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MarkII

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At the prodding of He of the Piscine Cranium, herein find my first-ever launch report for TRF. Submitted for your approval.

On Saturday April 14 2012 I attended the ASTRE Spring Fling sport launch in Johnstown, NY. It was the first ASTRE club launch that I had attended since August of 2010, my first organized launch of any kind since June 2011. The last time I had launched any rockets was in August 2011. So this broke a long dry spell.

I got an earlier than usual start and arrived at the field a little bit past noon after a 2.5 hour drive. The event was quite well-attended; I counted a total of 10 participants. The day was mostly sunny and warm, in the 60s, but full of gusty winds. I decided to start out cautiously, and chose my AAW 13mm Scimitar for the first flight, on an A10-PT. I followed that with my 18mm Stealth on a C6-0 and then launched my 6" Original Flying Saucer, Smiley, on a German-made Quest C6-3, one of the last in my batch. Let me tell you, those German-made Cs were some fine motors; I would love to get more of them. All three flights were great; the first two spun furiously on both the ascent and descent, and the third flight went especially high on that excellent motor. All flights were quite straight despite the wind, and they all drifted a little on the way down, but none went too far.

Next up were my Mini Brute Combo Super Flea and Javelin. It was the first ever flight of the Javelin. The Super Flea really zipped on a 1/2A3-2T. I wasn't able to track it, but other club members did and they guided me to its LZ. Recovery was apparently fine on the break-apart recovery. I had spent the previous evening making foam plugs in various small sizes so that I wouldn't have to deal with cramming wadding down tiny tubes and to make the prep simpler. I used the first one in the Javelin's flight. It had a surprisingly high flight on another 1/2A3-2T, which I was able to see. Nice slow recovery on its crepe paper streamer.


To be continued...
 
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With a better sense of wind patterns and descent rates gained from these initial flights, I decided to go a bit bigger. I loaded up my Astron Cobra with three B6-4s and used a 15" nylon chute protected by a Nomex shield. I had a good deal of trouble getting the three Q2G2 igniters installed because the tubes that are used to hold them in place in the nozzles were too narrow for the Estes B6's nozzle and the igniters kept falling out. I tried using wadding balls and various sizes of Estes igniter plugs but none worked. I ended up breaking the bridge wire in two if the igniters. I switched to Estes Solar igniters and with some patience managed to twist the leads together well enough. All three motors lit simultaneously and the Cobra had another awesome flight to an appreciable height. It drifted a fair distance but stayed well within the field and was easily retrieved. This has become one of my favorite rockets.

Next up was my Der Fat Max, another wonderful flier. I was fresh out of F12J reloads and decided to go low power for this flight. I loaded it up on a D12-3 and used the same chute and Nomex from the Cobra flight. Because of the short airframe and large fins I was concerned about weathercocking so I tried the technique of slightly angling the launch rod with the wind. I could have angled it a bit more because the DFM still angled into the wind as it left the launch rod, but only slightly. This was the first time that I had launched it on a D and I didn't know what kind of height it would attain on it. The verdict: pretty darned high. Not F reload high, but still quite respectable. It was probably the highest of my flights that day. It must have come down during a brief lull in the wind, because it looked like it was going to land right on the LCO table. It drifted a little in the final 30 feet and landed just a few feet away from the pad. I won "closest to the pad" with that flight.

On to Part III...
 
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It's just like riding a bicycle. You just don't forget how to do it!

Glad to see you come down out of the hills to launch some rockets, Mark!

Waiting for Part III.
 
I always bring micros (MicroMaxx-powered rockets) to these events but I never seem to get around to launching them. I made a point of doing so this time.

The first was my FlisKits Just Past Due. One of the other participants had never seen MicroMaxx rockets before, and was sure that I would lose this one due to its diminutive size. I used one of my new foam plugs in it in place of wadding. All of those nested tube fins give it a bit of drag, but as always the JPD had a good, stable boost, although it did weathercock a fair amount (the only one of my flights to do so). I should have angled that rod. On its previous flight the payload section broke free of the thin Kevlar thread shock cord, but this time it held fine and had a nice recovery. I was quite satisfied with the flight.

