto a dowel is very useful. The rocket won’t wobble around and tilt off to one side. 4. Stable - This is one of the biggest criteria for any display stand. We don’t want the whole rocket tipping over easily should someone accidentally brush up against it. We have guests all the time in our lobby, and where rockets break is when they fall over. It isn’t when the guests pick them up (which we don’t mind). There are two ways to prevent them from falling over. First is to make the base very heavy. Essentially, this moves the Center-of-Gravity rearward (closer to the table). I don’t have any problem with a heavy base, but they tend to be more expensive. That would violate one of the other criteria that I have for display stands - cheap. The other way to make them more stable is to make the base wider. It’s like making your fins larger, which increases the stability of the rocket. This is the more likely approach that I use for most of my display stands. 2. Holds the rocket in a vertical position - A vertical position takes up the smallest amount of space on the shelf, and I want to have room for as many rockets as possible. We’re actually running out of room for all the rockets we sell, so we don’t have any rockets laying horizontally. 3. Holds the rocket securely - I don’t want it to wobble around when on the stand. We have an entry door in our lobby that sometimes blows open due to a gust of wind. I don’t want to have the rockets get canted on the stand, which means I’d have to come back later and adjust its position and make it vertical again so they look prim and proper. See Figure 3. So this is where the empty motor casing glued Page 3 Figure 3: A Crooked Rocket on the Stand because it Wobbles A common type of base is a large sheet of wood with holes drilled into it for the wood dowels. You can use a sheet of plywood, which has a very wide base, which is great for stability. The other nice thing about wood and plywood bases is that Continued on page 4 Issue 597 / April 11th, 2023 Displaying your Completed Rocket Continued from page 3 they are also heavy. So that is a double benefit. I used to use CD-ROM spindles as display stands. We had tons of them, because we used to give away our software on CD-ROM. So essentially, they were free display stands. See Figure 4. The spindles had a wide plastic base which made them pretty stable. The drawback was they were lightweight, so there was a limit for the size of the rocket that I could put onto them. If the rocket was long and heavy, they could tip over easily. I have long since stopped using these as a display stand. And they had another problem, which is our next criteria. into the rough surface. So a stand with a wide surface, like a CD-ROM spindle or a large sheet of wood, is actually pretty hard to keep dust free. So while I do have a number of display stands that are dowels that are attached to wooden bases, they are actually a nuisance because they are hard to clean. When I make a new display stand, I usually don’t use a flat wooden base on them. I’ve found that bases with legs made from sheets of wood are far easier to clean. For one thing, the horizontal surface area is minimized, and the dust just bypasses them and falls onto the shelf. I only have to clean off the shelf, not the display stand. 6. Cheap - This is another big criteria I have for display stands in our lobby. We have hundreds of rockets, and I don’t want a lot of money tied up in keeping the rockets upright. Wood dowels with spent rocket motors glued to them are very cheap. Figure 4: CD-ROM spindle stand collects a lot of dust, and is hard to clean 5. Easy to clean - I discovered this problem many years ago. Things that are painted flat black tend to show dust. Dust has a whitish color, so you can see it easily against a black background. What is worse though, is that flat black surfaces are rough. They trap dust, because it is like sandpaper. Wiping off the surface actually tends to force the dust deeper I make a lot of laser cut stands, like you see in the photos in this article as well as Figure 5. These are a little more expensive to make, Figure 5: Laser Cut stand for multi motor but they are rockets Continued on page 5 https://www.apogeerockets.com/Rocket-Kits/Skill-Level-3-Model-Rocket-Kits/Zephyr Page 4 Issue 597 / April 11th, 2023 Displaying your Completed Rocket Continued from page 4 far cheaper to keep free of dust. So I have to compare the cost of material to make laser cut display stands versus the labor cost to keep them clean over years of time. And labor is the most expensive resource in our building, so for me it is a no-brainer decision. I save money by having easy-to-clean display stands. I understand that this may not be a major criteria for your display area, but it is for mine. I’m always looking for ways to make the display stands cheaper. My first laser-cut display stands were simple; they had two pieces of wood that interlocked to form a stand. The result was they had four legs. However, even though they had only a small amount of wood, they required a large sheet of wood to cut them from. They just don’t nest on the wood sheet very tight, and there is a lot of waste of good wood. See Figure 6. Figure 7: The 3-Leg Stand takes less Plywood than a 4-Leg Stand 7. Easy to assemble - I mentioned this one in the previous criteria. But I want stands that are easy to put together. Assembly time should be kept to a minimum. 