Fair Rockets

[Pippen]

The fair is over for another year and I thought you might like seeing some of the projects that my kids & co. did.

This first one is a Squirrelworks Vulture, only with a larger body tube and fins. The kid liked the kit but had a bigger rocket in mind so we made the adjustments (and of course tested for stability). I think the builder is 11 and it was his 4th year building.

The other kids were all over that red mylar parachute and thought the fins were very cool. I did notice that the balsa nosecone was a little rougher than I'm used to seeing and would have been a lot of work for a kid to get smoothed out. Very nice kit--he was pleased with it! Thanks for whoever recommended it when I was looking for kits with a high "Cool" factor. It took 2nd place in his age division.

 

[Pippen]

The silver and green rocket it a Fliskits Alien 8. I must have missed getting a shot of the other Alien8--it's all black and I'm not seeing it in the background. It was a tough build for both of the guys but they have a really cool rocket at the end.

The purple and orange rocket is an Estes Eliminator build with only one of the body tubes. I had to nab something off the shelf in a hurry because I realized one of the builders was going out of town. They didn't have time to paint on a name or fuss making up something but she realized that "Eliminator" could be rearranged to read "No Limit". She also sewed an orange nylon chute
to go with it.

 

[Pippen]

This is my 10 year old daughter's rocket--another half size Eliminator. She had trouble with that flourescent paint (we never did find a hot pink but not fl. pink like she wanted). She did a hand cut stencil (with me helping cut the corners because she couldn't) and sewed the parachute.

She came home with a Best of Class ribbon which was a total shock to her because she wasn't even planning to do another rocket this year and just did it because one of the other girls wanted to come back and build with us. She was also surprised because she knew she didn't have a perfect paint job--she's been around fair rocket building every summer since she can remember so she was comparing hers to her brother's who's been at it a lot longer.

She was planning an early retirement from fair rockets but it sounds like this win is going to keep her in..at least one more year. ;-)

 

[Pippen]

This wasn't a fair entry but my non-4-H'er son's bottle rocket. He had a couple of good flights with it, although the nosecone/lid didn't pop off the last time. No damage though--it's pretty tough.

The other kids (and adults) were all fascinated with this one. We did forget to do the launch lug holes at home but someone bailed us out with a pocketknife.

 

[Pippen]

Lastly is my oldest son's (MTShark here at TRF). He took the top prize in aerospace last year and this year decided to build the rocket he really wanted to do, without consideration of what the judges would think. It's a Fliskits ACME Spitfire, finished with skins of his favorite model rocketry Foxtrot comics. He said it was the hardest construction he's ever done, but the most fun. The skins were time consuming to make but a huge relief from painting (which he hates). This one took 2nd in his age division.

I lost my camera so I don't have any build pictures to show you but I did make a change in how we attach fins by switching to CA for the initial attachment (vertically with a paper alignment guide) and then 2-3 strong glue fillets at home later. It was so much easier as they could do the initial attachment here and not have to mess with it at home. I was worried about fin breakage but all that were launched held up. it reduced the frustration factor a lot so I'll probably go with it again.

I was packing up the tubs of rocket building stuff this morning as we'll likely be hanging it up for the winter months, but I want to sincerely thank each of you who have contributed help, specifically on these projects, but as well for your help in the past. So many of you have taken time to share your expertise with kids you don't even know and I'm truly grateful.

 

[MarkII]

Wow, you've got a really creative bunch of kids, there, Lisa. I know some old BARs that don't build stuff that is anything close to as good looking as those rockets (well... one old BAR, at least ). Your kids do nice work!

Mark \\

 

[jflis]

Lisa,

Fantastic jobs on everything there I've said before and I'll say it again, 4-H has one of the best rocketry programs around, if not *the* best.

I've seen some incredible skills with 4-H'ers and this is a fine example of that

jim

 

[Micromeister]

All Very nicely done Lisa!
Looks like you had another great batch of kids working on models.
just gotta love any Odd-Roc/bottle rocket contraptions....they are all such fun!