Hello every body on the rockit page,
my daddy is OL' JR, my name is keira. I am 6 years old. (Daddy starts typing to save time Keira dictates what she wants to say).

I am building the GbLV rocket. The GbLV is the Gumball Lofting Vehicle from Dr. Zooch Rockets. I like this rocket because it has a mini-capsule from a gumball machine for a nosecone. It is very cute! I am gonna launch a gummy bear and Mr. Penny in the capsule. The bottom half of the rocket is a BT-60 tube, and the top half is a BT-55 tube. It has four fins. The nosecone has its own parachute for the capsule, and the rocket body has a streamer. It uses A, B, or C motors. I would choose C motors for my rocket. The C motor makes the rocket go the highest (about 511 feet). The least it will go is 88 feet on an A motor. On a B motor, it will go 237 feet.

You are supposed to catch a bug to fly in the capsule, but I don't like bugs. So I'll fly a gummy bear.

There is a lot of parts. I thought it would be complicated, but Daddy said it would be easy to build.

The first thing we did was cut a slit in the tube for the motor hook. Daddy let me use the hobby knife. Daddy showed me how to measure things too. Daddy helped me cut out the strip of paper to strengthen the tube, and I glued it on. (Reinforcement band under the motor hook).

Then we put the motor hook on and taped it down with electrical tape. We put on a ring with a slot in it for the motor hook on the back of the tube. Then we put on the biggest tube in the kit (BT-60). We glued the ring on white glue.

Then we put another ring in the front of the big tube, and glued it in place. Then we put a little ring on top of it and glued it to the big ring.

Then I sanded the end of my tube so the ring would slide inside...


And then we put another little ring 1 1/4 inches in front of the other little ring and glued it in place. Then we put on the shock cord and glued it on. Then we put the last tube (BT-55) in the kit over the two rings and glued it on.

I'll chat more later! Bye bye...
Keira Roberts

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

I dig the concentration on your face—it looks like you're going at it very deliberately—excellent. Looking forward to seeing the finished rocket. You're well on your way!

I'm still looking for my Gumby to send up one of these days.

__________________
Retro-grouch

Don't blame her one bit regarding choice of payload.
I don't like bugs either.
Uses for bugs include....
1) Testing victims of insecticides
2) See item 1 above.

__________________
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 !

Ants and grasshoppers were good bugs to fly.....

Looks like Ol' Keira has a promising future as a rocket scientist!!! Congrats Dad! Looking forward to launch picutres and future build threads.

I love it

__________________
David Stribling
NAR 18402 SR
But it is rocket science!
Get yer Barrowmans here

Hi! I am back!

Daddy helped me cut the paper transition. I cut the flat ends, and Daddy cut the curved parts.

He told me I'd learn to cut the curved parts soon. He showed me where to put the glue on, and I put the white glue on.

Then I put it together. Then we clamped it together with a hemostat to let the glue dry.

We skipped ahead in the instructions to let the glue dry on everything. Next I put the parachute together. Daddy showed me how to put the sticky dots on and I put them all on.

More later!
KNR/ OL JR

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

I'm back...
I finished putting on the sticky dots on the parachute...

Then I cut the holes for the lines in the center of each sticky dot.

We cut the string-- one piece several inches long for the capsule leader, and the rest into three equal pieces for the parachute lines. I cut the thread while Daddy showed me how to make the string into three equal length pieces. Daddy showed me how to tie the knots-- he did the first one but I did the rest.

We tied the leader string to the parachute lines and then put the little hook (snap swivel) on.

We put the capsule together. The clear top part snaps on the green bottom part. We put a penny inside like the instructions said. The penny acts as weight to help make the rocket stable, and come down better under the parachute. Daddy drilled a hole in the top of the capsule for the screw eye. Daddy started it in the hole, but I screwed it in all the way. Then we clipped the snap swivel on. It was already attached to the parachute.

We cut the fin pattern out, I traced it on the balsa wood, and Daddy helped me cut out fins. Then Daddy stacked sanded them. We cut printer paper to glue on the fins. I coated the fins with a thin layer of white glue, and Daddy put the fins on the paper and folded it over. Then I worked out the bubbles with a Sharpie marker. After they dried, I trimmed the fins with the scissors, and Daddy finished trimmed them with the hobby knife, and then we sanded the edges. Daddy showed me how to sand fins.

Rocket say bye-bye for a little while!
KNR/ OL JR

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here I am once again!

Time to talk about fins... You can attach them to the sides of the tube or through the wall of the tube to make the rocket stronger, because it may land hard with the streamer. We cut out the paper pattern from the wrap sheet, Keira traced the fins onto the wood paying attention to the grain direction, and then Daddy cut out some of the fins and Keira cut out the rest. Then we glued printer paper on them. We trimmed and sanded the edges when dry. Then we painted the fins. I decided I wanted yellow fins. We clipped the fins to a coat hangar with clothespins and spray painted them yellow. Daddy showed me how to use spray paint.

We cut the fin locator wrap out of the wrap sheet, and wrapped it around the tube and taped it together, and marked the rocket tube where the fins go. Then Keira used the angle to put the fin lines on the tube. Daddy lined the fins up along the fin lines and carefully traced around them, then cut out the slots in the tube for the fins to mount through the tube.

Then we put the rocket on the paint stick and took it outside and painted the rocket. We used flat white paint. Daddy showed me how to paint and I painted the rocket some.


While the paint dried, we cut the launch lug ends at an angle to make it look nicer. When the paint dried, we brought the rocket in, and slid the paper transition down the tube and glued it on with white glue. Then we glued on the fins using double-glue joints.

When they were dry, I filleted the fins with yellow wood glue.

Daddy cut out the 'ejection cone' that goes in the end of the rocket. It's sort of a funnel that lets the parachute slide past the ring the capsule sits on. I glued it together and clamped it with a hemostat while Daddy sanded the ring so the capsule fit smoothly in it. Then we glued the funnel into the ring and let it dry. We filleted it with white glue, and the next day, Daddy sanded it down smooth and glued it in the top of the rocket so the parachute and streamer can come out.

Bye for now... I'm tired...
KNR/ OL' JR

Attached Thumbnails

         

__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

You know what's going to come of all this, don't you JR? She's going to walk up to you one of these days and say "Dad, I've thought it over and I want to be a NASA engineer." Then what are you going to do?

This is a really great thread .... I hope you're savoring every minute of this build.

__________________
Tim Wilson

Thanks wilso... I appreciate it. She's already talking about her NEXT build... (not sure what yet, but I think she might be catching the "sickness"...

Oh, I'm hoping she can do better than that... I'm already encouraging her to learn Chinese so she can get a REAL job some day... LOL

Later! OL JR

__________________
The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!