Blood & Tears

Here's hoping that I've met the blood and tears quota for my new rocket. I was sanding out the latest fiberglass work on the new airframe tube this afternoon. After getting the sanding to a point where I was satisfied I dry fit all the pieces together (fin can, 2 airframe tubes, 1 coupler, and nose cone) and showed it to my younger daughter. I had started disassembling the parts when my older daughter came out. I wanted to show her so started reassembling the rocket by attempting to insert the nose cone in the upper airframe tube. Despite the fact that I'd just had it all together and easily assembled and disassembled it, the nose cone wouldn't go in. In fact it got stuck and wouldn't go in or come out. I applied more force and suddenly it popped loose. Of course my elbows bent and the nose cone described an arc right into my face. Thank goodness I was wearing my glasses. They took a good bit of the energy and deflected the nose cone such that it hit my brow ridge. I still ended up with cuts on the bridge of my nose from my glasses and a puncture wound in my eyelid from the tip of the nose cone. That is far closer to losing an eye than I ever hope to come again. I'll be lucky if I don't get a black eye from this. So consider this an object lesson you need not repeat. If that nose cone gets stuck and you are tempted to apply more force to get it out, at least put on your safety glasses/goggles before doing so.