Summer Adventures '05 Part II: The Rocket's Red Glare

If you are thinking I must be doing something other than driving coworkers and customers nuts with my geekness, yeah, you would be right. I've gone rocket happy.

I used to enter a model rocket in the county fair for 4H before we moved to Iowa. In the last year I began to miss the hobby. I started when my dad and I stopped by a Walmart after seeing Cinderella Man (a most excellent movie by the way) where I purchased one of Estes' Snapshot starter kits. Although it didn't pose much of a challenge and it included a pad and launcher, which I didn't need, it allowed me to fly as soon as weather would allow and it has a neat camera feature built in. I've launched it four times, twice I forgot to open the shutter. On the forth flight the fin assembly came lose.... :-/.

Since then I've purchased the following rockets:

Estes' Canadian Arrow:
This kit is based off of the X-Prize entry of the same name. The real rocket is based off of the German V-2 and the model runs on a D engine. I've always loved D engine launches. I wonder what more powerful engines are like... Anyways, I've got the engine mount built and installed and the fins ready to be mounted but nothing beyond that. Can't wait to fly this puppy though.

Quest's Big Betty:
This kit is a ripoff of Este's classic Big Bertha, but it should be fun to fly anyways. I'm ready to start on the finish of the rocket which will be a bit different from what the linked site has.

Estes' CC Express:
A two-stage rocket. I've only built one multistage rocket before which crashed on it's first multistage launch. Well, I'm older and wiser (in theory) now and I should have better luck this time. I haven't started on this one yet.

Estes' Blue Ninja:
An easy to build kit that flies on D engines. Can't have too many that fly on D's. haven't started on this one either.

Estes' Thunderstar:
Also an X-Prize entry of the same name by Starchaser Industries This kit features a dual-engine cluster meaning two engines fire at the same time. I started working on this kit and botched the engine mount. I've never done a cluster rocket so this one will be an experience to fly.

In addition to building my own rockets, I have located a couple of clubs of whose launches I hope to attend. One of them has launched a port-a-potty. Also, I've been eagerly waiting the first launch of the space shuttle in two years. The first attempt was aborted due to a faulty sensor. The second attempt is scheduled for this coming Tuesday morning.