Members of the Pittsburgh

Space Command, NAR Section #473,

would like to extend a warm wel-

come to all those attending NARAM

51. We sincerely hope that you have

a great time while participating in all

the activities.

This NARAM 51 edition of

Team Pittsburgh provides a small

sampling of our newsletter. We hope

you enjoy it.

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AUGUST 2009

NARAM 51

SPECIAL EDITION

Warning: front and back cover ink is not water friendly.

WELCOME TO NARAM 51 !

BOTH Photos by Alan Freed

AUGUST 8 - 14, 2009

JOHNSTOWN, PA

PSC Officials and Contributors to Team Pittsburgh

Mort Binstock

TEAM PITTSBURGH

is published bimonthly by the

Pittsburgh Space Command

NAR Section # 473

Uncopyrighted material appearing

in TEAM PITTSBURGH may be

reprinted provided proper credit is

given to the author and to

TEAM PITTSBURGH.

AD SPACE in TEAM PITTSBURGH is

available free to members in good

standing.

PSC Yearly dues:

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Send PSC dues to:

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NOTE: Make Checks payable to

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PSC OFFICERS for 2009

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Website http://www.psc473.org

Submit articles for publication to:

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230 Arthur Street

Zelienople, Pa 16063

Email: artpeg@hotmail.com

The Pittsburgh Space Command

Is dedicated to the advancement

of safe model rocketry.

07/12/09—58

Webmaster John Sarosi Editor Art Nestor Treasurer Jerry Kraus

Advisor Rod Schafer PSC Prez John Pace NARAM CD Steve Foster

John Brohm Francis Graham

TEAM PITTSBURGH NO. 147 2

3 NARAM 51 SPECIAL EDIT ION NO. 147

I developed an interest in model building when

I was about 8 years old. Most of the models I built were

either plastic or balsa airplane models; we didn’t have

ready access to model rockets in the part of Canada

where I grew up. I remember sending away for both an

Estes and Centuri catalog (this would have been around

1972 or so) and I clearly recall the rocket lust that pos-

sessed me as I thumbed through those first catalogs.

This enthusiasm eventually led to my first model rock-

et, the Estes Sky Hook. Anyone familiar with the Sky

Hook will know that it’s a fairly unremarkable model,

yet this particularly not so special model still holds a

special place with me.

I took my degree in Electrical Engineering at

Queen’s University, Kingston. I was sure when I gradu-

ated that I was going to be a control systems circuit

designer, because I really enjoyed circuit design and

construction. Boy did I get that wrong. After graduating

I joined a firm that developed solutions for automating

the control of subway and people mover trains, and I

started my career as a Systems Engineer. But after just

a few years in the design and analysis trenches, circum-

stances pushed me onto a management track which is

where I find myself today some twenty years later (and

still with the same company, I might add).

Modeling called me back in the mid-eighties,

around the time my son was born, and of all my model-

ing interests I found that rocketry had the strongest

pull. I think it was because that as a kid, rocketry was

the greatest interest least fulfilled. So Matthew and I

started buying and building some kits from the local

hobby store and I’ve remained on this path ever since.

Matthew’s in college now, and so he’s naturally fo-

cused on a set of priorities that leaves little room for

rockets. But on occasion he’ll still come out to a PSC

launch if he happens to be home.

While living in Moraga, California, (a town in

the East Bay area of San Francisco), our house had a

garage that included a great old workbench. This, plus

some overhead storage cabinets at the end of the gar-

age, afforded me a great place to work, and kept the

various evils of the hobby out of the house (facilitating

the general peace and tranquility of all the dwellers in

our household). After my assignment in San Francisco

ended we took a brief detour back to Toronto, where

for modeling purposes I made do in our house there

MY ROCKET WORKSHOP

By John Brohm

NAR #78048

My start in rocketry was a rather gradual affair

and it began, as it has for so many of us in this hobby,

with a developing interest in math, science and science

fiction at a time that coincided with the burgeoning space

race. As a kid I read everything I could find on the space

program, and my friends and I would often spend our

time after school sketching out designs for rocket vehi-

cles that we hoped to build one day. Later, when I was

older, my Mom gave me an old back issue of National

Geographic that carried a wonderful story on the prepara-

tions for manned spaceflight. It was the July 1960 issue,

the story was called “Space Pioneers of NASA”, and it

especially featured the Mercury program. I still have that

old back issue and I still get quite a spark from the article

when I re-read it.

