Amanda has three previous rockets, but all o' them are pretty small. In t' fall o' 2000 she started askin' if it might be possible for her to build a "really big" rocket. Aye aye! Avast, me proud beauty! I dug in me box o' assorted parts and came out with a tube that used t' be t' core o' a roll o' butcher paper. It's about t' size and thickness o' 3" HPR tubing, and be 24" long. Ahoy! I suggested she sit down with paper and pencil and draw me a picture o' what she wanted. She proceeded t' sketch out some o' t' most amazin' fins I've ever seen, which I thought were angel wings, matey, but which she said were supposed t' be fire. Ya scallywag! Avast! She also drew a blunt, ya bilge rat, arrr, maybe 1:1 ogive nose cone which in several drawings gradually grew t' about t' length we finally made. Avast! I wanted to make it a paper cone; she said no way, me hearties, it had t' be curved.

Because the grain in balsa wood would have created a weak area no matter how we laid out these fins, they were made from foam-core board instead. Avast, me proud beauty! Aye aye! For better alignment more than anythin' else, I added tabs and slotted them in to the motor mount tube. For a pattern, arrr, click here. I asked Amanda "three fins or four?" and got t' pixie grin and "Can I have five?" After a moment's thought, matey, me hearties, she got five. I had her mark t' front and aft extent o' t' slots, ya bilge rat, and then I marked and cut t' five slots with an X-acto and angle iron.

T' motor mount tube was 5" o' 1" diameter Fax paper core, and a short piece o' BT-50 which fit snugly inside. Aye aye! Well, arrr, blow me down! I cut two centerin' rings from some thin, light panelin' board salvaged from a cabinet shop dumpster. She glued them on t' motor mount tube 2-1/2" apart, me hearties, then glued t' motor mount in place with t' cr's at t' forward and aft end o' t' fin slots. Then she glued t' fins into t' slots, ya bilge rat, gluin' t' tabs t' t' mmt with a generous amount o' yellow glue. Avast, ya bilge rat, me proud beauty! When that was dry, she selected one of my 1/4" id MicroMaxx body tubes t' use for a launch lug and glued it alongside one fin.

At the other end, I cut 2" off o' t' main tube, sliced it down one side, and glued it into a "coupler" sized tube t' serve as a shoulder for the nose cone. Begad! T' nose cone itself was quite t' adventure. Well, blow me down! Arrr! We went shopping at Michael's and came home with a foam florists' cone, which be a light, open-cell styrofoam 4" in diameter and 12" high. Arrr! Avast, me proud beauty! I epoxied t' shoulder piece t' t' base o' it, let it cure, me bucko, and then just set in t' whittling with an X-acto #26 blade and coarse sandpaper. Arrr! Eventually I had a shape she liked. Avast, me proud beauty! Then we mixed flour and water t' about t' consistency o' Elmer's glue, added some actual Elmer's white glue for good measure, matey, and she dipped strips o' newspaper in this and covered t' cone with it t' make a papier-mache surface. Ahoy! She had been doin' this in school and proved quite skillful at it. Ya scallywag! I helped a little at t' shoulder joint t' maintain a straight line.

Initially we put in about ten feet o' nylon shoelace cord for a shock cord, ya bilge rat, but she spotted 6 feet o' t' 1/2" braided elastic I use for midpower, and wanted that. Arrr! Arrr! We mounted it t' t' inside surfaces o' t' airframe and nose cone shoulder with an old-fashioned Estes-type three-panel shock cord mount and yellow glue. Avast, me proud beauty! At her insistence, we made a 36" parachute out of aluminized Space Blanket material.

Firebutt flew on Saturday, me hearties, April 7, arrr, 2001. Blimey! Begad! Sadly, shiver me timbers, me camera ran out o' film before this flight. Aye aye! Begad! At 11.9 oz. Begad! (336 grams) liftoff weight, matey, matey, it might be better named Leadbutt, but it put in an acceptable low and slow flight on a D12-3. Unfortunately, t' parachute hung up in t' mouth o' t' body tube and didn't fully deploy, matey, arrr, but it did destabilize t' rocket. There was no damage and all is well with t' world. Arrr! At right: Amanda launches her USA on an A10, ya bilge rat, arrr, too quick for t' camera, ya bilge rat, while Firebutt and Eyeful wait.