Recycling container Jayhawk

I'm going to coin a new term... "problem shock". In his 1970 book, Alvin Toffler defined "future shock" as a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of time". The accelerated rate of technological and social change leaves people disconnected and suffering from stress and disorientation. Here is the connection to rocketry. When you build a kit, the directions are laid out in a logical order, basically engineered for ease of assembly. In scratch-building, however, particularly an oddroc, as you run into problems, they get deferred. Eventually, when all the fun, easy to do stuff is finished, all you have left are the problems and they pile up in front of you like a giant wall. With a deadline, it could become "too many problems in too short a period of time".

That being said, here is what I have done thus far today. I (obviously) need to vent the altimeters to ambient air pressure. I could vent the internal bay to the inside if the bottle, and vent that to the outside air, but I feel there will be a time lag in doing so. Having a supply of "extra" air is why bagpipers can inhale while playing a long note. Back on page 2, Eric and Rex suggested venting the air with flexible tubing. Unfortunately, I put that in the "I'll get to that later" pile. It would have been much easier to attach the plumbing prior to assembling the av bay. I ended up drilling a pair of 5/8" holes in the bottom end cap, and was lucky that the threads of the quick-connect fittings screwed perfectly into the holes with no further complications.

T minus 4 days.

I also trimmed the double row of ridges from the lower half of the bottle. They were designed to hold the two bottle halves together when used for its original purpose. With a coupler in the core tube, which ejects the mid section in a perfectly straight line, the ridges have a tendency to bind. As they are no longer needed, they are no longer present. Except for the billions of dust-sized remnants, stubbornly clinging via static in the hopes of making the launch anyway.

Last steps before catching some much needed rest... I mixed a slurry of West Systems epoxy and #6 lead shot (Gander Mountain was out of #4) and poured it into the nose cone, which was submerged in a cooler of ice water to control the heat. Mid bulkhead installed to compress the lead and hold it up in the tip of the nose. Third photo is the aft nose bulkhead in position.

I like the autographed bulkplate!

dixontj93060 said:

I like the autographed bulkplate!

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Thanks. It's a branding iron. My wife got that for me a few years ago for one of my other hobbies. I do a little woodworking, cabinets, furniture. etc. Couldn't resist using it, even though that part will (hopefully) never see the light of day again.

Meanwhile, continuing with the little details that got put off until the end. Here the recycle holes are closed off with 1/4" aircraft plywood. No more recycling accepted at this location.

Meanwhile, continuing with the little details that got put off until the end. Here the recycle holes are closed off with 1/4" aircraft plywood. No more recycling accepted at this location.

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Looks like a 98mm Aeropack...well done with the plywood.

Project looks great, Sather! Best of luck with the final prep and flight!

-Eric-

Ground tested the ejection charges today. Looking like a go for this weekend. T minus 3 days.

[YOUTUBE]fBHYCB33How[/YOUTUBE]

That's pretty funny :duck:

Both charges look to be sufficient! Looked like you had about 3 potatoes worth of BP in the second charge...cool

Dibs on your trailer when you start shopping for a bigger one!

I think ya might need a touch more powder...YeeHawwww :horse:

Just a quick update in the few minutes I have between unpacking from ECOF and repacking for LDRS. The bottle flew. She literally roared off the pad on a Cesaroni L3150 Vmax motor in RMS hardware. Very stable. She had an early drogue deployment, which I initially attributed to an altimeter anomaly / static air sensing over the irregular bottle shape. After review of the video and data, I now believe it was a drag separation. All that weight in the nose, occurring right at motor burnout, no characteristic BP charing on the kevlar in the nose bay, and no corresponding audible "pop" in the video. So, I need to tape it for a tighter fit for her next flight.

Parachutes deployed fully from their respective bags and stayed together. She landed undamaged 8 feet up in a tree. (Black is an excellent jungle camouflage.) I pulled it down and cracked a winglet on ground contact. We all drank Coke Zero afterwards.

A little human interest story... As we were packing the chutes, two little boys walked up with toy army men on little parachutes, and one said it would be the best day of his life if the army men could fly in one of these rockets. So, we threw them in the top of the open payload bay. (The army men, not the boys.) In the preflight hoopla, I forgot about it until reviewing the photos. There are the two army men, deploying with the drogue, and parachuting in formation with the bottle all the way to the ground.

We clearly couldn't have done this without a lot of help, and the WOOSH community was once again there to pitch in. Thank you all. More later. Off to make a new winglet...

Cheers.

Sather

That's awesome. Congratulations. I bet those boys were thrilled. Is that one of their army guys i see in the photo (sorry, on phone). Heck, you could fit a whole battalion in that thing.

