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.