Successful Flights!

The rocket sessions at both schools went without a hitch! The kids at Linda Verde were super excited and were amazed at the launches. The best of the day was the first, when "Biggie Bertha" took off on a picture perfect flight in front of hundreds of kids gasping "WOW!!!" The next best was a delta winged model that flew on a C11-3. Not expecting to see it again, it shot off the pad and into the wild blue (calm all day by the way!) to what looked like at least 800 feet. The chute deployed and it came back down in the school yard behind the crowd line to jubilant cheers.

After that fun, it was off to Mariposa School and the After School Rocket Club's first flying session of the school year. We got more new members and everyone got to fly their Quest Starhawk rockets. Had some astounding flights since my assistant put C engines in most of them.
The kids and parents there had a total blast!

Rocketry at School Returns

Monday was a busy day of rocketry. Mrs. Leemus class had decorated their rockets and proudly displayed their reports of the launchers their groups were named from.

Over at Mariposa, I passed out Quest Starhawk rockets to build and the club got new members. Parents joined and helped the building session.

More Rockets Today

The second sessions of rocketry are taking place today at Mariposa and Linda Verde schools. At Linda Verde, the kids get parachutes for their rockets and I get to see how each group has researched their launch rocket group name. We'll fly them next session in two weeks. Over at Mariposa, we're having the second meeting of the After School Rocketry Club. We have more kids joining up, and today Quest Starhawk rockets will be given out and assembled. In each class, I'm going to introduce a little rocket math. I'll be showing how to calculate rocket altitude today using triangulation trigonometry. Each class will also get some Man and Space books from the old Time Life Sciences collection. These books excited me about the space flights of the 60's when I was their age, now they serve as historic markers of the space race

A New Beginning

The school year is well under way, and this year, rocketry in school is taking a giant leap forward. With the kind approval of Mariposa School's Principle, I've started an after school rocketry club with the help of Mrs Adams and Mrs Blanchard. It's a school year program, longer than any we've done in the past, and the mission is to teach as much math, science, history and English composition as possible through rocketry.

It will culminate in a competition with neighboring Linda Verde School to see who can design and build a rocket that will launch an egg into the air and bring it back intact. A tall order for 4th and 5th grade students but I know they can do it.

Over at Linda Verde, the principle, Mrs. Zapata, welcomed the idea of a rocketry program at her campus and enlisted the aid of Mrs. Leemus, who transferred there from Mariposa. Some of her kids flew with me last year, and she is no stranger to the rockets. Here's her happy class after getting their rockets today.


This will lead to a friendly competition between both schools in the Egg-straordinary Space Challenge later in the spring of 2010. These are future Team America Rocketry Challenge students in the making!

Last Blast!

Today was the last rocket launch of the 08-09 school year. Kids who didn't get to fly due to testing and year-end field trips got a chance to fly today. The weather was great! Clear skies and no winds 'till noon! We had a trickle of kids at first, but more came after the "whoosh" of the first rockets were heard in the neighborhood.

Crayon Final Assembly

With installation of these bolts and screws to secure the rear fairing and engine mount to the airframe, the big crayon is ready for its first flight. The small wood screws in the airframe join up with the thick ring of the engine tube, holding it (the engine mount system) all together. It can be removed for maintenance. The outer fairing bolts mate it to the engine mount with blind nuts.

All that remains is to decide on the launch site, which may be the dry lake bed at the Edwards AFB or near my home on huge vacant lot. I have chosen a G-series re-load engine.

YAY! Rocket May Day

Today it was Mrs. Adams' class's turn to fly their rockets. The weather cooperated a bit though we still had winds, just enough to sacrifice a couple of drifters to the rocket-eating tree next to the playground. It was a fun day for all.

Another shot at Flying Friday

If the weather cooperates, a lot of rockets are going into the air on the 22nd. Two to three classes and one with parachute work to do. Here's a pic of Mrs. Davis and her crew. She's holding a crayon rocket, with the signatures of her students and fellow teachers we'll be flying for as her farewell gift. She'll have to move on to another district, the victim of cuts of teachers in Lancaster. She's one of the good ones and I hate to see her go. With luck, she'll pick up a position in the area, and more kids will be introduced to rocketry!

