As the journey continues the rocket collection increases. Since the original L1 rocket was not fiberglassed or really built for a L2 attempt, a new rocket was needed. Thus the story of the PML Tethys, and a story it is. Unlike most rocket kit acquisitions, via websites, the Tethys found its way into my collection in a most unusual fashsion. I was at the checkout counter with a friend of mine at a local hobby store in Dallas and by the counter was a box with various assortment of some smaller PML kits marked off up to 40%, I thought I should look in the goodie box with the thought of another cool 38mm rocket, but there was this squatty 4" diameter rocket called the Tethys and I thought this would be real cool to build, total price was $42.00 with the steep discount. (What a steal!) Thus begins a new journey into the realities of developing a highly reliable L2 launch vehicle. This included the 1st attempt into fiberglassing which entailed 5oz cloth followed by a layer of 2oz cloth. Of course this could not have been as successful without using the newly acquired West System epoxy. The recovery system was scrapped in favor of real tubular nylon straps using Nomex heat shields, thumblock caribiners and a 44" SkyAngle parachute. Now I felt it was ready to make its' debut. In November 1998 in Windom Texas site of the NTHP (North Texas High Power) the rocket was put to the test with a J-460T loaded into the Dr. Rocket 54mm casing. Success and the L2 certification was complete. To this date the Tethys has flown 25 high power flights all on J motors with 2/3 of those flights on the full J's, J-415W and J-800T.

A quick addtional to this incredibly reliable rocket was the launch held on July 8 in McGregor Texas. I did some reinforcements to the Tethy's (the 25 flight check-up) and determined it was time to try some K motors in it which would be a 1st. A little nervous about this attempt but figured if the rocket was going to fail it would fail spectacularly. Loaded a K1100T to start off the day, WRASP had it going to 7467' at Mach 1.12 with 46'gs. Little bigger than that J800T, anyway to my amazement it literally hauled ass of that pad. Man was that COOL!. perfect arc over and deployed the SkyAngle. A quick recovery and then a K550W with the same picture perfect results. And to finish the day off with a J800T. Talk about some flying! So the total now is 28 flights with 26 J motors and 2 K motors.

The Death of the Tethys

As with all good things they eventually come to an end. The last flight of the Tethys occured during the flight restricted launch in September in Windom on a K1100T. After a picture perfect boost to about 7800' I witnessed what I thought was the ejection charge firing but then lost visual sight immediately after that. Kind of hard to see a 4' object at 1.5 miles away. Anyway, I have sent this rocket out of sight many times and always managed to get it back. This time was different, I never regained visual sight of it and figured it would eventually turn up. As I was heading back from the range a spectator came up to me and said he witnessed the Tethys flat spinning in and that it landed a about a 100 yards from the launch pads. I immediately thought flat spinning in was not good but I guess better than a lawn dart. Anyway I quickly went to where he spotted the Tethys landed and low and behold there it was, I quickly determined that was the last flight of the highly successful Tethys program. The final anaylsis was since it did flat spin in and the chute was still in the forward airframe, I concluded the Tethys did seperate after the ejection charge going off but failed to pull the chute out of the airframe. That was a 1st for me. I do not know if I could have done anything different that would have prevented that and chalk it up to one of those things! The total flight count: 29.

The final remains: History!

• Total Flights: 29
• Motor Breakdown:
  • J-275W: 4
  • J-460T: 5
  • J-415W: 9
  • J-800T: 8
  • K-550W: 1
  • K-1100T: 2
• Total Impulse: 34,546ns (O-Impulse Range)
• Total Distanced Traveled: 157,800' which equals 29.88 miles!

The Journey Takes Off

The next progression of my career was to build the next generation of rocket to incorporate an avionics package and dual deployment. I have learned much from the Tethys program, mostly a small rocket with a large motor that goes over a mile high without dual deployment tends to drift quite a ways, and people who know me, know I fly fearlessly in any wind which begot the now infamous phrase "if you're not walking, you're not flying." Anyway the construction on this rocket which was pretty much scratch build and what I call the "Phasar" after the RocketDyne kit "Quasar", just more heavily modified inlcuding a fin can design that was also incorporated in the Tethys since it's purpose was to fly strickly K impulse motors and experiment with the avionics bay. The Phasar was a highly successful project that introduced me to K motors and the beauty of dual deployment and having your rocket actually land within site! The avionics package was greatly influenced by my fellow rocketeer and good friend, Steve Baughman. The electronics selected was an Olsen FCP-M2 which has performed flawlessly on 8 flights with great flight profiles downloaded onto my laptop. Unfortunately the Phasar meet a untimely demise on April 9, 2000 through no fault of it's own. The Phasar was invited to perform some demonstration flights at the annual Coleman Air Show in Coleman Texas. The Phasar was ceremoniously designted to official kick-off the airshow right after the National Anthem, after a picture perfect straight boost on a K-550W and drogue deployment at apogee the Phasar drifted gently back to the confines of the airfield under the thunderous applause of the crowd and at the predesignated altitude of the Olsen, deployed it's beautiful SkyAngle chute at 600' and contiued it's descent back to earth, unfortunately all airshows incorporate an item not conducive to HPR, it's called a runway. Yep, the Phasa r took a hard hit on the asphalt and snapped the booster section in two. As the saying goes stuff happens and I took it all stride as that is what HPR is about, not only the success but the ineviatable bad luck! The future is near. Additional Phasar K550W and K1100T launch photos.

The Journey Aims Higher

Which brings us to the purpose of this project, to incorporate all my previous flying and building experiece to achieve L3 certification on the 1st attempt and drain my bank account.

The Journey Is Complete!

On October 27th, 2001 the Rocket Gods shined down on me and journey was completed with a completely successful Level 3 Tripoli Certification Flight!

What's NEXT!

Since the skies the limit since my Level 3 certification I have been in the design stages of producing the next generation of a high performance launch with the goal of surpasing 20,000' in altitude. This design is being developed around the Aerotecch N2000 motor since this is the largest certified motor available. More details to come.