with a pair of collapsible tables I had built. In the sum-

mer of 1999 we moved to Pittsburgh, and while plan-

ning the finishing of the basement in our new home,

my wife graciously offered up the rear corner space of

the basement for a shop. This gave me a dedicated area

20’ x 8’ to set up shop, and one of the first things I did

was build in a work bench across the one end of the

room.

The work bench has a 4’ power strip built in

along the rear which provides ample power connections

when needed, and I built in a set of drawers to help

store a lot of the bits and pieces one always ends up

with in a shop.

The other thing I did was lay out a peg board

across the rear wall; I’m the kind of person that has to

have my tools in front of me or I’ll never find them. A

couple of Christmases ago, the family bought me a

small television for the shop, and I’ve since added a

DVD player to the setup. I like to put on an LDRS

DVD or perhaps one of my old science fiction movies

(like Rocket Ship X-M, a classic!) while I’m doing

something not so exciting like filling body tube seams.

While the shop area was being finished, I had a

ventilation fan installed in the ceiling on the notion that

I would be painting in my shop and the fan would help

ventilate the room. As things have turned out, I don’t

paint in the shop anymore as the painting process just

generates way too much dust that gets all over every-

thing. The painting gets done in the garage now. The

fan works great though, and I run it while doping fins.

4 TEAM PITTSBURGH NO. 147

Hobbyists are a little like a gas; they tend to fill

the available space, and I’m no exception. I’m always

struggling with storage space (or more precisely, the lack

of it), and so I’ve added a variety of cabinets and shelves

along the walls to help keep things organized. I use the

storage cabinets to store all of the surplus small parts and

hardware; things like nose cones, centering rings, mount-

ing hardware, engine hooks and so forth, and all of the

drawers are labeled to make it easy for me to find the var-

ious parts I’m looking for while building. There’s a desk

that my brother built for me some years ago that I’ve lo-

cated at the other end of the shop. The desk provides me

with a separate clean area for finishing and decal work; it

also comes in handy when I have folks over for building

sessions. I also have a small drill press and scroll saw set

up in my shop; the drill press is about 10 years old and

has emerged as the most important “heavy” tool that I

use. Down the road I hope to replace it with a larger,

floor standing model.

NO. 147 NARAM 51 SPECIAL EDIT ION 5

NO. 147 TEAM PITTSBURGH 6

And that, I suppose, is the most telling remark

about my rocketry experience so far. I’ve found that join-

ing and participating in PSC has had a profound impact

on my enjoyment of the hobby as well as my develop-

ment as a modeler. I remember well the time I called Art

in the summer of 2000 to find out about PSC; I equally

remember the warm reception I received from Rod and

Steve the first time my family and I showed up at Luther-

lyn. PSC is blessed with an enthusiastic group of diverse,

yet devoted rocketeers, always willing to help and share

with any issue, or problem, or experience. This tradition

of help and support starts right at the top with our present

and past club presidents, and is aptly mirrored by the

membership. Add to this the excellent work Art (and be-

fore him, Dick) does with the newsletter, Christine with

the website, and the great support PSC gets from Harry

and his team at Hobby Express, and it’s evident we have

one of the best sections in the NAR.

I’m not sure what all lies ahead for me in this

hobby, but I do know that I’ve not built my best model

yet, that there’s a panoply of subjects I’d still like to try,

and that I need (?) at least a few more kits for the collec-

tion. A broad field of fertile rocketry ground to till, and I

look forward to doing exactly that in my shop and with

PSC.

This article was originally presented in Team

Pittsburgh # 122.

****************

One of the other aspects of the hobby I enjoy is

collecting old kits and related paraphernalia. Due to my

storage limitations, I have the majority of my kit collec-

tion stored in sealed plastic containers which I’ve

stacked in a corner of the garage. This still gives me

good access to the old kits which comes in handy when

I’m researching some old rocket I’m interested in. I have

about 700 kits in my collection now, virtually all of

which are sealed originals. I hope I don’t have to move

any time soon!

