Modular rockeTs Building Baffles - National Association of Rocketry

A DifferentKind of SportRocketry ContestCompetition in various forms has always been a partof life, from natural selection to childhood games to professionalsports. Naturally, it spills over into rocketry.Rocketeers are by their very nature open to a little goodnaturedfraternal competition—drag racing, comparingbuilds, etc. Rocket jousting is one of the ties that bindus together in our hobby. Many competition events areclearly defined in the NAR’s United States Model RocketSporting Code, or “Pink Book.” Others are spontaneousand materialize on the day of the launch. In between aresome unique competitions that start small and grow intotheme launches. This is the story of one such event.Searching the Internet for pointers while goingthrough the NAR high power certification process, I cameacross John Coker’s excellent website, which among otherthings, documents his build of an entire box of crayonrockets (http://www.jcrocket.com/crayons.shtml). I havealways wanted to build a crayon rocket, not just as 3FNC,but as something unique, perhaps as an AQM-37C Jay-Hawk. I am a big fan of the JayHawk missile. In my idletime, I have made JayHawk rockets from a variety of objects,to include a giant bottle of Hershey’s Syrup and agiant Corona beer bottle, both of which started out as bigplastic coin banks. I used to joke that I misunderstoodthe NAR “Plastic Model Conversion” contest and thoughtit was “Plastic Bottle Conversion.”I searched local stores but could not find a suitablestarting point for what I envisioned. I didn’t want a stanbySather M. Ranum, NAR 87637Photos by Patricia Kelly RanumDiane Dorn’s purple crayon withCesaroni Skidmark motor.Sport Rocketry MAY/JUNE 2010 5