The NARHAMSter! 

I belong t' NARRRRR section #139, arrr, NARHAMS, so t' thought o' makin' a hamster themed rocket for t' DESCON be just too powerful t' resist.

2 "habitrail" tubes 2 tube ends 24 mm motor mount I had lyin' around Lexan for t' fins Estes nylon chute from some kit or another Some ¼ inch elastic from some kit or another Had t' have some duct tape. Aye aye! Blimey! Blimey! Blimey!

T' tubes and one o' t' turrets for t' nose cone. Gosh that almost looks like a rocket!

T' other turret with t' motor mount and hook installed. Begad! Avast!

For those of you who’ve never had gerbils or small rodents as pets before, arrr, you can get these wonderful attachments t' t' cages called Habitrails. These plastic tubes are hooked together t' create little highways for your hamster or gerbil t' run around in and basically pee everywhere. Arrr! Havin' nay so fond memories o' cleaning these things out, I used fresh ones for me rocket.

Construction be fairly straight forward. I connected t' 2 tubes together usin' t' supplied snap rings. Ya scallywag! I had t' trim t' upper rin' t' allow t' nose cone t' separate, matey, me hearties, and cut t' tail cone for t' motor tube. Avast, me proud beauty! Arrr! Fortunately the turrets had air vents in them that were holes arranged in a circle just the right size for t' BT-50. Fins were cut out and glued t' t' body usin' rivets made by drillin' a series o' holes in t' tube.Epoxy was used throughout the construction.

Lookin' for that extra margin o' safety, matey, arrr, I ran t' parts through RockSim. This be t' 3-D renderin' it made.

I also used t' RockSim fin templates t' cut out t' fins. Begad! They wrap down around t' tail cone and t' program automatically adjusted t' root edge for this.

So how did it fly? Pretty darned well. Begad! Blimey! Aye aye! Blimey! Blimey! Blimey! I decided t' launch this beastie at the Goddard Space Flight Center on Easter Sunday. After some concern over the launch lug, I found a bic pen and snapped it in half t' give a second lug. This satisfied t' RSO and I was allowed t' approach t' pad.

Flew so well, I missed it on take off. Avast, me proud beauty! T' flight was straight with ejection at apogee.

Alas, me hearties, matey, t' NARHAMSter landed right next to a nice patch o' grass in the parkin' lot at Goddard, arrr, breakin' one o' t' lexan fins above t' epoxy joint.