10/18
We visited the Superwife’s folks. They live in the country. I’d bought some model rockets a long time ago in the expectation this opportunity would arrive. The kit contained two rockets for assembly, launching stand, and an ignition controller. All you needed were some assembly time, engines, and batteries. Fun, fun, fun.

One of the rockets was conventional- after the engine burns out it fires a charge that knocks the nose cone off and deploys a parachute. The parts were pre-painted in black and yellow.

The other rocket was much smaller, instead of deploying a parachute each half has an unsymmetrical set of fins. The halves just spin down to their landings. It was unfinished so I painted it purple with chrome leading edges. A rather cool paint job, imho.

When I bought the kit I looked at the box to see what size engines to get. There was a range of possible ones. Common sense would be to start small and work up. Hah! And again, I say Hah! If you’re going to do it, do it right. I got the most powerful engines possible. This could be fun because stupid has its moments. Stupid can be exhilarating.

When we got to the in-laws I set up the base, wired up a rocket and…. Freaking thing wouldn’t work. When you insert the launch key a light bulb is supposed to light up. No light, no joy. So I took it inside and took the controller apart. It was as simple as it could be, inserting the key just puts a pin between two metal plates, thereby completing the circuit. How could anything be wrong?

But inserting the key does not get a light. The only thing that seems plausible is that the gap is just a little too wide between the plates, even though it looks good. So it gets a squeezing with a pliers and….. it works. The light bulb glows in affirmation.

We take it back outside, point the rocket upwind so the wind will carry it back to us. Wire it up, hold in the key, hold down the launch button and whoooooosh. I look up to watch it go, it’s already gone. There’s just a little smoke trail that’s already being blown away. It was a little rocket with a big engine- the Ferrari of rockets. It was out of sight before I looked up. When the engine was done, it broke into its two pieces. If you couldn’t see one piece you surely couldn’t see two smaller ones. That was a one-shot rocket. But it was fun. The kids liked it. Did it ever go.

Problem. I never installed the parachute in the remaining rocket. The parachute isn’t in the box. No career in NASA for me. One rocket is gone for good; the remaining rocket just isn’t good. What to do, what to do? Easy decision, we launch. Gotta keep the public happy.

Wire it up, aim it up wind and who wants to launch it? Trainboy volunteers. Hold down the key, hold down the launch button and…whoosh. Another winner, it goes and goes. Being a bigger rocket we can see it though. It comes back down tumbling end over end.

With a parachute it might have carried back to us. But we lose sight of it as it descends on the other side of the house. Run around the house and…. it’s gone. We look around, but can’t find it. If they lived in the middle of a golf course it would be so much easier. Too bad, but it was fun. We’ll have to do it again. We have to, we have more engines, and it would be sinful to waste them. Right?
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