I have all of the Estes catalogs running back to

1964, and I’ve managed to pick up a couple of classic

rocketry books as well. The catalogs are great for remi-

niscing about what once was, and the texts are great for

exploring the first principles of the hobby.

Most of my present interests reside in scratch

building, construction and finishing. I’m constantly look-

ing for ways to improve my paint finishes although the

trees at Lutherlyn often compel one to re-think the effort

that goes into this aspect of modeling. On the competi-

tion side, thanks to the great help and support of the

many top competitors in our club, I’ve had the oppor-

tunity to be exposed to a completely different aspect of

the hobby, an aspect I don’t think I would have consid-

ered without the impetus of Rod, Steve, John and others.

Competition very much revolves around a different way

of thinking about rocket models, the material choices, the

construction techniques, and if part of your enjoyment in

this hobby comes from learning something new, then you

really ought to give competition a try. I can tell you from

first hand experience that our guys would only be too

happy to show you the ropes.

NARAM 51 SPECIAL EDIT ION

G. Harry Stine’s experiments with

Electric rockets !

whole story. What about amps?

On average, the atmosphere has a resistance of

0.15 kiloohms. This means the current between the Earth

and sky is 2000 amps. I-squared-r , the total power, is

thus 600 megawatts, or the output of a big city power

plant. This is a very tempting power source to utilize,

and one understands why inventors can’t help themselves

to try. The big disadvantage is that it is spread out over

the whole Earth’s surface area, thus, is about 1 watt per

square kilometer!

Levitation in the Earth’s electrostatic field is also

a tempting option. Using Coulomb’s law for the electric

field,

E = (1/4π ε o) Q/ r 2

Where r is the radius (for the Earth, 6,371,000

meters) and Q is the charge ( 500,000 coulombs) , and the

entire factor (1/4π ε o) equals nine billion, we find an

electric field of 110 newtons/coulomb at the surface.

This means, that if I charged up something to -1 cou-

lomb, and it weighed 11.2 kilograms, it would support its

own weight and float.

You can see why this was a tempting idea. The

difficulty is charging up a small mass like 11.2 kilo-

grams, or 24.7 pounds, to a coulomb. Typical static

electric charges from rubbing balloons are in microcou-

lombs; the best is usually a few millicoulombs. A small

coulomb-charged object loses its cohesiveness and tends

to fly apart.

Enter Horace C. Dudley, physicist. Dudley real-

ized that it is impossible to get an object charged enough

so that it would rise exceeding its own weight. But Dud-

ley’s project was more modest: the electrostatic charge

on the rocket would help it rise and augment the thrust.

Higher altitudes with existing motors were thus possible,

Dudley thought, and proceeded to develop an experi-

mental program. He used model rockets such that were

available in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, called

Rock-a-Chute model rockets. He also used the plastic

Scientific Products Company “Alpha I” rockets which

were cold-powered. One of these was shown by Rod

Shafer at the Seven Fields Launch in December, 1997

and is discussed in an article in Rocket Mail , Vol. 6 No.

8, February 25, 1998.

7

ROCKETS BEYOND STRANGE

PART VII.

By Prof. Francis G. Graham

Founder of the

Tripoli Rocketry Association

During the Manhattan

project, some counter-

intelligence official decid-

ed that the presence of so

many scientists in the Ala-

mogordo area required a

false cover story. So they

picked a real stupid one

and told the scientists to

visit local cafes and talk

about electric rockets. The

scientists duly did so; but if

there were any spies, they

sure didn’t seem to pay any

attention. Actually of

course Hitler did not much

care (fascists, by their very nature, look backward in their

thinking, not forward, and Hitler was no exception), and

Stalin already knew about the development of the atomic

bomb and had spies in place already within the project. It

seems, a year earlier, a Russian scientist noted that Amer-

icans had stopped writing about fission in their journals;

he telephoned Stalin, who personally took the call, and

very soon thereafter had spies within.

But strangely enough, or what is even beyond

strange, there were people thinking about electric rockets.

