X-15 Flight Video with onboard footage

I had a nice day yesterday, weather wise, so had my daughter take out my better video camera and Got four flights on my larger X-15 RC rocket glider on G-25 Motors. Got one nice Rear view onboard video, then my keychain 808 camera started to die and gave me only half clear images and the rest was washed out. On this flight the igniter wire didn't rip the tape and it stayed with the motor for the entire flight, you can see it flapping about.
I also had my altus Metrum altimeter onboard and got 400, 412, 428 and 422 feet altitudes on the four flights, 87mph on average.

Frank

Flight Videos:

[video=youtube;y99j1v-Xu44]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y99j1v-Xu44[/video]

Onboard Video, I came pretty close to hitting the centerline on this one.

[video=youtube;jktq7sm09eQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jktq7sm09eQ[/video]

You win the coolest thing I've seen today.

Fantastic flights.

Thanks all, here is another one from today, six flights, we had abnormally good weather and I got to try out a new field that belongs to a friend of mine.

[video=youtube;UDNn5zRXV_M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDNn5zRXV_M&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Darn it Frank...are you posting this just to get me to buy one of these beauties? LOL

Seriously, that is really awesome and beautiful. :clap:

I'm sold...I'm going to get one to fly over my frozen lake next year and to hone my RBG skills for that Full Stack Shuttle kit I got from Sheri's.

Hah, that wasn't my intention, just sharing my giddiness at flying an X-15...I have around 40 flights now on this large one, a mix of G-38's, G-40's, G-33's, F-32's, F-26fj and G-25's. The G-25 seems to be ideal as it gives about the same altitude as a G-40/G-38 but it doesn't push the model quites so fast..I' also had a spate of G-38 and G-40's blow the nozzle off on the pad so I'd rather use a reload, the G-25 cost isn't much different than the G-40.

I'd also like to give kudos to my daughter for doing such a good job videoing, it's hard to zoom in as the model goes up and getting so tight during the glide/landing, if you haven't done it it's not easy, especially using the display to see the model, it's really tiny, with bright sun it makes it hard to see, etc...

Frank

burkefj said:

Hah, that wasn't my intention, just sharing my giddiness at flying an X-15...I have around 40 flights now on this large one, a mix of G-38's, G-40's, G-33's, F-32's, F-26fj and G-25's. The G-25 seems to be ideal as it gives about the same altitude as a G-40/G-38 but it doesn't push the model quites so fast..I' also had a spate of G-38 and G-40's blow the nozzle off on the pad so I'd rather use a reload, the G-25 cost isn't much different than the G-40.

I'd also like to give kudos to my daughter for doing such a good job videoing, it's hard to zoom in as the model goes up and getting so tight during the glide/landing, if you haven't done it it's not easy, especially using the display to see the model, it's really tiny, with bright sun it makes it hard to see, etc...

Frank

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I'm sold! X-15 and SR-71 orders coming your way! Really were beautiful flights and reminded me of how much I enjoyed the slow profile foamies I used to fly when taking my young daughter to the park years ago.

Also kudos to your daughter as well! Tracking small flying objects with a video camera is extremely difficult. I've seen many shaky, off center, out of frame and out of focus videos (many here likely know how hard it is to video a rocket launch). :clap:

Frank, can you review the length and weight of your large X-15 RG?

Thinking about a paper model X-15 upscale in Depron to about your large size, and wanted to see if I could make weight going that route.

Have been dabbling at the German DFS paper model depron upscale and it is looking promising.

Also, in case I don't go that route, do you have the drawing of the large X-15 profile model available anywhere?...

Tom, I think it is 72" long and 32-34" wingspan, I may have an up scaled PDF scanned I can send but it is literally a blow up of my small version to the size you want. I doubled the thickness everywhere for stiffness bit only used a single 1/4 carbon spar.

I think if you used a single ply spine with formers and sheeting you could come out at a similar weight but be as stiff. You'd just need to double the wing or do ribs and sheeting.

My auw with g25 is 37-38 ounces. I had to add 3-4 ounces of nose weight.

