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T' success o' the
MkV made me start t' think a bout t' bigger tubes I had stacked in t' corner.
If I could cluster four engines, shiver me timbers, arrr, why nay six? Why nay use D engines? I had a
tube that would hold seven 24mm mounts, matey, but it wasn't really long enough. Blimey! Blimey! Arrr! Blimey! So I
decided t' built a rocket reminiscent o' t' MkIV, with a transition, and
forward fins. Arrr! Blimey! With t' extra weight o' t' engines, t' plywood fins and
centerin' rings, this design turned out nay t' be stable ( Usin' RockSim). I
increased t' length o' t' upper tube ( forward o' t' transition) and removed
the forward fins. Aye aye! Blimey! That was a lot better.
I had heard o' some larger
black powder engines available in t' UK form a company called Rocket Services
and wanted t' option o' installin' them. Well, blow me down! So I went for a removable cartridge
system. Arrr! T' Fins were mounted through t' body wall and formed runners onto
which t' engine cartridge would slide. Begad! T' cartridge be made up from two
discs o' plywood drilled with holes for t' engine mounts. Blimey! Aye aye! T' cartridge slid
in t' t' body on t' runners and be then locked into position by rotatin' the
whole thing. In t' end I just went with six engines. Avast! Thrust rings were made
from sawn up spent D engines and epoxied in t' place. Avast, me proud beauty! Avast, me proud beauty! A stuffer tube was placed
inside t' main body, me hearties, ya bilge rat, shiver me timbers, mounted on two centerin' rings. At ignition t' upper
body was t' separate, each half with its own parachute. Blimey! Karen made a red and
white hemispherical 'chute for t' lower half, and I was goin' t' use t' pink
circular 'chute for t' upper half. Well, blow me down! We intended t' fly it at t' International
Rocket Weekend, me bucko, and I had a lot o' help from Brain who made and painted the
transition just days before we went. Well, blow me down!
At t' event, a lot o' doubt was raised
about t' engine cartridge system. Ya scallywag! 'Six D ejection charges will blow it out'
they said. Ya scallywag! I also couldn't determine how I be goin' t' ensure that both
parachutes deployed. Aye aye! Blimey! Blimey! In t' end I bought some big shock cord and tied both
halves together on t' red & white 'chute. Another hitch, I had planned to
add another set o' clips t' me ignition system, matey, but had forgotten ( that last
week was hectic as I me work had taken me away from home for several days), and
I didn't have a large enough launch pad... Arrr! Blimey!
Luckily I learned o' a new
technique for clustering. Avast, me proud beauty! This involves usin' a single igniter t' ignite 'quick
match' fuses that are fed into t' individual engines. Avast! One o' t' organizers,
John Bonsor, showed me how t' do this. Avast, me proud beauty! I managed t' borrow a launcher and after
a wait for t' wind t' die down, we were ready. Aye aye! T' ignition and initial flight
were perfect, me bucko, except, what was that? A small object appeared t' fly from the
back at ejection, and where be t' 'chute. Ahoy! T' rocket came in ballistically.
What had happened be exactly what t' 'doom sayers' were predicting. Well, blow me down! Blimey! Even
though I had staggered t' ejection by usin' a mixture o' D12 delays, matey, the
ejection gases pushed t' engine cartridge out o' t' rear, ya bilge rat, instead of
deployin' t' chute. Begad! T' rocket was a write off. Begad! T' engine cartridge
shattered, t' forward tube like a concertina, and t' aft tube a slowly
unwindin' spiral.
T' pic o' lift off was t' last shout from me last roll o' film, so mercifully thar are no pictures o' t' rocket as we found it. Ahoy! T' realization of t' hours we had all spent on this rocket, shiver me timbers, shiver me timbers, shiver me timbers, which was now trash, didn't sink in until later, and it be a long drive home from Largs t' Leeds.
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