DSAM-D

The pride of our fleet! Plan designed by Blake Gartrell. This was Blake's first attempt at truly constructing a model rocket from the ground up. I transferred Blake's original drawing onto graph paper to scale, lengthening the body about 10 inches and increasing the wing size a little more to improve stability. The math was a little more than Blake could handle at his age. Next, we made a cardboard cutout to determine the center of pressure. Then, Blake built the rocket, adding clay into the plastic nose cone to assure the center of gravity would be above the center of pressure. We did a swing test in the backyard. It flew perfectly the first time. Blake suddenly said, "Grandpa, I'm going to paint it with camo paint." The rocket was just made for camo paint. Several names were discussed. Then, we settled on the Desert Surveillance Attack Missile-D powered. Desert Surveillance for the camo color, Attack Missile because of the shape. Also, the acronym plays on the surface-to-air nomenclature. Cool, huh? This was Blake's first attempt at painting with spray paint. Excellent job!

Paint purchased from Lowe's; they had a special on camo paints, so I picked up several cans. All other parts purchased from Hobbytown USA.

First flight - Brad's place. Winds about 15mph, gusting to 20mph. Launched with D12-5. It flew like a dream. Straight up, no spin. It was so windy, though, the shock cord was ripped from the fin can at apogee. The fin can sort of drifted down though, so no damage. Ground was very soft from all of the rain. The nose cone drifted forever, but luckily the wind was blowing towards this huge field so we were able to recover it.