I seem to have neglected to mention what I did this past weekend, which was re-start two of my hobbies. I went to the orienteering meet on Saturday and ran my first red course. Unfortunately, the people who set it figured that [lots of unecessary vertical == difficulty] so what I ended up with was a relatively easy course aside from the 500m of vertical gain. It really worked me over pretty well, though none of the controls was difficult to find (aside from one that wasn't hung by the time I got there and one that was hung in the wrong place).

Then, on Sunday, I finally made it back to a Zia Spacemodelers rocket launch. I still seem to be their president, despite not having been to a launch since I was re-elected back in November. Anyway, I got to launch the Nerd Magnet XL and Oscar--both successfully. Drew has found an online supplier for composite propellant reloads and made several very large orders. He is selling the reloads for very reasonable prices so it's like having a motor store on site. This has inspired me to reignite a project that has been languishing for over a year--The GroganBuster¹.

To refresh your memories, the GroganBuster is a 7'8" tall fiber-wound fiberglass rocket that I'm almost done with. I haven't done a thing to it in over a year, and it really doesn't need much more work. So I'm going to throw down the cash for the last few components and unleash this thing on the world ASAP.

The body consists of five sections. From the top down: Nosecone, drogue tube, electronics compartment, main tube, and booster assembly. Three of those components are finished (booster, main tube, and drogue tube) aside from painting.

All the nosecone needs is to mount a bridle attachment inside the point. This is likely to come in the form of a long-shanked eyebold or U-bolt put through a thin G-10 disc that fits a ways down into the nosecone. This will then be epoxied in with great vigor. Or perhaps gusto.

The remaining part is the electronics enclosure. Considering how complicated this part is, it really is almost done. However, there is quite a bit left to do. It needs:

* an exhaust port so the electronics can sense the outside air pressure
* a hole drilled for the second launch rail button
* epoxy seals on the forward bulkhead
* devise some system to get the forward bulkhead on and off easier (too tight right now and the threaded rod holes don't quite align right)
* a mounting board for the electronics and batteries that slides onto the rods

Having done that, the only remaining task will be to buy the recovery system - parachutes, bridles, quick-links, swivels, and a dual-deploy altimeter. I'm thinking the PerfectFlite MiniAlt/WD will do nicely. It's small, has dual deployment, full data recording capability for 5 minutes at 20Hz, and is well built. Oh yeah and I need to find motors for it. Commonweath doesn't seem to be selling 54mm reloads, so I may have to chance it on an I motor first.

¹ - The name GroganBuster is a reference to this highly tasteless story which includes the phrase, "Yesterday evening I had ingested the pills and inserted the Grogan Buster^tm industrial strength stool liquefier." I think the idea, which was arrived at in a drunken stupor years ago and for which Dan is at least partially responsible, was that the rocket would be so big and loud and sweet that you would shit yourself if you saw it launch².

³ - Anus.