8. Keep the fin tips off the table - A lot of our rockets have swept back fins. They could easily stand up on their own. But even so, I want to keep the fins off the table to prevent the edges of the fins from getting dinged up as they are picked up and set down by our customers. So even if the rocket could stand up on its own, I still put it on a display stand. The exception are those rockets with plywood fins, which are more durable. But I still think they look better raised up off the shelf. It is this criteria that has forced me to make a lot of one-off display stands. Some rockets with really long fins require a taller stand to keep the fins off the table. See Figure 8. Figure 6: Laser Cut stand inserted into motor tube What made it worse was that the wider the base, the more wood it wasted. I could only make one 54mm display stand from a sheet of plywood. That made the stand pretty expensive. Because I was wasting so much plywood, I redesigned the stands to use three legs instead of four. See Figure 7. Each leg was separate, and they could all be nested together tighter on the sheet of plywood. There is actually a fourth piece of wood that acts like a ring to hold the legs together. So while they are a little more complex to assemble, they are cheaper to make. Page 5 Figure 8: For Long Fins, I need to Make a custom stand to keep the tips off the table Continued on page 6 Issue 597 / April 11th, 2023 Displaying your Completed RockContinued from page 5 I suppose you could make all the stands really tall. But that would make them all more top-heavy and prone to falling over. Ideally, you want the rockets as close to the table to move the CG lower and make them more stable. Unfortunately, those long fin rockets required me to make some really customized stands. See Figure 9. like a sheet of plywood, then the customer tightens their grip on the paper rocket to compensate for the heavy or awkward wood base. There is a chance of breaking the rocket. So the customer feels embarrassed by the heft of the stand, and quickly puts the rocket down again. From my perspective, they didn’t get the pleasure or the experience of inspecting it like they wanted to. See Figure 10. Figure 10: Metal engine clip (Arrow) holding onto stand makes it hard to remove Figure 9: Customized stand for gliding rocket 9. Easy to remove the stand from the rocket - I don’t mind if our customers pick up our display rockets to inspect them. But if the rocket has an Estes style metal engine clip, that could cause problems. For example, the rocket on a dowel type stand that also has a spent motor casing glued on the dowel is awkward to pick up. When the customer grabs the rocket to pick it up, the whole stand comes up off the shelf too. And if the base is heavy or wide When I realized this was happening, that was yet another reason that I shied away from using wood dowels with motor casings on them for display stands. Either the rocket could be damaged, or we lose a sale because the visitor had an awkward experience. To be honest, it doesn’t matter to me if the rocket gets damaged. My dog used to knock them over all the time, and break off fins and other parts. I know how to repair rockets, so that isn’t a big issue for me. And a broken rocket is really just an opportunity to build another one - which is the fun part anyway. But I don’t want our customers to feel awkward. I want them to have an enjoyable time, not to feel embarrassed because they had to struggle with removing a stupid display stand. Continued on page 7 www.apogeerockets.com/Rocket-Kits/Skill-Level-2-Model-Rocket-Kits/SkyMetra Page 6 Issue 597 / April 11th, 2023 Displaying your Completed RockContinued from page 6 cap has to slide over it to hold the casing in the model. I’ve found that our simple laser cut display stands are far easier to put the rocket on and slip it off, especially if the rocket has an engine hook on them. The engine hook simply slides between the cross pieces of the plywood sheets. So when a customer picks up the rocket, the lightweight stand doesn’t throw off the CG that much, or the stand slides completely out and remains on the shelf. They can then fully inspect the rocket, and get the experience of feeling how heavy the rocket is without a display stand connected to it. See Figure 11. So for rockets with a screw-on retainer, my stands do use a dowel that simply slides out of the base. When a customer picks up the rocket, they dowel slides out of the stand. It is still lightweight, and doesn’t affect the balance much, so they don’t feel awkward holding the rocket. And they can easily spin off the retainer cap and pull out the dowel and the motor casing. I actually have come to think of this as a selling feature because it makes the experience more interactive. They get to test screwing off and on the engine retainer cap. You get to feel exactly how the screw on retainer works. See Figure 12. Figure 11: Laser Cut stand allows engine hook clearance Figure 12: Rocket stand for screw-on engine retainers. The dowel slides out of the stand to allow the retainer to be installed The recent display stand challenge is for those rockets that have the screw-on engine retainers. Because the hole in the retainer is smaller in diameter than the engine mount tube, all my simple laser cut display stands would fail the criteria where the rocket shouldn’t wobble on them. One solution is to take the retainer off the rocket, and either set it off to the side or put it into the body of the rocket while it is on display. The problem I have with that is the rocket doesn’t look like it is ready to take off without the retainer on the bottom. And if you pick up the rocket, it rattles. Customers would think that they broke something in the rocket if it rattled with an engine retainer cap inside of it. Here, the wood dowel with a spent motor casing glued on works really well. The wood dowel