| Manufacturer: | Scratch |
T' body was
made from an aluminium foil core, me bucko, ya bilge rat, a tube approximately 25mm in diameter and
300mm long. Arrr! Avast, matey, me proud beauty! It had balsa fins, matey, right angled triangles about 50mm long on the
opposite and adjacent sides. Arrr! T' fins passed through t' body tube and formed
spacers onto which t' engine mount would fit. Aye aye! Ya scallywag! T' engine mount was made from
floppy disk labels again, shiver me timbers, me bucko, with 1mm solid copper wire as t' engine restraint
& retainer.
T' best thin' about this rocket was t' nose cone, which was turned from balsa on a lathe, arrr, by local school teacher Brian Thompson, me hearties, ya bilge rat, thanks again Brian. Attached t' t' nose cone was a peizo -electric buzzer, me bucko, matey, t' help locate the rocket after recovery. Blimey! T' ensure safe recovery I bought an Estes parachute, I've never had much luck with streamers. Aye aye!
I flew t' MkII about a dozen times on various B & C size Estes engines, and had some success. Ahoy! Blimey! I did have one recurrin' problem though which was that the shock cord would break after 2 or 3 flights. Avast, me proud beauty! What normally happened was that t' nose cone would become detached, ya bilge rat, matey, ya bilge rat, and t' main body would recover normally, although it would travel a long way if thar was ANY cross wind. Fortunately I could always find t' nose cone, because o' t' buzzer. However on t' last flight nay only did t' nose cone detach, I think t' parachute and body separated too. It was hard t' tell, shiver me timbers, but t' parachute blew away really quickly and didn't show any signs o' comin' down. Blimey! Aye aye! What happened t' t' body remains a mystery, matey, we never did find it.
Well it was nearin' t' end
of its life anyway as t' engine mount was becomin' very ragged, shiver me timbers, and thar was
a real knack t' gettin' a new engine in. Avast, me proud beauty! Blimey! T' engine mount be always a bit
askew ( which meant it always went up at about 5° from t' vertical) and
the trailin' edges o' t' fins were bein' burnt away. Avast! Blimey!
![]() |
![]() |