Boris Katan flights 2017 -> Clusters + 3D Printing Fun <-

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My second and final flight for the day (and LDRS) was the HellBoy 70.
Lifted off fast on 51x flashpan-fired C11 stage 1 motors.
Staged quickly to the flashpan-fired 19x D11-P second stage motors.


Thanks to Nate Lowrie for help setting this flight up.
And congratulations Nate on a successful L3 flight in a beautifully painted rocket.

Lots of fire and smoke as the rocket hissed its way across the sky, firing all 70 motors in both stages.
A strong crosswind caused the rocket to weathercock, and the rocket came in fairly hard in a gully.
Broke two (disposable) first stage fins and one (repairable) second stage fin.

pic 1 + 2: flashpan firing
pic 3 - 6: 51x C11's firing = BP I-560
pic 7+: staging to 19x D11-P's


I'll help you anytime. It was great to see your flash pan setup close up. The saucer was fun to setup as well.

On another note, do you have a link to the shoulder rest you were using for your camera setup? That was pretty sweet.
 
There were only a handful of flights that day, the last of which was my SkyHook 2 on the CTI K1440.
The 1.2lb rocket + 4.2lb motor blasted off the pad gunshot fast.

The first second of flight was great. Then there was a fluttering sound and a slight crookedness to the smoke trail.
Neil, the eagle-eyed LCO, spotted pieces falling, and that was the last seen of Skyhook 2.

I walked the field a half a dozen times with a tracker. Never getting a signal or seeing any piece of the rocket.
Did have fun making the rocket and got a couple good pictures (only because the camera was taking 14 frames per second).
Such is the nature of rockets that attempt extreme speeds. :facepalm:

At some point in the future I'll do a similar flight, and it will have to be named Vanishing Point, as that is what happend to both my K1440 extreme speed projects - at the last 2 LDRS events.

Wait a sec... were you the guy who was searching for the 54mm case in the field on the way back from getting that Formula 200?
 
One of the best flights of LDRS36!

It was cool seeing those two big clusters. Thanks for posing with them!

Thank you.
The Nitro Fireball setup was both easier to prep and worked better than the configuration used several years ago.

Nitro FireBall needs to fly again at a CMASS Amesbury, MA launch this year.

And the Spinning Saucer of the Apocalypse will need to lift off on skidmarks again - this time at the Berwick December launch
 
That flame / rocket ratio is insane!

Yes, apparently a little too insane.
Still not sure what went wrong, it appeared to shred at 1000+ mph.
I speculate that the thin-wall fiberglass nose cone (with camera glassed in) collapsed, but without any pieces to examine, hard to be sure.

Wait a sec... were you the guy who was searching for the 54mm case in the field on the way back from getting that Formula 200?

Yup, guilty as charged.
Had a good strong tracking signal from the rocket before liftoff, and no signal whatsoever afterwards.
Again leading me to suspect that the nose cone, which contained all the electronics, collapsed under very high speed (1000+mph) and thrust (80+Gs) conditions.
 
Hey Boris it was good to see you again at LDRS. A shame you weren't able to recover any of Skyhook 2 or even fly the carbon weasel. You also missed my Frenzy XL flying on the L395 again, this time to a personal record of 12,400'
 
Finally getting my LDRS 2017 video posted.

Tried 5 different file recovery tools attempting to get back the one clip I had of Skyhook streaking into the sky. No luck.
Many files disappeared in move from one Windows 10 PC to another. Collected all files but one by copying files from the cameras a second time.

Then got busy with a bunch of repairs around the house.
Water sealing the basement, repainted and replaced lighting in our two bathrooms.
Been slacking in the rocketry department, but the house looks nice.

[video=youtube;gPj0wlG8ueo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPj0wlG8ueo[/video]
 
RIMRA / CMASS Joint Launch - Kingstown, RI - 6/10/2017

A beautiful summer day. Light winds to start, gradually picking up as the day went on.

Our steely-eyed LCO Ken, plus several fun flights.

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My first flight was the VooDoo Daddy on 4x D11-P + 4x D12-5.
Nice hissing smokey liftoff.

This was my first cluster rocket built 10 years ago.

Landed about 20ft up a tree at the edge of the field.
Easily recovered using CMASS' telescoping pole.

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Then the Bomarc lifted off on 6x D11-P + 4x D12-5.

Another great flight, recovered next to the pad.

