An Interesting Find….

This weekend I was going through some boxes of old files and papers, and found this…
 

 

A pristine Estes 1973 Catalog!
1973 was, of course, the year that I got started in model rocketry.  I must have obtained two copies of this catalog at the time, because I recall that I had a ‘working copy’ that was all dog-eared from use and filled with marks and notations.
This was the ‘good’ copy that was stashed away, thus missing being included in my big model rocketry sale of 1985.
This one is definitely going into an archival storage bag and saved in its present condition.
Cheers!

A Home Depot Launcher

"You Know You’re A Rocket Geek If…."

This is a common type of thread subject that appears from time to time on the popular rocket forums, that usually garners a lot of responses.

For me, the answer to this one is easy….

Whenever I am shopping at a store – any store - I keep an eagle-eye out for any item that could have a possible use for model rocketry.

This applies in particular to the big box home centers.  Here is my latest find.

While looking in the yard and garden aisle at Home Depot for some weed killer, I happened upon this intriguing item:

 

 

This is a tripod mounted lawn sprinkler.  I instantly recognized it as a launcher.  The extendable legs on this one are quite sturdy, even more so than the usual camera tripods commonly converted into launchers.  The footprint is quite large, which would make this a perfect launch tripod for MPR birds.

It doesn’t look like rocket science (!) to remove the sprinkler components and make the necessary conversions that would turn this item into a dandy launch pad base.

The unit is a little bit pricey, at least for my budget, but do-able.

 

Here's the info:

 

 

More Little Joe II Stuff

For those of you who might like to try your hand at scratch building a Little Joe II model rocket in whatever scale, there was a good set of scale drawings published in the September, 1969 issue of Model Rocketry Magazine.
The plans can be found starting on page 44 in the Model Rocketeer section.

This issue of MRm can be found on Ninfinger.  Here's the link:

http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/ModelRocketry/Model_Rocketry_v01n11_09-69.pdf

Back In The Day, Part 5 - The Centuri Little Joe II

Over on the ‘Rocket Building Blog’, master builder Chris Michielssen is embarking on a new build of the Estes Little Joe II kit.  I am in great anticipation of this blog series, as the LJII kit is high up on my own project list for the near future.  Chris also posted a little bit of historical info on the older Centuri and Estes Little Joe kits.

This kindled some memories of the Centuri Little Joe II which I built and flew back in 1980-1.

This is a photo of the model prior to its maiden flight in 1980.  The date is unknown, but judging from the snow in the picture it would have taken place between January and March of that year.

The model was flown on a (3) C6-3 engine cluster.   I recall that it was a very impressive flight.

The model’s second and final flight took place in April of either 1981 or 1982.  My flight documentation was quite poor back at that time.  This flight was made at a public demonstration launch at the Rustic Hills North shopping center, an annual event conducted by ROMAR, and sponsored by a hobby store located in the strip mall.

This flight of the LJII did not go so well – in fact it pranged on the asphalt and was damaged beyond repair.

The model can be seen in this photo lying on the table next to the PA box.  Close scrutiny reveals the 3 engine cluster tube assembly sitting next to the rocket, and it is obvious that most of the fins are missing.

Yep, that gangly-looking young man doing the running commentary on the PA system is me. That was in my 'hippie' days!

I never attempted to repair the LJII, and the remnant pieces were part of my general model rocket sale in 1985.

I’m definitely stoked about building another one….

It Glid Real Good....

The other day, I was at the workbench sanding the Lunar Patrol Glider wings after another coat of filler.  Since this is a somewhat tedious job, my mind began to wander a bit to an odd subject.

Here’s the question I posed to myself:

“If the past tense of ‘hide’ is ‘hid’,

and the past tense of ‘slide’ is ‘slid’,

why then is the past tense of ‘glide’ ‘glided’ ?

It should be ‘glid’.

Just thinkin’…

Launch Date: 31 May, 2017

The week following Memorial Day has been marked by increasingly mild weather conditions along the Colorado front range.  Close watch of local wind and weather forecasts revealed that today would be an ideal day to get in a little rocket flying., so I took a break from the endless yard work, packed up some rockets and gear, and headed out to Dove Valley Park.

Arriving around 10:45 a.m., the first bird to be prepped and launched was the old Hornet.  The model turned in yet another great flight on an A3-4T engine.

Next up was the much-anticipated maiden flight of the new Mini-Maggot boost glider.  After a series of hand launches, I had the glider trimmed out perfectly.  On one of these trim tosses, the glider ascended about 25 feet altitude, transitioned into glide, turned, and headed straight for me.  Before I could react, it bopped me right in the forehead!  Very helpful.

I was a bit concerned about attempting to launch this bird on a 1/4A engine with a 3 second delay, but I opted to proceed anyway.  My trepidation was confirmed at launch when the bird ascended straight up to a little over 100 feet, turned over, and headed straight down.  It pranged just when the ejection charge went off.

Much to my surprise, the glider survived the impact intact.  The power pod suffered only minor bending at the fore end of the body tube.  An easy fix that will have the Mini Maggot ready to fly another day. 

I think the glider can handle a 1/2A engine which can be had with a 2 second delay.  One bright spot of this flight was the great performance of the newly constructed glider rod and gantry system.

Since I had some spare ¼ A engines in the range box, out came the little Mosquito for a quick flight or two.

The first launch boosted the model straight and high, and, as expected with Mosquito flights, it disappeared after ejection.  Surprisingly, I spotted the model on the turf right away about 40’ distance from the launch pad.  No extended searching this time.

I quickly had the model ready to go for a second flight.  Nice thing about Mosquitos is the quick prep time.

Again, #105 boosted nicely.  By this time a bright, high altitude cloud had appeared overhead, so I didn’t even see the delay and ejection smoke.  I had to rely solely on the direction of the ejection sound to get an idea of where to start looking for the model.

This time, finding the rocket was not so easy. After a full 20 minutes of methodically searching the vicinity around the launch area, I had no Mosquito.  I did manage to find a lot of other orange things:

An orange drinking straw,

An orange candy wrapper,

An orange foam ear plug,

Even a piece of actual orange peel!

But no (BRIGHT) orange rocket.

Vexed and perplexed, I almost gave up , but decided to make one more circuit of the field, this time expanding the search radius by another 100 feet.

That’s when I finally found the bird…a full soccer field length’s distance from the launch pad. It was remarkable that it had traveled that far on a ¼ A engine!

On the long trek back to the launch area, I found this….

Doubtless left on the field after a kid’s soccer match.

“WINNER’” says the plastic medallion.

Was this a congratulatory message to me for having found the Mosquito, or is it instead a cruel mockery of the 25 minutes spent searching? 

Nevertheless, I am happy to have the Mosquito back after its 6^th flight.  The ‘WINNER’ award will be proudly draped around the model’s display stand back at the workshop!

The final flight of the day was turned in by the Estes Lynx on an A10-3T engine.  This model has always proven to be a great performer, and today’s launch was no exception. 

Ignition and boost were perfect, but at ejection I saw no deployed parachute.  The model fell fairly quickly, but in a horizontal position with the ‘chute and shock cord tangled around the wings and fins.  The Lynx survived this little mishap without a scratch.

With that done, it was time to pack up and leave DV park to the sole possession of a gentleman who was out scanning the fields with a metal detector….