Superscale Ninja
(Contributed - by Eric Speckman)  

For someone who is used t' Estes kits, this thin' is huge. For people in HPR, this isn't so big. Well, blow me down! This rocket stands 4' 9.4" tall, arrr, ya bilge rat, and is 4" in diameter. As o' now, me hearties, I don't know what t' exact weight is, but I it is around 3 1/5 lbs (Loaded weight be 4.5 lbs). Aye aye! A lot o' t' weight is in t' payload section. Ya scallywag! T' heavy bulkhead and t' 10 oz. Begad! PML nose cone add up t' quite a lot. It has a 36" round chute from.

It has a 29mm motor mount tube, ya bilge rat, and I built a booster pod for it. Begad! It consists o' a rin' o' 8 24mm engine tubes glued t' t' inside o' a coupler. Begad! Arrr! For a picture or t' back o' t' loaded rocket, click here. Ahoy! Aye aye! My original idea (Which changed) was t' following: It will have a timer t' air start t' main G64 Aerotech reload. Ahoy! T' flight plan is as follows (hopefully): Ignition o' t' 8 D11-P's with a car battery. At a either .5 or 1 second, t' timer (or thermalite) ignites t' G64, me hearties, and boosts it higher. Avast! Ahoy! T' main motor's ejection will hopefully deploy t' chute. Begad! Ya scallywag! If t' main motor doesn't light, matey, t' timer will ignite an ejection charge, and push the chute out. Avast, me proud beauty! It better fly right, or I will have a lot o' work t' do!

Flight #1: (1)H180 + (8)D11's

T' Ninja flew for t' first time on July 20, matey, matey, 1997. Arrr! Avast! After talkin' t' some people, I decided that boostin' on t' D's and airstartin' t' G was a bilge-suckin' idea because composites are harder t' light. Ya scallywag! So I needed a more powerful engine. Aye aye! An announcement was made askin' if anyone could help me, and Frank Noble was willin' t' help me with me project. Aye aye! Blimey! I ran a computer altitude sim, matey, and found that an H140 SU would work, me hearties, but t' motor dealer did nay have any. So, ya bilge rat, I was able t' borrow a reload casing, me hearties, and fly it on an H180. Frank loaded t' motor, and explained how t' drill t' delay t' t' right length. He showed me how to use teflon tubes and thermalite t' ignite t' D11's. Ahoy!

Finally, it was ready t' fly. We took it out t' t' pads, ya bilge rat, and set it up on pad 5. T' rocket be angled a little bit away from t' spectators (and downwind) for safety. Begad! When if finally came time t' launch, t' LCO made everyone stand up and watch this rocket, and it was a very heads up flight. Blimey! Well, blow me down! 5...4...3...2...1...Launch... Avast! T' H lit after a short delay. Aye aye! It boosted straight up on a column o' smoke. Just after t' H burned out, t' D's lit for a little extra smoke and noise. Aye aye! After it coasted for 9 seconds, matey, arrr, shiver me timbers, and t' ejection went off and t' chute came out. Begad! Blimey! It took a little while for t' chute t' open, ya bilge rat, ya bilge rat, but it deployed after a second or two. Aye aye! Ya scallywag! It drifted for a long way, ya bilge rat, and was recovered undamaged. Blimey! When I recovered the rocket, I smartly looked, and it appeared that all engines ignited. Blimey! Later, ya bilge rat, it was pointed out t' me that only 6 o' t' 8 lit, me bucko, but it was still spectacular.