Being in the history business you have to do a lot of reading. I'm getting ready for my first foray into teaching in college so I'm having to educate myself for the course. It's not a straight history course, well, it's not a straight anything since it's rather interdisciplinary, but having had such an ecclectic life experience so far I'm not troubled by that aspect. With my most recent studies concentrating on 16th Century German Martial Arts and this course focusing more on 16th to 20th Century science I'm having to do a bit of new learning. So after starting this blog last night and this morning I went to reading.
But later in the afternoon I noticed that the winds were calm and my son needed some outside time. So I offered to take him to the park to launch. He turned me down. I was given some additional child-free time to get more reading done, but after less than an hour I just had to get outside.
I took the Estes Porta-Pot Shot and the Quest Future Launch Vehicle. The Porta-Pot is great for small fields. It's fun with a relatively big sound for something that doesn't go all that high. I'm finding out another good thing about it (also bad) is that the fins are easily repairable when the glue bond breaks. I had one fin come off the last time, but this time three of them came loose after the second time of it making a hard landing. Of four launches I had NO parachutes fully open! I'm sure if they would have flown over trees or the wind had picked up they would have opened. Murphy's law of model rocketry must state, "Open parachutes go toward trees, all others move quickly to the ground." The Porta-Pot made one flight on a B4-2 and another on a C6-3. The C engine gave a much more satisfying roar (although I realize that these are still tiny engines) than the minis and B's we've been firing. It also gave it enough altitude to allow the parachute to inflate. However, it decided to not inflate and instead slammed into the ground loosening three of the fins. But it's still intact and very easily repairable, so no big deal.
The Quest Future Launch Vehicle made two flights on B6-4s. Apogee Components suggests B4-2 and B6-2 instead. I'm going to start trusting them from now on because it took a nose dive and the recovery system deployment was so violent that it had problems both times. The first launch it spun in a way that kept the parachute from opening, and the second time the shock cord got stuck between one of the solid rocket boosters and the rocket body. One of the fins broke on the second landing ending my day. The fins in the kit are cardstock. I'm not sure why they didn't go with balsa fins, but I'm going to make some. I'm not sure that it would have made a difference in that impact, but it'll make me feel better. Those extra two seconds of delay time do nothing but cause problems.
After dinner my son asked to watch some of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I countered with offering to have us build his pencil rocket. He refused, but relented when I said he could play with the Star Wars toys downstairs. He helped with the measuring, identifying parts in the kit, and squeezing out glue. It was apparently my job to smear it in place since he didn't want to get his hands dirty. Why, I don't know. The build managed to keep his attention partially. He managed to find it interesting again after I finished tying in the parachute and shock cord. All that was left was the sticker, the application which he considers himself a professional. Although it's crooked I should consider it successful because he sees it as "his" and something we really did do together.
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