just needs to be smaller in diameter than the hole in the retainer. However, the dowel can’t be permanently fastened to the wood base, because the retainer Page 7 10. Adjust the space between rockets - My first display stands were of a flat piece of wood with holes in them for the wood dowels that supported the rockets. The first disadvantage that I discovered with this type of stand was that you couldn’t change the spacing between the rockets. Some rockets have wide fins, and you had to watch which rockets could be placed next to each other. See Figure 13. I suppose you could have multiple holes in the wood base so that you could space the rockets as necessary. But then this would create nice little cavities for litter and dirt to collect in. That would violate my criteria for having a base that was easy to clean. An additional problem is that of removing one rocket without disturbing the rocket next to it. You don’t want to break the one rocket just because you were removing the rocket next to it from the stand. Continued on page 8 Issue 597 / April 11th, 2023 Displaying your Completed Rocket Continued from page 7 Figure 13: The NightFighter Kit also required a tall display stand Because of this, I decided that most of my stands had to be single-rocket only. That way I could move them around easily. It takes up a little more space on the shelf, but the advantages outweigh the additional amount of space that is required for the rocket. About The Author: Tim Van Milligan (a.k.a. “Mr. Rocket”) is a real rocket scientist who likes helping out other rocketeers. He is an avid rocketry competitor and is Level 3 high power certified. He is often asked what is the biggest rocket he’s ever launched. His answer is that before he started writing articles and books about rocketry, he worked on the Delta II rocket that launched satellites into orbit. He has a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, and has worked toward an M.S. in Space Technology from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. Currently, he is the owner of Apogee Components (http://www.apogeerockets. com) and also the author of the books: Model Rocket Design and Construction, 69 Simple Science Fair Projects with Model Rockets: Aeronautics and publisher of the “Peak-ofFlight” newsletter, a FREE e-zine newsletter about model rockets. You can email him by using the contact form at https://www.apogeerockets.com/Contact. Conclusion I’ll be honest with you. I find that I have as much enjoyment out of designing a new display stand as I do building a new rocket. I just think that the act of being creative and designing something new is enjoyable, even if it is something as mundane as a display stand. So that is my philosophy on display stands. I suppose you didn’t think the subject could be so complicated? But my opinion is that rocketry should be shared with others. So displaying the rockets in their best light, and allowing other people to handle them is part of the experience. What do you think? Do you have other ideas for display stands? I’d love to hear your philosophy. Join Tripoli.org Mention Apogee Components Page 8 Issue 597 / April 11th, 2023 Tim’s Messy Desk By Tim Van Milligan This episode of “Tim’s Messy Desk” is a Question and Answer session. It includes some of the more common questions that I get asked. Q: Can you tell us a little bit about Apogee Components and how it got started? A: Apogee was started by Ed LaCroix. I’m not exactly sure of the date that he started it, but the first advertisement that I saw for the company was in American Spacemodeling magazine in 1989. I was actually a customer of Ed’s for several years. In 1994, I was laid off from Estes, and I was out of work. At the same time, Ed had just got a job at Aerotech and was thinking about winding down the company because he wouldn’t have enough time to devote to it. So we worked out a deal that I could buy and take over the company. Q: What changes did you make after taking over the company? A: The biggest change I made at the beginning was product selection. When Ed ran the company, it was specialized to competition rocketry products. One advertising slogan he had was “Pummel Your Competition.” He specialized in things like lightweight tubes (remember black shaft tubes?) and competition kits for NAR events. Having just worked at Estes, I knew that having such a narrow focus wouldn’t draw in enough customers for the company to grow. So I expanded into more traditional “hobby” kits. It may be interesting to know that we still do have competition kits, but that is because I still have a personal interest in small rockets that have extreme performance. Ed LaCroix in the first Apogee catalog. Q: How has Apogee Components evolved over the years? The first advertisement that I ever saw for Apogee Components in the July 1988 issue of American Spacemodeling magazine Q: What inspired you to buy Apogee Components? A: What impressed me about the company was that Ed had a good sized list of loyal customers. You don’t get loyal customers without doing something great. Ed ran the company and treated everyone like a friend. I realized that this following of customers is the key to long-term stability and has value. We still have a lot of customers that tell me that they were customers when Ed ran the company. I’m very happy for these long-term customers, as I recognize that other companies would kill to have repeat customers that are still going strong after 30 years. Page 9 A: I like to think that we’ve evolved significantly since 1994. In the early days, I developed a line of 10.5mm black powder rocket motors, and built a line of kits around