Here is the latest project status update:

Wings & Fins - Everyone in attendance last Saturday spent almost the entire day working on the wings and fins. We are at the "finishing" stage and this requires that the surfaces be smooth. Much time was spent power-sanding and even hand-sanding all the surfaces on all four fins and all four wings. By mid-afternoon, we were ready for our first coat of primer. Tom Savoie manned the paint gun and soon had all of the assemblies primered. We then began sanding and doing minor filling and shortly applied a second coat of primer. Earlier we had anticipated that two coats of primer would be sufficient. However, upon close inspection of our work, we realized that, even after almost a full day's effort, the fins and wings were not smooth, and not even close to "museum quality".

So we sat down at that point and considered our options. We could get out the spare wings and fins (HA! - not really, no spares available), or we could apply a thin "skim coat" of Evercoat filler and then do some vigorous

sanding next time, or we could just keep sanding. We elected to just keep going. After all, it was still daylight, we still had primer, the air compressor was still working, we had more sandpaper, etc. So after two more complete cycles of sanding and primering we felt the finished product was finally "worthy".

As Dan Littmann put it, we had encountered "the perversity of the material world". That is, things that ought to be smooth aren't, things that ought to be straight aren't, and making them so often requires much elbow grease. But in the end we prevailed.

Next week will see another major milestone in the project, as we will be gluing the fins, wings and motor mount into the rocket. We will also be fiberglassing Dan's beautiful foam wing fairings and, if time permits,

attaching them to the wings. Also, time permitting, we will be applying the expanding foam to the interior of the airframe.

T-shirts - The Project Phoenix T-shirt order has been placed and we expect to have the shirts in time for the Night Launch on June 1. Another good reason to attend the Night Launch - to pick up your shirt! For those who

did not pre-order, we will have a FEW spare shirts, but it will be first-come, first-serve.

See everyone next Saturday in Claremore.

Hal