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Level 1 Attempt

Well, I had planned on attempting my Tripoli Level 1 Certification (that’s High Power Rocketry lingo for H and I motors for you non-rocket types) at the Midwest Regional Fun Fly. MRFF is usually put on as a joint effort between NIRA (Northern Illinois Rocketry Association) and WOOSH (Wisconsin Organization Of Spacemodeling Hobbyists). However, this year it looked like only NIRA would be there as they were the only one’s with it on the calendar. As such, I scrubbed my plans to make a L1 attempt. NIRA dropped their Tripoli association (I believe), and I prefer to certify with Tripoli since most of the HPR (High Power Rocketry) launches I attend are Tripoli. WOOSH is a Tripoli group, but it looked like they wouldn’t be there.

Now I see that they have it on their calendar. They also have this nifty little handout. So it looks like my attempt may be back on.

The problem is, I slowed way down on construction of my L1 project since I didn’t expect to be launching it this weekend. Granted, there isn’t that much left to do, just finish the paint and install motor retention. But with limited time between now and Saturday, that may be a bit of a scramble to complete. So I will scramble and get it flight ready by Saturday morning.

If there is time, I will post pictures and details of the project from start to finish.

Wheatgrass

By Chad Butler 2 Comments

OK, I have have been getting gradually worse at taking care of myself nutritionally. I mean, I want to eat better, live healthy, and take vitamins , for treat anxiety visit our page , but I just don’t. My body continues to crave greasy foods, fat, and sugar. But there is hope on the horizon. I like Jamba Juice and there is one just below my office. I have often been curious about the Wheatgrass shots. I’m sure they are healthy (at least they sound like they are) but it just sounded so digustingly gross. In fact here’s a litte story about how my daughter feels about it:

The whole family went to Jamba Juice the other day on the way back from the farm. They have the fresh wheatgrass growing on the counter for when you order it. As we were making our decsions about what we were getting, my oldest daughter asked what it was for. I told her that they squeeze the juice out of it to make a drink. She responded, “I don’t want to drink grass, daddy.”

I didn’t make her drink any.

So, today, I got a little brave and decided I would give it a shot (no pun intended). They serve a 1 oz and a 2 oz shot. I decided that being a newbie and all to the wheatgrass crowd, I would start off with the 1 oz. They offered a slice of orange with the shot. “How nice,” I thought. So foul that you need a something afterwards to wash it down. I decided I had better go with the orange slice as well.

They cut my grass, put it in the grinder, and poured my shot. It looked like pea green soup. I picked up the cup and figured I would just gulp it down. And you know what? It was not that bad. It was an interesting flavor. Not foul as I had expected, but rather it was sweet in a green kind of a way. I didn’t feel the need to quickly grab and suck down my orange slice to wash it down.

Maybe there is hope for me yet.

MRFF 2005

By Chad Butler Leave a Comment

With MRFF 2005 (Midwest Regional Fun Fly) fast approaching (Father’s Day Weekend), I think back to last year’s launch. Last year brought out the whole family: wife, kids, grandparents. This year will be much different as I will be without the family. Advantage: I can do both days for the weekend without the kids complaining that they’re bored or tired. Disadvantage: I plan to do my Level 1 Certification and no one will be there to see it.

Last year, we flew “Barbie’s Dream Rocket”. Here is an excerpt of some of what I posted over at The Rocketry Forum about the rocket:

A couple of years ago my oldest daughter, who was almost three at the time, came across a rocket kit in a toy store. She was intrigued to say the least, and I thought that, despite her young age, it might be fun to do together. She is now four and we have been building and flying rockets together since.

She is a big fan of Barbie and the color pink. Last year, she decided that she wanted a Barbie rocket. I had recently picked up several Estes kits on clearance at Meijer so I thought we could kitbash something together. She kept asking me and asking me, “when can we build the Barbie rocket?” So one night I think we opened up one of the kits to get started. I handed her the body tube. She looked at it, looked at me, wrinked her nose and said, “It’s too small!” I asked what she had in mind. She said, “I want it to be as big as me.”

So, that weekend we trundled off to Al’s Hobby Shop in Elmhurst to look for a kit. I showed her on the wall what kits we could pick from. She took about 15 minutes or so holding all the bags up to determine if the finished product would be taller than she was. She finally settled on a LOC Forte.

I spent last winter working on this thing. The only thing I wish I’d done different was build a baffle. It came out pretty stunning, I must say. I used a combination of paint – Krylon Pink for the body, the nose cone and fin can are metal flake automotive (which I would’ve used for the body too, but I couldn’t find any pink, the crucial color). The entire rocket was then finished in a metal flake clear gloss.

The decals were a lucky find. I was shopping at Menard’s one night and happened across these giant sticker sets for kids’ rooms. One set was Barbie. What luck. You can see the giant Barbie in the picture. The rest is covered in Barbie hearts and flowers.

Last month at what was supposed to be MRFF 2004 (but turned out to be non-MRFF 2004, I don’t know why… also, that’s Midwest Regional Fun Fly for you non Midwesterners.) on Father’s Day was our most recent flight. (The maiden voyage was at an NIRA club launch in May, but I didn’t get any pictures, just some video my wife was ashamed to lay claim to.)

Barbie's Dream Rocket

Anyway, I may have to post some pictures of my Level 1 project that will fly at MRFF 2005 (if it’s finished in time).