10/25
The Superwife wanted me to drop some jeans off at her Mother’s. Alright, another launch window. We need more rockets! So a trip to the hobby shop is in order. Two was fun, but it didn’t last. Three seems reasonable. No chance for fancy shmancy paint jobs, they have to be pre-finished.

One of them is kind of cute; it looks like a No.2 pencil. It’s a long rocket, but being almost all cardboard tube it’s still extremely light. The fins on the end are very small for it’s size, kind of like a TOW rocket.

Another rocket is small and done in blue sparkles. Oh, that should be easy to track against a blue sky. Why didn’t I buy red? Red would have made more sense. Because I like blue. And Trainboy likes blue. Superwife likes blue. Ms. Pikachu likes blue. It just works that way.

We get to America’s Other Launch Pad and set up. Or try to. It’s a “no go.” Everything is in the box except the rod the rockets attach to. You really need the rod to get them going in the right direction. Gary, the Superwife’s Dad comes up with a wire that will work. There you have it, the stuff that made this country great. Conditions for launch are now “go.”

We will shoot the blue one first. Install the engine, and igniter, mount it, wire it up and Trainboy gets to shoot again. Whoosh. It’s only a slightly larger than the little one we lost last time. Not much larger, but enough that we can see it coming back down. The wind is gusting and it really carries.

It carries into a field, and we can’t find it. Another loss.

We load up the pencil rocket. Point it a little more upwind so we shouldn’t have to worry about another loss in the field.. Ms. Pikachu does the honors.

After picking up very little altitude it levels off and heads straight for the chemical plant across the road. Underneath that educated exterior it really was a military rocket. Had I been a muslim I would have yelled Allah Akhbar! and looked forward to meeting my virgins.

The chemical plant is about a half-mile away on the other side of a rise. There’s no way of knowing how far the rocket went. It’s good for a smile to think about it though.

The third one is orange with black markings, appropriate for Halloween season. Heather, the kids’ cousin gets to do the honors. It lifts off, soon turns over a little and heads north. At least we can see it coming down.

Another run around the house and fifteen minutes later the kids come back with the rocket. Our first reused rocket. Another launch and this time it flies straighter, higher. The wind carries it, and carries it. . It carries across the railroad tracks a quarter mile away and into the swamp.

You try to be prepared when you’re doing these things. But scuba gear for a water recovery never occurred to me. My bad. Maybe next time.

That’s five rockets and six launches. Not an enviable success rate for a rocket program. More of a failure rate really. But the kids have been having fun and that’s all I’m trying for. In that respect, it’s been a successful program. Now I need to buy some more rockets because there are engines left. The program goes on like a gummint white elephant.




http://publicserf.blogspot.com
Whine at me: publicserf@yahoo.com
-