Mars Snooper

[Commander]

and....

tada

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[Rocket Babe]

I like it!

[Commander]

Sent her up Sunday. Any guesses on the results?

[Rocket Babe]

1. You used a C5 or E9 and it catoed?
2. It got stuck in a cloud and drifted away?

[Commander]

1. You used a C5 or E9 and it catoed?
2. It got stuck in a cloud and drifted away?

If only

If you look back into this thread, you will find numerous mentions of me knocking the rocket off the table or dropping it or whatever. The result was always the same, a fin broke off.

Well Sunday I was in a rush and not thinking straight and loaded an A6-4. Not enough of a kick to get it off the pad and way too much time till ejection. I pushed the button, she went up 50' or so and came crashing back down. All three fins snapped off and then the ejection charge fired.

I didn't even get any real good footage of the launch as I basically just had the camera hanging around my neck. The post mortem picture came out reasonable.

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I had wondered about the strength of the balsa used for those fins, and in the rebuild I am replacing them and using Basswood.

[Rocket Babe]

Maybe you shouldn't imbibe and fly.

Stick to tending your bar and leave the flying to Pim.

[bernomatic]

Maybe you shouldn't imbibe and fly.

Stick to tending your bar and leave the flying to Pim.

Oh, like she's NEVER lost a ship.

[Rocket Babe]

Technically, yes but she was in combat under heavy enemy fire.

[Commander]

Sometime during one of the past fin repairs, I used pins through the fin into the outer pod to strengthen the joint. All well and fine (that joint did not break again), but I had forgotten about them and was trying to saw the fin off the tube with an X-Acto razor saw. It wasn't going to well.

[Commander]

Least you think that I have been sitting on my pi'tard allowing the months to pass, in truth I have been putting together a plan. AND, I have been acting on certain portions of that plan.
A while back, i decided that instead of balsa, I would use Bass Wood for the replacement fins. I found some 1/16" basswood and thought it would be better if I gave it a coating of lindseed oil to help rejuvenate it. Having done this, I noticed that a slight warp had developed in the material.
Well I have a clip showing how I went about removing the warp, but I can't upload it. so I'll have to come back with a further update later.