Kind of Like a Nerd Support Group

I wanted to fly rockets with my buds from KCAR, but the weather was shit and I had work to do. Well, sort of. I was essentially stuck waiting for the raw material, but being under deadline I would have stayed home so I could get crack-a-lackin' as soon as stuff trickled in.

And without the launch, the club meeting part, well, I couldn't think of anything more boring than a bunch of rocket geeks following Robert's Rules and debating the rules of a 1/2 A 3x Cluster Altitude Competition or some such.



But then I saw Dave Epoxy & Microballoons Bucher was planning to do a demonstration of the magic of epoxy and microballoons, which according to the Gospel of Bucher will not only fix every conceivable damage that can befall a rocket but will also cure the common cold and restore the global financial system.



So I played hookie for a few hours and the Robert's Rules part wasn't quite as dreadful as I would have imagined. And the show and tell that inevitably happens when a group of like-minded outcasts congregates was actually quite a bit of fun.



Bob Wingate brought his LED-lit rocket, showed us how he soldered the lights into cross-stitch material.



Dave Lucas brought a bunch of stuff, some re-issue rocket kits and the new Quest motors and igniters that are coming out. Also a foam-core boost glider showing how he filled the seams with bamboo rods.







Lucas also brought his 'New Scout,' a tumble recovery Estes rocket he's improved by making the motor mount a piston system to rebalance the center of gravity to ensure a gentler landing.



Then there was Blake Goddard, our host, with his rear-ejection Fat Boy. I've seen this rocket fly in the normal configuration and I'm more than a little awestruck that he was able to core it out, file down the fin tabs and engineer a rear-ejection system that works. But Blake, like his more famous semi-distant relative, loves a challenging rocket project.







And then there was Dave's demo. He forgot his microballoons, though, and made do with just epoxy. It was still cool. I love how if there's not damage to be repaired on a rocket, he's perfectly willing to create damage just to show how he repairs it. He takes a certain glee in this, and it should probably disturb me but it doesn't.











So all this took a little longer than I imagined, and it's put me a bit behind the eight ball with my freelance project. Though when I got home and tied into what had been sent to me, I was back to waiting for more material in a couple hours.