What did you do rocket wise today?

Onebadhawk
shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Got a late this morning, but drove the 2 hrs to NASA anyway. Got there just in time to watch the flight line being torn down. Harold was kind enough to leave us an 1/8" rod up long enough to put a B6-4 in a DRM. Daughter has been wanting to fly it for quite a while. (Thank You Harold)
DSCN0284.jpgDSCN0282.jpgDSCN0283.jpg

Given the length of the drive, we decided to visit the Johnson Space Center. At $24 each to get thru the door, I almost said no. We did it anyway. For the cost it was somewhat disappointing, however we did not take the tram tour over to the static displays.
I decided that we would through in the extra few $ and we are now "members" so we can go back for free anytime in the next year. We'll take it in a little piece at a time, after each launch we attend.
Daughter took a ride in the F4 Phantom simulator. She did better than I expected. There is a monitor so you can see what the person inside is doing...
DSCN0296.jpg
 
I said I would not do it.... I held out for ONE week. Day after day after day... I held out... but I failed. I order 22 rockets from Estes for $130.
 
Cut and marked my 38mm phenolic tube

Made a fin guide/jig/whateveritscalled

CA'd the fiberglassed balsa fins to the tube

Took a photo

Posted it here

936744_461486167273047_1575697546_n.jpg
 
Launched rockets with the family. Which gave me some perspective on how cool my wife can be. I asked her to go to the end of the field (next to the rocket eating wheat field beyond) as a spotter before launching a 2" LOC Iris on a G64 in more wind than was probably advisable. When I got to the end of the field she was about 100 yds into that field with the rocket in hand.

Also, we crossed the 1000 N/s mark for the year...all A-G motors.
 
After the launch (and a shower!), dug through the motor casing pile in the garage, in search of a loaded 29mm motor I know I have. I spent time searching for it last night, and again this morning before the launch, and it was driving me nuts.

Found it in under 5 minutes, right in a spot I would swear I had checked several times, already (dumbass).

-Kevin
 
Cl(VII) said:
Launched rockets with the family. Which gave me some perspective on how cool my wife can be. I asked her to go to the end of the field (next to the rocket eating wheat field beyond) as a spotter before launching a 2" LOC Iris on a G64 in more wind than was probably advisable. When I got to the end of the field she was about 100 yds into that field with the rocket in hand.

Also, we crossed the 1000 N/s mark for the year...all A-G motors.
Click to expand...

Wifes rule so hard.

I came home with 6 ticks on me, just pulled another off a few minutes ago. The wife just said "well have fun at the next launches". So subtle, so telling.
 
After watching the new Star Trek movie, I came home and sanded down my VBR B.o.B. rocket, and added a second color to my Aerotech Warthog... ordered some Super Lube (for motor assembly) and ordered an Aeropack 29mm motor retainer for B.o.B.
 
Went to the local hobby shop and got some BT-50, a pack of nose cones and some motor mounts in anticipation of helping one of my cub scouts build a rocket. (Last week's build session didn't go too well for him. the MMT on his Novia seized about 1/2 way in. I'm going to help him do a scratch build instead.)

Also went to the craft store and got some foam core to mount payloadbay fin alignment jigs on.

While the family napped, I got inspired and started working on a design for a scratch built copter recovery rocket. I've had a couple of ideas kicking around in the back of my head for a while, and I think I've figured out how to solve the last major issue I was having. Time to get it out of my head and in paper/cardboard. (Of course I realized after the hobby shop closed that I'm going to need some bt-20 and a couple couplers to do it.)

Now I'm wishing I hadn't passed up all those body tubes (and couplers) in the box pass...
 
I am so dealing with my time under the sun for hours today at the THOR launch. It was cloudy most of the day, but warm and windy. I trudged through so much pasture. I am guessing I walked at least 3 miles today. At points I just dropped my jeans and stood in my undies just to cool off. It was sorta brutal. Searching for the rockets you launch sux ass. I need to look into tracking systems for sure. I am red all over and darn warm typing this in a dark room with all the windows open during a rainstorm.

The thing is, I am hispanic and for most of my life I could just suck sun like a sponge, but that all changed after I turned 30. Now I burn and it totally sux. The wife said I should pick up sunscreen on the way out and I did not. Nevar again.
 