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My last flight of the day was the Turbine Rocket Saucer on 6x D11-P.

It's 60th flight.

All round, a very nice summer day flying rockets...

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RIMRA / CMASS Joint Launch - Kingstown, RI - 6/10/2017

A beautiful summer day. Light winds to start, gradually picking up as the day went on.

Our steely-eyed LCO Ken, plus several fun flights.

That's a great pic of my Solar Warrior on an Aerotech E15. Thanks!
 
CMASS Launch - Acton, MA - 8/26/17

pic 1 - The CMASS crew in action on a nice Summer day.

I launched saucers:

pic 2 - World on Estes F15

pics 3-4 Turbine Rocket Saucer on 5x D11-P

pic 5 Stealth on AT F50T

pic 6- Frickinator on D12-0 to B6-0

All good flights.

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More fun flights at the launch

pics 3-4 - Including Mike Lehmann's beautiful Gemini on a 2 AP motor cluster - great flight

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pics 1-2 a nasty CATO

pic 3 - large military jet

and more flights

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Rich P's cool flights with a "mid-power" water rocket

Some fine-tuning and some fun flights

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At the Acton launch Jim Flis requested a TOGinator flight at the

FlisKits Anniversary launch by CMASS at Amesbury, MA on 9/16/17

pic 1 - prepping D11-P engines with tape thrust rings

pic 2 - TOGinator with 27x D11-P engines installed
Tape between motors ready to receive flashpans

pic 3 - multiple, mini flashpans ready to go, held between layers of tape
At the field, blue tape is opened up, igniter inserted...5..4..3..

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FlisKits Anniversary launch by CMASS at Amesbury, MA - 9/16/2017

Thank you Jim Flis for the many very cool FlisKits rockets, and for delicious cake!
An inspiration for many in the hobby


Very low winds all day. High humidity and low cloud cover in the morning, more sunny as the day went on...

The now classic FilsKits Frick-n-Frack drag race, with many contestants and rocket flying.
Tom launched my Frickinator with D12-0 to B6 as I was prepping.
May use an electric match next time to try to get off the pad more quickly :dark:

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Prepped the Spinning Saucer of the Apocalypse first, due to low cloud cover.
8x D11-P for spin and 2x AT G64 for lift.

Got the saucer RSO inspected.
Then looked out to the high power pads... and there were none :wink:

Weather was highly dubious in the morning. Very low cloud cover, so no HP to start.
Set up Pad A and launched the rocket.

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Then the TOGinator went up loaded with a 30 motor cluster:
27x D11-P in flashpans
2x AT F27 red
1x CTI G54 red


Lots of fire and smoke to fun effect.
Great liftoff.
Apogee 871 feet.

One F27 not fired, the other 29 ignited.
7 ft Top Flight Recovery chute brought the rocket down.

May add nose weight next time to help:
- further stabilize flight
- shed nose section more quickly from chute

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pic 1: Traffic came to a dead stop going through Boston on the Zakim bridge.
Truly a work of art.

pic 2-3: TOGinator after flight.

Will post movie tomorrow.

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CMASS / FlisKits 9/16/2017 launch Video:

[video=youtube;TztgkhWuBQ0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TztgkhWuBQ0[/video]
 
Recently added a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone to my personal space program.

It's built-in camera's specs: 1in sensor, 20Mpixel stills at 14 frames/sec, 4K video, match the Sony RX10 camera I picked up not long ago.
Super fast imaging capabilities.

First drone video, done at a friend's house close to the Massachusetts coast

[video=youtube;z8ioYqPXqp0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8ioYqPXqp0[/video]
 
Prepped the Nitro FireBall for another 29 motor clustered and staged flight.

Built a couple more modified FlisKits Shadowlords for stage 2 rockets.

As this involved seven separate recoveries all deploying chutes at apogee, selected motors to keep altitude low for the Amesbury field.

Stage 1:
1x CTI G68 White (all other motors Estes BP)
6x E16-6
16x C11-0

Stage 2:
Six separate rockets each with C11-5

pics 2-3 are flashpan used to ignite 6x E16 + 10x C11 engines

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CMASS Launch - Amesbury, MA - 10/21/2017

A very nice day, reaching the mid 70's, sunny with low winds.

The Nitro FireBall lifted off starting with a flash on a big trail of fire and smoke.
For the first time, a rockets thrust knocked over my cluster box at the pad.

(more pictures on next page)

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