I did this many years ago in a family farm field by myself.
No risk whatsoever.
Never a member of NAR or TRA....WAYYYYYY too many rules.

__________________
When in doubt, WHACK the GAS and DITCH the brake !!!

Yes, there is such a thing as NORMAL, if you have to ask what is "NORMAL" , you probably aren't !
Failure may not be an OPTION, but it is ALWAYS a POSSIBILITY.
ALL systems are GO for MAYHEM, CHAOS, and HAVOC !

*Nods* That's how my father--and later I--did it, with no one else around. Also:

The rocket that caused that fatality wasn't even a model rocket (although it used model rocket motors), because it had a PVC pipe body tube! (A model rocket is legally defined as being made of "only lightweight, non-metal parts for the nose, body, and fins of my rocket.") The *lack* of that is what caused the person's death, because PVC pipe isn't frangible (it doesn't absorb impact energy by crumpling, as paper or thin plastic body tubes [and the impact energy-dissipating "crush zones" in car bodies] do). Plus, if a PVC pipe-bodied rocket suffered a CATO, its body could be shattered by the motor's--or motors'--CATO(es), creating potentially deadly--or blinding/maiming--shrapnel (metal shrapnel is more massive per given volume of material, of course, but PVC shrapnel can kill, blind, or maim just as easily, if it's projected outward rapidly enough), and:

Being a Fire Chief (on the Miami Fire Department; he became a new model rocketeer in his *forties*, back in the 1960s!), my father was very safety-conscious, and he didn't--due to his rank and experience--have a "know-it-all"/"It can't happen to me because I'm an expert" attitude. He lit off fireworks (the best kinds, that fly and explode!) at our house, using a punk affixed to a long stick, and he wore his face-and-head-protecting riot helmet when he did that; he always had water available to extinguish any flames, too. Concerning model rocketry:

Whenever we flew model rockets at the old, abandoned Tamiami Airport (now Tamiami Park, adjoining the FIU--Florida International University--campus), he taught all six of us kids to observe--and exceed--the requirements of the NAR Safety Code when flying in such places, because other people were in the vicinity (flying their model rockets, model airplanes, or kites, playing Frisbee, etc., or just being observers or bystanders), but:

When a venerable old rocket, like his orange-and-white (masked and painted, using a paint sprayer bottle and a compressor) Estes Big Bertha, became too old, floppy, or threadbare to keep flying without taking "heroic" measures at the workbench (and if it had too few usable or serviceable parts to make it worth cannibalizing for the spare parts box), it got to make a spectacular final flight--away from anyone else, or any property, who/that could be harmed. Neither of us ever did this more than a handful of times, because--happily--most old, worn-out rockets *do* have enough usable or serviceable parts to justify cannibalizing them for spare parts. As well:

When such worn-out rockets are "flight-disposed of" away from anyone or anything that could be harmed or damaged (it was easy to ensure that we weren't in harm's way), the NAR Safety Code is irrelevant in such circumstances--just as the laws prohibiting public nudity are irrelevant if one walks around naked in an empty and/or view-obscuring location, especially on a Moonless night. (I mention the public nudity example because a late friend of mine actually did that. He paid a kid on an adjacent block to keep shooting out--with a BB gun--the streetlight that illuminated his large, hedge-and-fence-obscured lot. He did this because he loved showering outside on his front walk, in the warm, refreshing summer night rains. Since no one could see him, it didn't matter that he was breaking the public nudity law.)

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Off-Topic Comrades:


Done! (Well, mostly)

Attached are the images. The first is the the rocket all in primer. I went with Duplicolor Black Primer on the tube and nose with a minimal amount of overspray on the fins focusing on the repaired area. My experience is red plastic is extremely hard to paint over without getting bleed-thru. This is critical for the white nose but I decided a little red bleeding through the copper on the fin unit wasn't necessarily bad. The primer helped seal up the water-damaged body tube pretty well.

No outdoor picture because it's raining on-and-off and the lighting is bad but the second picture is the final. Colors are Rustoleum spray Copper, Camo Deep Forest Green and Flat White in the alternate Nike-Smoke scheme. The scheme works well for this model with its pronounced fin can. The nose was tricky to mask but it worked out.

The parachute needs a little more work, but that's all the rocket needs to be ready for launch. The kids want to go launch so maybe by the end of the month.

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

That copper paint, over the red plastic, has a nice--and not unrealistic--crimson tinge to it, like that of some 1/2" copper tubing that I've seen. It might be due to some "within spec" impurity in the copper, but some of the tubing has a reddish coloration. The overall paint scheme reminds me of a Nike-Nike-Smoke (launched from Punta Lobos, Peru) that Dr. Bob Kreutz scratch-built a scale model of a few years ago; that round had three large, Nike-Ajax booster fins on each stage's Nike rocket motor.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

There looks to be a prime rescue candidate K Honest John just listed...

