Dodgy motor modification

[adrian]

"Motors. I will use only certified, commercially-made model rocket motors, and will not tamper with these motors or use them for any purposes except those recommended by the manufacturer."
Yeah, whatever.



Of course, I'd removed all the BP from all three motors before building this.

In a perfectly safe manner. Honest. At least, that's what I'd have told the RSO if he'd asked.

Oh, alright. Those were empty motors which had previously been used to power perfectly safe model rockets. The only live ingredient was the perfectly normal, unmodified C6-5 stuffed up the rear end of the empty D12 casing. The model was swing-tested while I was mostly sober, and was at least as stable as I was. The real test, of course, was launching it, by which time I was perfectly stable and so was the rocket.

It probably landed somewhere. If it did, it shouldn't have done any harm because the 18mm component of the body had been sawn in half and then reattached with a shock cord and a piece of 13mm (empty) motor acting as a coupler. In theory, it tumbled and ended up somewhere on the moor where we were doing our launching. There is no evidence to support this theory.

 

[Daddyisabar]

Even with the U-Boats blocking all the shipments to the UK it is good to see you can still scrape enough together to build and launch a rocket!

Maybe Brexit has mandated such "Dodgy motor modifications." In the USA a "Dodgy motor modification" would mean sinking big money into a blueprinted Hemi motor, resulting in major muscle car fun, in a straight line of course. One people separated by a common language.

Just wait for the next Yankee tourist to stop by and send them out into the moor to find the rocket, even at night. Give them the old saying "Beware of the moors!" in you best over the top Scottish accent. The Americans will not be able to resit going out for a look having seen all those old Werewolf movies!

Given a few of those strong, dark Scotch Ales at the pub, served at cellar temperature, I too can sometimes miss interpret the motor modification rule.

 

[rstaff3]

Heheh, I like it! How about a multi-stage version? A tube fin version? Recycle them motors!

 

[BDB]

I love it! And I'll click on any thread with the word "dodgy" in the title. We really need to use that word more on this side of the pond.

 

[Tonimus]

I love it! And I'll click on any thread with the word "dodgy" in the title. We really need to use that word more on this side of the pond.

Ditto. Only reason I'm here. And I like the "mostly sober stable."

 

[Daddyisabar]

Thick walled Estes motor tubes are bulletproof. Live in the Danger Zone and build one with used Quest motors.

 

[Daddyisabar]

I love it! And I'll click on any thread with the word "dodgy" in the title. We really need to use that word more on this side of the pond.

That might balance out its over use in other English speaking countries. It would be brilliant!

 

[fyrwrxz]

Even with the U-Boats blocking all the shipments to the UK it is good to see you can still scrape enough together to build and launch a rocket!

Maybe Brexit has mandated such "Dodgy motor modifications." In the USA a "Dodgy motor modification" would mean sinking big money into a blueprinted Hemi motor, resulting in major muscle car fun, in a straight line of course. One people separated by a common language.

Just wait for the next Yankee tourist to stop by and send them out into the moor to find the rocket, even at night. Give them the old saying "Beware of the moors!" in you best over the top Scottish accent. The Americans will not be able to resit going out for a look having seen all those old Werewolf movies!

Given a few of those strong, dark Scotch Ales at the pub, served at cellar temperature, I too can sometimes miss interpret the motor modification rule.

Absolutely sterling reply, mate! You get my vote for the best reply of the day! As a long time Chrysler fan, I support any 'dodgy motors' I can. The last good car I had was a 360 hi-po in an old school Challenger with custom built rear end-top end was 147 mph before valve float. 6 mpg! maybe 8 if I kept my foot out of the secondaries. My Scottish ancestors were rolling in their graves at this extravagance! (of course-they walked every where-but they didn't have roads back then, did they?)
Back on topic to the OP-my motto is "straight smoke and good chutes" so you got it half right! Keep flying but work a little on your recovery! The Hound of Baskerville frowns on littering the moors. Beware the "sucking bogs"! LOL!

 

[Nytrunner]

^^ to add on to fyrwyrx, maybe peel the 13mm coupler a little on one side so it slips out upon deployment. I'm sure you could rig a hankie or streamer to bring it down safe.

Otherwise you have to play Dodging Motors with the dodgy motors

 

[fyrwrxz]

^^ to add on to fyrwyrx, maybe peel the 13mm coupler a little on one side so it slips out upon deployment. I'm sure you could rig a hankie or streamer to bring it down safe.

Otherwise you have to play Dodging Motors with the dodgy motors

Ladies and Gentlemen-we have a tie!

 

[K'Tesh]

Ladies and Gentlemen-we have a tie!

