More Boy Scout rocketry!

[jflis]

One of my kids from the Boys & Girls club rocketry classes invited me to do a short (2 build classes followed by a launch) rocketry session with his Scout Troop.

We began last night, building the Rhino. Of the 25 kids, about 6 of them had gone through my beginner, intermediate and advanced classes with the Boys & Girls club. Back then , each group/session was 7 weeks long, involving two different kits to build and you had to be in one group for 3 sessions in order to move onto the next. So these kids advanced kids had built a minimum 18 rockets with me with at least one of them being their own design.

I was thrilled to discover that they wanted to do MORE and to involve their troop. Last night we got the engine mount assembled and the body tube marked for the fins. Next week we finish them up and then plan the launch!

I was going to attach some pictures but I'll be darned if I can get the attachment feature to work. It just spins like it's trying to load something. It's also not real clear just what I'm supposed to do to attach something... will have to give it a closer look in my free time

SHould be fun
jim

[Keyan]

I remember as an Eagle scout teaching a younger patrol about rocketry and having them earn their merit badges. We built Estes Viking kits, which allowed for a 3 to 5 fin design in various configurations. We had a couple of launch failures, my favorite being the one where the kid forgot to put glue on his engine mount, it burned all the way past the fins and went completely wild in flight.

[jflis]

Yep, have seen that launch failure a number of times (engine mount not glued in...) They think the fit of the centering rings is tight enough that glue isn't needed...

We finished our build last night but won't be able to fly for a few weeks. We were originally going to fly yesterday but our build got delayed so we extended it a week. Next MondayI will be working with the Deerfield Boy Scouts, the Monday after that we'll be at NSL and then THEY are busy the next 2 Mondays, so...

Hope to have the photo album that I have to date up on our site later this week and will keep folks posted!

man... i just can NOT figure out how to attach images... does this new forum look include support for netscape?

jim

[jflis]

Well, I haven't had the chance to get the photo album up yet, but here's a picture of the final build

I guess the new TRF isn't netscape compatable. Using IE right now (hate it) and will try some of the other browsers to see if they work...

Am also working with the Deerfield Pack 138 Cub Scouts (met with them Monday night) but I won't be able to attend their launch as I will be at LDRS at the time...

Just not enough days in the week any more! LOL

[mwtoelle]

Well, I haven't had the chance to get the photo album up yet, but here's a picture of the final build

I guess the new TRF isn't netscape compatable. Using IE right now (hate it) and will try some of the other browsers to see if they work...

Try Netscape's descendant, Firefox. It is based on the old Netscape codebase and works very similar to Netscape. Netscape has been unsupported since March 2008.

I do most of my web browsing with Firefox. It works fine with TRF. Also, Google's Chrome works pretty well with TRF.

[Johnhg7]

That's awesome! Are you incorporating rocket building with the Space Exploration Merit Badge? I have a lesson plan for it, if you would like it let me know. I teach Space Ex at a summer camp and the hardest part is getting the rockets put together correctly.

[jflis]

Yep, it is a part of their badge requirement. I'm just doing the rocketry part with them. Good stuff

[JPVegh]

Good work! Those look like some happy scouts.

[jflis]

Currently at NERRF but we got to fly our rockets this past Monday!

We didn't have access to a big field so we flew our Rhino kits in a field about twice the size of a baseball diamond... LOL

man, I knew those spot landing ribbons would come in handy SOME day! All in all we only lost one to a tree. Every thing else landed right in the field. The organizing scout (Cam) also flew his ACME Spitfire and Thunderbird. The ACME experienced a"shotgun" ejection charge which blew the cone clean off. The airframe came in ballistic and suffered NO damage! His Thunderbird had a crooked fin which caused it to arc over under power into a tree... It stripped off TWO fins and aboutFIVE branches... He builds them GOOD!

I also had the chance to fly my Tiddlywinks for a great flight with good hang time. A great day and I hope to have the photo album up next week, so keep watch!

[Zeus-cat]

His Thunderbird had a crooked fin which caused it to arc over under power into a tree... It stripped off TWO fins and aboutFIVE branches... He builds them GOOD!

Its nice to hear a rocket eating tree get the short end of the deal for once!

[Sparkytfl]

I remember the couple weeks after I moved up from cubs to boy scouts (I was 11 so this was about 1994), the troop built rockets at the meetings, and flew them at my first campout with them. I built a Viking. I started with rocketry a year before, so I think it was my third. The older kids were in charge of launches and put in probably a c6 because it went so far I never saw it again. Same with my cousin's wizard and probably half of them. A couple kids fell victim to some intentional bad advise "it flies better if you glue the nose cone on", most notably resulting in an exploded Yellow Jacket. Somebody had a big bertha which must have used an a8 or b4 because it only went about 100 feet. I think it landed in a tree but was recovered. Then there was what was probably a Redstone, which was so severely underpowered that it went about 50 feet, arced over, and was smashed to pieces on the roof of the barn. Practically none of the rockets were recovered successfully, leaving plenty of extra engines, so somebody came up with the idea of taping straws to them and watching them go wild. I'm amazed the leaders allowed that.

We did it again about six years later, and since I actually had experience to lead everyone, things went much better.

[jflis]

Ok, *finally* got the photo album up! You can locate it by clicking this link.

Enjoy! I know I did
jim