Scott Fintel Does it Again Part 2

Hi Gang, I've been away from TRF for awhile. Life gets busy ya know and the rockets had to take a back seat to family and job for bit.

I'm about to embark on a new phase of rocketry for me thanks to Scott Fintel who I met last fall just by chance

https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?t=31237&highlight=scott+fintel

Through that chance meeting Scott chose to use my land as the launch area of his Aestus Project. A Class O hybrid using Asphalt as propellent and Nitrous Oxide as the oxidizer.

Here's the video I made of the launch.

Take a look...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3H1J0Xp3Gs

The launch was nothing short of spectacular!

It was the largest rocket I had ever seen by far. I knew this was somethign I had to try.

Scott lives just 20 mile from me and he was kind enough to have me over for several hours yesterday to discuss rocket science and methods for making my own motors.

I'm going to start with a new project rocket that will use a 1.75" Dia motor casing and KNER as propellent.

But wait, before I get into that, there's more to the Aestus launch story. Short on time right now but I'll be back soon...

Scott launched his Aestus Project on Saturday Nov 3rd just south of my home in NW Iowa.

It was much windier than had been forecast, so much so that some thought had been given to canceling. Scott had an FAA waiver to fly between 1:30pm and 2:30pm and there were quite a few spectators. Some had traveled quite a distance for the event so Scott decided to go ahead.

You can see in the videos that there was some weathercocking into the SW wind. According to the onboard telemetry gear the rocket apogeed at approx 15,700'. There were a couple tracking vehicles a mile or so away but everyone lost sight of the rocket after it went through a thin layer of clouds.

We all watched and waited to see a chute but the thing just disappeared.

The search went on all the rest of the day for the rocket, to no avail.

Scott was back on Sunday morning to search more but around noon he drove up to my place tell me he had given up searching by ground and was thinking of hiring a pilot out of a nearby town to fly him over the area.

I offered to get on my old dirt bike and spend some time riding across the sections. Scott showed my a map where he had calculated the rocket most likely came down according to the last data he had received from the onboard tracking gear.

So after lunch I gassed up the old bike and went riding. Man I am getting too old to be riding across newly plowed cornfields!

I rode around the area for a couple hours and was about to give up and head home. I stopped at a farm place where I saw some folks outside working on a tractor. I wheeled in there and showed them a picture of the rocket and if they had seen anything. They had not. But one of the guys tells me about a rocket they had found last spring while planting beans. It turned out to be the rocket Scott had lost the year before (this was the rocket that Scott was looking for when he first came to my place last fall and introduced himself) He said it was over at his brother's farm in the machine shed. I asked if I could go get and he said that was fine. They had had no idea where it came from or what to do with it anyway.

On my way over there I decided to stop by another farmhouse where I saw some people outside. I showed them the picture and the farmer say "Ya know I saw something white laying in my field just to the west this morning." I asked him if I could ride out there and see what it was. He was Ok with that so I rode out about 1/4 mile into his field and sure enough it was the nose cone! By the time I got back up to farmer's house his wife had come out and she told me she had seen something blue laying in a field about a mile SW of there house when she was on her way to church that morning. She took me over to where she though she had seen it but there was nothing there now.

About that time one of my neighbors who had been at the launch called me on my cell phone to see if Scott had found his rocket. I told Joe I was out looking for it and I told him about where the framer's wife had thought she had seen the blue rocket. Joe said he knew who owned that land and would call them and then call me right back. In a few minutes Joe called me and said the owner of the land had been over there earlier in the day and had found the rocket and taken back to his place a few miles down the road.

I went home and got my pickup and went and retrieved the rocket, the nose cone AND the rocket that had been lost the year before!

With luck like that I figured it would be a good to go buy a Powerball ticket!

When I got the rockets back home I called Scott and he headed back over to my place to get his rockets. Needless to say he was a very happy rocketeer.

After examining the Aestus Scott determined that the main chute had deployed too early. It had zippered about 3' of the 8" BT. The violent deployment had separated the drogue and the NC and tore part of the hem off the 15' silk main chute. According to the data he retrieved from the onboard electronics, the Aestus had impacted the ground at about 74MPH.

If anyone wants to see more about this you can see more info at Scott's web site
https://www.thefintels.com/aer/lt148.htm


It was a pretty eventful weekend to say the least.

You gotta love Iowans!

While I've not met Scott face to face I have emailed him many times and he's helped me with a non-rocket project. He's a first-class rocketeer and person.

That's quite a selection of Scott's stuff you recovered, Steve. You must be an Iowan.

Thanks for sharing.

BHP - yeah you know us mid-westerners are just the salt of the earth!

I still cannot get over what a stroke of luck it is have met up with Scott and to find that he only lives 20 miles from me.

this past Saturday I went over to Scott's place and spent the day with him learning all I could.

You're right BHP, Scott is one of the friendliest, helpful and generous people I have run into, inside and outside of rocketry.

I am now in possession of a 1.75" diameter 18" long motor casing. Scott is making the nozzle for me this week.

I have to build a rocket to put this motor in now (aw shucks)

Steve