This page is a collection of photographs and stories about my friend Scott Carter.  Scott and I started flying rockets together in 1994 when Scott was only 10 years old.  Scott has now graduated from the University of Idaho with a degree in computer science.

Photo by Scott Carter

Scott launched the Top Gun on its maiden flight at the Tripoli Idaho SpudRoc-6 launch on May 19, 2001. The K700 white lightning motor gave it quite a boost.

Scott also launched his Top Gun at the site near Brothers Oregon in June 2001.  This flight was also on a K700 motor.

Photo by Richie Boltizar

The Super Thug is supposed to return with two main sections coming down under separate parachutes.  Unfortunately, during deployment the two chutes got tangled, and it all came down together.  However, it was all safe and sound and it landed within 25 feet of the LCO table.

Scott launched the BSD Horizon on an I218R-M redline motor.  Good flight!

Photo by Nadine Kinney

Scott prepares his rocket named "Sonic" for launch at Black Rock Desert on Oct. 6, 2001. Sonic is a minimum diameter (54mm) rocket that Scott built specifically to fly past the speed of sound.  It weighed 8 pounds and 5 ounces when loaded with a K700 motor.  The airframe was covered with Kevlar and fiberglass.  The fins were G-10 and glassed onto the airframe.  It used a Missile Works RRC2 altimeter for dual deployment. Preflight simulations showed that Sonic should exceed 16,000 feet and have a peak speed of Mach 1.5. (1100 MPH).  There is video of this launch available here.

Photo by Nadine Kinney

Unfortunately a coupler suffered a structural failure when the rocket reached max Q.  The moral of the story is to reinforce couplers just as strong as the rest of the airframe!

By July 2002 Scott had repaired the Sonic and was ready to fly it at the Brothers Oregon site.  Only now it's known as Subsonic. That's because it is now shorter and will no longer accommodate the longer 54mm motors.  He also had to eliminate the altimeter section and it now uses motor ejection for deployment.

Scott launched his Subsonic on an I161-M at the Brothers Oregon site on July 20, 2002.  Good boost, but the delay was a little too short and the parachute suffered some damage.  Otherwise the rest of the rocket was fine.  The Kevlar airframe makes this rocket so tough it could probably just use a small streamer and recover without damage. 

Photo by Nadine Kinney

Photo by Nadine Kinney

Scott is installing an igniter into the motor while I hold up his Super Thug on the launch rod.  This was at LDRS-17 at the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Photo by Nadine Kinney

Scott with is Super Thug at the LDRS-16 launch at Hartsel, Colorado on Aug 9, 1997. He had a great flight on a J350 motor that day. 

The next day Scott flew The Super Thug on a K550 for another perfect flight.  It landed out near the grazing buffalo!  Fortunately Scott retrieved it without incident.  Although we both learned that buffalo make a very strange sound when they are concerned about someone approaching a little too close for comfort.

Scott with his first place trophy from LDRS-16 for closest to 5000 feet without going over.  (1997)  Scott used some real rocket science to win that contest. He built a PML Cirrus specifically for the contest.  He used wRASP for simulations and figured out that an H123 motor would get him pretty close. Unfortunately his first few flights were slightly too high and were above 5000 feet.  However, using the actual altitudes from the first flights, he was then able to "calibrate" the drag coefficient in wRASP, so that wRASP would predict exactly the same as the actual altitudes.  Once wRASP was properly calibrated, he then used it to figure out how much weight to add to the rocket so that it should reach 4950 feet. (Giving just a little bit of margin for error and still be under 5000 feet.) The result was 2.5 oz. He added the weight to the Cirrus and launched it again on another H123.  This time the altimeter reported 4955 feet!  (Closer agreement than could possibly be expected, but it's true!)  And since this was within 45 feet of the 5000 foot target, and since no one was able to better it, he won first place and received both a trophy and a LOC/Precision Top Gun kit.  Well done Scott!

Scott also flew his Cirrus during LDRS-17 at Bonneville Salt Flats on an H123W motor but only reached 4705 feet.   The flight was less than perfectly vertical.  (Aug, 1998.)

Scott at Black Rock in August of 1996.  This was the first time Scott flew an H97 black jack motor in his Thug.

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