As I was growing up, I was privileged to witness the dawn of the home video game era.
I had spent countless hours bashing a silver ball up and down an inclined play-field, utilising nothing but two fingers to manipulate a pair of rubber-coated flippers in a vain attempt to win a free game or beat the standing high score (typically held by someone called 'ACE', 'POO', 'ASS' or any one of a number of humorously creative three-letter words.)
Video games slowly appeared, typically tucked away in the same smoke-filled rooms as their electromechanical counterparts. These rooms, often found out the back of the local Italian coffee shop, were not the places that the youth of the time should be visiting, or so our parents would have us believe.
1977 Was the dawn of an era as the Atari corporation released the Atari VCS and every kid wanted one.
So this is my hommagé to that time, a scratch-built Atari 2600 Joystick rocket!
Woke up today to very rocket-friendly weather! Not a breath of air in the sky. So I stuck a C6 up Lord Neville 3rd's clacker and hit the launch button...
Not quite what I was hoping for but some more nose weight should fix the stability issues :)
I've been doing a bit of re-building recently, another disaster now repaired. Once Called "The Big Nuke", a bonus delay on an Aerotech motor saw a zipper tear down both sides to just above the bottom of the 'check' mark around the top. I got myself motivated, trimmed off the top 3 or 4 inches and gave it a new lick of paint. Now simply called "Red & White" (because I can't think of a better name) has flown again! First video on an E9, the 2nd (after the jump) is on an E30. Flys like a charm and looks super under its matching red & white parachute!
At the end of January, I took a trip to Benalla with a boot-load of rockets. Some few well, while others didn't go as planned. My scratch-built Mini Mean Machine was one of the casualties. Originally launched to an absurd height on a D13 RMS motor, it came back down without the aid of a parachute (it was still tucked away in the end of the body tube). I managed to save almost 1/2 the length of the rocket, rebuilt it, repainted it and last week put it up again on a more realistic A8 motor. It was a fine flight with perfect recovery. Here's the video:
As an update to my previous post about the Binder Design Excel 38mm fin problem, I contacted Mike Fisher at Binder and provided him with a photograph of the fins. He was quick to get back to me today and seemed genuinely surprised with the fin being made from the 4 Ply wood. His response was really positive. This is what his emails said:
Thank you for supplying the photo. I'm sorry this happened, and am still not sure how it occurred since we've never carried four ply and would never consider using anything but aircraft grade for fins. I will send you a new fin.
Work on the Binder Design "Spike" rocket is nearing completion, so I thought I had better rip open the bag for the Binder Design "Excel 38mm".
Now, to put things in perspective, the "Spike" is a great kit, it has some shortcomings (the nosecone is *very* lose and will need a fair whack of tape to snug it up). But the quality of the parts is top-notch - as should be for a kit that retails here in Australia for $92.
The Excel, on the other hand, is almost as disappointing as the level of customer service I received from Mike Fisher at Binder Design.
In my ongoing quest to scratch-build a rocket that's somewhat different to the usual 3FNC, I came up with the idea to upscale the ever classic Estes C6-5 motor... This is the result! 2.6x Upscale Estes C6-5 motor
Some time ago I built an Estes Mean Machine - at 2m tall, it's one huge-ass rocket! I decided to build a down-scale version of it. Built with 36" of BT20, 2" nosecone and down-scaled fins from the Mean Machine template. Stands almost 1m tall with Rocksim predicting an altitude of 2,000' when flown on an Aerotech RMS D13 motor - so that's what I did!
Unfortunately, the parachute didn't deploy and came in ballistic - recovered less than 50m from the launch pad. Motor case and last 14" of airframe have been salvaged and will fly again!
Rocketry 
