hobby #189

Model Rocketry

Building and flying solid-motor model rockets — laying up balsa and cardboard airframes, gluing fin fillets, choosing black-powder or composite motors by impulse class, and dialling in stability so the thing climbs straight instead of cartwheeling. Recovery is parachutes and streamers; the reward is a barometric altimeter's number after a launch you were sure would core-sample.

Jul 9 7:42 PM #189 4 min

The Nose Must Outweigh Everything the Wind Can Grab

Model Rocketry

A rocket flies straight for one reason: a pea of clay in the nose. Get it wrong and you've built a very expensive lawn dart. So I swung mine on a string, like 1960 told me to.

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