To All:

We had a very productive work session this past Saturday. Here are the updates:

Airframe - The Airframe Team reached a major milestone on Saturday by completing the fin and wing slots in the airframe tube. Prior to actually cutting the slots, the team spent several hours determining and marking four

parallel lines, 90-degrees apart, along the airframe tube. This effort required the use of laser beams, fishing line, tape measures and a generous

quantity of "eyeball engineering". The slots were then cut using a router and a jig constructed from boards and wood clamps. Thanks especially to Joe

Grasso for some expert work with the router. The result was as near perfect as we could hope for. The tube is now ready for its final touch-up and paint prep.

Fins - The Fins team also made good progress. We decided to build up the tapered leading edges of the rear fins from plywood and to use dowel rods to obtain the appropriate wedge shape. The necessary pieces of plywood were marked and cut out of 1/8-inch stock. Then the leading edges were built up using the plywood panels and 1/4-inch dowels. The edge assemblies will be finish sanded and then attached to the composite fin panels to complete the rear fins.

Motor Mount - The Motor Mount team cut the motor tubes to length and joined the two tubes together to form the motor mount. The forward mounting plug (for attaching the forward end of the motor tube to the forward bulkhead) was cut out from 3/4-inch plywood stock and sanded to fit. The fin guides were also measured and cut to length. The team then began the job of marking four parallel lines on the motor tube, 90 degrees apart, in

preparation for attaching the fin guides.

Avionics Bay - The Avionics team cut out the interior bulkhead and drilled the necessary holes for the electronics bays. Then the bays were measured

and cut to length from 3.1-inch airframe tubing. The 54mm ejection ports were also cut and installed in the aft bulkhead. The forward end caps for the e-bays were also completed. The avionics bay is now basically ready for final assembly.

Preliminary Weights - We set up an electronic scale and weighed everything. The total weight of the rocket at this point was 52.7 pounds. Of course, this value does not include several things, such as the nose cone, the

parachute and recovery harness, and the remaining glue and paint and detail items. However, we can tell from these preliminary values that the finished rocket will exceed the 5-to-1 thrust-to-weight limit for an M1939, so we are now looking at flying on an M2500.

Most of the team members will be in Argonia, KS, next weekend for the Kloudburst launch, so the next construction session will be on Saturday, April 20. Hope to see all of you there.

Hal