You see, the Earth has a total negative electric charge of

over a quadrillion electrostatic units; or about 500,000

coulombs. The atmosphere has approximately the same

positive charge, so the entire planet is electrically neutral.

A voltmeter shows a difference of 100 V/m near the

ground, but this falls off, and the average for the atmos-

phere is 6 volts per meter. Up to 30-50 km, where most

of the positive charge is, the total potential is 300,000

volts. That is impressive. But volts do not count for the

Prof. Francis Graham

NO. 147

Dudley erroneously assumed the charge of the

Earth was positive, and I think that was a standard as-

sumption then. It is now known to be negative. So he

charged his rockets positive so they would get repelled

by the Earth (he thought) and claimed to get “in the

best conditions” 400 feet extra altitude from them. He

published these results in a national magazine (1).

Wrote Dudley:

“From 200 firings carried out by the author,

the following general facts emerge. (a) Both high hu-

midity and high temperatures decrease the rise of a

rocket so constructed as to be an accelerating, charged

body. (b) Conversely, low temperature and low humid-

ity greatly favor the rise of a rocket so constructed as to

retain its charge during acceleration. (c) A completely

non-conducting rocket shows erratic flight characteris-

tics in cold, dry weather. (d) An accelerating, conduct-

ing rocket becomes a moving charge in an electric field

and thus establishes concentric magnetic lines of force.

These lines of force couple with the magnetic flux of

the earth, stabilizing the flight of the rocket. This effect

causes the rocket to resist changes in its vertical path,

such as the force of crosswinds might induce. (e) Un-

der optimum conditions the electrostatic field of the

earth may be utilized to aid the thrust of a rocket mo-

tor.”

NO. 147 TEAM PITTSBURGH 8

I have to hand it to Dr. Dudley. Mort Binstock

and Joseph Peklicz have been advocates of small-scale

experimentation for years, as have I. Dudley is a man

after my own heart. Dudley went on to patent his idea

(2) in 1963. But there the trail vanishes. I have no idea

what results he had further.

However, his article prompted further experi-

ments. G. Harry Stine read the article and decided to re-

peat Dudley’s experiments the best he could. In princi-

ple, of course, and with the right sign of charge, the

charged rocket should help. But how significant would it

be? G. Harry Stine wanted to know. He wrote:

“When Dr H.C. Dudley’s article on the Electric

Field Rocket appeared in these pages in the November

1960 issue, his investigations aroused a great deal of in-

terest among the model rocketeers of the National Asso-

ciation of Rocketry. There was only one way to settle the

question once and for all: perform Dudley’s experiment

with model rockets. If Dudley were right, the experiment

would be a true predictable one and would duplicate his

findings. This is in the finest tradition of science. No

amount of discussion will settle the question; it must be

settled by checking the theory with experiment. The re-

sults must then be published.

Figure 1. Horace Dudley’s method of charging up

the shell of electrostatic rockets. U.S. Patent draw-

ing. Figure 2. Ascent of electric rocket based on errone-

ous assumption (but in vogue in 1957) of net positive

charge of Earth’s surface. In fact, the ionosphere is

positive and the Earth’s surface is negative. U.S. Pa-

tent drawing.

Wrote Stine: “In any event, it was time to make a

report. To date, members of the NAR have not confirmed

the results of Dr. Dudley’s rocket tests. We invite you to

come to your own conclusions.”

Stine did not address the matter of enhanced stabi-

lization of the rocket by induced magnetic field via Lenz’

law.

Also, it was pointed out, Dudley’s article was writ-

ten in such a way that it is not absolutely clear whether he

is reporting results which were found or that by calculation

should be found. We will be charitable and admit to this

latter possibility. Stine’s results were also published (3),

and, if the Dudley results were hypothetical, Stine’s experi-

ments were the first ones done with electric rockets. He

also stated that he would be repeating the tests at lower ele-

vation, on Long Island, the following summer, and would

publish the results of those tests if they were at variance.

Since he did not, we may assume the results were the same.

