Rites of Passage

 The Thrifty Rocketeer blog continues....

A couple of weeks ago, I made reference to a couple of things as "a rite of passage" in the hobby, or to put it another way, a skill or accomplishment that almost every developing rocketeer will tackle at some time or another.

It seems to me that some of these are basic skills, and so most advanced or skilled rocketeers will have no interest in reviewing these because they seem so obvious.  So I know that I am addressing the newbie or young rocketeer here for today's subject.

First, there are any number of ways to progress in this hobby. You need not go from A to B to C to D... it's not like there's a hierarchy of levels or permits that you have to earn or achieve.  Most rocketeers build whatever strikes their fancy and while this generally will lead from low power to higher power, let's not get too bogged down in this.

The question remains, what things do almost all rocketeers do or attempt at some point in their career in the hobby?

The first thing is something that I've already mentioned, but bears repeating:  All low power rocketeers eventually assemble a replacement plastic parachute.

Now, when I was a kid, there was a simple toy paratrooper figure that was sold.  A single solid figure, much like one of those plastic army men that came 100 to a pack... this figure was usually green, and had a helmeted figure with his hands up above his head.  The strings or line ran down from a plastic chute and hooked either through his raised hands... or in other versions, through two small hooks or clips on his shoulders (much where an apelet might lay).  The idea was that you folded your chute up, and then wrapped the shroud lines around this solid plastic figure, and threw or heaved him high into the air above your head.  He would tumble, unwinding as he descended, until the chute would flare open and he would descend more slowly to the ground.  You repeated this until you were tired or he got stuck in a tree.

Now, in some neighborhoods, you got creative and placed him on the end of a ruler or paint stirrer, that was balanced over a fulcrum (much like a teeter-totter).  We would stomp on the free end of the lever and catapult him higher into the air.

Another cheaper version of repair for this paratrooper was to have your mom sew the shroud lines into the four corners of a handkerchief, and use that as your cloth parachute. It was more durable, but only had four shroud lines, not six. 

So, the first rite of passage was learning how to assemble a plastic parachute either in building a rocket or replacing one that had failed, melted or ripped.

Another rite of passage seems to be the construction of a crayon rocket. That is, a large 4" body tube rocket from a coin bank purchased at a Toys R Us or similar toy store.  The tube bank featured only a plastic pointed top with a single slot in it for change to be dropped inside. The bottom was a plastic cap that was permanently attached. And the cardboard tube was printed to mimic a Crayola crayon.  The trick was to modify the thing to mimic a rocket complete with fins, nosecone, parachute and medium to high power motor.  Note, this borders on high power rocketry and so indicates a high degree of devotion to this endeavor as well as a higher level of rocketry certification.

Now, Estes must have noted this fascination with crayon bank rockets, as they came out with their own line of "color the Sky" crayon rockets for low power. I don't know how many different colors were produced, but I know of one rocketeer who claims to have built two dozen different such rockets and launched them all within a single day!

So a second, much more advanced rite of passage is the construction/conversion of a crayon bank to a rocket. 

Third, and less obvious, is the sealing of balsa wood fins and nose cones with a wood sealant. The need for sealing the pores of balsa is not a critical one, but can be important if you intend on reusing your rocket multiple times in a variety of humidity exposures.  To seal the pores requires either a basic quart of wood sealant, or a smaller quantity, or a slurry of wood glue and water.  Trial and error was the method of learning the proper ratio of glue to water drops to make an acceptable slurry.

The point I was going to make is that once you have sealed a piece of balsa and sanded it and then painted it, you'll never want to stop.  And so, this marks a small level of sophistication that can be considered a "rite of passage".

Fourth, although not all will agree with me, is the papering of fins.  Now there are some who swear by this technique to smooth out the wood grain in fins quickly and uniformly.  But there are also some who swear that this is over-kill and not necessary to do.  Some of those later rocketeers simply seal and sand their fins and prefer that tried and true method.  But I'm going to state that the attempt to try papering a rocket's fins is another minor rite of passage. Your mileage may differ. 

Now, some will say that the construction of a launch controller is another rite of passage, but I will differ on this.  SOME rocketeers aspire to design and build such a device, thinking to reinvent the wheel, but it is not necessary to do so. There are plenty of other ways to secure a launch controller... from purchase of a launch pad kit from Estes...to jury-rigging a simple switch, battery and wire leads. (Note, I am not advocating the use of such a simple twisted pair and battery system...as that would be a violation of NAR Safety Rules.)

So, I'm going to modify this one just a bit, and suggest that the substitution of an extension cord for the basic twisted pair of bell hook-up wires is a rite of passage.  And coupled with this, I'm going to make an extension.  That is, most controllers that utilize extension power cords also rely upon a two element lamp cord as the contact leads to jump to the igniter.  You just need a pair of allegator clips to attach to the bare wire ends of your lamp cord.

Now, note that this starts to border on the threshold of electrical wiring, and I've already ruled out the construction of a launch controller itself.  But I posit that another rite of passage is the building or replacement of allegator clips on the end of a lamp cord to assist a club or modify an individual's launch controller.  These allegator clips take a lot of abuse from rocket exhaust, and so tend to fail. So I don't think it's too much of a stretch to declare this as another rite of passage.

What do you think?  Are there any points that I have overlooked?  What would you nominate for a rite of passage?  (I know of one already that escaped my notice...and that's the creation of a drag race....typically in Halloween candy spider bowls... but that's a topic for another day.

This has been the Thrifty Rocketeer saying, "What was your rite of passage?"