LarryBAR99

A couple of months ago my wife asked, "Why don't you join a club to find other people to launch your rockets with?"  Since I always listen to my wife's advice, I joined the National Association of Rocketry  and then joined a local NAR club, the Northern Illinois Rocketry Association .  Yesterday I drove to the far western suburbs for their last scheduled club launch of the year at the East Branch Forest Preserve in Glendale Heights.  First, of course, Google Maps took me to the wrong side of the large park so I had to pull up the emailed announcement and follow the directions to the entrance "about 1000 feet north of the railroad bridge." When I arrived I found a dozen cars parked on the edge of a field, overlooking a large field of open prairie.  Several parents were walking in with their children for a scout group's launch, which NIRA was hosting.  I introduced myself to a couple of club members, including the current president.  It quickly be...

Kit-bashing and resurrecting old rockets from online plans Sometimes I read about a cool rocket that’s no longer made.  Some of these live on at sites like eBay, but I refuse to pay $350 or more for a kit I might lose on the first launch!  Luckily, Estes, Apogee and several other vendors offer PDFs instructions of many of their old or current kits.  Sites like JimZ ( http://www.spacemodeling.org/jimz/estes.htm) , Ninfinger ( http://www.ninfinger.org/rockets/rockets.html ) and occasionally RocketReviews.org provide links to PDFs users have scanned from original instructions, often with scans of fins and decals.  Usually all you need to do to build one is order parts and cut your own fins.  If you need to cut fins, print the fin diagram, spray the back with a removable adhesive like Fast Grab Tacky Spray, press in place and cut the fins through the sheet.  Of course, if you’ve got a spare $2,000 or so you can get a laser cutter and program it to cut your fin...

From the 2005 Estes catalog (the last year it was sold): When thinking about all the old kits on my shelf, trying to decide what to build next, I remembered reading lots of notes on RocketReviews about converting the Estes FatBoy to use D or E engines.    The kit comes with through the wall balsa fins that anchor the fins with the engine mount.  I’ll try to leverage this and use a larger launch lug (3/16”) to stabilize liftoff with a more powerful engine.  I can j ust use the BT-80 card stock centering rings that came in the Estes D & E mount kit (#3159) glued together for double thickness, instead of trying to cut basswood centering rings. I'll use a 4” Apogee E engine hook (#24049).   I'll need to c heck if there's enough space for chute & wadding w/ longer engine mount.   If not, I m ay need to build a baffle. I call it  DE’ FatBoy  or “ De’ FatBoy ” OpenRocket predicts a 24 mm mount DE’ FatBoy will fly: 416’ on C11-5 847’ on D12-5...