Boris Katan flights 2015 -> Clusters are Fun <-

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CMASS Launch - 9/26/2015 - Amesbury, MA - Continued from previous page

Next up was the Naked Finn's Canadian Arrow.

Had its first HP flight on a CTI H54 White
Its first 5 flights were all on G power.

Nice liftoff to about 1000ft.
Pleasing white flame and smoke trail from the CTI motor.

Weathercocked just off the rod to achieve what turned out to be the prefect launch angle to recover near the pad. :cool:

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Then the Spinning Saucer of the Apocalypse lifted off on

2x G64 White Lightning and
8x D11-P engines

Lots of flame, thick smoke and spinning .... apocalyptically...:dark:

Thanks to Bill Spadafora for making the custom (black iron pipe) launch rod for this rocket.

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Then there was the legendary FlisKits Frick-n-Frack drag race.

Looked like we ended up with 10 participants, each launching their 2 stage FlisKits Frick-n-Frack saucer.
I modified mine to have a 24mm first stage into the stock 18mm second, D12-0 to B6-0

Always lots of fun.

Thank you Jim Flis for all the great FlisKits kits and the delicious cake...:blush:

Will post video of all these flights shortly.

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CMASS - 9/26/2015 - Amesbury, MA
FlisKits Anniversary and Bill Spadafora Memorial launch

Two 10 motor clusters, plus a two-stage 10 way Frick-n-Frack drag race


It was a nice Fall day, sunny with a high about 60F.
Was a bit windy, but that is common this close to the New England coast.

The Bomarc lifted off on a column of BP smoke with multiple flame clusters for a great first flight.

Went up arrow straight to about 600ft on:
6x D11-P and
4x D12-5
Equivalent to a 176Ns H114

Chute deployed cleanly for a good recovery.
It did appear to drop a bit more quickly than I would have preferred, may go for a larger chute next time.

For launch, positioned the Bomarc so that ramjet pods faced spectators and narrow edge of wing (least surface area) faced crosswinds.
Rocket was very stable with this motor load.
May try 4x E9-6 and 6x D11-P next time, to enjoy a longer central burn and get a little more altitude.

Rocket is in perfect shape after first flight.

Very cool indeed!:clap:
 
Nice job Boris "Cluster king" - ok, I got the itch. The Bomarc side shot is really cool picture!
 
Great flight on the BOMARC. Pod lovers everywhere can rejoice. The tail pods must have brought the center line of thrust right up to where it needed to be, and also evened out any asymmetrical drag.
 
Thanks all.

Launch Video completed:

[video=youtube;itw2-POON3s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itw2-POON3s[/video]
 
Up until now, I have done all rocketry related sawing by hand.
My hands have been complaining about this for some time.
After building my L3 project in 2012, they took more than a month to recover.

So I bought them a nice gift. Picked up a used band saw on Craig's List for $100.
Similar saw new would be close to $500.

Craftsman 12 inch band saw, made in 1982 and built to last. Every bearing and adjustment screw still works perfectly.
A classic machine constructed from very solid cast iron and steel parts.

> Read manual cover to cover (online pdf)
> Scrubbed off some light surface rust (no pitting) with mineral spirits and steel wool
> cleaned and oiled as needed
> Installed new blade - 15 teeth per inch, 1/4" wide
> Adjusted for smooth operation

Has enough clearance to pass a 6" diameter tube through the blade, and if I rotated a larger tube in front of the blade, looks like tubes up to 10" could be cut.
Already made a couple cuts, which were clean, straight and effortless...:grin:

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Very nice. I guess I'm lucky to grow up with all these carpentry tools in my basement. Although even with the fence, the bandsaw doesn't cut straight...
 
So, to this point, everything you've built and flown has been crafted by hand with hand tools only? And now, you'll be adding machine power to your builds?
Estes and Cesaroni will have to add extra shifts to keep up with the increased motor production requirements.
 
Very nice. I guess I'm lucky to grow up with all these carpentry tools in my basement. Although even with the fence, the bandsaw doesn't cut straight...

Straighter than cutting by hand. Confirmed that yesterday.

Have already come to the realization that I need a belt+disk sander too. With a right angle jig.
 
Straighter than cutting by hand. Confirmed that yesterday.

Have already come to the realization that I need a belt+disk sander too. With a right angle jig.

Well I think my dremel cuts straighter than the band saw. But I mostly use the chop saw now. Table saw when it gets cleared off (too much rocketry in the basement).

I have a disk sander but would much prefer a belt sander. I feel like it would help for a lot of things.
 
So, to this point, everything you've built and flown has been crafted by hand with hand tools only? And now, you'll be adding machine power to your builds?
Estes and Cesaroni will have to add extra shifts to keep up with the increased motor production requirements.

I was thinking the same thing. But I was also thinking that his incredibly beautiful builds will only be more beautiful and fly a lot better.

