Altitudes are estimates. We stand about 300 feet from the pad with a homemade angle-finder (a protractor, a drinking straw and a washer on a string), Danny reads the angle at apogee, and I look it up on a table of tangents I printed out. It's not exact but it's better than guessing. Motor codes: the letter is total power (each letter is double the one before), the first number is average thrust, and the last number is the delay in seconds before the ejection charge pops the parachute.

1999 total so far: 36 flights, 0 lost, 1 egg saved.

Filling balsa fins. Balsa has grain like a tiny corduroy, and if you paint over it you get a fuzzy finish. Brush on two or three coats of sanding sealer (or wood filler thinned with water to the consistency of pancake batter), and sand with 400-grit between coats until the fin feels like glass. Round the leading edges and taper the trailing edges with a sanding block. This is boring and it takes a couple of evenings, and it is the single biggest difference between a rocket that looks homemade and one that looks like it came from a store.

Glue fillets. After the fins are on, run a bead of yellow wood glue along each fin-to-body joint and smooth it with a wet fingertip. Makes a strong joint and looks professional. We lost a fin on Red Streak in September because I skipped this on the repair. Didn't skip it the second time.

Painting. Spray primer first, sand it light, then color in thin coats. Three thin coats beat one thick one every time; a thick coat runs, and a run on a fin is forever. Let it dry a full day between colors. Paint in the garage with the door open, not in the house (ask my wife). Mask with real masking tape, pressed down hard along the edge, and pull it off while the paint is still a little soft.

Recovery wadding. This is the flame-proof tissue you stuff between the motor and the parachute so the ejection charge doesn't melt your chute. Use it every flight, no exceptions. Loosely crumple 3 or 4 squares for a small rocket, more for a fat tube. Don't pack it tight and don't substitute paper towel or regular tissue, which are not flame-proof and will burn. We had a chute come back with a hole melted in it once from too little wadding; the rocket came down like a rock. And pick up your wadding off the field. The sod farm guy is watching.

Shock cord. The elastic between the body and the nose cone takes a beating. Mount it with the folded-paper "tri-fold" method glued well down inside the tube, and check it before every launch. Replace it when it gets stiff or frayed. A shock cord that snaps means two pieces of rocket coming down separately.

Cracked fin repair. Work thin super glue into the crack, hold it 30 seconds, then add a wood-glue fillet on both sides once it's set. Sand, touch up the paint. Good as new, almost.

Everybody at work has to write one of these, so here's ours. All rockets in the fleet listed above are fully Y2K compliant. They contain no microchips, no clocks and no software. On January 1, 2000 they will operate exactly as they did on December 31, 1999: up, then down. The launch controller has been inspected and found to contain a 9-volt battery and a light bulb. The tangent table was printed in 1998 and is not date-sensitive. Danny has been briefed.