All Blog Posts (259)

Lessons Identified

My apologies for such a long lapse since the last posting. We've seen almost a total replacement of wing and group leadership, and I was meant to be here long enough to bridge the gap, which I have. That's made the past few weeks busy--not much time for writing!

As I sit here I have about 5.3 days left at Kandahar, and that's just amazing. The time has flown by for me, but I doubt it has for my family. I'll write more about that end of this soon. Suffice to say for now that

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Added by Mark Rose on July 28, 2010 at 7:34am — No Comments

Apparently, I write like Stephen King.

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mém

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Added by Brian Coyle on July 22, 2010 at 8:00am — No Comments

CMASS Launch- July 17, 2010

I drove up to Amesbury, MA this past Saturday to fly for the first time since April. I put my mishaps from April behind me and looked forward. I had two flights planned for the day as I knew it would be warm. I also had two other flights which I would put up, if the humidity was down, but that didn't happen. Those two flights were going to be on single use motors, so that didn't matter. The two that I did put up, were reloadable motors, so I wanted to get those up, because I didn't want them han… Continue

Added by Peter Waithe on July 19, 2010 at 11:16am — No Comments

WAC Crayon flight at TTRA July 2010

I flew the WAC Crayon again at the TTRA July 2010 launch. The Tiny Tim booster was great on an H128W- very stable and straight up

The PerfectFlight miniTimer fired the Magnelite ML-24 as programmed 1.5 seconds after liftoff.

The G64W ignited separating the Crayon from the booster with a nice flame and white smoke trail, then… Continue

Added by Brian Coyle on July 18, 2010 at 12:30pm — No Comments

Level 3 Certification Success

Well, it finally happend. I've successfully launched my Ultimate Wildman, dubbed the "Wild Montana Skies", and attained my NAR Level 3 certification after 2 years of major planning and a little construction thrown in for good measure. Everything came together last Saturday (July 10th, 2010). The rocket was finished, altimeters were mounted, battery and switch connections were soldered securely, and the M-2000-R was built and loaded into the booster. Everything fell into place, incuding the weath… Continue

Added by Andrew W. Horton on July 13, 2010 at 12:00am — 1 Comment

Done with A23 batteries

I think I'm done with the 12 Volt A23 batteries! They just don't seem to be able
to withstand the hot Florida temperatures.

At the July NEFAR launch, I flew my up scale Maxtermind on a SkyRipper I147
hybrid. I had the proper beeps at powerup, but when I recovered the rocket I
noticed one of the drogue charges didn't fire. The Raven was also not responding
later on the flight line. At home, I discovered the A23 b… Continue

Added by Brian Coyle on July 11, 2010 at 12:00pm — No Comments

South Louisiana Rocketry's Mass Big Bertha Launch

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Saturday July 3rd, 2010 South Louisiana Rocketry (SoLaR) held it's annual "Mass Launch". This year we featured the Estes Big Bertha rocket. So sit back relax and enjoy the video as 7 Big Bertha's take to the sky simultaneously. Continue

Added by Whitney Richard on July 5, 2010 at 6:52pm — No Comments

Sometimes a little is good for you

3 July 2010
Kandahar Airfield

I am not done here, but I can see the finish line just over four weeks away. While

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Added by Mark Rose on July 3, 2010 at 4:06am — No Comments

Southern Thunder 2010

I had a great time last weekend at the "Southern Thunder" launch in Manchester, TN. I was able to successfully fly my rocket "The Max Attack" on an M1882. Here is the onboard video I shot. I hope you all enjoy the ride.

http://our.rocketryplanet.com/video/video"">Find more videos like this on Our Planet
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Added by Whitney Richard on June 24, 2010 at 11:07pm — No Comments

FOB'in for a short time

Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan

The last couple weeks have been even more of a blur than the ‘normal’ day to day pace around here. Although I cannot go into specifics why, I will try to illustrate my experience going to a British Forward Operating Base located in the heart of the Afghan badlands. The reason for the trip was necessitated by an unthinkable tragedy

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Added by Mark Rose on June 18, 2010 at 12:49pm — No Comments

Moment of Silence

I've been away from Kandahar for a few days on a task that wasn't very pleasant. I am back now, but not everyone else is. This one hit close to home.

