Just another boring HP scratch build

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Well, it's official. I'm old. I launched Ion Disruptor at the LUNAR Snow Ranch launch on Saturday, on a 38mm H148 Redline reload. It was a great up, stable flight and a brilliant red flame. Ejection was at appogee, and the 45" nylon chute came out and opened right up. Unfortunately, I had forgotten one simple yet vital step - to tighten the quick link. The aft section fell free, and broke a fin on landing. They've never had to use the alarm for me before. It was exciting! LOL

Could have been worse, I suppose. The forward section was undamaged, although it drifted about a mile from the pad.

[YOUTUBE]-RuvB-edg4M[/YOUTUBE]

[YOUTUBE]wN_bujw8zps[/YOUTUBE]

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As usual, my nephew Wes got some incredible flight photos, including one of the aft section about 6" off the ground. He graciously offered to go retrieve the forward section. It was quite a hike, but it sure is pretty at Snow Ranch!

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Did I mention that I'm old? I forgot one other simple yet vital step - to put the propellant grains in the cardboard insulator. When I got the aft section back to the staging area, I couldn't pull the motor case out even with pliers. I had to wait for Wes to get back from retrieving the forward section to use his not inconsiderable strength. The effort made his face turn red! At first I thought the motor tube had buckled inside on landing, but no. The motor had burned almost through the side of the case and caused a large bubble. My brand new 38/240 case. Bummer. I need to come up with motor assembly and pre-launch checklists.

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I need to come up with motor assembly and pre-launch checklists.

#1 item on checklist: "After motor assembly, are any parts left over? If so, ABORT!"

#2 item on checklist: "Are all quick links in recovery train screwed shut? If not, ABORT!"

Isn't it amazing that we're able to overlook so many simple things? :D

I guess there is some truth in the usual LCO announcement "Well, you got the "UP" part right." Speaking from personal experience here as I recently lake staked my Super Neon XL from about a thousand feet...

Props to Wes on his mad camera skills in catching the Ion Disruptor in its last known "good" state.
 
Wow! Those are some great photos! Too bad about the rocket. I am surprised that the engine still functioned properly without the liner. I don't understand how you could forget that! :bangpan:
 
[POW]Eagle159;295263 said:
I guess we did get that ''tumble recovery''
:bangpan::bangpan:

Now that's funny. What happened to that awesome rocket is sad...but that's funny.

You can rebuild it, you have the tools.
 
#1 item on checklist: "After motor assembly, are any parts left over? If so, ABORT!"

#2 item on checklist: "Are all quick links in recovery train screwed shut? If not, ABORT!"

Isn't it amazing that we're able to overlook so many simple things? :D

I guess there is some truth in the usual LCO announcement "Well, you got the "UP" part right." Speaking from personal experience here as I recently lake staked my Super Neon XL from about a thousand feet...

Props to Wes on his mad camera skills in catching the Ion Disruptor in its last known "good" state.

I had three good ups and two good downs. 5 for 6? Not as bad as it could have been.
 
Wow! Those are some great photos! Too bad about the rocket. I am surprised that the engine still functioned properly without the liner. I don't understand how you could forget that! :bangpan:

My nephew Wes constantly amazes me with his rocketry and other photos. I taught him everything he knows. LOL

[POW]Eagle159;295263 said:
I guess we did get that ''tumble recovery''
:bangpan::bangpan:

Now that is funny! :rofl:

Now that's funny. What happened to that awesome rocket is sad...but that's funny.

You can rebuild it, you have the tools.

Yeah, I've already been thinking about it. I think it'll require some Dremel love to get that loose fin out of the body tube.
 
I got the broken fin freed from the body tube. Should be a simple matter to scrape and sand everything clean, and reattach it.

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Looks doable. Transmission part is on order and there's no launch today so you may as well be productive rocketry-wise.

Once the epoxy dries, add some fillets, sand, touch the fillets up with bondo, sand, prime and wait for a good day to paint.
 
Looks doable. Transmission part is on order and there's no launch today so you may as well be productive rocketry-wise.

Once the epoxy dries, add some fillets, sand, touch the fillets up with bondo, sand, prime and wait for a good day to paint.

Yeah, I plan on using epoxy for these fillets.
 
Did I mention that I'm old? I forgot one other simple yet vital step - to put the propellant grains in the cardboard insulator. When I got the aft section back to the staging area, I couldn't pull the motor case out even with pliers. I had to wait for Wes to get back from retrieving the forward section to use his not inconsiderable strength. The effort made his face turn red! At first I thought the motor tube had buckled inside on landing, but no. The motor had burned almost through the side of the case and caused a large bubble. My brand new 38/240 case. Bummer. I need to come up with motor assembly and pre-launch checklists.


Bummer.
 
I got the fin and body tube sanded and scraped, and the fin re-epoxied in place. I used the piece of aluminum angle to align it while the epoxy set. Once I get some epoxy fillets on it, I'll repaint it.

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Got the fillets done and sanded it a bit. Ready to repaint. Just waiting for the sun to come up and for the day to get warm enough.

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Looking at the damage to your rocket it struck me that it might be time for us start using fiberglass to reinforce our HP birds. Tip to tip, etc.

We've been operating at a "higher level of incompetence" lately where failures do a lot more structural damage. My next tuber will use laminated fins (epoxy and fiberglass cloth sandwiched between the ins and half-doublers) as it's going to use 4" body tube and fins.
 
Looking at the damage to your rocket it struck me that it might be time for us start using fiberglass to reinforce our HP birds. Tip to tip, etc.

We've been operating at a "higher level of incompetence" lately where failures do a lot more structural damage. My next tuber will use laminated fins (epoxy and fiberglass cloth sandwiched between the ins and half-doublers) as it's going to use 4" body tube and fins.

I'm not sure I'm ready for the move to fiberglassing. With all the paint problems I have, I'm sure it would be a fiasco for me.
 
After I repainted it, I noticed a small chip. So I did what any self respecting rocket scientist would do. I touched it up with a black Sharpie. LOL

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The Sharpie is an awful lot like duct tape. There are thousands of uses.

Is the motor tube okay? I seem to recall Wes wrestling with the reload case.

Assuming all is good, now that you've got that first dent in your new rocket, you should put a BIG reload in it and poke a hole in the sky. Didn't you say you had an H170 Metalstorm? Thrustcurve says 1636 feet and only 11.2Gs of acceleration. The Cesaroni I212 is a bit better (1770 feet and 12.3G's) and we like smoky motors, right? The I345 looks REALLY good and still under 1900 feet but a bit faster at 20G's.
 
The Sharpie is an awful lot like duct tape. There are thousands of uses.

Is the motor tube okay? I seem to recall Wes wrestling with the reload case.

Assuming all is good, now that you've got that first dent in your new rocket, you should put a BIG reload in it and poke a hole in the sky. Didn't you say you had an H170 Metalstorm? Thrustcurve says 1636 feet and only 11.2Gs of acceleration. The Cesaroni I212 is a bit better (1770 feet and 12.3G's) and we like smoky motors, right? The I345 looks REALLY good and still under 1900 feet but a bit faster at 20G's.

Speaking of the motor tube, it is burnt inside. I hadn't noticed that before. It's localized, I'm assuming right where the two motor grains came together. It appears to be structurally sound, but I'll find out for sure when I launch it again!

Yes, I have an H170, and two I245's. The I245 should take it a little over 1700 ft. I'll have to wait and see how the wind is behaving on launch day. Regardless, you're going to check the quick links for me!


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