My next micro was one of my Bic Stik rockets, built from Art Applewhite's free design, with slight internal modifications (having to do with shock cord anchoring) by me. This rocket is a great performer on MicroMaxx motors, and it lived up to that reputation this time as well. The late afternoon sunlight provided ideal conditions for visually tracking it as well. The Bic Stik rockets go the highest of any of my micros, and they are seemingly impervious to weathercocking. This one shot off the pad and ascended in a perfectly vertical trajectory. The low angle of the sun lit up the white body nicely, making it stand out from the darkening sky to the East. This elicited several "ooos and ahhhs" from the other participants, which is unusual in a MicroMaxx flight. At apogee the bright red metallic streamer deployed fully and began fluttering down. At that point we realized that there had been a separation, because the rocket body wasn't with it. I had used a length of super-flexible steel microcable for the first part of the shock cord, and a thin, lightweight length of beading elastic for the remainder. The elastic didn't appear to have burned or melted, but seemed to have simply broken at the point where it attached to the steel cable. I retrieved the nose cone and the entire length of the elastic with the streamer still attached. By a stroke of luck one of the other participants had followed the rocket body all the way to the ground. I found it on the grass not far from the LCO table. I won't be using this elastic for shock cords any more.

My 10th and last flight of the day was my Micro Jet Freak, one of a set of three downscaled boost gliders that I had built a few years ago to fly on MicroMaxx motors. It was based on an NAR plan that I had downloaded from YORP. I had done all of the hand-tossing and trimming of the gliders indoors, and the Jet Freak always had by far the best glide of the three. In its sole previous flight in my front yard, though, it had shot up about 15-20 feet and after spitting the motor it dove straight into the bushes, where I retrieved it. So I didn't have very high hopes for it this time, but it was the end of the day and I wanted to give it another shot. I was expecting another low boost, minimal glide if any and a fairly easy retrieval close by.

I don't know, maybe the wind had something to do with it, but this time the litle guy shot off the pad like a scalded cat, weathercocked a bit and went REALLY HIGH (50-60 feet)and a good way uprange. I just caught a glimpse of it as it shot up and then saw the thin wisp of tracking smoke just before the motor spit. And that was it. At that point it was much too far away to be seen, so we don't know if it even glided at all during the recovery. And of course we had no idea where it came down. Three of us spent several minutes searching the field underneath and downrange from where we saw the tracking smoke, but we weren't optimistic about finding it, and we didn't. This was the first rocket that I had lost in several years. I was not too bothered by it though, because I had regarded it as a failed project anyway, and besides, it had been a pretty easy build.

This concludes my launch report. Pics to follow.
 
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None of the photos or video that I took came out very well, so I'm using photos posted at ASTRE's Yahoo group site. Not all of the flights have photos.

1. Rod angle adjustment of Der Fat Max by Der Fat Guy.
2. Der Fat Max on the pad.
3. DFM ignition.
4. DFM away!

DSC04113_a_sm.jpg

DFM on the pad - ASTRE Spring Fling 2012.jpg

DFM launches - ASTRE Spring Fling 2012.jpg

DFM going - ASTRE Spring Fling 2012.jpg
 
Cobra photos from ASTRE.

1. Cobra on the pad
2. Cobra launches
3. The Cobra has landed.

DSC04178_a_sm.JPG

Cobra launches - ASTRE Spring Fling 2012.jpg

Cobra landing - ASTRE Spring Fling 2012.jpg
 
I don't have any launch pictures of the Micro Jet Freak, but here are some photos of it taken a few years ago.

In the first three photos the Micro Jet Freak is on the right. A MicroMaxx II motor is shown for scale. The motor is 25mm (1") long and 6mm (0.25") in diameter.

In the last photo it is the one at the top middle. A US quarter is included to indicate the scale.

Micro gliders 1.jpg

Micro gliders 2.jpg

Micro gliders 3.jpg

Micro gliders-all three.jpg
 
I don't have any launch pictures of the Micro Jet Freak, but here are some photos of it taken a few years ago.

In the first three photos the Micro Jet Freak is on the right. A MicroMaxx II motor is shown for scale. The motor is 25mm (1") long and 6mm (0.25") in diameter.

In the last photo it is the one at the top middle. A US quarter is included to indicate the scale.

These hurt my fingers just looking at them.:y:
 
Looks like it was an excellent launch! Glad to see you got some flying done!


We still haven't flown since October 2011...it hurts :bangbang:



Braden
 
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