It being a beautiful spring day, we gathered his friend and the kit into the car, and went to Beacon's Memorial Park to learn a little about Newton's laws of motion, maybe wax nostalgic about Robert Goddard and Werner von Braun.
Nah, they just wanted to hear the blast of the engine and chase after the falling rocket.
I set up for the first launch and shot it off myself to demonstrate to the boys how to use the ignition. The successful blastoff and climb was followed by the rocket falling precipitously from the sky. Why didn't the parachute work?
When I recovered it, I discovered that I had not packed enough wadding in, and the ejection stage of the rocket indeed popped off the nose cone and deployed the parachute, but the heat of the blast fused the folded plastic parachute to itself. It fell gently enough, and the rocket was ready for another flight, but I wanted to get it as right as I could.
I packed more fireproof wadding in the fuselage this time, pulled apart the parachute as best I could, and packed it back in despite a few holes and deformed patches. We were ready for a second flight, so I let the boys push the two buttons (a safety and a final switch).
Ready...
...set...
...going...
...gone.
It sailed a little off the vertical and out of sight but for the contrail. Then we saw a bright, orange parachute deploy properly, and the rocket drifted down slowly, as it was supposed to.
Except for that pesky westerly breeze. It drifted farther and father over some woods, and caught in a tree, finally.
The tree was too thin and weak to climb, so doing what I used to do as a kid, I shook it. The fuselage broke free of the shock cord and fell.
Finn's not as upset as he looks, trust me. He knows we have another rocket, and we can repair this one with a new nose cone & parachute.
I remember all of my brothers were into model rocketry when I was little. Tony, especially, organized all his equipment carefully and I remember witnessing a few launches.Next time we either find more space, smaller engines, or a still day.
From RogerV: "I launched a multi-engine rocket which my neighbor, Mr. Casson, had lent to me. Unfortunately, not all the engines lit simultaneously, so as soon as it cleared the guide rod, it took a turn to the north. Coincidentally, my next door neighbor, Mr. Baker, was up on his roof installing a CB antenna. He claimed the rocket cleared his head by about 6 feet, and he later said that he was just about ready to take the dive off his roof to save himself... Meanwhile, after searching for 2 hours, I eventually gave up on recovering the rocket, and had to go back and tell Mr. Casson the bad news."
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