The Thrifty Rocketeer

  The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues... Have you'all heard about a new video challenge that's sweeping the hobby?  It seems like a natural for the Thrifty Rocketeer to jump on.  But let's talk about this a little. The video was shared on Facebook but is posted on YouTube as the 5-Dollar Rocket Challenge. The basic idea is that you and your friends each put up five dollars and make a run to the nearest dollar store.    You're building a rocket from scratch, using only the cheap supplies that you can find at the Dollar Store. You each can buy anything you like, but the total must be under five dollars. Now, there are no restrictions on how many fins, launch lugs, recovery system or tubes are involved. A pre-package of Estes Motors (C's or D's) is provided along with a working rocket pad and launch controller. Various glues are provided, but the catch is you must build and complete within one hour. In a sense, this is a party game among equally matched rocket fri...

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues.... Here's a quick one for you low power guys and gals. Have you ever made a low power rocket that used a streamer? Typically these days, the streamer is made from surveyor's tape, but in the past, they have been crinkled crepe paper, and other things as well. It seems inevitable that the streamer will someday be ejected while the rocket is still going too fast, either on the way up or the way down.  And so the streamer will either be torn from the shock cord, or begin to rip. Well, one of the easiest preventative steps is to place a plastic or paper binder ring on both sides of the fabric material (for lack of a better name) to protect the hole and strengthen it against ripping.  You can also repair torn streamers this way. However, when it's a crepe paper streamer, I have always taken a two inch piece of clear plastic sealing tape and folded it over that end of the streamer. Pressing it down with one inch on one side, and the other ...

The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues.... This weekend, I scored a couple of victories.  Not only was the weather perfect.... into the mid-70s with low humidity and no clouds, but there was a low turn-out at our club launch.  (It seems a lot of people decided to go "Dancin' in the Streets" as Martha Reeves used to sing. Anyway, the point is the leaves were almost all off the trees, and I got a chance to walk off into the woods at the end of our launch field.  The silver rocket that Joel had lost and left in the tallest tree appeared to have vanished. So I headed for it, easily spotted in the woods as the one oak that still had its brown leaves.  It served as a point to navigate to and could be spotted from pretty much anywhere else in the mostly balding trees in this copse. As I descended the steep slope and approached it, I kept looking up and scanning around to see if I could spot a clue to its location.    Sure enough, as I approached the small trickle th...