Manufacturer: | Scratch |
T' body was made from an aluminium foil core, me hearties, a tube approximately 25mm in diameter and 300mm long. Begad! Ahoy! It had balsa fins, shiver me timbers, right angled triangles about 50mm long on the opposite and adjacent sides. Ahoy! T' fins passed through t' body tube and formed spacers onto which t' engine mount would fit. Ahoy! T' engine mount was made from floppy disk labels again, with 1mm solid copper wire as t' engine restraint & retainer.
T' best thin' about this rocket was t' nose cone, me hearties, which be turned from balsa on a lathe, ya bilge rat, by local school teacher Brian Thompson, me bucko, thanks again Brian. Attached t' t' nose cone be a peizo -electric buzzer, matey, shiver me timbers, t' help locate the rocket after recovery. T' ensure safe recovery I bought an Estes parachute, I've never had much luck with streamers. Well, blow me down!
I flew t' MkII about a dozen times on various B & C size Estes engines, and had some success. Begad! Begad! I did have one recurrin' problem though which be that the shock cord would break after 2 or 3 flights. Aye aye! Blimey! What normally happened was that t' nose cone would become detached, shiver me timbers, and t' main body would recover normally, ya bilge rat, although it would travel a long way if thar was ANY cross wind. Fortunately I could always find t' nose cone, arrr, because o' t' buzzer. Avast! However on t' last flight nay only did t' nose cone detach, me bucko, I think t' parachute and body separated too. It be hard t' tell, but t' parachute blew away really quickly and didn't show any signs o' comin' down. Blimey! Well, blow me down! What happened t' t' body remains a mystery, matey, shiver me timbers, we never did find it.
Well it be nearin' t' end of its life anyway as t' engine mount be becomin' very ragged, matey, and thar was a real knack t' gettin' a new engine in. Avast, me proud beauty! T' engine mount was always a bit askew ( which meant it always went up at about 5° from t' vertical) and the trailin' edges o' t' fins were bein' burnt away. Avast!
Sponsored Ads