You lose some flat plate lift, I've done this on my smaller version and while it looked nice it didn't glide as well, but as you can see this is pretty docile so at the larger scale it might be fine. The cg could be moved back a bit on the full fuse version typically compared to the profile so you might not need as much nose weight.

I've been thinking of doing a shuttle like that.

I hope you try it.

Frank

Really nice glide.
I want one. Going to your website.....Paypal?

I got my X-15 and SR-71 kits and damn, they're nice looking kits!

Frank's assembly work and cutting on them are top rate and I can't believe he doesn't charge more for them considering the obvious work put into them. Additionally, I was an Ebay collectibles Powerseller years ago and took pride that I've never seen anyone package shipments better than me (I used to double box and make custom cushioning and support devices); however I'll have to say I'm very impressed with the packing work done...using tape to suspend the items is very smart and this ranks among the best packing I've seen. Kudos Frank!

So if any of you are on the fence about Frank's kits, I'll open the fence door for you, tell you to get off that fence and say it's a no-brainer that the kit is a great value, fantastic design and has incredible workmanship. :clap:

Thanks Frank!

:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:

Thanks Ken, I appreciate that. BTW, this morning I did a test at my non NAR/AMA site with my X-15 using D-12, E-9 and E-12 estes motors. For the motors I did need to put a small amount of epoxy in the front to prevent the ejection charge from ejecting the motor and melting the foam. *This is not a manufacturer approved change and is not allowed by NAR rules but is an option if you are launching in your own field.

I did not rebalance the model, it was balanced for the 52 gram E-6 motor, the E-12 weighs 59 grams with the epoxy and sticks out of the back of the model 3/4". Boost on the D-12 was nice and straight to about 250'. The E-9 and E-12 was to around 400+' and dead straight with no control input. My model is trimmed so that may help. Glide was spot on as the empty motor casing is about the same as the 24mm aerotech casing empty.

KenECoyote said:

I got my X-15 and SR-71 kits and damn, they're nice looking kits!

Frank's assembly work and cutting on them are top rate and I can't believe he doesn't charge more for them considering the obvious work put into them. Additionally, I was an Ebay collectibles Powerseller years ago and took pride that I've never seen anyone package shipments better than me (I used to double box and make custom cushioning and support devices); however I'll have to say I'm very impressed with the packing work done...using tape to suspend the items is very smart and this ranks among the best packing I've seen. Kudos Frank!


So if any of you are on the fence about Frank's kits, I'll open the fence door for you, tell you to get off that fence and say it's a no-brainer that the kit is a great value, fantastic design and has incredible workmanship. :clap:

Thanks Frank!

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That looks like alot of fun but what makes these different from a guided rocket? Wings?

NAR says

Definition. A Radio-Controlled (R/C) Rocket Boosted Glider (RBG) is defined as a rocket boosted model capable of gliding flight and equipped with a radio control system capable of controlling the direction of flight during glide and, optionally, boost.

For regular rockets, There are people working on guidance to keep a model vertical, and then recover as normal, and people using steered chutes to recover a model to a known point.

I think the idea is all three of these are designed to fly and recover, not target a point in space/the ground and go impact it.

Beautiful flights, Frank. Where do you get your G25 motors? I can't seem to find them in stock anywhere.

Thanks Brian, I have gotten them from Bay Area Rocketry this year, I was just on the phone with him and he had 4 or 5 in stock.

TheAviator said:

Beautiful flights, Frank. Where do you get your G25 motors? I can't seem to find them in stock anywhere.

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TheAviator said:

Beautiful flights, Frank. Where do you get your G25 motors? I can't seem to find them in stock anywhere.

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I recently got a few from Pyrobob at buyrocketmotors.com. Great guy and he gets anything you need that is not in his stock pretty darn fast.

Correct

tab28682 said:

I recently got a few from Pyrobob at buyrocketmotors.com. Great guy and he gets anything you need that is not in his stock pretty darn fast.

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DizWolf said:

You win the coolest thing I've seen today.

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+1 :clap: