Three Quarters of a Hundred Grand with Sunday Silent (75k' Balls Project)
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Best of luck tomorrow! I will be rooting for you from AZ!
dixontj93060
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And a thumbs up from Indiana!
ECayemberg
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blackbrandt
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At this point I'm not even sure "rest" is in their vocabulary....
Nick@JET
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Double thumbs up from the Hoosiers, good luck!
blackbrandt
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We are all anxious....
Thanks Manny - yep, was the first flight up this morning as per plan. All the major systems worked exactly as designed, and the result was one of the more rewarding moments of my life, that's for sure.
I have innumerable people to thank, and more videos, pics, data, and lurid details to share later.
Thanks all for following along on this journey. What a ride.
Steve Heller
MarkH
---
Congrats! Can't wait to hear the details.
Manny & Steve -
Awesome push!
I see vegetation in this pic, so I know you're on the fringe.
Looking forward to your data and report.
Steve,
On that one fin is there some wearing away of the leading edge coating/ablative or is it the angle of the photo? Mach 3.3 and boy that fin can looks really good. Sandpaper and a repainting should help bring it back. You going to keep pushing it, use it to fly with milder motors for "home launchsite" flights or retire the rocket? Congratulations on a quite the accomplishment. Kurt
Binder Design
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Congrats!
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Congrats! Super inspiring for us beginners!
watermelonman
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Bummed I missed the flight, but I love that fin picture.
Took a few days to work my way from the playa back to my cubicle. Data is coming, I promise, but synthesizing and disseminating it isn't first on the priority list right now...I need to reclaim other elements of my life that are in various states of disrepair having been left untouched since early August in order to make this project happen.
Videos and pics should be coming as well - I know Wilson and Alex took video, and Manny took stills. This will be the second to last update in this thread (the final one will be the data), but just as important to me is a laundry list of thank yous to good friends without whom this project wouldn't have been possible. One of the silver linings of losing my project partner literally the day after we hit the button on the over 50k' app was that this was all me, win or lose - there's a certain satisfaction in having complete ownership of something, and being 100% accountable for the result, whatever it may be. That said, while I was the one pulling the all nighters, eating Top Ramen and wearing through the skin of my fingers, there's no way this project happens without the contributions of the following people:
Jim Jarvis
For being the voice of reason, for making the travel portion of the equation a complete and total non-stressor, and for the last-minute vac bagging consult.
Ryan E. (flynfrog)
For invaluable consult on the different carbon reinforcement options, and for leading the charge on the tower debacle in the cold and the dark on Saturday morning.
Derek J. (DeeRoc)
For saving the day and stepping up with a tower loan at the last minute on Saturday morning. When Manny and I arrived at 5am Saturday morning, not having slept in 48 hours, we discovered in the cold and the dark that our original tower wasn't as sturdy as we had envisioned, and were faced with a choice - spend hours fiddling with it in the dark, or go looking for other options. Derek came forward and loaned us his tower, and the result was an arrow-straight flight. You are a class act my friend - if there's ever anything I can do to help you get a project in the air, I hope you'll let me know.
Chris H. (Random Flying Object)
For the help modding the Telemetrum, and the consult on antennae and GPS systems. Oh, and for the introduction to the machinist. Thanks, man! Hope you can make it out to BR next year.
Those AeroEng guys (Ryan, David, James)
I've had the unique privilege of being the defacto straggler of this group, both in age and pedigree, for over a decade now. Hanging around these guys keeps me inspired, pushing the limits of my hobby-oriented knowledge base, and second guessing my decision at 17 years old to pursue a career in marketing and sales. Ryan and David's "Honey Badger" series of projects were pretty demonstrative to me (and the larger hobby community, I believe) on how much performance is sacrificed in typical hobby configurations, and the surprising degree to which results can be improved by placing more of an emphasis on mass fraction and not settling for "good enough" in that arena. As mentioned earlier in this thread, the HB projects and the learnings derived from them were the natural starting point for this project. Additionally, as I depart further from my comfort zone with each project, it's interminably beneficial to have guys that do this stuff for a living a text or phone call away. Should I be worried about the conductivity of my lithium grease? What's the ideal compression for my o-rings? 12%? 14% None of the above? G10 washer under the bottom grain, good idea or not worth the risk of potentially obstructing gas flow out the nozzle? And a million questions like that. Thanks, guys.
Those college guys (Wilson, Aidan, Casper, Alexis, Clay)
For all the help getting everything set up in the cold on Saturday morning, for the awesome pictures and video, for bringing last-minute supplies back to Bruno's on Friday night, for the consult and moral support.
Manny
The one guy this project decidedly wouldn't have happened without. For calling me the day after Mat dropped and saying "I just bought a ticket to Balls, so you better get this project done and you better let me know what I can do from Iowa to help." For being a sounding board for every idea I had, good or bad. For calling when the chips were down and everyone else was just waiting for the end result, and asking me how sanding the second half of the fillets went and listening to me complain about it for 10 minutes. For listening to me ramble on the phone on my case design and somehow manifesting it in a CAD drawing. For test-flying the tracking setup so there were no surprises. For ditching the playa with me early Friday afternoon and spending 14 hours in a room at Bruno's getting this thing ready to fly. As we discussed, rocketry is so much more fun when you're doing it with friends, so the prep session was infinitely more fun than the month of building the thing by myself, despite some of the super stressful moments. Couldn't have done it without you man, now it's time to stack two of these on top of one another.
Think that's everyone. Pics and videos should be coming soon, data will come as soon as I get through the 600 emails in my work inbox.
