Higher Than David Crosby

Another rocket. Since Scribble Bermuda Triangulated on us, disappeared in a puff of smoke and a mighty 'where the hell did that go?'



I referred to this rocket as Cousin It in a post the other day, but I'd forgotten what we'd named him. Em couldn't remembe either, and after considerable debate, we settled on Miss Splodeyhead.



She requires more work than any of our previous rockets, but she's so light the next step would be to glue fins right on the engine. She should go higher than anything we've launched. The literature claims 1400 to 1800 feet.



Em wanted to do a Nike Missile, since she is one, so I bought another kit and some blue paint to go with the gold I already had for Miss Splodeyhead.



Isn't it a hippie thing, the idea that a middle school could be on the site of a Cold War missile silo? Right up there with the bake sale to support the occupation of Iraq.

I've taken to writing my name and phone number, email address, etc., on all our rockets. Launch four, recover two, I'm hoping eventually to get a phone call to come get a lost rocket.



Still, just the launch is thrill enough. Mo has been saying 'no' to everything lately, but when I ask, 'Do you love rockets, yes or no?' I get a 'Yessss!'

We thought Scribble II landed where we could get her, but she's somwhere in this soybean field and none of us really wanted to go walking the rows.



Still, it breaks Em's heart to not get one back. Our Nike Missile is the second we honestly don't know where it went. Never achieved visual contact after it shot out of site. If I had to guess, which I do, it landed int he quarry half a mile away. I need to find a bigger, flatter area to launch these things. Like a salt flats or something.



Em has been (if you couldn't tell) getting into photographing them. All those shutterbug comments, methinks my daughter dost protest too much...

Miss Splodeyhead had the most eccentric flight, though she landed, conveniently, about thirty feet from the launch rod. She kind of goes up in rapid, tight circles. One of her fins must be slightly crooked, but I can't spot the flaw. She's got a super short body, so maybe that makes her more sensitive.

Now that the fleet is down to two rockets, I guess it's time to hit Hobby Lobby for some additions. Maybe for Scribble III I can buy another 'Skywriter' (the pencil) kit and use the body section I omitted from Scribble II to make the third edition extra tall...