<mister rogers>
Can you identify this rocket? I thought you could.
</mister rogers>



Deciding to retire my 1.2x upscale Midget (at right), I started a replacement. As before, this one uses Quest T30 tubing for the sustainer.

The new one is simpler using a single tube booster. The old one's booster was kinda heavy because it used a tube-within-a-tube for scale diameter. The change in appearance is hardly noticeable.

The old one was nearly destroyed in a lawn dart and picked up some weight in the repair. The new one will be much lighter and able to fly on A10-0T boosters.

I want to get it finished soon, but have to do some business travel the next couple weeks and won't make much progress for a while But I should have it in the air before the end of the month.

Doug

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YORF member #11

You just can't have too many Midgets. One of the all-time greatest designs, a Bill Simon masterpiece (one of many). Looks great, Doug! What size of tube did you use for the booster?

Also, do you turn your own Midget nose cones?

MK

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SAM # 0011

Hi, Mark,

Thanks. The booster tube is BT-20. On the earlier one, I used Totally Tubular T-.908 (ST-9?) along with some custom rings to make the booster scale. Sometimes I over do it

I turned this cone out of cedar then hollowed out the base. It's heavier than balsa but still fairly light. I use stock cones whenever I can. Big Bertha, Big Betty and Fat Boy cones have been employed along with BT-20 and BT-50 cones from BMS. I've turned all the others from BT-5 up to 6".

Doug

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YORF member #11

A Midget is one of those that I wanted but never had in my first go at rocketry 35 years ago. I'll have to do something like this (especially since I have access to some A10-0Ts).

Tubing with a .908 OD would be ST-8. ST-9 is the same ID as BT-50.

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Bernard Cawley
NAR 89040 L1 - Life Member
SAM 0061
AMA 42160
KG7AIE

Yup, that's ST-8. Semroc's ST-9 is a somewhat thicker walled 24mm tube (OD=0.998"). In-between them is ST-8F, which is equivalent to the old FSI RT-10 (OD= 0.921"), and the heavy-walled Series 085 tubing (OD=0.945" or exactly 24mm) which is a slip-fit into BT-50/ST-9. Right below ST-8 in size is the new Quest T21 (D5 motor tube, OD=0.835") and BT-40 (OD=0.825"). Tube trivia, I know. I can recite the dimensions of nearly every rocket tube on the market today, but I can never find my keys.

That's interesting about your nose cones - hollow cedar. Very different.

MK

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SAM # 0011

No moths, either

Doug

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YORF member #11

After being sidetracked in May, I finally got back to work and finished this one.



I was pleased to find some red Monokote trim which matched the nosecone paint very well. I was quite displeased that it was translucent. This resulted in an effect similar to silvering with decals. In this case, the slight orange peel in the paint causes a fish scale sort of coloring effect in the Monokote.

I was further bummed to find I had another sheet in the closet - same exact color - that was solid Go figure.

Anyway, I'm too lazy to peel it all off, cut new pieces and re-apply it. It actually looks OK until you get right up to it. And it looks just fine in pics

The only other thing I ran into was the booster fin rake. Somehow, I got them swept too much. I think, when I had them stacked together and was evening them up on the belt sander, I managed to change the angle of the root edge such that the fin sweep is more severe. It sorta robs the bird of its characteristic squat look, but I can live with that

Besides the change in appearance, my other worry is that will be more prone to coming in stable instead of tumbling. I'll find out when I fly it

Doug

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YORF member #11

Sure looks good from where I'm sittin'. Ready just in time for 4th of July, too!

Joe