Hey Boris, try not to hog ALL Jason's motors, some of us need to fly too.
 
Thanks.

I will need to hit Powerball before Estes and CTI will be putting on extra shifts for my benefit...

Having said that, I just finished prepping:

Hellboy with 19x D11-P engine flashpan
and
Turbine Rocket Saucer with 6x D11-P cluster

For Saturday's CMASS launch.

At which time I hope to pick up another bulk order of D11-P's from Robert and Gloria at AMW....
 
Some time back I purchased the 24mm Tres Part Pack (bare bones kit) from FlisKits.
After seeing some beautiful Tres flights at the recent CMASS / FlisKits anniversary launch, was motivated to finally get that built.

The 24mm Tres is 58 inches tall and has a 10 inch fin span.
Flies on 3x 24mm engines.

Decided to use 1/8 inch basswood for the fins and heavier LOC tubing.
Did a light (2x layers of 1oz) fiberglass wrap on the body tubes and will do the same tip-to-tip after attaching the fins.
I believe it will still be light enough to fly well on 3x D engines, if not could always add more motor tubes...:smile:

pic1: Body tubes prepped, nose cone and transition wiped with epoxy to harden the balsa, basswood fins cut and sanded.

pic2: Another coat of epoxy on the balsa pieces, assembling FlisKit baffle kits for each motor tube.
White triangular assembly will hold the 3 motor tubes in place.
Also soldered in a new Featherweight screw switch for HellBoy's altimeter, as the old switch did not pass pre-flight testing.

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CMASS Launch - Amesbury, MA - 10/17/2015

A typical New England fall day, chilly (50F) and fairly windy.
For rocket folks, a day that tests how badly someone wants to go fly rockets, and tests their rocket's resilience to wind.

The Gentle Folk in Lab Coats, my son Paul's TARC team, had two very good practice flights.
Using the launch tower visible in the background (pic 3), very canted fins, and quick-thrusting F59 White Thunder motors, they were able to overcome the challenging wind.

Until their third flight got caught in the top of a very tall pine tree.
Despite more than an hour of determined effort, the rocket was not recovered.

After the launch, the team moved forward to quickly make two more copies of the same successful rocket design.

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My first flight was the Turbine Rocket Saucer on 6x D11-P engines.

It was carried horizontally about twice as far as its peak altitude.
Two fliers commented that it looked like the saucer in the opening credits of Lost in Space cruising across the countryside.

One motor was not ignited. This is the second motor not fired this year.
The igniter did not appear to have fired. Very rarely, about 1 of 300 Rocketflite igniters fails to fire.

Overall, I consider the Rocketflite igniters to be an excellent rocketry product that I use for all my clusters.

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Next up, the HellBoy took off on 19x D11-P engines.
Fired by flashpan and hissing quietly on a column of yellow fire and thick white smoke.

Good flight to 727ft with an easy on-field recovery.
Lucky flight 13. :dark:
Rocket has now fired 309 motors, with only one motor in 2012 (70 motor 2-stage flight) that failed to be ignited by the flashpan

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Then the Naked Finn's Canadian Arrow took off on a quick thrusting G115-6 White Thunder.
Off the rail quickly to about 900ft and recovered on-field.

These windy conditions were kinder to rockets that weathercocked, and were not sent up very high.

My son's TARC rocket did a remarkably good job of flying straight up in windy conditions, but this meant that it was carried much further downwind than my weathercocking fun flights.

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[video=youtube;WtKwPVLEaLU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtKwPVLEaLU[/video]
 
For some time I have used a 1/4" x 1" aluminum piece to attach a video camera to my DSLR camera.
1/4" threaded hardware and non-skid rubber pads complete the attachment rig.
pics 1 and 2

Most of the time this allows me to successfully capture hand-held video as well as stills.
Must confess that often my favorite video is from the 808 taped to the rocket.

To steady the hand-held video, I picked up an economical camera shoulder mount from Amazon.
pic 3

Then combined both rigs and removed extra parts.
pics 4 and 5

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Filleted the many cool fins on the Tres.
Trimmed out motor tube holes in airframe.

Then tip-to-tip 2x layers 1oz fiberglass on all fins to stiffen and smooth.
Also built up the transition with thin build-ups of glass and epoxy to better mate up to tubes.

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Built the 3 motor tube assembly specified for the Tres kit....

But the motor tubes looked lonely....And the build was getting heavier, with an expected flight weight (correction: airframe weight) of about 20oz...

So I added three more motor tubes...:dark:

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CMASS, Amesbury launch coming Saturday, 11/7/15.
Wrapping up with a night launch.

Let the slaughter of D11-P engines commence...

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Why do I have a strange feeling that the Tres won't have only three motors for very long?

Built the 3 motor tube assembly specified for the Tres kit....

But the motor tubes looked lonely....And the build was getting heavier, with an expected flight weight of about 20oz...

So I added three more motor tubes...:dark:

Called it! :lol:
 
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