One might, knowing in geophysical hindsight the

true charge of the Earth, reverse the charge and re-do Dud-

ley’s and Stine’s experiments, but that is not likely to be

any more successful. You see, if the charged mattered, and

the experimenters had charged the rockets in the wrong

polarity, then the rockets would be attracted to the Earth

and an altitude decrease of statistical significance would

have been reported. As it was, it went neither way.

What’s the problem? Why didn’t Stine see a differ-

ence? Again, the problem is that it is difficult to develop a

high charge on a small object like a model rocket and keep

it there. For example, we suppose a 28 gram rocket has a

charge of + 1 millicoulomb. That gives us, in a 110 new-

“The NAR was in a unique position to carry

out the model rocketry experiments of Dudley. Since

1957, the NAR has developed in-flight optical tracking

systems for model rockets that have reasonable accura-

cy. Model rocket engine manufacturers can supply pro-

pulsion systems of very close tolerance. Many NAR

members are expert model makers capable of building

very fine rockets.”

“The Peak City Section of the NAR in Colora-

do Springs, Colo. was perfectly situated to carry out the

tests. Their rocket range is the most extensive and well-

equipped in the country, consisting of 40 acres of flat

prairie at an elevation of 6380 feet. There are clear

skies most of the year, and the climate meets the Dud-

ley specifications beautifully --- high altitude, clear

skies, low humidity.”

G. Harry Stine’s tests in Colorado Springs, su-

pervised by Bill Roe, used A8-4s and B8-4s on

charged and uncharged rockets. The rockets’ altitudes

charged or uncharged were not substantially different

than the variation expected from engine manufacturing.

There was no statistical significance in the altitudes G.

Harry Stine found! Thus it seems Dr. Dudley’s results

are misleading and erroneous.

NARAM 51 SPECIAL EDIT ION NO. 147

Figure 3. Electrostatically charged rockets. U.S. Pa-

tent drawing.

Above: G. Harry Stine photo taken in the mid

1990’s. NAR photo. Photographer unknown.

9

ton per coulomb electric field, a “thrust” (up or down,

depending on charge) of 0.11 newtons, not even

enough to lift its weight of 0.27 newtons. If it was in

the wrong polarity, if would pull down with 0.3 new-

tons. But an old-fashioned A8-4 had a thrust of about

0.8 pounds, or 3.56 newtons. Thus the “thrust aug-

mentation” would be plus or minus 3%. One might ar-

gue that rocket motors whose performance are guaran-

teed to small tolerances might just barely measure the

effect.

In reality it is less than that! Besides the ten-

dency to spontaneously break apart, 1 millicoulomb in

the free atmosphere on a small object of several hun-

dred square centimeters area is difficult to sustain; it

would quickly come nearer to neutrality, e.g., typically

1 microcoulomb.

There are also interesting effects when a highly

charged vehicle goes supersonic, but I digress.

So the sad conclusion is that Dudley’s scheme

probably will not work, falling short of practicality by

about an order of 10.

Dr. Horace C. Dudley (1909-1994) was a radi-

ation physicist at the University of Illinois Medical

Center. During the Second World War, he was a Lt.

Commander in the U.S. Navy and was sent to Hiroshi-

ma and Nagasaki immediately after the attacks to help

assess damage and effects. He later wrote many arti-

cles, including one on the fears atomic scientists had at

the time of igniting the atmosphere and destroying the

biosphere of the Earth, one of the first to comprehen-

sively investigate that pre-Trinity worry (4). He also

wrote The Morality of Nuclear Planning (1976). When

Dr. Dudley was in Hiroshima, one of the members of

his team was a young sailor who could type well,

named Miller Jurscevich. Miller became a chiropractor,

changed his name for professional reasons to Dr. Rob-

ert Miller, and for a time (1966-1977) was married to

my mother (they divorced). I have a picture of Hiroshi-

ma that he gave to me that he snapped there in 1945. I

never met Dr. Dudley, but I was a friend of his associ-

ate, the late Dr. David Griffard , formerly of the Com-

munity College of Allegheny County.

