Biography - Bradley Vatsaas

Brad is the oldest brother, and if you were required to pick a black sheep out of the three, Brad would be it. Not that he is really that outrageous - it's really that the younger brothers are terminally dull.

Not long after graduating from high school, Brad was off to Chicago to be rapidly expelled from an astoundingly numerous succession of colleges and universities. All told, he managed to squeeze four years of college into seven, taking every opportunity to put his college education on hold in order to tour the globe with sundry rock & roll bands. The prodigal finally returned to Minnesota in 1981 and finished his Bachelor's degree in Accounting and Business Administration at the University of St. Thomas (an actual institution of higher learning in St. Paul, not a mail order diploma mill with a P.O. box in the Caribbean). He also has a Masters Degree in the disciplines of Government contract Administration and International Management from the same superlative epicenter of academic pursuits.

Bradley began his professional career in the Finance area of Honeywell, Inc., assigned to the Military Avionics Division in Minneapolis. It was there that he supported a number of military aircraft and missile programs, such as Sparrow, Stinger, Harpoon, and Standard ARM in the design and manufacture of radar altimeters, inertial sensors, flight control computers and targeting systems. Bradley also punctuated his career with excursions into commercial avionics and corporate Finance, and even tried out his project management skills on a program to install an integrated targeting and display system into the pilot's helmet on fixed-wing fighter aircraft. Brad moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1997 to join of the executive leadership team at Honeywell's Air Transport Systems business, which supplies integrated avionics solutions for large commercial aircraft. In early 2003, he became the Director of Finance for Honeywell's Defense and Space segment of their Aerospace business.

Bradley has been married to Lynette since 1985 and is the father of Britta, Danielle, and Stefan. None of them is as wacky about rockets as he is.

After experimenting with rocketry during his tempestuous youth, Brad's descent toward unrestrained addiction began after viewing 'October Sky' on video with his family. At the time Brad promised himself that he would limit his experimentation to model rockets, only on the weekends, and he would only fly them socially. But black powder was only a pathway to harder stuff. Soon he realized that getting high - or as it is surreptitiously referred to by the community of those similarly addicted, "altitude" or "apogee" - occupied his every thought. When hanging around hobby stores no longer satisfied him, he found himself cruising dark corners of the Internet looking for new suppliers. He has experimented with various exotic resins. His hands bear the lingering stains of epoxy abuse. He constantly reeks of paint thinner and Acetone. His eyes are bloodshot and nostrils inflamed from inhaling the fumes of Cyanoacrylate. He trembles uncontrollably if he goes for protracted periods without 'lighting up' Ammonium Perchlorate. And every 'shot' normally requires a follow-up 'fix' of one type or another.

Bradley is currently receiving counseling from Dr. Rocket and is enrolled in an out-patient program administered by Recovery Technologies.