Last edited:
Getting ready for the trip to NSL: finishing touches on the QCC Explorer, original night flyer, Starship Excalibur, a few others. Figured out how to pack 'em in the plastic box they'll travel in. Now packing a subset of my motor collection for the trip.
 
Rainy night spent in the in-law's basement working on my QCC Explorer. Been taping off areas for for the last bit of paint before clear coats. Working on filling spirals on my Estes Pro Series ii Leviathan.
 
Flew the 6" sewer pipe on an L1390G and Castaway on H123 skidmark. Photos upcoming.

Ari.
 
Got the motor mount and fins glued into my Ventris. (That's what I wanted to make the fin alignment jigs for.)

Now I need to decide if I'm going to build the nose section stock, or convert it into an altimeter bay. (data-logging/tracking only)
 
Did a test launch of "Nothing but spool" rocket...



Here's the launch video -

[video=youtube;pANm5MKZuVw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pANm5MKZuVw[/video]

Oh, and it's in slow-mo !! Oohhh !! Cool hey ;)

Went a bit spinny as it reached apogee... Needs a bit of a tweak!

Krusty
 
Friday night and Saturday was a rocket-centric 24 hours. I worked on rockets (specifically parachute sewing) through pretty much most of the night. Helped my son finish his Madcow Honest John. I took a school van of Rocket Club members to the THOR launch. Launched 5" DD Jart on a K530, the only problem was premature separation of the nosecone (charge still blew at 700') but it was still an impressive flight. The newly-made parachute performed well. I haven't looked at the alt data to figure out the descent rate, but it seemed to be just about right. I use the pattern on the Vatsaas' site. The shroud lines seem really long, but it survived the flight admirably. Helped one student with Jr. Level 1 and made sure beerorkid had the resources he needed for his Level 1.

I also picked up my shiny new TRA card from Troj. I'll have to pull the old one out of my wallet.

A couple of frames from onboard video. It was overcast so there was a fair amount of noise in the picture.

vlcsnap-2013-05-19-06h18m16s14.jpg
Launch site from about 1500'.

vlcsnap-2013-05-19-06h20m25s249.jpg
Launch site from about 2300'?
 
BeerorKid said:
I came home with 6 ticks on me, just pulled another off a few minutes ago. The wife just said "well have fun at the next launches". So subtle, so telling.
Click to expand...

So kind of you and Rick to collect them all, so that the rest of us didn't have to!

I came home with zero. :)

BTW, sunscreen - saw that referenced in your other post. Yep, just keep it in the car, so it's at the launch with you. I do the same with hats -- burned the top of my head twice in one month a few years back, so now there's always a hat in the car!

Oh, and for inquiring minds....sunscreen, when carried in your pocket all day, does not prevent sunburn! I bet you can guess how I know....

-Kevin
 
Aside from waiting out the tornadoes last night, after all the hoopla, I went back to work on the Fantasy Rocket. I also began the replacement for the lost Bad Dog that had the camera. I searched the launch and recovery site one last time Friday night (rather than go see Into Darkness) for another hour and a half and racked-up a total of five hours of searching with no found rocket. After last night's deluge and high winds, I suspect that the rocket is now in the next county and the camera is screwed.
 
Thsi morning, I did the last internal fin fillet on my G3, from Rocketry Warehouse. I also finished sanding the fins on a night launch project I'm working on, I may have to do a build thread on that one. Looking forward to ROCstock in a few weeks, when I will heopefully meet some of you up there. :)
 
Cut out a fin guide for my 3" Darkstar. Figured out it really isn't 3" in diameter after nicking my finger. Managed to not get any blood on anything but my old t-shirt.
I started building this rocket yesterday, the worst part for me is sanding down fiberglass parts to fit. The fun part is mixing up epoxy and fitting everything together. Does anyone besides me like the smell of epoxy? Some of it actually makes my mouth water....
 

Similar threads

NTP2
What do you do (or did) for a living?
7 8 9
Replies
250
Views
8K
FlyBoy
FlyBoy
KenECoyote
Is it really a model rocket if you don't launch it?
4 5 6
Replies
158
Views
6K
bjphoenix
B
T
First-time UK Rocketeer looking for help!
Replies
5
Views
319
LD124
L
ljwilley
What do you think of my V2 rocket?
Replies
22
Views
2K
ljwilley
ljwilley
M
Free Almost Free Model Rocket Building Service
Replies
1
Views
999
mh9162013
M

Latest posts

Back
Top