Rocket Story:

Around 1995 or so I walked into Zepplin Hobbies in Riverdale NJ and saw really big model rockets hanging from the rafters. I was immediately hooked. I got my Level-1 certification that year. The next year my Level-2 and finally in 2001 my Level-3. This page has pictures of all my certification rockets and some of their flights. 

  My first high power rocket, Level-1 cert.                                         

My Level-2 Cert. rocket with Lou and Bob.

My "Naked" Level-3 in front of my house. This rocket flew twice on  certification flights but never worked well enough to pass. This is the same rocket as my homepage picture, the Empress.  It was too nose heavy, however it was a great learning experience and I am glad I built her.  She leaves the tower and  leaves a crater in the ground, see the mud flying?

The Tenacious project was my successful Level-3 project. She started as a low weight rocket to fly on smaller 98mm motors. After the second failure of the Empress, I retrofitted Tenacious with a third body tube and fiber-glassed the ends of the tubes for strength against zippering from the shock cords. You can see this in the picture of the half painted rocket in front of my house. My brother seen in the above pictures is just one of the many people that assisted me at the tower. Thanks to all that helped me get Tenacious off the ground that day. 

Successful liftoff and flight of the 65 pound, 15' tall Tenacious, she flew over 6000' and landed only 300 yards away from the tower.

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Clara's L from August 2009: