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Cub Scout rocket build (5/11/2004)
Last nite I visited Cub Scout Pack 429's meeting to help them put
together some rockets. There were about 35 kids there and another 40
or so parents, siblings, and friends. They had some other items on
the agenda, and by the time we got started there were only 45
minutes left!
The other interesting part of this exercise was that the Pack
leaders had already picked out the rockets, and no two were alike!
There were a few simple 3FNCs (including an Alpha III and a Wizard),
a few slightly more complex rockets like a Cosmic Cobra, a Patriot,
and a Baby Bertha, and a couple of really tough ones, like a Python
4 ASRAAM, a Guardian, and a GBU-24 Paveway III. There were eight or
nine rockets in all. Also, the leaders supplied construction
materials--lots of plastic glue, hot glue and glue guns, but only
one bottle of yellow glue. So we shared.
The good news with Cub Scout meetings is that parents are all
supposed to be there, and they all help. I ended up circulating from
table to table, helping them divide up the work so that tasks could
be done in parallel (motor mount by one Scout, fins by another, body
tube splices by a third, shock cord attachment by a fourth, etc.) It
was pretty chaotic, but we got the simple rockets all done, and most
of the complicated ones simplified and finished enough to be flyable
as well (we omitted things like forward fins, the use of fin marking
guides, and sanding. I know deep in our hearts we all like to build
like that sometimes -). There was a lot of hot glue used, so it's
not clear how many flights the rockets will be capable of, but
they'll fly once, anyway.
Working with adults isn't that different from working with
kids--most of them haven't put together a rocket either, so you
still have to provide advice on which glue is used for what, what
side of the fins is right side up, and the like.
All in all, it was an interesting change from the usual,
"let's build 45 Generic E2X rockets" sort of exercise (I
get to that Friday at Westwood -)
The rockets will be flown sometime in June, I think.
[Ted Cochran]
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