Steve
Videos and pics should be coming as well - I know Wilson and Alex took video, and Manny took stills. This will be the second to last update in this thread (the final one will be the data), but just as important to me is a laundry list of thank yous to good friends without whom this project wouldn't have been possible. One of the silver linings of losing my project partner literally the day after we hit the button on the over 50k' app was that this was all me, win or lose - there's a certain satisfaction in having complete ownership of something, and being 100% accountable for the result, whatever it may be. That said, while I was the one pulling the all nighters, eating Top Ramen and wearing through the skin of my fingers, there's no way this project happens without the contributions of the following people:
Jim Jarvis
For being the voice of reason, for making the travel portion of the equation a complete and total non-stressor, and for the last-minute vac bagging consult.
Ryan E. (flynfrog)
For invaluable consult on the different carbon reinforcement options, and for leading the charge on the tower debacle in the cold and the dark on Saturday morning.
Derek J. (DeeRoc)
For saving the day and stepping up with a tower loan at the last minute on Saturday morning. When Manny and I arrived at 5am Saturday morning, not having slept in 48 hours, we discovered in the cold and the dark that our original tower wasn't as sturdy as we had envisioned, and were faced with a choice - spend hours fiddling with it in the dark, or go looking for other options. Derek came forward and loaned us his tower, and the result was an arrow-straight flight. You are a class act my friend - if there's ever anything I can do to help you get a project in the air, I hope you'll let me know.
Chris H. (Random Flying Object)
For the help modding the Telemetrum, and the consult on antennae and GPS systems. Oh, and for the introduction to the machinist. Thanks, man! Hope you can make it out to BR next year.
Those AeroEng guys (Ryan, David, James)
I've had the unique privilege of being the defacto straggler of this group, both in age and pedigree, for over a decade now. Hanging around these guys keeps me inspired, pushing the limits of my hobby-oriented knowledge base, and second guessing my decision at 17 years old to pursue a career in marketing and sales. Ryan and David's "Honey Badger" series of projects were pretty demonstrative to me (and the larger hobby community, I believe) on how much performance is sacrificed in typical hobby configurations, and the surprising degree to which results can be improved by placing more of an emphasis on mass fraction and not settling for "good enough" in that arena. As mentioned earlier in this thread, the HB projects and the learnings derived from them were the natural starting point for this project. Additionally, as I depart further from my comfort zone with each project, it's interminably beneficial to have guys that do this stuff for a living a text or phone call away. Should I be worried about the conductivity of my lithium grease? What's the ideal compression for my o-rings? 12%? 14% None of the above? G10 washer under the bottom grain, good idea or not worth the risk of potentially obstructing gas flow out the nozzle? And a million questions like that. Thanks, guys.
Those college guys (Wilson, Aidan, Casper, Alexis, Clay)
For all the help getting everything set up in the cold on Saturday morning, for the awesome pictures and video, for bringing last-minute supplies back to Bruno's on Friday night, for the consult and moral support.
Manny
The one guy this project decidedly wouldn't have happened without. For calling me the day after Mat dropped and saying "I just bought a ticket to Balls, so you better get this project done and you better let me know what I can do from Iowa to help." For being a sounding board for every idea I had, good or bad. For calling when the chips were down and everyone else was just waiting for the end result, and asking me how sanding the second half of the fillets went and listening to me complain about it for 10 minutes. For listening to me ramble on the phone on my case design and somehow manifesting it in a CAD drawing. For test-flying the tracking setup so there were no surprises. For ditching the playa with me early Friday afternoon and spending 14 hours in a room at Bruno's getting this thing ready to fly. As we discussed, rocketry is so much more fun when you're doing it with friends, so the prep session was infinitely more fun than the month of building the thing by myself, despite some of the super stressful moments. Couldn't have done it without you man, now it's time to stack two of these on top of one another.
Think that's everyone. Pics and videos should be coming soon, data will come as soon as I get through the 600 emails in my work inbox.
Steve
Last edited:
From the Telemetrum:
View attachment 273321
Throw it on a graph:
Throw it on a satellite image:
From the Raven:
Obviously, a little disappointed with the altitude, but the speed was right where I wanted it with the Oxamide propellant. Thrilled with other elements of the flight - trajectory, tracking, recovery, condition of the rocket when we found it - a fantastic base for future projects and a good proof point for some of the systems (ablative, etc) I was testing out.
Would love to post a characteristically engaged and verbose debrief, tell the trip story, etc., but it's become exceedingly clear to me that I need to be done with this now. Catch me in the nosebleeds of various NBA arenas with a cheap beer in hand, otherwise I'll see you all next year. Thanks for following along.
Steve Heller
View attachment 273321
Throw it on a graph:
Throw it on a satellite image:
From the Raven:
Obviously, a little disappointed with the altitude, but the speed was right where I wanted it with the Oxamide propellant. Thrilled with other elements of the flight - trajectory, tracking, recovery, condition of the rocket when we found it - a fantastic base for future projects and a good proof point for some of the systems (ablative, etc) I was testing out.
Would love to post a characteristically engaged and verbose debrief, tell the trip story, etc., but it's become exceedingly clear to me that I need to be done with this now. Catch me in the nosebleeds of various NBA arenas with a cheap beer in hand, otherwise I'll see you all next year. Thanks for following along.
Steve Heller
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Very cool....good job.
Huh?
62k? Mach 3.3? Sheesh Steve, you're tough to please. I'd say quite the accomplishment especially since your fins didn't come back looking like a shark took a bite out of them or were burned to nubbins.
Plus, from the picture you posted, it looks like it would take minimal work to get it ready to fly it on a like motor again. Probably wouldn't have to do a thing for a pleasure flight to Mach "one-ish" or less with
a lesser motor either.
Kurt Savegnago
