Random Griz Aviation Musings

[wink]

My boys and I preferred to keep the rocketry fun right before us. We would have competitions to see who could keep the altitude the lowest and still get a good chute. Good fun on a high wind day when you might not expect to keep a normal flight within the county.

 

[mad dog]

@mad dog I'm surprised you haven't gotten into Estes in your spare time...seems up your alley...nostalgia and explosives.

I might give it the old college try, dude!

Currently I’ve been dorking around with my original Hot Wheels red lines from the late 1960s and early 1970s...

 

[Griz882]

I'm pretty sure you can walk right in there.

I can give you directions to find where I carved my name inside the wall of the "safe house" about twenty years ago. Fun fact- my class went through the same week as the EP-3 was in China. Fuckin' Chinese... I'm pretty sure they're still mad at the West for everything that ever happened since the year 1271.

No thanks...I went through SERE so far back that they still had pictures of Ho Chi Minh hanging around. Was Fant still there in the early 2000’s?

 

[zipmartin]

When I was in college in the early '70's, a couple of us used to take Estes rocket engines, glue fins directly to the engine, glue an M-80 to the front end with the fuse going down into the engine, and launch it out of the window of a dorm room on the 10th floor toward the heart of the campus, at night. Then we waited for the sirens. Fun times. Never got caught. In today's environment, if someone did that and got caught, they'd probably spend time in the pen.

 

[Jim123]

When I was in college in the early '70's, a couple of us used to take Estes rocket engines, glue fins directly to the engine, glue an M-80 to the front end with the fuse going down into the engine, and launch it out of the window of a dorm room on the 10th floor toward the heart of the campus, at night. Then we waited for the sirens. Fun times. Never got caught. In today's environment, if someone did that and got caught, they'd probably spend time in the pen.

One of my friends once got a surprise birthday party. His wife rented a conference room at a beach hotel and invited a bunch of us... pretty much, and it was pretty great. It was also New Year's Eve (luck of the draw for your birthday) and Florida- so fireworks EVERYWHERE. I grabbed a handful of helium balloons from our party and tied them to a Florida-legal "emits showers of sparks" shitty pyrotechnic. Probably not my best ever judgment but it was pretty fun watching that sucker float along at treetop height...

 

[zipmartin]

One of my friends once got a surprise birthday party. His wife rented a conference room at a beach hotel and invited a bunch of us... pretty much, and it was pretty great. It was also New Year's Eve (luck of the draw for your birthday) and Florida- so fireworks EVERYWHERE. I grabbed a handful of helium balloons from our party and tied them to a Florida-legal "emits showers of sparks" shitty pyrotechnic. Probably not my best ever judgment but it was pretty fun watching that sucker float along at treetop height...

That technique works well with oxy-acetylene balloons also. Fill a balloon with the right mixture of oxygen and acetylene, tape about 4 feet of TP to it (not now though because of the shortage), tie a 3 foot string from the oxy-acetylene to the helium balloon, light the TP and launch it. When the TP burns up to the balloon it explodes with a tremendous bang and by then the helium balloon has hoisted it to a decent height. Set off all the car alarms in our neighborhood one New Years Eve years ago.

 

[Pags]

Squeeze an E into something that's supposed to use an A or a B.

Hey, I spent a hundred bucks on fireworks last summer. This is the same kind of fun.

Never shot anything with an E motor in it. Isn't that when you need to upgrade your launcher and controller?

 

[Jim123]

Never shot anything with an E motor in it. Isn't that when you need to upgrade your launcher and controller?

I dunno... I've seen some pretty big motors on the shelves at Hobby Lobby, duct tape...

 

[Griz882]

Today’s mission over @Pags area...SAM City...a little yanking, a little banking, and I managed to get away.

This time.

 

[Jim123]

Griz, describing the encounter, "It was actually about one and a half I think. It was one and a half. I've got a great Polaroid of it, and he's right there, must be one and a half."

 

[Griz882]

“Because I was inverted.”

 

[jmcquate]

Does Garmin make RWR gear for the civilian market? What about expendables?

 

[Griz882]

Does Garmin make RWR gear for the civilian market? What about expendables?

This is my highly classified chaff flare system. Super secret, don’t let it out.

 

[Pags]

Does Garmin make RWR gear for the civilian market? What about expendables?

Ziploc full of aluminum foil shreds.

Too bad my SAMs are wildly unguided...Expendables won't help him. Flying over 1000' and straight and level will probably keep him safe.

 

[JTS11]

When I lived in downtown SD, I carried a dollars worth of pennies and nickels in my pockets (Hobo chaff) while walking around.

Bum 3 O'clock, Chaff/Flare, Break Left!

Is this a similar idea?