Too Windy!

It was too windy for our school rocket launch with Mr Dawson's class, so I passed out some more rockets I promised to another 4th grade class, Mrs. Leemus's, the last for the school year. The kids were really happy and excited to have a chance at flying rockets.


In the next two weeks, they'll have them all painted up with parachutes installed ready to fly. I gave the teacher one too, an Estes Skywriter. The class put their names on it, and it will sit proudly on her desk for years to come.

Work Continues

This week, The launch pad got a blast deflector and I glued the aft centering ring in place with epoxy. I also installed the inserts for the engine retainer. Epoxy fillets were applied to the fin joints and rings. That strengthens things up a bit. The nose cone bulkhead was glued in place with Z R/C 56. Hopefully we'll install the recovery system this week and call it a wrap. On Monday, May 11, I've got a school rocket launch coming up. I'll have a few pics of that here for you afterward.

The Crayon's Launcher

My pneumonia has dissipated, and I'm back at the work bench. This is the launcher I made for the Crayon and the other tall rockets in my fleet. It came to me during one of my particularly nasty nights of coughing during my bout with my ailment. How its made is explanatory, most of the tube and stuff came from home depot and the aluminum is scrap. I'm a sheet metal worker of aircraft by profession, so bending this stuff was easy.

Next up, I go back to the recovery stuff, I got some rings I needed from a local hardware store instead of buying on line ( SUPPORT YER LOCAL HARDWARE AND HOBBY STORES!)

My Friend, Pot

No, I'm not talking about weed. That's the nickname of my long-time global friend, Postoria Aguirre. Pot and I go way back. We met in the spring of 1972. I was a sophomore at Chicago Vocational School (now called Chicago Vocational Career Academy or CCVA) and he, a freshman at Bowen High, just up 87th street in the steel district of Chicago's south side.

It was the occasion at the Avalon Branch Library where I was holding a model car display and a naming contest of my latest scratch built model; an amphibious motor home, that we met and found we shared the same interest, building plastic model cars at the height of the muscle car era.
No two beings could be more different: Me, a tall lanky 2nd year high schooler, and Pot, a diminutive guy just out of eighth grade. We were the African American Mutt & Jeff. We bought and built models together. After he picked up on the RV skills, he made his own, and we'd convene on a Sunday afternoon with our finished models and compare features:

"Mine has a furnished bathroom and toilet, complete with working lid"

"Mine flushes!"

"I've got vinyl paper wood panel walls"

" I've got polished wood veneer"

" My running lights work'

" My turn signals flash!"

We expanded RV power train technology to extreme lengths. Pot dabbled in fuel cells/hybrids while I fiddled with turbines. Our brains were in the 21st century back in '73! Thankfully, our parents never had to worry about us. We were either deep in our workshops or at Stanton Hobbies on the northwest side. Or, we were working the MPC model car contest at the custom car shows that hit Mc Cormick Place each year. In general, being two years older, I felt responsible for making sure he'd come to no harm and be a positive influence, so I stayed well away from the teenage distractions of booze, drugs and bad decisions with girls. This was good for both of us, looking back on it.

Our work benches were a contrast in methods: Mine was a clutter of the current project, materials and tools (and you can still see that even today in my pics) while Pot's spot in his cellar (god, how I miss those!) was/is satellite room spotless. A place for everything and everything in it's place. With a nod to Pot, I do clean up, only to have the next project make more mess. Ah well, I still know where everything is unless the wife comes in cleans the bench.

We shared the heyday of Estes rocketry, flying in Jeffery Park next to CVS. We'd get ridicule from the other kids in the park for "talking like white boys" when we enthused over the last flight, speaking in techno-tongue with terms like "apogee" "chute deployment". Our most interesting experiment (and don't try this at home, kids!) was comparing a ground detonation of an M-80 cherry bomb to an air detonation. On the ground, the whole neighborhood knew what you were up to, and car alarms went off. In the air, we noted the flash at 800 feet and heard a small "crack" a few seconds later. Don't worry NAR, we won't be conducting tests like that again.

