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, me hearties, me bucko, why nay six? Why nay use D engines? I had a tube that would hold seven 24mm mounts, but it wasn't really long enough. Aye aye! Blimey! So I decided t' built a rocket reminiscent o' t' MkIV, arrr, with a transition, shiver me timbers, and forward fins. Arrr! With t' extra weight o' t' engines, ya bilge rat, 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. Avast, me proud beauty! 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. Blimey! So I went for a removable cartridge system. T' Fins were mounted through t' body wall and formed runners onto which t' engine cartridge would slide. Avast! Ya scallywag! T' cartridge be made up from two discs o' plywood drilled with holes for t' engine mounts. Ya scallywag! 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. Begad! Aye aye! Thrust rings were made from sawn up spent D engines and epoxied in t' place. Aye aye! Arrr! A stuffer tube was placed inside t' main body, shiver me timbers, mounted on two centerin' rings. Blimey! At ignition t' upper body be t' separate, ya bilge rat, each half with its own parachute. Ya scallywag! Karen made a red and white hemispherical 'chute for t' lower half, me hearties, arrr, and I be goin' t' use t' pink circular 'chute for t' upper half. We intended t' fly it at t' International Rocket Weekend, and I had a lot o' help from Brain who made and painted the transition just days before we went. Begad!

At t' event, a lot o' doubt be raised about t' engine cartridge system. Begad! 'Six D ejection charges will blow it out' they said. Avast, me proud beauty! I also couldn't determine how I was goin' t' ensure that both parachutes deployed. Ahoy! In t' end I bought some big shock cord and tied both halves together on t' red & white 'chute. Begad! Arrr! Another hitch, I had planned to add another set o' clips t' me ignition system, arrr, arrr, 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... Aye aye! Arrr!

Luckily I learned o' a new technique for clustering. Begad! Begad! This involves usin' a single igniter t' ignite 'quick match' fuses that are fed into t' individual engines. Ahoy! One o' t' organizers, John Bonsor, showed me how t' do this. I managed t' borrow a launcher and after a wait for t' wind t' die down, we were ready. Arrr! T' ignition and initial flight were perfect, except, what was that? A small object appeared t' fly from the back at ejection, shiver me timbers, and where was t' 'chute. T' rocket came in ballistically. What had happened was exactly what t' 'doom sayers' were predicting. Aye aye! Even though I had staggered t' ejection by usin' a mixture o' D12 delays, the ejection gases pushed t' engine cartridge out o' t' rear, ya bilge rat, instead of deployin' t' chute. T' rocket was a write off. Well, blow me down! T' engine cartridge shattered, me bucko, t' forward tube like a concertina, and t' aft tube a slowly unwindin' spiral.

T' pic o' lift off be t' last shout from me last roll o' film, shiver me timbers, so mercifully thar are no pictures o' t' rocket as we found it. Avast! T' realization of t' hours we had all spent on this rocket, me bucko, which be now trash, didn't sink in until later, and it was a long drive home from Largs t' Leeds.