At one of the TARC sessions recently, I was chatting with Ken Allen at his trailer when one of the teams (4 teenagers) came to Ken because they couldn't get the igniter through the nozzle of the SU motor they had. Seems that the propellant had swollen shut. Since I knew that Ken had a crapload of 29/40-120 reloads in his stock, I suggested that the kids buy a reload from Ken and I would teach them how to assemble a hobbyline casing. I was putting a lot of faith in both my teaching skills, and their listening skills, as I offered my casing for them to use.
They sat down at my staging blanket and patiently listened and watched as I laid out the parts of the reload as they would be installed in the motor. I explained the use of Vaseline on the O-rings and the threads, and why it's good to stuff a small piece of wadding under the red cap that covers the ejection charge. I laid out the tools necessary to perform the work, that being a knife, tape and paper towels.
Then I sat back and watched quietly as they assembled the motor. Their only question came when they were tightening the aft closure. There was a slight gap between the casing and the closure, no more than 1/16", but they wanted to know if they needed a wrench other than the paper towel they had used. I showed them where in the instructions it mentions that a slight gap was normal, and they finished up with the ejection charge plus wadding, the copperhead, and the red caps. I showed them the trick of using the reload hang tag to make a shield for the clips onto the copperhead, and they went to load the motor into their rocket.
I informed the RSO that a TARC team was using my hobbyline case and that I oversaw the assembly, and he was OK with that. After a successful flight, they cleaned out the casing, and gave it back to me, each of them taking time to thank me for my help.
I would be comfortable with any one of those kids assembling a reload.
G.D.