El Cheapo said:

That's awesome. Congratulations. I bet those boys were thrilled. Is that one of their army guys i see in the photo (sorry, on phone). Heck, you could fit a whole battalion in that thing.

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Thank you. It was a great weekend to fly... clear skies, light wind, good turnout. Yes, both army men are visible in the previous photo, one to the left and the other near the bottom left corner. In this photo, they are on the right side. They are in almost every shot of the rocket under parachute. The boys were scouts, so it is possible to track them down and give them the photos.

That is awesome! Did you get any video? I'd love to see that motor in action.

Sather,

I'm sorry I missed ECOF this year.... my kids still talk excitedly about the "star wars" people from last year. Will the Container Jayhawk be coming to LDRS, or are you packing another surprise?

Rocketman248 said:

That is awesome! Did you get any video? I'd love to see that motor in action.

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I haven't gotten my video loaded on the computer yet, but Bill got his online right away.

https://youtu.be/UmZ1bhh5nNI

At the end you see the trees it landed in. The early deployment probably saved me from the giant trees in the background.

alexzogh said:

Sather,

I'm sorry I missed ECOF this year.... my kids still talk excitedly about the "star wars" people from last year. Will the Container Jayhawk be coming to LDRS, or are you packing another surprise?

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I am making a new winglet today, so I plan on her flying again at LDRS. I'm also bringing my 10" Jayhawk. I thought it would be fun to try and fly all fifteen of my Jayhawk's, but I would need a bigger trailer. Chad gets my old one. :wink:

Watching the video it's very obvious there wasn't enough retention holding the nose on. Great flight otherwise. It held together pretty well considering how much it was thrown around up there on deployment. Can't wait to see the LDRS vids.

SMR said:

I haven't gotten my video loaded on the computer yet, but Bill got his online right away.

https://youtu.be/UmZ1bhh5nNI

At the end you see the trees it landed in. The early deployment probably saved me from the giant trees in the background.

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Where was that launch site?!? Man, those trees look close!!?!!

dixontj93060 said:

Where was that launch site?!? Man, those trees look close!!?!!

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Richard Bong State Recreation Area in southeastern Wisconsin. It originally was cleared and leveled to be an Air Force interceptor base in the cold war. When construction was abandoned, the state took it over as a wilderness area. Every year there are more trees, and they get taller. With the area we have to work with and to accommodate parking and range separation, the away cell ends up pretty close to the tree line. Windage is important. There is a lot of water, too. So we lose a few. But it's close, flat, and capable of "M" impulse. And we get to fly more frequently than waiting for crops to be harvested.

Starting the winglet repair.

Finishing the winglet repair.

Awesome Video and Pics Sather. Looks like easy repairs.

I probably missed it but did you schear pin the nose one?

stickershock23 said:

Awesome Video and Pics Sather. Looks like easy repairs.

I probably missed it but did you shear pin the nose one?

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No, but I should have. It was a little difficult to do because of the bottle, and I thought I had the shoulder taped pretty tight. Oooops. I got some longer pins that will reach all the way for her next launch. Just out painting the winglet and loading the trailer. Which has flow thru ventilation, so I'm hoping not to stink it up too much as the paint dries while on the road.

The vinyl wraps are still perfect, awesome job on them, thank you.

Great job Sather! Neat project and to think it may fly twice in a roughly 1 week span!

You've burned a few VMax L's lately, haven't you

Great luck at LDRS...I'll be there in spirit

-Eric-

SMR said:

...We clearly couldn't have done this without a lot of help, and the WOOSH community was once again there to pitch in....

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Amazing what folks will do for a free Coke Zero.

My apologies for the lengthy delay in getting this uploaded, but here is my video from flight #1 of the JayCoke Zero at WOOSH Eat Cheese or Fly in Aug 2011. The weighted nose drag separated at motor burnout, causing a low apogee and early main deployment, but an otherwise uneventful flight.

[YOUTUBE]sjs-UBteuLY[/YOUTUBE]

Well, not quite as long of a delay in getting this uploaded. Here is my video from flight #2 of the JayCoke Zero, at MidWest Power in Oct 2011. The L3150 is a good motor for this weight, keeping apogee at about a thousand feet and allowing the somewhat complicated single-deployment recovery sequencing to be seen. I used four #2 nylon shear pins to hold the weighted nose cone in place, which worked much better than the tape in flight #1.

Next flight will be on an M3400 White Thunder (98-4G). Location TBD.

[YOUTUBE]xcz3kaOWSYM[/YOUTUBE]

And he sticks the landing!!

Outstanding flight from a great project.

Well done.