Returning after a 12 year hiatus from rocketry mostly due to having to look at my last one, 100' up in a tree, for 2 years. The rocket what was left of it finally came down, but the shiny payload containing a micro accelerometer was never recovered. Some squirrel's toy no doubt.
After watching my nephew launch a couple Estes series two rockets recently, I got the bug again. This time I built an Estes Star Orbiter and decided to go the dual deploy route in order to avoid the trees and lake on the farm here.
I'm using an Apogee BT-60 E-bay containing a Eggtimer Quark altimeter and deployment control configured as a main deploy only.
The drogue deploy uses the rocket motor's ejection charge.
The e-bay sled replaces the glued in center tube coupling, dividing the rocket in half.
A 2 cell 250 mA/hr 7.4v LiPo powers it .
The 9and 18 nylon chutes are from Top Flight Recovery and my e-matches are Amazon.
The bale of dog barf cellulose insulation comes from Menards.
The rocket with motor weighs in at about 10.5 oz.
After much testing, I settled on using a empty .45 casing with .75 gram of 3F black powder to pressurize a 18 BT-60 tube containing the main chute.
The first two launches were with E16-6 motors taking the rocket to 815'and 805' respectively.
On the first flight when the motor eject charge kicked out the drogue and rocket upper half, my nephew asked me how long my shock cord was. I took a look and replied not that long!
The bottom half had managed to cut the Kelvar shock cord and it free fell into tall grass unharmed. The upper half hung by the drogue until the main deployed and came down a bit further downrange than planned.
The second flight was flawless after I replaced the bottom half shock cord with elastic.
Very satisfying!
I'd like to thank the folks here on the forum for providing the info I used to make this happen.
I'm sure it made the difference between failure and success.
N0QBH
After watching my nephew launch a couple Estes series two rockets recently, I got the bug again. This time I built an Estes Star Orbiter and decided to go the dual deploy route in order to avoid the trees and lake on the farm here.
I'm using an Apogee BT-60 E-bay containing a Eggtimer Quark altimeter and deployment control configured as a main deploy only.
The drogue deploy uses the rocket motor's ejection charge.
The e-bay sled replaces the glued in center tube coupling, dividing the rocket in half.
A 2 cell 250 mA/hr 7.4v LiPo powers it .
The 9and 18 nylon chutes are from Top Flight Recovery and my e-matches are Amazon.
The bale of dog barf cellulose insulation comes from Menards.
The rocket with motor weighs in at about 10.5 oz.
After much testing, I settled on using a empty .45 casing with .75 gram of 3F black powder to pressurize a 18 BT-60 tube containing the main chute.
The first two launches were with E16-6 motors taking the rocket to 815'and 805' respectively.
On the first flight when the motor eject charge kicked out the drogue and rocket upper half, my nephew asked me how long my shock cord was. I took a look and replied not that long!
The bottom half had managed to cut the Kelvar shock cord and it free fell into tall grass unharmed. The upper half hung by the drogue until the main deployed and came down a bit further downrange than planned.
The second flight was flawless after I replaced the bottom half shock cord with elastic.
Very satisfying!
I'd like to thank the folks here on the forum for providing the info I used to make this happen.
I'm sure it made the difference between failure and success.
N0QBH