G. Harry Stine (1928-1997) is well known to

model rocketeers. The author of Handbook of Model

Rocketry , he organized the entire hobby of model rock-

etry and started the National Association of Rocketry,

and served as its president for some time. Working as

an engineer at the White Sands Missile Range in the

1950’s, Stine became concerned with the dangers of

10 NO. 147 TEAM PITTSBURGH

poorly supervised amateur rocketry experimentation and

wrote an article in 1957 in Mechanix Illustrated extolling

safe model rocketry, which had just been invented. I met

and chatted with Harry Stine first at the Model Rocket Con-

ventions held by the Steel City Section NAR at the

Shadyside Academy in 1967-1970. He wrote 42 books,

including, perhaps inspired by his experience with the Dud-

ley claims, On The Frontiers of Science: Strange Machines

You Can Build (1985).

Thanks to Katherine Najacht of the Browne Popu-

lar Culture Library of Bowling Green State University for

help digging out these articles, to my mother Marlene Perry

for her recollections of Dr. Robert Miller.

References

1. Dudley, Horace C. “The Electric Field Rocket” , Analog

Science Fact and Fiction 66,3 Nov. 1960, p. 83-94.

2. Dudley, Horace C. U.S. Patent # 3,095,167. “Apparatus

for the Promotion and Control of Vehicular Flight.” June

25, 1963.

3. Stine, G. Harry, “Time for Tom Swift” Analog Science

Fact and Fiction, 66, 5 January, 1961 p. 83-101

4. Dudley, Horace C. “The Ultimate Catastrophe” Kronos

1,2 (August, 1976).

5. I also acknowledge the kind help of Robert Nelson of

Rex Research.

This article was originally presented in

Team Pittsburgh #130,

November — December 2006.

Historian’s note: G. Harry Stine made references to these

electric rocket experiments in the following issues of The

Model Rocketeer:

Volume 2 #12 page 2 October, 1960

Volume 3 #3 page 2 January, 1961

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ALSO THIS ISSUE:

What do you do?

“When Good Rockets Go Bad”?

12 Tips to Liven Up Your Launch Life

My Parents Never Knew:

“I was a Teenage Rocketeer”!

PSC Rocket Collides With UFO

Aliens Retaliate!

Shocking Untold Story:

The Real Reason PSC Left the Z Field

Launch Site —

It Was Home to Bigfoot!

United States

Space Command to BATF:

“Lay Off Our Little Brother in

Pittsburgh —- Or ELSE !!!”

Patterson Air Force Base Goes on

Alert !!!!

Better Than Ammonium Perchlorate:

Rocket Fuel Made From Dirt!

New From the NAR:

Micro Maxx Jelly Bean Lofting !

PSC officials have just concluded a

deal that will put us on national television

every week as part of a new reality show on

NBC. We had almost signed a deal with Fox

Entertainment for another show tentatively

called Celebrity Rocketeer. “But the money

just wasn’t there” according to PSC Presi-

dent John Pace. Both offers came on the

heels of our Section’s appearance on the hit

TV show “America’s Got Thrust’. In Stars,

teams will compete to set a new record in an

official NAR event. Each team will be com-

prised of a PSC member and a celebrity.

Every week one of the three lowest scoring

teams will be voted off.

April 01, 2009

Pittsburgh Space Command to Host reality show

“launching with the stars”

Here We Go Again! BATF seeks to Impose speed limits on

rockets. Wants judge to force State Po-

lice to conduct random radar gun checks

at every launch. Page 23.

****************

But We Know It’s True! Famous model rocket competitor insists -

“I never took steroids or human growth

hormones”. We’ll tell you his name on

page 46!

****************

From Oprah’s Book Club

“The Core Sampler”

A heartbreaking short story about a man

and his rocket. “I didn’t even have a

shovel” he cried! The shocking truth

about Sudden Earth Impact. Page 56.

****************

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

NEW ESTES “K” MOTOR DELAYED . . 5

BUILDING A GREENER ROCKET . . . . 6

YOU THINK IT’S EASY COMING UP

WITH THIS STUFF ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

WELL IT AIN’T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

LAUNCH DOORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 April Fun Cover!