them. But by 2000, when my first daughter was born, I decided to phase them out because they were taking too much time away from other parts of the business. To be honest, that decision was one that changed the trajectory of the company. I laugh when I say it now, but when I stopped making my own motors, I started making a profit. Another evolution was the change from concentrating on making competition products to being known as a provider of “resources for rocket designers.” Our focus changed to helping modelers design their own rocket. I suppose that is because I get so much joy developing my own rocket designs, that I want others to experience that same thrill. Continued on page 10 Issue 597 / April 11th, 2023 Tim’s Messy Desk Continued from page 9 That was why we devote so much time to educating our customers, and providing tools like RockSim that will allow them to test their own designs. In the year 2000, I started my newsletter “Peak-of-Flight” to provide expert rocketry knowledge to our customers. It is still going strong 22 years later. We’ll have our 600th issue in the middle of this year. What I’m most proud of is that in those issues, there is very little duplication of content. In other words, we don’t rehash the same topic over and over - except for the subject of painting rockets, which people always seem to want to know more about. All the back issues of the newsletter are The first issue of the Peak of FLight on our website, and can Newsletter be freely downloaded. You’ll find them at: https://www.apogeerockets.com/Peakof-Flight?pof_list=archives&m=education When I consider how much free content we’ve given away through our newsletters, even I’m blown away. But one problem of our newsletters is that not everyone is a reader. Lots of people love videos. So we started making “How-To” videos in 2009. We call these the “Advanced Construction Videos,” as these are more about showing the techniques of building rockets than they are about the design process. Q: What sets Apogee Components apart from other model rocketry suppliers? A: I have wrestled with this very question every day since I bought the company. For the most part, the model rocketry industry has some really great companies that treat rocketeers with respect and dignity. So it is a high bar of performance that we have to meet to earn the trust of rocketeers. Here are the things that I think set us apart from everyone else: Page 10 1. Our concentration on educating our customers is unique. We have always been dealing with the perception that “Rocket Science” is technical and difficult. Therefore, we work with rocketeers at their level of understanding (whatever that is) and give them the information that they need to achieve their goals. The proof of this is the free bi-weekly Peak-of-Flight newsletter and ‘Advanced Construction Video’ that we produce, and the more than 107 live-stream episodes we have done for our RockSim users. Did I mention it was all “free?” This is an investment in our customers that no one else in the industry has done, including Estes. We are the king of “Free.” 2. Breadth of available products. We are told overand-over by customers that we are the “one stop” store where you can get whatever you need for rocketry. That includes whatever level you may be: beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Kits, motors, tools, adhesives, books, software, building supplies, launch supplies, and recovery supplies. We probably have what will help make your rocketry project a success. 3. Comprehensive product descriptions for everything we sell. The way we save customers money is by preventing them from purchasing something that wouldn’t help them achieve their rocketry goals. The most expensive item you buy is the one that you never use, even if the price was a penny. To prevent you from buying something that you wouldn’t use, we invest a lot of effort into writing everything we know about each product we sell. We include both the good and the bad aspects about the item, so that you as a customer can make comparisons about whether or not it would work for the project. 4. We build and fly every rocket we sell. For example, there are a lot of internet rocket dealers that sell Estes kits, but never crack open the packaging to even see what is inside. You can tell who they are, because they copy and use the basic product descriptions and photos that Estes puts on their website. Even for a well established company like Estes, we build the rockets if we are selling them on our site. And we pay for them; they don’t give Continued on page 11 Issue 597 / April 11th, 2023 Tim’s Messy Desk Continued from page 10 us free kits to build. This allows us to be unbiased in our product descriptions. I would hazard to say that we know more intricate details of their items than even the Estes marketing department know themselves. 5. Product availability. While we can’t control our suppliers’ inventory, we can control our own. If you are looking for an item that is manufactured by “Apogee,” you can almost be assured that it is “In Stock.” It is rare for an Apogee kit to be out of stock. If it is, we’ll have it back in stock in a few days. The one exception, which I’m embarrassed to admit, is some of our electronic items. The Covid pandemic threw the entire electronics industry into a mess. But the suppliers are working through those supply issues, and we’re slowly getting products back onto our shelves. 6. Shipping guarantee. Great logistic companies like Amazon are helping to change customer expectations on product delivery. You want it ‘now.’ We get that. So we’ve set up our warehouse processes to efficiently operate, and move orders out the door quickly. We are the only model rocketry company that guarantees that if you order today, and we have it in stock, we’ll ship it out today. If you need it in a hurry, we’ll help you out. 7. Innovative products. We’re constantly on the lookout for problems to solve for our customers, and creating new solutions for them. That is how our famous RockSim software got started. When it came out in 1996, it was revolutionary. Nothing else was like it. But now, it seems more mundane as people have come to expect it. But we’re continuing to expand its capabilities. Two years ago, we updated RockSim Pro, and then last year we released the Launch Visualizer. Also last year, we released our revolutionary new product, the gliding parachute. This allows you to bring your rocket down to your feet, so that you don’t have to even walk across the field to pick it up. 8. Awesome partners. While we try to make as many products ourselves, I’m humble enough to admit we’re not the best at making everything. I want to sell the highest quality items. It has always been our philosophy to partner with great suppliers that have products that our customers would find useful. It works out great for our suppliers too. Because our marketing is so intense (remember those product descriptions), we’re reaching people that probably wouldn’t have heard of many of our suppliers. So our partners sell more than if they tried selling on their own. I like to think that Apogee is like Amazon, where the vendors have access to a huge pool of potential customers. But the person that benefits the most is our customers, because they get products that they otherwise might not have discovered on their own. 9. As cliche as it sounds, I believe our customer service sets us apart from other suppliers. I know… If you ask any business in the world, they all say that they have great customer service and great team members. What makes us different is that I specifically define what great customer service should look and feel like, and then spend a lot of time training our team toward this goal. Nobody else does this. In fact, I have 29 specific things that we do, so that we can measure ourselves compared to our competitors. Nineteen of them are what I call ‘baseline.’ Those are 19 things that we give to everyone, including those that never buy from us. Then there are 10 things we do on top of that for our paying customers. You can see my video on this topic at: https://youtu.be/ BgN50m6g9jY. But more than that, we have our special customers that we call V.I.R. — which stands for Very Important Rocketeers. These people have given us their loyalty, and in return, we offer them extra special treatment above and beyond the 29 things we do for everyone else. Apogee Components Google Review score Even so, I know it is hard for any company to say with a straight face that they have great customer service. So you have to talk to other rocketeers and ask what kind of experience that they’ve had with us and how our team treats them. I’m not afraid of comparison. Go ahead and ask them. If you’re an introvert like me, you might want to just read what other people say. In that case, there are over 1,866 testimonials Continued on page 12 Page 11 Issue 597 / April 11th, 2023 Tim’s Messy Desk Continued from page 11 that customers have posted to our website (https://www. apogeerockets.com/Testimonials), and over 200 five-star reviews on Google. Q: What advice do you have for someone who is new to model rocketry? A: My advice for someone who is new to model rocketry is to start with a simple kit and work your way up. Model rocketry can be a complex hobby, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. By starting with a basic kit, you can learn the fundamentals of rocketry and build your skills and knowledge over time. If you need help selecting a basic kit that is appropriate to you, just give us a call. Our telephone number is proudly displayed on every page of our website. the cusp of a boom in commercial and government space programs. It seems that every day we’re waking up to a new rocket company or a new type of launch vehicle. This energizes everyone in the model rocketry industry. About 10 years ago, I started saying that “Right NOW” is the golden age of model rocketry. But every day, that ‘Right NOW’ has changed to literally mean ‘this very second.” The glory days of rocketry keep moving with us. We’ve far surpassed the achievements of the early days of model rocketry when everything seemed fresh and new. From my perspective the future of rocketry just keeps getting better and better. That’s why I love coming to work everyday, and why I don’t have plans on retiring. The best is yet to come, and I want to experience it too. Additionally, I would recommend joining a local rocketry club or online forum to connect with other enthusiasts and get advice and support. Finally, always prioritize safety when launching rockets. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions and launch your rockets in a safe and open area. Q: What is your favorite rocket kit? A: That’s easy. It’s the one I’m building next. I’m a forward thinking person, so like many of our customers, I want to do something new and exciting as my next project. Q: What do you see as the future of model rocketry? A: I think the future of model rocketry is intensely bright. In general, the popularity of model rocketry ebbs and flows with activity in the space program. And we’re on www.ApogeeRockets.com/RockSim/RockSim_Information https://www.apogeerockets.com/Model-Rocket-Kits/SkillLevel-3-Model-Rocket-Kits/Zephyr-Jr Page 12 Issue 597 / April 11th, 2023