__________________
Just completed: Estes Cherokee-E, Estes Multi-Roc.

Current project: Painting the roll pattern on my new Ventris build, gifted me by the estimable Dr. Houchin.

Saw that. She wants more than I'm willing to pay. There are some other lots going right now, for the first time in a long time.

__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Comrades:

A quick addendum to the MPC Nike-Smoke rescue. I ended up having to go back and respray the whole rocket. I ran out of Rustoleum Acrylic Matte so I bought some Rustoleum Enamel Matte Clear. It was neither matte nor clear and left the rocket shiny and slightly yellowed. Worse, it caused the metallic copper paint to orange peel. I was a little pistolero (Spanish for "gunfighter'). But I gamely sanded off the orange peel and resprayed.

While assembling the recovery system, I discovered that a slightly sanded BT-55 is a slip fit inside whatever size the MPC body tube is, so I added a Semroc BT-55 baffle and kevlar to a short section of BT-55 and badda-bing, no more wadding. Kind of over-kill for a rescue but . . . .

We're shooting for a launch tomorrow, wind permitting. It'll be ready.

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

It's the Quest (originally MPC, then AVI) T35 (35 mm O.D.) tubing. That is good to know about the sanded BT-55 sleeve-fitting inside the T35. While Quest makes stage couplers/tubing couplers--and thick card stock closure discs--for T35 that could be made into ejection baffles (by punching holes in the closure discs), using the ready-to-assemble Semroc BT-55 baffles is much easier and quicker.

__________________
Black Shire--Draft horse in human form, model rocketeer, occasional mystic, and writer, see:
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperba...an-form/8075185
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6122050
http://www.lulu.com/product/cd/what...of-2%29/6126511
All of my book proceeds go to the Northcote Heavy Horse Centre www.northcotehorses.com.
NAR #54895 SR

Comrades:

Pretty slim pickin's on eBay lately. Or should I say nothing that is low-priced. There's been a lot of things for sale, but the sellers are WAY too proud of forty and fifty year old dinged up rescue candidates. If I'm going to commit several hours (in most cases) to a proper rescue, I better have started out cheap.

I did find a box of stuff at a relatively low price ($30 shipped). The eBay picture had a couple of things I was interested in: Centuri parachutes and at least one Interceptor drop tank that I've needed for several years to complete another rescue. It was hard to tell what some of the other stuff was from the picture so I gambled on it.

The pictures show what I got: The best part was the complete Centuri Stiletto. I'm a big fan of Stilettos. All is not well with it, but I'm feeling confident that it will fly again. Other recognizable stuff includes a Ranger payload section, the Interceptor drop tank, a badly damaged Mercury capsule and tower, most of a Flutterby, parts of a Centuri Shuttle and a Mars Lander and some Little Joe II parts. As for the parachutes, I got a number of 12" and 14" Centuri chutes plus an 12" MPC chute and a Sunward 16" chute. The Estes 18"s are the old thick plastic kind. All of these will be great for future rescues.

I'll post some pictures when I get to the Stiletto. It'll be a couple of weeks . . . .

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7

Couldn't do it.


I really wanted to finish a couple of the other projects I'm working on, but I kept looking over at the Stiletto. Maybe I could just re-glue the one booster fin.

Nope.

After looking at the booster and discovering that one of the remaining fins was already coming off, I started wiggling the last fin until it came off, too. I like the geometric patterns but what the original builder did was cut the shapes out of the hang-tag, and then glued them to the fin and not particularly well at that. So those had to go using a chisel blade and some sanding. And then I had to stack the fins and make them all the same size. Which necessitated resanded the edges, of course. And the re-gluing had to be in the fin jig because the OCD kicked in.

(It's possible the OCD kicked in earlier . . . )

So here's a picture. What's next. Well, the Sustainer suffered a core-sample and is crushed and bent about an inch forward of the large fins . Also the shock cord was installed with the two-slits method . I'm going to replace the last five inches of ST-7 tube, add a Kevlar leader threaded through the coupler and transfer the original little fins to the new tube. Then we paint. IMO Stilettos should be glossy black with red soles, I mean boosters, but that's getting way ahead.

Then I'm going to hope and pray that Gordy gets an ALPS working sometime this year. I absolutely love the white "Booster" and "Sustainer" decals and the white Centuri logo. But white decals mean ALPS printers.

How is the crowd-funding on that going?

Attached Thumbnails

 

__________________
NAR 79743
NARTrek Silver
I miss being SAM 062

Awaiting First Launch: Too numerous to count
Finishing: Zooch Saturn V; Alway/Nau BioArcas; Estes Expedition; TLP Standard
Repair/Rescue: Cherokee-D (2); Centuri Nike-Smoke; MX-774
On the Bench: 2650;
Dream Stage: 1/39.37 R-7