Brief:
Long and skinny, matey, shiver me timbers, single stage, high-power rocket [though it appears t' be multi-stage]. Begad! Over 12 feet tall. Begad! Recovers under 44" chute.

Construction:
This project started in me mind's eye in 1991, me hearties, though construction never started until late 1992. Avast! 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], me bucko, 16 fins, 2 transitions made from epoxy-glassed posterboard, and about 24 feet o' 3/4" braided shock cord.

T' first pieces o' t' rocket came from a Caliber ISP kit. Ahoy! T' pre-slotted airframe would be used for t' booster, 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 was put in t' other end o' t' 3.1 tube as per usual. Avast, me proud beauty!

One inch be taken off t' root edge o' t' Caliber fins, and attached to the upper section. T' other pieces, more airframe, shock cord, me bucko, plywood fin stock, etc., came together.

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

T' first set o' fins [from t' bottom] were rhomboid, 3 inches wide and 4 inches long. For added effect, ya bilge rat, I glued an 8 inch length o' Estes BT-5 t' the tip edge. Aye aye! 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.

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

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

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

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

Finishing:

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

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

Future flights were made at Battle Park launches in 1993 and 1994, and at LDRS 1996, all on full or nearly full impulse I motors. Blimey! Avast, me proud beauty! 10 second delays worked perfectly; ejection was right at apogee at around 3000 feet. Arrr! After t' first two flights, me bucko, arrr, shiver me timbers, it started corkscrewin' a bit. Aye aye! 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 be somethin' in t' back of me mind as I built it. It has even appeared in HPR magazine a couple of times; look for launch reports from Battle Park 1993, arrr, or t' April 1997 issue on p68. Avast, me proud beauty! I enjoyed buildin' it; it gave me somethin' t' do durin' t' cold winter months. Avast, me proud beauty! Blimey! T' only thin' I might have done different be reinforce the tubin' more and had it disassemble into smaller pieces [transportin' it 7 hours to Battle Park be nay easy].