Hello Everyone:

At the December Club meeting we voted to proceed with Project Phoenix.

Since that time, several events have occurred, so I want to take this opportunity to bring everyone up to speed:

Airframe - I had originally proposed using 14" diameter PVC for the airframe tube. After the meeting, I did some additional research and determined that the weight of this tube would be approximately 50 pounds. As we discussed at the meeting, the thrust-to-weight analysis indicates the maximum TOTAL weight would be in the neighborhood of 50 pounds, so the airframe alone must weigh much less. So that eliminated PVC as a possible airframe material.

I did some additional research and found a local company that stocks and sells SonoTube. If you're not familiar with SonoTube, it is a thick-walled paper tube that is commonly used for pouring concrete piers and is available in a wide range of sizes. The supplier has 14" diameter tube in stock and they indicated the weight for a 10-foot section is about 25 pounds. I believe we can make this work. And the price is right as well, $24 per 10-foot tube.

Fin Material - I have also been having an on-going discussion with John Calvert about the possible use of honeycomb-composite material instead of plywood for the fins and wings. John has performed some stress analysis and it appears we can use composite material for the fins, wings and some of the bulkheads, at a total weight about half of plywood.

Design - Several good ideas on the overall design were discussed at the last meeting. Given those suggestions plus the new airframe material and fin material, I decided to convene a Design Team to review and update the initial design. The Design Team, consisting of Tom Savoie, Mike Doyle, Joe Grasso and myself, met and updated the plans and the results will be presented at the January meeting. Hopefully, we can finalize the design phase of the project that night.

Project Teams - In order to get as many people involved as possible, we will divide the overall project into several "sub-projects", with Team Captains responsible for the completion of each sub-project. The Project Teams break down as follows: Design, Airframe, Motor Mount, Fins & Wings, Avionics, Recovery, Nose Cone, Decals & Detailing, Painting, Launcher and Transportation.

I already have commitments from several folks to head up some of these Teams, as follows: Airframe - Tom Savoie, Fins & Wings - John Calvert, Avionics - Mike Doyle, Recovery, Nose Cone and Launcher - Joe Grasso, Decals and Detailing - Randy Luhman. I'm still looking for " a few good men" to head up the other Teams, so if you're interested, let me know.

The team captains will be looking for help to complete their individual projects, and this will give everyone a chance to get involved.

Financing - As you probably know by now, we have decided to finance this project by selling "shares" for $25 each. Shareholders are entitled to full participation in all phases of the project, and as Tom put it "full bragging rights". At the December meeting, several people committed to buy shares and we will need to collect your first "payment" at the January meeting. The first payment does not have to represent your entire pledge, but please be prepared to pay for at least one full share this month.

I am also working on getting a meeting with the Curator of the Tulsa Air & Space Museum to discuss the possibility of corporate sponsorship.

That's about all for now. As you can see, Project Phoenix is up and running. Please try to make the January meeting if you can, as we willbe discussing and deciding many items relating to the project. And if you haven't already signed up to buy a share, contact Rick Norrgard and get your name added to the list.

See you at the launch Sunday (hopefully) and at the meeting next Thursday.

Hal Ellis