Flashes of Panic

While I was back in Maine this past weekend, I rooted around in the corners of my old bedroom which are still left to me, and found what’s left of my previous forays into model rocketry. I hadn’t been able to place how old I was when I did this, but when I opened up the launch controller, it turned out that the batteries had a “best before” date of 1991, so that puts a loose upper bound on things.

I also found five—five—rockets. Somehow I had the idea that I’d only had two, or maybe three. Unfortunately, all of them were in unflyable condition; apparently once they suffered damage, I just put them away and never got around to fixing them. Three I judged fixable; they all had some level of fin damage, with the fins either hanging loose or completely detached. I should be able to fix those with some sandpaper and white glue. They also need a little attention to the recovery systems; they’re all streamer recovery rockets, but in general the “shock cords” holding the streamer and the sections together are brittle and unlikely to survive a launch. I’ll also need to do some research on exactly which models they were, and which engines they should use; more likely I’ll just cram in something that fits, though. The paint jobs are uniformly bad; some of them might be helped by sandpaper, others I’ll just have to ignore. It doesn’t matter what it looks like when it’s five hundred feet up.

Two of them were unrecoverable. One appeared to have cracked up in flight, probably because both the engine and nose cone stayed put when the ejection charge went off (and therefore the body ruptured violently.) I salvaged the nose cone and threw the rest out. A second was in mostly good shape; it had a one-piece plastic fin assembly, so it was the only one with all its fins intact. However, the engine from its last launch was securely wedged in the body, and I couldn’t get it out. After fifteen-plus years, probably the cardboard engine casing was fusing with the cardboard tube of the body anyway. I salvaged as much of the plastic parts as I could and threw the rest out; with a new tube and engine stop ring, I could fly the rest of it again.

There were quite a few engines in the box, but only one igniter. I’m not sure if engines keep or not, but it might be worth giving them a try. Perhaps when I get shock cords, tubes, etc., I’ll look for some igniters as well. I also found a small bottle of spray paint—not the same color as the rockets, so I’m not sure why it was with them—that I might use on new constructions.

A is beginning to sigh and roll her eyes whenever I talk about this recent hobby, so you’ll have to suffer through me talking about it here.

Now Playing: Accidents Will Happen from Best Of by Elvis Costello & The Attractions