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Ron Crane Rocketry

from Bob Feretich

From: Bob Feretich < bob . feretich @ rafresearch . com >
Subject: Re: Fwd: Summary of Ron Crane's technical accomplishments!
Date: April 6, 2021 at 11:09:04 PM PDT
To: Robert Garner
Cc: 'Grant Saviers' < grants2 @ pacbell . net >

Yes, Ron built and flew rockets with us.

In 2006, Ron, Allen Palmer, Jeff Stutzman, Grant, and I attended the AeroPac XPRS launch. (AeroPac is the bay area prefecture of the Tripoli Rocketry Association.) XPRS is their largest annual that occurs in mid September.

While having lunch at the CHM, Grant and I talked about our rocketry hobbies as kids. Someone mentioned that they heard of a rocket club in the bay area that was flying "high power rockets". We attended a couple AeroPac meetings and built kit rockets to become "high power certified". We analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of various rocket kits and we all chose to build PML (Public Missiles Ltd) Endeavour kits. It was a rocket that would allow is to become both Level 1 and Level 2 certified. (There are three levels of certification. Each level permits the flyer to fly bigger, more powerful rockets.)

We built our rockets and attended the XPRS 2006 in the Black Rock Desert (a Friday through Sunday event).
This launch is documented on my Rocketry web page...
http://www.feretich.com/Rocketry/XPRS2006/index.html

Ron was off by himself a lot of the time. He is in a few of our pictures...
- http://www.feretich.com/Rocketry/XPRS2006/images/10JeffsL1GettingReady.JPG
- http://www.feretich.com/Rocketry/XPRS2006/images/13L2Ready.JPG

We all received our L1 and L2 certifications. We continued beyond those certifications to attempt both "Mile High" and "Supersonic" flights. Although the PML Endeavour is a good L1 & L2 certification rocket, the "Quantum Tube" plastic is too flexible for supersonic flight and the fin design also is not suitable. Ron didn't paint his rocket, so he volunteered it to be the candidate for the supersonic flight. Because it was not painted, we were able to add some lamination to the fins and make the body more rigid.

> We modified Ron's Endeavour for super-sonic flight. We laminated an extra layer of G10 on both sides of each fin, used the G10 lamination to bridge the front and back fin set, increased the fin filet size, and inserted a coupler tube inside the payload section to strengthen it. RockSim simulated it at Mach 1.14. As the rocket took-off it emitted a loud whistle due to the notch in the fins. (The G10 laminations we added stopped 3/4" from the fin edge, so the remaining notch between the front and back fin set caused the whistle. It was a great flight and a normal recovery, but I didn't get any pictures. :^(

Grant, Allen, and I continued on to build and fly Level 3 rockets. Ron and Jeff stopped at level 2.

I think he visited us at another Black Rock launch, but as far as I know, this was the only launch that he flew at.

Regards,

Bob