Pitsco Rocket

We used the Pitsco Rocket Kit to build our second rocket. Similar to The Viking, the kit provided most of the materials needed and included step by step directions. Here is a video we used in conjunction to the directions booklet. A PDF of this directions booklet is uploaded in the google drive folder and can also be found here. Also in the google drive folder are pictures and videos we took as we were building/launching.

Our workflow didn't deviate much from the plans and video, but more details with pictures are to follow.

Materials/tools:

Materials: Tools:

- Plastic nose cone - Wood glue

- Paper - Super glue/Gorilla glue

- Gummed tape - Scissors

- Card stock - Ruler/Straight edge

- Launching lug - Pencil

- Engine tube - Wet paper towels/sponge

- Spacer rings - Razor blade

- Shock cord - 12'' long plastic tube

- Shock cord anchor

- Screw eye

- Shroud lines

- Parachute

- A8-3 engine

- Ignitor

- Ignitor plug

- Chute wadding

- Reinforcement labels for binder holes

Building the rocket:

1) Constructing the airframe:

The first part of making the rocket was making the body tube, which was not included in the kit. This step was the most different from The Viking rocket and would have been much more confusing without watching the video. First, we took a regular sheet of copy paper and wrapped it around the plastic tube, long ways. We squeezed a line of glue at the end of the piece of paper to stick it to the paper underneath (NOTE: the paper is not glued to the plastic tube at all). At this point, we had a tube shape piece of paper with a plastic tube inside helping it keep its shape.

After we finished the first layer, we started on the second layer. We took an 11 in. piece of 3'' wide gummed tape, wet the sticky side using a wet paper towel, and wrapped it lengthwise around the paper. The third layer followed the same process as the second, but instead of wrapping it lengthwise, we cut one end at a 45 degree angle and wrapped it at an angle down the tube (spirals).

2) Gluing the launch lug:

We used wood glue to attach the launch lug 3'' from the end of the body tube.

3) Making the fins:

We cut out 4 fins that looked like the template on page 15 of the Pitsco Rocket Kit Book from a card stock material. Using a pencil we outlined our fins and then used a razor blade to cut them out.

Like The Viking, we used a drawing to position our fins equal distance apart (can be found on page 8). The launch lug shouldn't be directly over any of these marks since these marks are where the fins must go. We drew vertical lines from these marks and aligned the fins accordingly. They were glued with wood glue about 5/8'' from the bottom of the body tube. The pictures below show what the rocket would look at this point (except the Pitsco Rocket Fin Holder is used instead of the diagram).

4) Making the shock cord:

We used a stretchy string to replace the shock cord that was supposed to be but not provided in the kit. After we printed out the shock cord anchor pattern, we glued the shock cord to it and glued the anchor on the inside wall of the body tube. The other end was tied to the screw eye.

5) Making the parachute:

The kit came with a parachute, but we had to cut out the 6 small holes and large hole at the top so that we could tie the shroud lines to the parachute. We gathered all 6, 14'' shroud lines and tied them in a knot around the screw eye.

**Tip: use reinforcement labels for binder holes to strengthen the holes so that they don't rip.

6) Making the engine mount assembly:

This step differs from the engine mount assembly of The Viking. Instead of using an engine block, we used spacer rings to hold the engine in the rocket. We glued the spacer rings to the engine tube using wood glue (one ring was 1/8'' from one end and the other ring was 1'' from the other end), and we glued the engine mount assembly inside the body tube from the bottom. Although the directions said to use an engine lock, we did not have any, so we didn't include one. It didn't seem to affect our rocket.

7) Putting everything together and prepping it for launch:

First, we screwed the eye screw, which had the parachute and shock cord tied to it, into the nose cone. Also, Like The Viking, we put flame-proof wadding paper in before inserting the parachute so that the parachute doesn't burn up. At the bottom of the rocket, we slid the rocket engine into the engine tube, put the ignitor in the hole, and secured it with the ignitor plug. A picture of the finished rocket is below:

Launching the rocket:

We followed the same procedure to launch the Pitsco rocket as we did for The Viking. However, we put an altimeter inside the rocket that measured how high it went. In the google drive folder at the top, there is a spreadsheet of the results for our class. As you can see, there is a high outlier (1592 ft). This result was from a group who used a B-motor instead of an A8-3. Because they used a more powerful motor, it went up higher. A video of our launch is below. Our rocket reached 81 ft.

Issues/Challenges:

Our first setback occurred when we couldn't print the fin template at the right scale. Because we only had a PDF of the plans, not the actual booklet, the fin template didn't fit on the card stock. In the end, we had to be resourceful and do the best we could with the tools we had. Using a ruler and a pencil, we tried to draw fins as similar to the template as possible and cut them out using a razor blade. The next challenge we faced was inserting the engine mount assembly. This part was more difficult than for the previous rocket because the inner most layer (the copy paper) easily crumpled and was pushed up with the engine mount assembly. The more we pushed, the more it jammed. Consequently, the engine mount assembly didn't go up as much as it should have. The last issue we had with our rocket was the failure of our parachute to deploy. The fit was tight with the parachute, shock cord, and wadding paper in such a small diameter, so it's plausible that it got caught when deploying.

Conclusion:

Overall, this rocket was more complex to build, but I enjoyed building it more because I thought it was more interesting. Although with the complexity came more challenges, I know what I would do better moving on. Furthermore, this rocket introduced another method of engine installation and rocket recovery. The new techniques that I learned from this rocket and the old techniques I kept from The Viking will both come in handy when we have to design our own rocket for the next project.