Mini video cam + model rocket = Wow!

[eskimo2]

Here’s how stupid I am/was:  

When I was in junior high I built a rubber powered Guillows Piper Tri Pacer.  I got tired of flying it with rubber power so I fixed an Estes D-12-O to the bottom of the fuselage.  To launch it I held it behind the wing with my hand on top of the fuselage while my friend lit the motor with a match lit fuse.  I figured that my hand would be safe from the exhaust blast because the fuselage was between my hand and the motor.  My theory was good, but I hadn’t figured what would actually happen.  

An instant after the motor lit something hit my arm.  Confused I looked into the sky and air around me; there was a perfect, vertical, 20 foot diameter smoke ring that went from my outstretched hand to my tricep and then beyond.  The Tri Pacer had looped and stung me.  My short sleeve shirt had a chunk burned off at the end of the sleeve and was smoking.  My arm/tricep had a 3 to 4 inch black mark where the sleeve met my arm and the shirt was burned.  My arm didn’t hurt too much so I figured the mark was rocket fuel ash.  I found the Tri Pacer and went inside to wash off the ash/dust.  The black mark didn’t come off like I expected.  As I washed my arm it started to bleed.  I still had some layers of skin but had a nice third degree burn.  I wore long sleeve shirts for the next month so I wouldn’t have to explain what had happened to my parents.  I’m still in awe that a rocket motor could expend that much heat as it grazed my arm at what must have been a pretty good clip.

[LePaul]

Oh ouch!

One of my friends bought one of those bulk packs of Estes Model Rocket engines.  He mustve had 20 rocket motors.  After his only 2 rockets had been shot off and lost, anything was fair game.  One of the most memorable things was watching him take a hot glue gun to various old Fisher Price toy trucks, cars and etc....then, out to a big empty parking lot.  One by one, off the zoomed to their fiery doom  

[Roscoroo]

my fav distructo was when we took a F4 phantom model and 2 A-6 or A-12's i dont remember witch and a quart jar of smokeless powder ... packed the whole front end of the F4  ... packed in the motors and launched it off a dock out into the lake .... it was way cool  .. it shot out up our ramp and across the lake then took to burning for id guess around 75-100 feet befor  the double skip  sizzle into the water ...  

we sacrifed several models to the cause ,,, but none of them performed the way that poor F4 did .



Now for your 3000 + footers  didnt you guys use streamers instead of chutes ??  thats what we did ..and we still had to go fetch them outta the center of town ,about 1/2 mile away and down the hill . (insert race of the schwinns here )