Welcome to my web site!

This site is an online scrapbook and photo album about my projects and adventures in the hobby of high power rocketry.  It is intended to simply share the fun and excitement of the hobby.  I hope you enjoy it.

You can navigate around the site using the links on the top, bottom and left side of each page.  Check out the photo gallery, the videos, and the construction projects.  The flight data page links to some GPS flight trajectories that are fun to view using the Google Earth program.  The misc info pages contain general information about rocketry topics that are not associated with a specific rocket or project.

Unfortunately, I have not had enough spare time in recent years to update this website as often as in the past.  I am still very active in high power rocketry and someday I hope to find the time to add more material here.  Until then, this site will probably have to remain fairly dormant.  If I do make changes I will update the "What's New" page.

Coldfire was completed in June 2007.  It is seven feet long and four inches in diameter. 

Coldfire is designed to fly on the HyperTEK hybrid motor system.  This motor uses liquid nitrous oxide (N₂O) as oxidizer and ABS plastic as fuel.

View Coldfire construction details here.

View Coldfire launch photos here.

First Flight of Coldfire

The first flight of Coldfire was on October 7, 2007 at the Tripoli Idaho "Birds of Prey" launch on a HyperTEK K240 hybrid motor.

See other Coldfire launch photos here.

Angelfire was built between February and July 2005.  It is five inches in diameter and eleven feet long with a 98 mm diameter motor mount. 

View Angelfire construction details here.

View Angelfire launch photos here.

First Flight of Angelfire

The first flight of Angelfire was on July 14, 2005 at the LDRS-24 launch in Alberta Canada.  It reached 16,146 feet flying on an M1450 motor from Cesaroni Technologies.  The launch was just before the wavier closed at 9:00pm so the lighting was very poor for taking this liftoff photo. 

The second flight was at the Oregon Rocketry "Desert Heat" launch on July 30, 2005.   View photos of that flight right here!

See other Angelfire launch photos here.

Angelfire Flight #15

Angelfire completed a 15^th perfect flight on June 22, 2008  at the OROC launch site near Brothers Oregon. Angelfire was flying on an AMW M2200 Skidmark motor for the first time.   It was perfect boost to 8,147 feet with lots of noise, black smoke and titanium sparks from the motor.  The drogue chute deployed at apogee and the main chute deployed at 1500 feet just as planned.  To top it all off, it landed only 454 feet from the launch pad.  It doesn't get much better than that!

Click here to see many other photos from that same launch.

See other Angelfire launch photos here.

Starfire was built between Dec 2003 and April 2004. It is almost 8 inches in diameter and 12.5 feet tall.  It has a central 75mm motor mount and six 38mm outboard motor mounts.  It is designed to carry a camcorder in the lower payload bay and a remotely controlled TV transmitter and still cameras in the forward payload bay.

View Starfire construction details here.

View Starfire launch photos here.

First Flight of Starfire

The maiden flight for Starfire was on May 1, 2004 at the Tripoli Idaho "SpudRoc-9" launch.  It reached 4988 feet flying on an M1315 motor and was safely recovered after a flawless flight.

See other Starfire launch photos here.

Starfire Flight #3

Starfire completed a third perfect flight on July 24, 2004  at the OROC launch site near Brothers Oregon. It was flying on an AMW M2500 Green Gorilla motor and air started two J350 outboard motors.  It reached 8598 feet.

Wildfire was built during the summer of 2002. It is 5.5 inches in diameter and over nine feet tall.  It was specifically built to carry my video transmitter module to transmit real time video, sound, and GPS information back to the ground during flight.  The maiden flight was on September 28, 2002 at the XPRS-1 launch at Black Rock desert in Nevada.  The launch and recovery was picture perfect.  It went 8862 feet high on an M1315 motor.  It was recovered without a scratch on it.

View Wildfire launch photos.

View Wildfire on-board video.

First Flight of Wildfire

An M1315 motor boosted Wildfire to 8862 feet at the XPRS-1 launch at Black Rock desert in Nevada on Sept. 28, 2002.

See video of this launch.

Wildfire Flight #13

Wildfire completed a 13^th perfect flight on August 28, 2004. This one was  at the Tripoli Idaho launch site near Fairfield Idaho.  It was flying on an AMW L1080 "Blue Baboon" motor and reached 4235 feet.  If you click on the photo and look closely at the larger image, you can see the shock waves in the exhaust flame. 

See video of this launch.

I plan to attend all of the Tripoli Idaho launches.    That schedule is right here.

I will be attending at least one Oregon Rocketry launch near Brothers Oregon.    "Summer Skies" on  June 17-18 and maybe "Desert Heat" on July  22-24.  The complete OROC schedule for 2011 is available here.

Vern at the Summer Skies launch in June 2008.

Read a review of Vern's Rocketry  web site at  Rocketry Planet.