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This last Tuesday, we sent out our Peak-of-Flight newsletter which featured an article about adding motor files into RockSim. Specifically, it was about creating your own motors - not those made by commercial manufacturers. With the popularity in universities of making rocket motors, we thought we'd write a guide for creating that type of engine file and then loading it into RockSim so that flight simulations can be run with the new motor. This way you’ll be able to see how your rocket will fly with the rocket motors that you might make. The one crucial step that you need to do first, is to get or create the thrust curve of the rocket motor. RockSim does not generate the thrust curves. A thrust curve is basically just a chart that plots the thrust of the rocket motor on the Y-axis, and the time on the X-axis. But if you have your thrust curve, getting that into RockSim isn't that hard. This process works for both homemade and commercial motors
 YouTube Poll
We did our first YouTube poll this past week. The question was: "What is your favorite type of video to watch from Apogee?" If you are one of our 20,000 subscribers to our channel, you may have gotten a notification directly from YouTube. But if not, you can participate here. As I write this, we've gotten over 140 responses, and the sentiment leans towards the topic of "generic how-to building videos." What new "how-to" topics would you like to see covered? I need your ideas and suggestions! Contact me here.
What's with those Geese? We had some unique visitors that were honking to get into our showroom this week. If you haven't seen the hillarious video yet, check out our Facebook post here.
 Not Quite Ready for Release... But we're working on it
We got a little surprise this week when the new version of the Simple Timer showed up at our doorstep. We knew it was coming, but not quite this quickly. We still have to write the updated instructions, but I wanted to give you and other readers of this newsletter a little sneak peek. This device is used for air-starting upper stage motors. So if you're staging composite motors, or delaying ignition in cluster motors, this is what you need. It has undergone improvement too. It now has an apogee deployment capability, which provides a back-up option to ensure safety of the flight. So if the upper stage motor fails to ignite, the rocket can still deploy a parachute at apogee to bring it down safely. With this new feature, you no longer need to put a dual-deployment altimeter into your rocket in order to get this same feature. If you are interested in getting one of the first units, sign up on our website for the back-in-stock notification email. We'll shoot an email to you when we're ready to take orders for it.
LAST CHANCE: Rocketeer's Needle File Set We have a great Tool-of-The-Month offer for April. It is an electroplated diamond coated needle file set, an indispensible tool for any model rocket enthusiast. This set includes three essential metal shapes: round, flat, and triangular. This free-with-purchase offer is only available until April 30, 2023, so don't miss your chance to get this valuable tool for your toolbox. Act now, as this offer will not be repeated! The round file is perfect for creating smooth curves and shaping concave surfaces, while the flat file is ideal for straight edges and flat surfaces. Finally, the triangular file is excellent for creating sharp edges in corners and fine detail work. For model rocket enthusiasts, these files are essential for shaping and refining various components of the rocket, such as the fins, nose cone, and the inside of a launch lug. The precision of these files makes them ideal for creating smooth aerodynamic shapes and surfaces, which can greatly improve the performance of the rocket. You'll use them as much, or even more than you do a hobby knife; that's how indespencible these are, and why they are such a great deal. To get this set of three files for free (a $6.25 value), just purchase $60 worth of Apogee's merchandise. 
What to Look Forward to Next Week?  Our 382nd how-to construction video will be released next Tuesday. The topic this time is attaching a rubber or elastic shock cord to a Kevlar leader line. The benefit is that you get the advantages of heat resistance of the Kevlar and shock absorbtion from the rubber. But if you do it wrong, you'll end up with a zipper in your body tube. So in this video, we'll show you how to do it correctly.
 We'll also be releasing our next new rocket kit on Tuesday. This will be called the Wayfarer rocket.
The Wayfarer is no small model rocket. It is a full 15 inches tall making it one of the largest truly beginner appropriate models available. Between its size and the bold graphics, this is a rocket with some serious personality. This is an excellent kit for the beginner who wants something just a bit larger than other Skill Level-1 rockets, but without being expensive, or the field needing to be larger. I'll see you in your email in-box next Tuesday. | 