11

TEAM PITTSBURGH

The 7th annual

October sky festival, coalwood, wv

Originally

presented in

Team Pittsburgh

#124

By Art Nestor

The October Sky

Festival celebrates

the story of “the

rocket boys” of

Coalwood, West

Virginia. The story

made famous by the

book Rocket Boys,

a Memoir by Homer

Hickam was subse-

quently made into

the movie October

Sky. This year’s

Festival was held

on October 1st.

Peg and I traveled

approximately 357

miles to join this

year’s celebration.

We made the trip a 3

day affair, staying

two nights in Blue-

field, WV about 40

miles from Coal-

wood. Our plan was

to drive down on

Fr iday fo r a

“scouting mission”,

attend the festival on

Saturday and drive

home on Sunday.

Our plan and a little

luck provided us a

wonderful time.

Story on page 4.

Above: Four of the rocket boys today! Left to right: Roy Lee Cooke,

Billy Rose, Homer Hickam and Jimmy O’Dell Carroll.

Below: Homer Hickam and Art and Peg Nestor at The Marquee Cine-

mas in Welch, WV.

NO. 147 12

Peg and I left Zelienople about 7:45 Friday

morning. A considerably later start than I had anticipated

since I had been getting up for work at 5:10 for many

weeks. However, we still made it a leisurely drive mak-

ing a couple stops along the way. We checked in to the

Bluefield Econo Lodge at 2 p.m. and arrived in Coal-

wood around 3:30. The route from Bluefield to Coal-

wood took us through Welch, a town mentioned in both

the book and film. That last leg of the trip from Welch to

Coalwood is like riding the “Wildmouse” ride at an

amusement park. Buckle your seat belts and check your

brakes. No exaggeration!

Coalwood today is a depressed town in the de-

pressed county of McDowell. I had once read that adja-

cent Mingo County was one of the poorest areas of the

U.S. The October Sky Festival is another way the local

residents are trying to bring the area back to life both

economically and literally. By car there is only one way

in and out of Coalwood. The road with a double yellow

line running through the center of town ends in a cul de

sac. It is a dead end. The mining company which built

the entire town shut down long ago. To top it off, a bad

flood hit Coalwood a couple of years ago. Some large

coal company buildings still stand but are in deep disre-

pair. But in stark contrast to this dark picture the people

there sparkle.

Our “scouting mission” included a visit to Cape

Coalwood, the rocket boy’s launch site. You won’t fully

grasp the power of their rockets unless you read the

book but these rockets were between 2 and 6 feet long

and up to 2.25 inches in diameter. Not so threatening

until you realize they were first constructed out of alumi-

num and then steel. The rockets were then packed the

13 NO. 147

entire length with a solid composite fuel. No recovery

device of any kind. Extremely dangerous. Extremely

foolish.

As we prepared to leave town, Peg directed me to

four women sitting on the church sidewalk to get more

information. After answering our questions, one woman

informed us of a special screening of the October Sky

movie to be held at the new cinema in Welch tonight at

9:30. The first one hundred attendees would receive an

autographed poster.

As we drove to Welch, Peg and I debated wheth-

er to stay that late for the movie. (We later found out that

all tickets had long ago been bought up by the locals.) In

Welch, as we started walking the streets, Peg decided she

wanted to get to the cinema NOW. The small theater is a

bright spot on a very dreary street. But we were thrilled

as we entered it. Right time. Right place. A female news-

caster from channel 59 was only minutes away from tap-

ing an interview with Homer!

The lobby was nearly deserted. A camera man,

newscaster, two theater managers and 5 relatives and a

friend along with Homer. We silently slipped in and sat

on a bench hoping no one would notice. After a few

minutes a woman approached and asked if she could sit

with us. It was Homer’s mother in law Sue Terry. We

quickly struck up a conversation only stopping for the

taping which we were close enough to hear. Soon her

husband Walt joined us. Then Homer’s wife, Linda. Then

Peggy Blevins organizer of the Festival and unofficial

mayor of Coalwood. They shared with us inside stories

and things we should know on our visit. Finally, Linda

asked if we had met Homer. No we hadn’t. She called

him over and he graciously answered my questions and

posed for photos. Then Homer went outside to autograph

a poster that was inside one of the cinema’s big glass dis-

play cases.

