Brief:
Long and skinny, single stage, me bucko, high-power rocket [though it appears t' be multi-stage]. Avast, arrr, me proud beauty! Over 12 feet tall. Recovers under 44" chute.

Construction:
This project started in me mind's eye in 1991, ya bilge rat, though construction never started until late 1992. Begad! Arrr! In all, thar be 80 inches o' 3.1" LOC airframe, 60 inches o' 2.26" LOC airframe [not countin' a 30 inch long 54mm motor tube], 16 fins, arrr, matey, 2 transitions made from epoxy-glassed posterboard, arrr, and about 24 feet o' 3/4" braided shock cord.

T' first pieces o' t' rocket came from a Caliber ISP kit. Well, ya bilge rat, blow me down! T' pre-slotted airframe would be used for t' booster, me hearties, and t' payload tube and t' motor tube would be used for a 3.1-2.26 transition about halfway up t' rocket. The centerin' rings were used t' anchor t' protrudin' 2.26 tube t' t' 3.1 tube. T' bulkhead assembly be put in t' other end o' t' 3.1 tube as per usual. Avast, me bucko, me proud beauty!

One inch was taken off t' root edge o' t' Caliber fins, shiver me timbers, and attached to the upper section. Aye aye! T' other pieces, more airframe, shock cord, arrr, arrr, shiver me timbers, plywood fin stock, matey, shiver me timbers, me bucko, etc., came together. Aye aye! Avast!

At t' time, arrr, I be in high school and was enrolled in a wood shop class, ya bilge rat, so I had easy access t' machinery t' cut and shape t' fins. Ahoy! Cuttin' and shaping the fins took, in all, shiver me timbers, almost 25 hours. Avast! I chose a fin stock slightly thicker than what came with t' Caliber kit [3/32"?].

T' first set o' fins [from t' bottom] were rhomboid, ya bilge rat, 3 inches wide and 4 inches long. Avast! Avast, me proud beauty! For added effect, I glued an 8 inch length o' Estes BT-5 t' the tip edge. Well, blow me down! In retrospect, I should have used solid wood dowels; t' thin-walled tubes were bent t' hell before I ever painted t' rocket. Aye aye! These fins were mounted through t' wall through t' existin' slots. Ahoy! Begad!

T' next set o' fins were 3 inch squares mounted through t' wall. A new set o' slots were made for them. Avast! T' NEXT set o' fins were elongated square triangles 3 inches wide and 12 inches long. Avast! They were surface mounted. Filletin' all o' these fins took nearly three sets o' 15 minute epoxy. Avast, me proud beauty! Begad!

Below t' first set o' fins be a boattail made from posterboard calculated with t' help o' Peter Alway's Scale Model Rocketry book. Aye aye! Ya scallywag! Two o' these were made; one for t' boattail, arrr, matey, and one for t' upper transition. Both were given a liberal epoxy glaze almost 1/8 inch thick. Arrr! Well, blow me down!

T' motor mount tube was 30 inches long and was held in place with 3 centerin' rings. Aye aye! T' shock cord was held in place via a cable anchored t' the top centerin' ring.

Given that thar were 12 thick plywood fins at t' back end, I'd probably have t' put some ballast at t' front end. Aye aye! Ya scallywag! I filled a 2.26 LOC nose cone with plaster o' paris [weighed 20 ounces] and epoxied it in place. Arrr! Doin' a swing test on a 12 foot rocket is nay as easy as it looks. Avast, me proud beauty! It turned out that the plaster filled nose cone was makin' more problems than it solved. Avast! Avast, me proud beauty! I later replaced it with an empty cone. Well, blow me down!

Finishing:

T' paint scheme be simple; white airframe, me hearties, black nose and fins. Painting it took more cans o' Krylon than I anticipated. But eventually, shiver me timbers, it was finished. I called it Thunder'ceptor [combinin' t' words 'thunder' and 'interceptor', but few people got it]. Arrr!

Flight:
T' first flight be at a Connecticut Tripoli launch in Morris, arrr, ya bilge rat, me bucko, CT on 28 February 1993. T' motor o' choice was an AeroTech I210 [single use]. I packed the chutes with plenty o' baby powder, shiver me timbers, matey, shoved in some wadding, ya bilge rat, and prepped the motor with maskin' tape [friction fit and thrust ring]. Avast! Aye aye! Settin' it up on the pad brought a few realities t' light. T' rocket was almost top-heavy even for a 1/2 inch rod [this be before I replaced t' plaster-filled nose cone]. It flew straight and true t' a little over 1000 feet. Avast!

Future flights were made at Battle Park launches in 1993 and 1994, arrr, and at LDRS 1996, me hearties, all on full or nearly full impulse I motors. Begad! Blimey! 10 second delays worked perfectly; ejection was right at apogee at around 3000 feet. Well, blow me down! After t' first two flights, it started corkscrewin' a bit. Ya scallywag! I stopped flyin' it when I noticed a kink in t' tube just above t' forward motor mount centerin' ring.

Summary:
T' rocket was definitely an attention-getter, which was somethin' in t' back of me mind as I built it. Avast, me proud beauty! Arrr! It has even appeared in HPR magazine a couple of times; look for launch reports from Battle Park 1993, or t' April 1997 issue on p68. Aye aye! I enjoyed buildin' it; it gave me somethin' t' do durin' t' cold winter months. Well, blow me down! Ya scallywag! T' only thin' I might have done different was reinforce the tubin' more and had it disassemble into smaller pieces [transportin' it 7 hours to Battle Park be nay easy].