This awesome bird was one of the rockets that started my superstition about being complemented on how my rockets look. It seemed that every time someone made a comment about how nice one of my rockets looked, something would go wrong with the flight. In the case of this rocket, in a big way.

My worries were compounded by the fact that I was using a motor I’d never built before. The motor, a 54mm “beer can” size, went together with no problems but there was about a 1/2” of extra space left when the grains were inserted. Now I’m used to there being a little rattle in any motor, these grains slid back and forth with a thud!  To make sure I hadn’t done anything wrong, I went up and down the parking area asking if anyone if they had flown this motor before. Unfortunately, no one had, and while several thought it was strange to have so much space in the motor, the general consensus was that if I’d followed the instructions, and there weren’t any parts left over, then it should be OK.

Once I had the motor installed and the altimeter and ejection charges setup, I headed for the flight line. And while I felt like I had checked every thing out thoroughly, this time I was going to take no chances. I asked the LSO to announce for everyone to call out “That’s the ugliest rocket I’ve ever seen” just before the launch. They did, and the launch went off without a hitch. Once the main chute, deployed and opened over the grassy sod farm field, I gave them a big thumbs up and called out “Thanks everybody!”. Their disparaging remark had help make it a beautiful flight. At least in terms of placating my psyche.

[On a personal note, it is a damn fine looking rocket!}