Reference below, I wou

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Added by Mark Rose on June 13, 2010 at 9:28am — 1 Comment

Level 1 certification

I got my Level 1 certification today at the NEFAR Half Blast. I started out on a 29mm 3 grain Blue Streak in my 38mm LOC 4. I was a great flight and I only had to walk about 75 yards to pick the rocket up. Landed right on the playing field. I got a little gutsy after that and after a couple of mid-power launches I said why not. I got a 38 mm I350 5grain Smokey Sam and lit it up. Great flight-guesstimate about 3000'. Wind took it to a small power line,but the wind caught the parachute and thanks… Continue

Added by mike armstrong on June 12, 2010 at 8:36pm — 2 Comments

Getting to know the neighbors

Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan

I recently spent a good amount of time getting to know our Kandahar Airfield Afghan National Army Air Corps (ANAAC) counterparts, and it has been the most interesting time I’ve spent here so far. We now meet regularly,

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Added by Mark Rose on June 6, 2010 at 11:00am — No Comments

The Ground Truth...

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/shoot-at-american-patrol-get-shot-ditch-rifle-ask-patrol-for-bandage-repeat/

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Added by Mark Rose on June 2, 2010 at 2:04am — No Comments

Taking it up a notch

Thursday, 27 May 2010

Kandahar Airfield

I planned a different topic for this posting. Since then our airfield was ‘attacked,’ and a few family and friends want to know what happened. While I’ll return to the “who we’re fighting for” part later, for now I’ll talk about last Saturday night.

At a (fun) rocket launch camp fire someday, back in the good ol’ USA, I’ll be happy to talk about the unsaid details of what happened, but I am hesitant to do so now

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Added by Mark Rose on May 27, 2010 at 3:42pm — No Comments

Ramp Ceremony

22 May 2010

Kandahar Airfield

The last thing I’ll leave you with this week was my impressions from going to my first “Ramp Ceremony.” When a Coalition warrior is lost, forces from every nation assemble to pay respects before being flown home. Fortunately, these ceremonies are not a usually a daily, frequent occurrence, but often enough to be a constant reminder. While there have been more than a few ceremonies since I arrived here, my timing never lined up to attend unti

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Added by Mark Rose on May 22, 2010 at 3:00am — 2 Comments

Doing more with less...

18 May 2010

Kandahar

A new, active duty A-10C Warthog unit just changed out with the Arkansas ANG unit that was here when I arrived. The Arkansas Air Guard was the most impressive aircraft maintenance unit (AMU) I have seen I a long time—at least as good, if not far better, than their active duty brethren. However, the active duty unit is going through a period adapting to their new home & mission, and it’s a little challenging right now. This unit is an A-

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Added by Mark Rose on May 18, 2010 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Learning to speak Coalition

15 May 2010
Kandahar Airfield

I am definitely settling into the job and becoming (I hope) effective. This base is growing faster than the afghan construction crews can keep up with, so we’re constantly shifting assets around trying to fit more and more into the same size place. Also, being a NATO run installation, the USAF cannot unilaterally decide to make changes without going to Commander Kandahar (COMKAF) for approval, and that’s far from a rubber stamp.

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Added by Mark Rose on May 15, 2010 at 9:00am — 1 Comment

Scott Taylor's XST III Flight

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Here is the video of Scott Taylor's XST III flight from SEARS May 8th 2010. I shot it with 3 different video cameras. So you will enjoy three different perspectives. The flight was successful. It was a planned low and slow flight for proof of concept and to see if the deployment setup would work correctly which it did. With the smaller motor,… Continue

Added by Whitney Richard on May 9, 2010 at 11:07pm — No Comments

Embrace the dust

6 May 2010
Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan

Last weekend, I meant to take a few minutes and post an update here. Just before I fired up Word to tap in the first words, we received info that there was a crash on the runway, and I was out the door seconds later to assess what really happened. The initial word wasn’t quite accurate, but I did spend the afternoon in the sun *near* the runway. I kept turning like a rotisserie from the baking sun since I didn’t have time to grab sunsc

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Added by Mark Rose on May 7, 2010 at 2:30am — 2 Comments