1974 came , and I passed on my associations in the modeling hobby to Pot, while I finished my ultimate expression of RV design , the XRV, prior to joining the Air Force. The XRV was a product of watching too much Gerry Andersen stuff. Thunderbirds and UFO figured much in its design and function. It was big and could fly. In theory anyway. It was so powerful that it wasn't allowed in most cities. So a smaller vehicle (hey, who knew I invented "dingies") stored in a rear compartment that only Lockheed could envy, was used for travel into town! The XRV got an award at the city wide district school trades exhibition for it's radical pearl and multicolor stenciled paint job I applied to it for my major in auto body/fender repair. I joined the Air Force that summer and we parted ways for a time. When my leave allowed, I visited with him. When my tours took me overseas and to foreign hobby stores, I made sure Pot got a rarity that I'd discover; a Revell BMW 318i, other things.

While I pursued an Air Force career, Pot's talents were not wasted. He got a scholarship to GMIT and later worked for Buick's design department. Among the first African Americans to do so. We've both traveled widely and kept in touch, finally landing in California. He in the Bay, I in the Southern California. He'll mount up on his motor bike and stop by on the way to major IPMS events. He never forgets a birthday and always calls me on mine. Two teens, now in our 50's. Always one thing in common. Our love of hobby. These hobbies have kept us out of life's pitfalls. We've led interesting lives. Our friendship will play out like Sponge Bob and Patrick, chuckling in the grave. Our friendship continues on to that day we're called home to the Lord's hobby store. And I'm sure we'll be comparing who makes the best wings for everyone..........

Here's to you, my best bud!

Recovery

I'm starting the recovery section of the crayon, and it seems I'm recovering too. I'm not coughing and hacking in the middle of the night at least, but I know it's still lurking about in my lungs. I've been getting some good advice from the folks at Rocketry Planet's forums. I'll be investing in snap rings and swivels to connect to the eyelets in the top centering ring and the nose cone. I recently received my engine retainer, Kevlar cord, nylon cord, Nomex heat shield blanket and a 48" nylon parachute.

Now it's time to bring them all together. While I'm using high strength parts, the idea of tying them all together with overhand knots seemed low brow and potentially unsafe for a rocket of this power, up to H or more. I was stumped for a while until my latent boy scout leader skills came to the fore. When I was active in scouting, one of my favorite skills I taught was pioneering. Woodland engineering were you would construct all manner of shelter and structures using rope and poles made from felled trees. You actually got to put those knots to good use. One skill that helped this project was making the cords into a eye end with an end whip. This is used to keep the ends of rope from fraying.

So I turned the cord back unto itself, and wound a whip with Quest Kevlar thread. Here's the results:

I work with Kevlar in my job in aerospace, so I knew I could do one more finishing maneuver; Once I had the whip secured, I put a drop of CA glue on the end of the cord to close it up and prevent fraying. It wicked immediately and solidified the end. I put another drop on the whip. It also wicked and hardened. I now have a strong Kevlar eyelet that can handle any stress put to it.

If you haven't done a whip before, here's a drawing to show how it's done. They also come in handy for securing control rods to wood dowels for R/C aircraft controls.

One final note: I perfected the operation by wicking the end of the cord first, looping it back, then tacking it with a drop of CA to hold everything while you wrap the thread for the whip. Well, that's all for the moment, back to rest in bed.

The Big Crayon Update

Got the parts I ordered in that will finish the rocket. I got rail buttons and put those on. I found this nifty engine retainer at Mad Cow Rocketry and put that in as well. Haven't done much in hobby this week, I found out that I had pneumonia so I've had to stand down and rest some. A lot in fact. You don't mess with the p-word. My doc has me on good meds and gave me a shot in the ketsu (go look it up in a Japanese dictionary) to get rid of it.

When I feel up to it, it's the shock cord and parachute to install. Peace out (Achooo0!)

Taking a Break....

