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NWShark

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Hi everyone,

I sort of introduced myself in the beginners forum last week so I thought I'd show off some of my son's handiwork. For those that didn't read it I got back into rocketry about 3 years ago when my sons were in Cub Scouts and we did a launch with the whole pack. I was original member of the Estes Aerospace club when I was a kid from around 1980 through 84. I found catalogs and lists I'd made of my rockets from back then. I still have two of the rockets that I should fix sometime.

Since the sub pack launch my son's (who are now 11 and 13) have stayed into the hobby and continued to build more rockets. My oldest had to build and launch a new rocket for his boy scout merit badge for Space Exploration so that was the excuse for the launch yesterday. We launched the following rockets in the picture below. (from left to right)

1. Mini Honest John - A4-10T
2. Big Bertha - B6-4
3. Alpha - B6-4 (this is first rocket my youngest son built)
4. Viking - A8-3 (this is the first rocket my oldest son built) - We launched it with a 30+ year old engine and it worked great.
5. Reflector - B4-4 - First flight and the new rocket my oldest built for his merit badge - Nothing in the payload section
6. Seeker - B6-4 - This is the quest E2X rocket that came with our launch kit
7. US Army Patriot - B6-4

IMG_20170917_134411746.jpg

We kept the rockets lower as there was a lot of cloud cover. There was a small 2-3 MPH wind but we accomodated it and the patriot landed 6 feet from the launch pad. That was by far the best launch. Here are two slow mo videos my son took on his phone of the Patriot and Big Bertha launches.

All in all it was good launch with only one issue. We'd put a new parachute on the Alpha and it must have been larger (and with too small of a hole cut in the center) as it literally took 2 minutes to float back down and it traveled about 200 yards from the launch site. It just missed a building and landed in the parking lot next to it. When we returned home to put a larger hole in the center of the chute...

[video]https://youtu.be/iP6P7xIRLOA[/video]

[video]https://youtu.be/eaV1t8y0gvI[/video]

Looking forward to learning/sharing more with you all.

Eric Finn
 
Eric where are you located ? If in Washington, Oregon and Idaho there are several great clubs with awesome facilities ( my guess for these three states is your username). I fly with TriCities Rocketeers in Pasco/Kennewick/Richland, WA. There is OROC in Oregon and Idaho has a club in Boise iirc.
 
Welcome to the forum!

I love my Patriot too... People often say it's underpowered but I think it's just a great low & slow flyer. Mine has plenty of flights under its belt... Even a C6 puts it practically back on the pad. I have some Aerotech D10 composite motors with a bit more kick but I'm saving them for my performance stuff...

If you're looking for a next build, I would go Interceptor. It's been around nearly since Estes opened and is a nice sci-fi rocket at a similar altitude range. However the pods break off fairly easily, so make your glue joints nice and strong.

For something a bit trickier the Alien Invader is pretty neat- fins upon fins upon tubefins with a side of more fins... :wink:
 
I'm actually based outside Philadelphia in the town of North Wales, hence the NW. Sorry for the confusion. So it appears Youtube removed my patriot launch for violating community guidelines. I'm not sure how a model rocket does that. Does anyone have any experience with youtube causing these kinds of problems with model rocket launch videos?

I appealed the decision already, but its a bit annoying to say the least...

Eric
 
Welcome Sir Shark,

Like you I am a BAR (Born Again Rocketeer) and I must admit I am hooked. I have well over 100 rockets and I have attended the past three local Tripoli launches. l think you will find there are lots of nice and helpful peeps hanging out here in this forum.


I'm actually based outside Philadelphia in the town of North Wales, hence the NW. Sorry for the confusion. So it appears Youtube removed my patriot launch for violating community guidelines. I'm not sure how a model rocket does that. Does anyone have any experience with youtube causing these kinds of problems with model rocket launch videos?

I appealed the decision already, but its a bit annoying to say the least...

Eric
 
Welcome back! Glad you're passing on your love of the sport to your sons. Like you I'm a new-ish BAR and through rocketry as a 12 year old, learned a good deal about the sciences (aerodynamics, physics, even a bit of chemistry and design) through my involvement. Best of all it was fun (and kept me out of trouble). Nice that now we get to relive all of that excitement and involvement.
 
"I love my Patriot too... People often say it's underpowered but I think it's just a great low & slow flyer. Mine has plenty of flights under its belt... Even a C6 puts it practically back on the pad."

Interesting, I lost my Patriot in Slovakia on a flight with a Klima C6-5 (a bit more powerful than the Estes version). It was not a windy day but we never saw it come down and we searched for days.
See:
https://youtu.be/_i262MNTswQ
 
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