Random Junk

At a recent rocketry event, I'd been building a couple of more sensible models. Then, after a couple of beers, I noticed that there was quite a bit of junk lying around on my table, including the remnant of a nose cone which had been cut down for another project, and several balsa off-cuts left over after cutting out some fins for something else. So I put them together:


Not being entirely drunk, I put the result through a swing test. Two of them, in fact - when a rocket has mismatched fins like this, it needs to be tested, rotated 90 degrees and tested again to prove that it is stable in both pitch and yaw planes. Since I hardly believed it had passed and didn't expect the RSO to believe it either, I got a witness. The following day it was allowed onto a pad, the flight card literally giving its name as Random Junk I Found On My Bench:


It went up nice and straight:


And probably came down somewhere. There is no solid evidence of this, though.

This is why they say that rocketry is not allowed under the influence of alcohol. This is a story for the books.

Just further proof Humans have achieved Teleportation but forgot about it under the influence. Kinda like cold fusion......

fyrwrxz said:

Just further proof Humans have achieved Teleportation but forgot about it under the influence. Kinda like cold fusion......

Click to expand...

Yup! It was the Irish who were the first to achieve teleportation (and cold fusion), the day before the invention of Whiskey in 1405.

High heat Scottish Ales will definitely lead to Model Rocketry Hooliganism, those launches make the big football games look like child's play. Danger Danger Danger! Now I am really thirsty for a McEwan's or two. Yes sir, the style of oodroc you tend to design and build under the influence have to be a "Wee Heavy" in the nose, just like the beer. For my latest design I have been drinking EKU Kulminator 28, so it will have a more Bavarian flavor from 100 years ago.

By the way, I forgot to mention. That's not a live D12-5 being used as a body. Among the junk were several empty casings, and a D12-5 which has previously been used to propel a more sensible rocket and then had the nozzle knocked out makes a tolerable body tube which fits a C6-5 quite nicely. I may have been slightly inebriated when I put the junk rocket together but I was fully sober and sane when I put it on the pad. So was the RSO.

McEwan's indeed! You want to try some proper Scottish bottled ales some time. But no more than one until after the rocket is built and swing-tested. :lol:

McEwan's Import is still pretty good out here where awful, light Pilsner beers made with added corn (maze) rule. Given time Molson Coors will rule the UK market and proper Scottish bottled ales will be replaced with mass quantities of Silver Bullets - light lager beer made from a very bad German recipe - YUMMY. You can drink a whole six pack before doing the swing test. Your fins will be symmetrical, your work area will be clean and tidy and your sobering computer sim will guarantee success because Scotsmen will be immune to the stuff. Keep flying those motors made in Colorado but watch out for that mass market light lager beer!