Gotta order a large chute and Kevlar cord for the recovery system of the crayon. While that's going on, here's a look at the support equipment.



This is my "Mark I" Launch Pad. It's made from Schedule 40 1/2 inch PVC pipe and joints. Nothing new here; just a blown up version of a Quest launch pad. As you can see. it's in need of a tweaking. I wasn't able to get the hole in on center, so the 1/4" rod tilts a little. No worries. Just go out and buy another corner joint and drill it right next time.


This pad is not for the big crayon. It's for my other lighter rockets in the D-F class I'm developing. My daughters like big rockets, so Becky claimed a four tube BT-80 design she named Big Bazookie. Jackie claimed a 3 stacker and named it Mini Bazookie.

You can make this pad from larger diameter parts. Even metal. It's just a matter of what you want to do. The crayon will need a stouter launcher. I need to find some c-rail. The rocket itself will have rail buttons instead of lugs.

Progress

Here's the anchor for the shock cord. It's a 3/16ths eye bolt. High power rockets use this method frequently and there are others. I chose this one to be doubly sure I had a secure means of holding my shock cord, which will be a thick cord of nylon or Kevlar. I got it from the local Home Depot store. I haven't glued any of the main centering rings yet. I want to be certain of placement before doing that. The entire unit is designed to be removed for servicing, another idea I picked up from the good Doctor. Measure twice, glue once!

More fins work...

Last weekend, I attached the three fins to the engine tube along with the centering rings. I spent time sussing out the alignment of the outer shell to the fins and slotting them through the shell. I also devised the attachment method for the shell to the engine mount. Taking a cue from Dr Sue, I used blind nuts pressed into the aft centering ring. After all that engineering, I was rewarded with a clean fitting fin can.

The Work Continues....

More development of the fin can assembly. Here, I've made the fins and fitted them to the centering rings. I've also began cutting the slits for them to exit the end shell. Later, I'll attach the shell to the fin can with bolts and t-nuts installed in the aft centering ring.




An early view of how things will look.

The Big Crayon

As mentioned last post, I got hold of some 36" tall crayon banks to further my adventures in rocketry. In fact, this design will take me squarely into the realm of mid and high power rocketry. Several rocketeers have built and flown these banks before, most notably Dr Sue down in Florida. She's taken the notion to extremes (not in a bad way, mind you, just wild!). And its her musings and build logs that inspired me to have a go at it as well. If you want to follow along and make your own, I'll pass a few measurements as I go. First up, the inner diameter of the tube (made of a strong rolled paper) is 3.76 inches the OD is 3.90 and the tail and nose cone pieces at their widest are 4.00.

I started with the engine mount, which is built around an Aerotech 29mm engine. I got a great deal on a reload shell, so my first flight will be with an RMS engine reload, an F-class motor. Here, I've made centering rings from 3mm lite ply I had lying around from Tokyu Hands in Shibuya. I then dry fitted them to the engine tube, a 30mm tube from Quest that fits the engine tube beautifully. Nothing is glued yet, because things will change. The lower set of rings will join with the fins and attach to the lower crayon shell.

The Attack of the Crayons

At this moment, I'm in rocket mode. Have been since last fall, will be for most of the year. I'm working rocketry with no less than three classes at my local elementary school, and have gotten a few kids round the block into it as well.

Projects are just whizzing round my head, taking inspiration from the darnedest places. Like these crayon rockets I'm doing. My neighbor's boys were playing "light saber" with these 2 foot crayon banks found at a local dollar store. To my surprise, a BT-70 tube fits neatly inside the plastic body. This paved the way for an inner tube and an engine stuffer tube for a 24mm D -E engine. The fins are joined through -the -wall style, or TTW, to the engine mount and centering rings.


It is also capable of carrying a payload, say, an egg in the coupler and nose cone area.


The prototype flew beautifully with a D-12-7 and could do even more wonderful things if built with a 29mm mount. An unwitting design for a TARC rocket. More on that contest in another post.

Going back for more of the crayon banks, I found that most of them were gone. On the way out, I noticed a new seasonal item, plastic baseball bat and ball sets. Hrrm......

That caused this idea to flourish.......


But back to the crayons. They've been the hit of the school. The 3rd graders dubbed them "Crarockets". Mrs Adams 5th grade class got to sign the prototype. This just goes to show you; if it looks right, it'll fly right. In the case of the bat rocket, now known as "The Slugger" if you build it, it will fly.

The build log will soon be shown on my school rocketry web site. I also learned of a 3 foot tall, 4 inch diameter version of this bank which I also have in my clutches. I'm engineering my own version of this previously flown crayon as we speak.

Welcome to My Blog

I've been impressed by some the of blogs I've read in the last few months, so I figure it's time I started my own. This blog is going to be about my hobbies and how I make people happy with them. Especially kids. I won't be commenting about about the current events or writing about things and people that urk me. Lord knows you've seen enough of those. But I will celebrate people in my life who have helped me along the way.

I'll start with my 5th grade teacher, Mr. Stinson (RIP). Mr Stinson was one of the many colorful teachers I encountered at Julia C. Lathrop Elementary School (renamed Academy) on Chicago's west side. People can say what they like about the Chicago Public Schools system. It's been catching hell of late, but whenever I visit home, I'm impressed. Disciplined children in uniform, who know what they want to be when they grow up. The same was true, sans uniform, way back in 1966, when I had the good fortune to be in his classroom.

Mr Stinson had a unique approach to teaching that still resonates with me today, and often sparks an urge for me to teach in a classroom of my own. He would teach subjects with a theme. One semester was autos, next airplanes, ships and so on. All of our subjects where themed to the craft we studied. Then we made models as the climatic finale.

The most memorable was the ships block. We went to Navy Pier, then a working dock, and watched as whiskey was unloaded from a freighter. When we returned, we were tasked to draw what we saw of the ship for art class. He cut out pictures of boats and ships from newspapers, and , using carbon paper, we traced and painted with water colors on that thick construction paper of the day (you know, the one with the chips floating about in it). The grand finale was the day he opened his storage locker and gave each group of four kids a model ship to build.

It was a huge stack of the finest models that Aurora, Revell and Pyro had at the time. One group got the Cutty Sark, the apple of my eye, Debora Crook, and her friends got the Golden Hind, some hip class mates got the Aurora Viking Long Boat, and Black Beard's Pirate Ship! Me and my group got Revell's USS Constitution, Old Ironsides. What a mess we made of the rigging! It was fun though, and I got to show off my budding modeling skills, that which I'd honed since 3rd grade starting with a Lindberg Midget Racer. When we finished them, we had to write an essay about the history of our model and read it aloud. It was really gratifying that we hung around that block for a while. Mr Stinson commissioned me to build Lindberg's Monitor and Merrimac model set, each with an electric motor.

He put me front and center at the school science fair with my "Hotel Lathrop" and its working elevator and how it works display, while the class performed as the "Dancing Molecules".

In this way, he broadened our awareness of the world outside of the city. In this era of no child left behind, I hope there are still a few brave teachers out there doing what Mr Stinson did. I'm pretty sure he gave more then he was asked to do, and I still see this fire burning in the teachers I help now at Mariposa Elementary. Giving their all, for a generation of kids to not give up and take their place in the world. He's one of many people you'll learn of who guided me, but he's got got a special place in my heart because he later explained that he was tough on me because he saw potential that he didn't want to go by the wayside.

At times he was scary because he had an Irish temper that kept the class in line, but just as big a heart as any Irishman could have. From the walks in Douglas Park and kite flying sessions to drills in math, he was right on target. He made 5th grade memorable. And someday, I'll pay him back by doing that in my own classroom. In the mean time, here is a record of what my hobbies are doing for the kids in my neighborhood and local school. And, it's dedicated to my teachers at Lathrop, Mr Stinson, Mr Good, Mrs Walsh, even the fiery Mr McGuire, whom we got sent to when paddling was in order (and legal back then), and the teachers of today, Mrs Blanchard, Mrs Davis, Mrs Perry, Mr Dawson and others at Mariposa. This blog is dedicated to you and your hard work.