I thought he said "hankie", not"tie".

 

[BDB]

I'd give extra points to anyone who uses the words "dodgy," "shag," and "bloody" in a reply.

 

[K'Tesh]

I'd give extra points to anyone who uses the words "dodgy," "shag," and "bloody" in a reply.

I used to have a dodgy car (Dart)... Shag carpet (complete with a bloody mushroom in the passenger side foot well). The carpet hid the hole you risked putting your foot through if you rode with me. Oregon Coastal weather eats old cars for breakfast. BTW... None of that is a lie... I really did own the car I described.

 

[Nytrunner]

I bet I know RSOs that wouldn't let that dodgy rocket fly. Don't want it to shag a bystander and leave the field bloody.

 

[Daddyisabar]

Here is a Dodgy Motor to chase the bloody idiots from Top Gear back across the shagging pond!



Have the US Top Gear crew paint "Manchester United Sucks" on the side of a Reliant Robin and have them drive it through Old Trafford:y:



Such cute wings and bonnet, but no boot to speak of since it is a fast hatch when living life in a Northern Town.

 

[BDB]

Now that’s a bloody awesome comment. You, sir, win today’s Yankee Doodle Dandy award!

Here is a Dodgy Motor to chase the bloody idiots from Top Gear back across the shagging pond!

View attachment 328480

Have the US Top Gear crew paint "Manchester United Sucks" on the side of a Reliant Robin and have them drive it through Old Trafford:y:

View attachment 328482

Such cute wings and bonnet, but no boot to speak of since it is a fast hatch when living life in a Northern Town.

Sent from my iPhone using Rocketry Forum

 

[adrian]

Just wait for the next Yankee tourist to stop by and send them out into the moor to find the rocket, even at night. Give them the old saying "Beware of the moors!" in you best over the top Scottish accent. The Americans will not be able to resit going out for a look having seen all those old Werewolf movies!

Aye, laddie, beware of the beast o' the moors. All the werewolf movies in the world willnae prepare ye for the true terror:

I kid you not, these things stand in the middle of the road and dare cars to take them on in a head-butting contest. It's a single-track road so you're not getting round them. The reason you don't need to worry about werewolves is that the few who haven't been head-butted into extinction have found somewhere to hide and the sheep haven't discovered it yet. And if the sheep don't get you, the moor itself will. Over in America you fear rocket-eating trees. We have one tree and nobody has managed to hit it yet, but what we do have is a rocketeer-eating swamp covering a large area of the moor.

Given a few of those strong, dark Scotch Ales at the pub, served at cellar temperature, I too can sometimes miss interpret the motor modification rule.

Never mind ale. First you get a bottle of whisky, preferably one packaged in a tube. At this point you're still sober, so the rocket made from that tube is nice and conventional. But now you have a bottle whose contents require safe disposal. I didn't down the whole lot myself because the RSO was present and assisted with the disposal, but then he had a bottle as well. So at this point you start wondering what happens if you ignore everything you ever read in the safety code or the forum about what not to do with motors.

The following day, you realise that the motors you used were actually as empty as last night's bottles are now, but being mostly recovered, you figure that's probably a good thing. You go to the launch site and put the rocket on the pad. The RSO asks what motor it will be flying on, you answer "C6-5", and he doesn't even ask if it's at the back or in the middle stage. The rocket promptly falls off the pad - remember what condition you were in when you attached the launch lug? Fortunately, today's alphabet soup in the range bag includes both BP and CA, so after a few minutes, the launch lug is back where it belongs.

More seriously: recovery should have been perfectly safe. Something that size doesn't even need a streamer, but it did separate in the middle, with the two parts joined by a shock cord, so even if it had landed on someone, it would have been tumbling. It would have been no more dangerous than any HPR you care to name even with its parachute out.

 

[Daddyisabar]

That is one nasty beastie ruling the moor! A creature so foul, and it has a mean streak a mile wide! Dare not enter if you doubt yer courage.

Out in the Wild Wild West we have no rocket eating trees but sometimes have to deal with these beasties:



Gotta watch out for the "CHIPS" and they ain't the kind that come with fish

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam and the sky is not cloudy all day.

They are very picky about viewing a launch and like only the large research motors M and above.

Instead of 29-24-18-13mm cases they would demand 105-98-75-54mm with carbon fiber fins at a minimum.

 

[Daddyisabar]

The Mustangs will put up with dodgy motors and even oddrocs:



The blonde buffalo is looking a bit shaggy loosing the winter coat:



Beware of the big city domestic Golden Retriever who thinks your Big Bertha is a bone to be retrieved!