After the unmitigated disasters of the Prinz Eugen, Egg and Whack Wocket, it looks like days of my silly oddrocs might be in deep trouble. The flight card of the Egg has been placed in my permanent record with the red stamp of Inherently Unstable Design, a direct violation of the RSOs zero tolerance policy towards unstable oddrocs. You only get one chance with these things and they had better work. As in the Animal House movie, with the Dean of the college dropping the Big One, my only course of action is to try something new and completely stupid. Yes, a gas dynamic stabilized, yet finless and scale like model rocket might fit the bill for the home coming launch. With all the hype surrounding the Apogee newsletter it must be good rocket science and hopefully I can drop some fancy college terms that will get me a coveted pad assignment. Who needs stinking fins! Who needs no good, stinking, performance robbing nose weight? Who needs bigger, punchier motors? Gas Dynamic Stabilization will be the answer to all of my prayers, I am sure of it; confidence is Key. Even the rivet counting scale guys might like it, no more Lexan. Early hope sims are good, then comes the build using left over parts from the headache box.
There have been threads where small A 10 motors have been successfully fired down a ducted tube, so I am going for some ultra-high by pass air action with a 24mm motor on this one. All that cool air flow and expanding gas will surely stabilize the rocket just like if it had big old fins. But then more mind sim problems arise as massive doubt and angst set in. How to manage motor heat that can easily burn right through a steel blast defector? What about all those sparky bits that shoot out the back on my lovely E9 motors? What about that hot burning delay melting away the pretty plastic bits on the back of the rocket? Will I be able to take the heat damage or will I become so distraught from black soot, peeling paint and melted plastic as to just give up. Will the shaping fins with fire during flight argument hold up again? But most important, will it look good?
No silly mid or forward canted tractor motors on this one. The motor must point down. Rocket science is all about efficiency. Variable nose weight capability will be required for the scheduled test flight program. It will first fly as a Saturn like rocket and as the nose weight comes off it will look more Titan like. The first flight will have to be off a long quarter inch rod. No rod whip allowed. Launching off the little stand like in the Apogee newsletter article is just a dream. Thank goodness I was able to dig through some High Power trash and score some igniter packaging tubes I can use for launch lugs.
As the build progresses I decide the induction tube at a minimum of two diameters is just too restrictive and will burn up even with lots of holes. Just putting spaced ring fins on will allow more airflow and burning gas to stabilize the rocket . . . right? I feel the good rocket science slipping through my fingers as my silly mind sim mods add up. Is it really worth all this just to move the motor up and eliminate fins? Will the model rocket Jedi Masters at the club see this and move me back in with the Younglings? I decide to hack the openings above the motor and around the motor tube to max. Max airflow over the motor must be achieved. I try to hide a little lip to bring in more airflow using rail road corrugated metal. Some use beer can metal for the induction tube. I fear little drops of molten metal falling on the crowd. Just CA soaked tube and hardware store hardwood Poplar rods will have to do. A final decision to add some launch lugs and cut nose cones for pretty silver nozzles to make it look good and hopefully endear it to the old school Jedi before launch. One shot, it must work. Help me gas dynamic stabilization, you are my only hope!
There have been threads where small A 10 motors have been successfully fired down a ducted tube, so I am going for some ultra-high by pass air action with a 24mm motor on this one. All that cool air flow and expanding gas will surely stabilize the rocket just like if it had big old fins. But then more mind sim problems arise as massive doubt and angst set in. How to manage motor heat that can easily burn right through a steel blast defector? What about all those sparky bits that shoot out the back on my lovely E9 motors? What about that hot burning delay melting away the pretty plastic bits on the back of the rocket? Will I be able to take the heat damage or will I become so distraught from black soot, peeling paint and melted plastic as to just give up. Will the shaping fins with fire during flight argument hold up again? But most important, will it look good?
No silly mid or forward canted tractor motors on this one. The motor must point down. Rocket science is all about efficiency. Variable nose weight capability will be required for the scheduled test flight program. It will first fly as a Saturn like rocket and as the nose weight comes off it will look more Titan like. The first flight will have to be off a long quarter inch rod. No rod whip allowed. Launching off the little stand like in the Apogee newsletter article is just a dream. Thank goodness I was able to dig through some High Power trash and score some igniter packaging tubes I can use for launch lugs.
As the build progresses I decide the induction tube at a minimum of two diameters is just too restrictive and will burn up even with lots of holes. Just putting spaced ring fins on will allow more airflow and burning gas to stabilize the rocket . . . right? I feel the good rocket science slipping through my fingers as my silly mind sim mods add up. Is it really worth all this just to move the motor up and eliminate fins? Will the model rocket Jedi Masters at the club see this and move me back in with the Younglings? I decide to hack the openings above the motor and around the motor tube to max. Max airflow over the motor must be achieved. I try to hide a little lip to bring in more airflow using rail road corrugated metal. Some use beer can metal for the induction tube. I fear little drops of molten metal falling on the crowd. Just CA soaked tube and hardware store hardwood Poplar rods will have to do. A final decision to add some launch lugs and cut nose cones for pretty silver nozzles to make it look good and hopefully endear it to the old school Jedi before launch. One shot, it must work. Help me gas dynamic stabilization, you are my only hope!