Air Guard Firehouse

Today we (Den 11) went to the Nebraska Air National Guard fire station for one of our requirements. Sgt. Mark Wit gave us an awesome tour.

The highlight of the tour was a demonstration of how much water the air force trucks can pump out. The truck on the left holds 3000 gallons, and the one on the right does 1500. I think we watched all of it shoot through the air in about a minute. The base here is dedicated to a bunch of KC-135's that do in-flight refueling, so there's an overabundance of jet fuel. Sgt. Wit said that if they can't put out a fire with their equipment, something's wrong, and you don't want to be around. Click on the photo below to enlarge it.

Guitar Amps

I found the kids' toy acoustic guitar last month and started playing it. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was hanging out in Guitar Center (just around the corner!) looking at fancy electric guitars. I figured that I know so little about guitars, I would be better off learning how to play before dropping $600 on something that might not suit me. I found a nice used Ibanez for under $100 and have been having fun playing with it (except for a weird shoulder pain that sent me to the Dr. and is going to end up in physical therapy).

The problem with electric guitars is that you really need some electricity in order to make them sound right. With a $2 chip and some parts from a speakerphone I salvaged, I made a 200-miliwatt amplifier that runs off a 9-volt battery.

This is my corner workshop in the basement. It's actually worse than it looks with wires and junk everywhere. I need to spend a few hours cleaning up now that I have an amplifier built. The new Ibanez is standing up. The guitar on the floor is a toy that produces sound, but is unplayable. The 12th-fret is almost a full note off of an octave of the open string.

The mini-amp is OK, but as the tool guy says: "more power!" I built a pre-amp using a normal $0.39 op-amp and piped that into an integrated circuit chip that gives me 2 channels of 12 watts of pure acoustic power pumped into some old surround speakers. As Borat would say, "Niice!" I am on may way to being a rock star. All I need now is some talent.

Cub Scout Rocket Launch

Today was our third cub scout rocket launch with the THOR group from Omaha. We were blessed with absolutely perfect weather - sunshine, blue skies, 60°, and NO WIND! We had a huge scout turnout and the launch pad was packed all day shooting scout rockets. Our entire den 11 (GP's den) showed up.

GP shot his mongoose from last year. He named it "Mashed Potatoes." We shot it with a C6-0/C6-7 two-stage setup and it probably cleared 1500 feet. The booster stage came down at 100 mph into the crowd of scouts. Even with no wind and a streamer recovery, we spent quite a while searching for the bright yellow & pink rocket. It must have semi-glided on its way down.

Since GP was the first new scout to sign up this year, he got a bonus rocket - a Wizard, which is a foot-long basic rocket. During construction, the body tube rolled off the table. By the time I realized that it was missing, Maggie used it to clean her teeth. No problem when HobbyTown is virtually next door, though. 20 minutes later and I was back in business with a 4-pack of 18-inch body tubes. With a couple new tubes, some scrap balsa, and a little imagination, we soon had a new 36" 2-stage missile.

Hobby Lobby had a 40%-off coupon in the paper, so I applied it to a Mean Machine (a classic 6-foot tall rocket). I liked the design of GP's new Wizard so much, I turned the Mean Machine into a meaner machine with some cool fins. The Mean Machine is only a single-stage, but it is a near-perfect 2.3X scale copy of the new Wizard, but with an E engine.

We launched the big rocket first. It was a big beautiful slow liftoff to a few hundred feet. The chute popped out, but did not unfurl and the beast stayed stable and headed down nose first and tried to take a core sample of the prairie. Poor CP was devastated! He had been so proud to be carrying around a 6-foot long missile amongst his friends. The smaller 2-stage one went next. It staged perfectly and went really high. It popped the chute out, but also continued on its ballistic trajectory and missed a car by inches as it rejoined the earth. I learned a very important facet of rocket science today - it is possible to have too much stability. When the nose cone pops off, the rocket should not be stable and should tumble. If it doesn't and keeps flying straight, the chute will be mashed against the body and not be able to unfurl and open.

The THOR guys sent up quite a few I-engine shots. It's amazing to see a 5-pound rocket blast to 3000 feet. Next year we will have to try high-power (HobbyTown has a cool G thru I-Engine V2 that has my name on it). I'm ready.

Samurai!

CP shows off his Kamikazi uniform. The boys dogfight on their bikes.

Smoke & Fire

Our WW-II air force is OK for most activities, but when it comes to real aerial combat, you have to have smoke and flames.