Starship Avalon: build thread

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
The most anticipated launch since Apollo 11 ! :wink:

Yeah, I think I heard Elon Musk will be coming to watch!

What's this assuming noise ? 18mm BP, right ? Is there a shortage in The Garden State ?

Actually it's 24mm BP, and I want to start with a C11-5. If conditions hold and there's time, I'll try a D12-5. I presently have neither of these, they are hard to find around here. The only place to get them is at a single hobby shop that is *fortunately* sort of on the way to the launch, so I'll have to pick them up on the way. That is not my ideal scenario, and it means I can't go to the launch as early as I'd like, because the shop opens at 10 AM.

I'm still trying to see if I can bum any motors from someone at the field, but unless I have something confirmed in advanced I'll have to buy tomorrow morning.

Please make sure you arrange for multiple still and motion picture camera operators at the field. Outsource the operation of your own equipment so you can focus on flight and recovery operations.

I tried that at my last launch, assigning my friend and my father, each of which had good DSLRs, so I could watch. I barely got a single good picture from the two of them for the entire day. I'll see if anyone else at the launch can help me out, but otherwise I feel like the only one I can rely on is me (and I'm not great shakes at this either, but I usually get some decent shots).

GO! GO! GO!

I appreciate your enthusiasm. :)
 
Attention: this crazy monstrosity will fly on Saturday at the Rad Rocs launch, assuming I can get hold of a motor or three before then.

Much luck today! Looking forward to your documentary to cap off your adventures with the Avalon build.
 
0848cba1a97180c12eb83fc7f228d6c535ddb1e5994d198a0b8eae2d602a25fa.jpg


Avalon did not fly today. :(

The prevailing winds were about 10 mph and heading towards the short side of the field, which meant that any rocket achieving decent altitude was landing in 7' corn, or worse, in some extraordinarily dense scrub outside the cornfield. I squelched my go fever and decided not to launch *any* of my scratchbuilds today.

It will happen eventually!
 
That looks like a fun build. Well fun if the helical fins were 3D printed and the other fins were laser cut. :wink:

Love what you did. You should submit to the new owners of Estes then in a year or two I can build one too. Well I can add it to the pile of rockets I hide from my wife. :facepalm:
 
That looks like a fun build. Well fun if the helical fins were 3D printed and the other fins were laser cut. :wink:

The hardest part is figuring out how to do it the first time. This is not the hardest build in the world, once you know how to do it.

Love what you did. You should submit to the new owners of Estes then in a year or two I can build one too. Well I can add it to the pile of rockets I hide from my wife. :facepalm:

John Boren actually liked this one, sadly it is virtually unkittable due to the helical pieces.
 
Starship Avalon flew yesterday!

The wind was light but in an unfavorable direction, which meant that I waited a while to see where all the rockets where landing before I attempted a flight with it.

It flew on a C11-5. Generally the flight was fine, although it coned on the way up and didn't exactly impress. It rotated slowly, probably less than I expected.

I noticed that the nose rubbed the launch rod a bit more than I would like. Perhaps I should have put the lug on a small standoff just to give it some breathing room.

The most important thing is that I recovered it with no damage, so it will fly again!

In honor of this long-delayed launch, I spent way too much time creating this crappy video. Enjoy. :)
[video=youtube;oqjnjv6RL3A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqjnjv6RL3A[/video]

(Recommend full-screen, else the rocket will be a nearly invisible speck).
 
On thing I forgot to mention just now: I tried crocheting the shock cord, and while it did make it easy to get the cord into the BT50, it also got clogged on the way out, causing a portion of the elastic to get cooked, requiring replacement. I had the same problem with an Elliptic II I flew yesterday where I tried the crocheting there as well (that one's a BT20, even more annoying to get the cord in there.

And so, while it was a noble idea, I shan't be using that trick for small body tubes in the future.
 
On thing I forgot to mention just now: I tried crocheting the shock cord, and while it did make it easy to get the cord into the BT50, it also got clogged on the way out, causing a portion of the elastic to get cooked, requiring replacement. I had the same problem with an Elliptic II I flew yesterday where I tried the crocheting there as well (that one's a BT20, even more annoying to get the cord in there.

And so, while it was a noble idea, I shan't be using that trick for small body tubes in the future.

For LPR I’ve switched from using the local rocket vendor’s Kevlar which is stiff and resists fray damage better( apparently the cord is epoxy coated) and instead now only use that inside the BT for the MMT, and now use Kevlar kite string for the bit outside the rocket. The kite string is softer and easier to bundle into small tubes..
 
Over-under wind around a pencil or dowel and then stuff the coil in the tube. Once you grasp how, it will change how you grasp whenever you wind up a shock cord, or hose, or electrical cord, guitar/mic cable etc...even flat type cords.

Congrats on the successful flight!
 
Nice flight! A little spin is expected with those fins. Time for a D12-5!

Careful about too much spin. I built and flew a Black Sky Optimal 38, a polycarbonate bodied four inch rocket with a 38 mm MMT. It had an aluminum fin can. On landing, one of the fins would occasionally strike a rock and get slightly bent. I carried a dead low hammer in my trailer and I would straighten the fin before flying. Of course I never got it straight, but the little bit of spin made the rocket fly straight so I didn’t worry too much.
Then, one day I decided I’d see what happened if I didn’t straighten the fins. The kicker at the bottom of the fin wasn’t too bad.
When I launched it the spin rate was much faster than it had been before. Apparently the off-center spin caused a small amount of flex in the polycarbonate body. The flex must have built up heat. A few seconds into the flight the rocket just folded. It didn’t shred or even break; it just tumbled to the ground from a few thousand feet. It’s still in my rocket shop as a reminder.
 
That is fascinating, I don't suppose you got video of that flight?

In any case, the spin on this rocket is very slow and gentle. I'm more bothered by the coning but probably nothing to be done about that. If/when I fly it on a D12, will be interesting to see if the behavior is any different.
 
That is fascinating, I don't suppose you got video of that flight?

In any case, the spin on this rocket is very slow and gentle. I'm more bothered by the coning but probably nothing to be done about that. If/when I fly it on a D12, will be interesting to see if the behavior is any different.

I didn’t, unfortunately. I wouldn’t worry about a slow spin.
 
This rocket finally flew again today on a Q-jet C12-4. I think it was a bit straighter than last time, looked very good. Parachute deployment was nominal.

I was thinking about putting it up on a D but again chickened out. Nonetheless, happy to get it in the air again. Sorry, no pics of this one.
 
On thing I forgot to mention just now: I tried crocheting the shock cord, and while it did make it easy to get the cord into the BT50, it also got clogged on the way out, causing a portion of the elastic to get cooked, requiring replacement. I had the same problem with an Elliptic II I flew yesterday where I tried the crocheting there as well (that one's a BT20, even more annoying to get the cord in there.

And so, while it was a noble idea, I shan't be using that trick for small body tubes in the future.
I am not sure the crochet technique is a good one for ELASTIC cords, I am guessing it causes them to bunch up. Works well for kevlar.
 
Back
Top