On Saturday, the Festival was to start with a pa-

rade in Coalwood around 10 a.m. We found a good park-

ing spot when we arrived at 9:30. The short parade ended

with the arrival of Homer accompanied by Peggy Blevins

in a convertible.

The activities in town are only about one good

city block long and not entirely on both sides of the

street. But what a fun time it was while both taped and

live music played the entire time. Booths were also set up

on both sides of the walkway leading up to the front of

The 2005 October sky festival By Art Nestor

NARAM 51 SPECIAL EDITION

NO. 147 TEAM PITTSBURGH 14

NO. 147 NARAM 51 SPECIAL EDIT ION 15

point out to us little known Coalwood facts.

Finally ready to call it a day at about 3 p.m., we

took a scenic drive back to our motel through War, WV

to stop at Big Creek High School. Like other mountain

communities, War and the high school were laid out

unique to the area. The football field sits directly in front

of the school. The name of the football team is the Owls

and we were amused by the large sign that read “Caution,

you are now at War with the Owls”.

If you haven’t watched the movie October Sky,

then it is one of the best movies you’ve never seen. If

you’ve seen the movie, then you need to read the book

that inspired it, Rocket Boys. I read it the week after we

got back. A very easy, entertaining read with a wealth of

background information.

To get more information on Coalwood, the Octo-

ber Sky Festival, many of the real life characters, and on

the life of Homer Hickam, visit his website at

www.homerhickam.com.

the church where the rocket boys were signing books and

things. Here you could purchase books written by Homer

and Festival memorabilia like t-shirts, mouse pads, key

chains and hats. Books purchased in Coalwood are spe-

cially stamped as such. Peg purchased a copy of the

Rocket Boys and had it signed along with her pink V-2

(already signed by Gleda Estes). She got it signed by

three rocket boys and Bill Bolt, one of the machinists.

Close by, you could purchase Big Creek High

School sweatshirts etc. This is the last year for the school

that Homer attended and where many of the events in the

story actually took place. It is to be closed because of

consolidations.

An inflatable playground for children, a NASA

display, several people selling various other merchandise

and about a half dozen food vendors rounded out the

main area. Hint: Get the crazy fries! Here also in this area

is the machine shop and other coal company buildings,

mostly closed up. A look in the machine shop windows

revealed an empty but muddied interior. You could get a

hayride to Cape Coalwood for $1.00.

We realized after awhile that we hadn’t taken any

photos of Cape Coalwood and since the hay wagon was-

n’t around we decided to walk. It was further than we

remembered and we were tired when we reached it. NAR

Section #564 - WVSOAR out of Charleston was conduct-

ing building sessions. They have a nice website at

www.wvsoar.org.

With the hay wagon that was returning to Coal-

wood full, we again decided to walk. But after a short

distance we were offered a ride by rocket boy Jim O’Dell

Carroll. We sat in the back with his father Red. You

could tell O’Dell was loving every minute of the lime-

light he was in. He continually joked with us and fre-

quently stopped the car to joke with complete strangers or

Key to photos previous page

1. Channel 59 prepares to tape an interview with

Homer.

2. Homer and the rocket boys autographed books and

other memorabilia at the top of the church steps.

3. The Hickam’s house where “the boys” blew up El-

sie’s wooden fence.

4. Peg Nestor and Sue Terry and talk at Marquee Cine-

ma.

5. Linda Hickam and Peggy Blevins on the clubhouse

porch where opening ceremonies and live music

were conducted.

Your editor at the Cape Coalwood pavilion.

The clubhouse in Coalwood (boarded up)

NO. 147 TEAM PITTSBURGH

The Rest of the Story! By Art Nestor

Top Left: The original preliminary design.

Middle Left: An AB Emblem artist’s varia-

tion of my design. I couldn’t reject it fast

enough!

Bottom Left: ERROR patch. Did someone

say NAR Auction? When the patch design

was first submitted to AB Emblems for finali-

zation, the artist assigned the wrong thread

color number for the NARAM lettering. The

error was never caught until after all 225

patches were manufactured and delivered to

me. The orange and blue threads were also

changed to slightly brighter colors when the

patches were remade.

Above: Rejected alternate design.

16