RED GLARE XIII

3 words.....IT WAS AWESOME!!!!
Congrats!!

patelldp said:

I had my successful L3 flight today! Flew my Competitor 5 on a CTI 7521-M840. Raven reported 13,841', Adept 22 reported 13,852. Max velocity of 807 mph with a max acceleration of 14.35 gees. Recovery was pretty far away, but it wasn't too bad.

HUGE thank you to Nick DeBrita, Fred Wallace, Dave Reese, and Bob Utley.

Flying my Nike Smoke first thing in the morning. Hoping for success with my first attempt at airstarts.

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patelldp said:

I had my successful L3 flight today! Flew my Competitor 5 on a CTI 7521-M840. Raven reported 13,841', Adept 22 reported 13,852. Max velocity of 807 mph with a max acceleration of 14.35 gees. Recovery was pretty far away, but it wasn't too bad.

HUGE thank you to Nick DeBrita, Fred Wallace, Dave Reese, and Bob Utley.

Flying my Nike Smoke first thing in the morning. Hoping for success with my first attempt at airstarts.

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Congratz on the L3!:clap:

Now, change your sig to reflect it!:wink:

AndyC said:

For those that built Jarts - I don't have a load to test the balance with - how much nose weight did you add (stock build, with the 3 grain CTI motor, not the 6xl) ?

On another note - got my motors made for other planned flights. Ready to go... (98's and 54's - 3 motors: (2) M1800, (1) L1300, all white)
View attachment 104350

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Rick C and I put a couple of ounces pf BBs in ours Friday night, some say it is not needed, Rick has flown his without, but I don't like marginally stable birds.

Tom

patelldp said:

I had my successful L3 flight today! Flew my Competitor 5 on a CTI 7521-M840. Raven reported 13,841', Adept 22 reported 13,852. Max velocity of 807 mph with a max acceleration of 14.35 gees. Recovery was pretty far away, but it wasn't too bad.

HUGE thank you to Nick DeBrita, Fred Wallace, Dave Reese, and Bob Utley.

Flying my Nike Smoke first thing in the morning. Hoping for success with my first attempt at airstarts.

Click to expand...

Congrats on your L3!!!!

Tom

Hey everyone, just wanted to remind you GS cookies will be on sale today, and if any left Sunday. Also we have donated 6 boxes for the raffle, so it might not be as cool as a prize as Garys D4,, But it tastes A LOT better. so buy more raffle tickets.

Tom

Had a great time at RG yesterday and today, unfortunately we are not able to attend on Sunday. The first flight on Saturday was my buddy's LOC Doorknob aka "Overdose" on a CTI K820 BS. The rocket was last seen a hundred or so feet off the ground in the proximity of a tree line south-west of the pads. We searched all day, knocked on many doors, talked with many neighbors and were offered a lot of help and guidance from Tommy Higgs, Bob Utley and Rick Comshaw. Unfortunately, we still walked away empty handed. Bob is hopeful someone will come across, it. Maybe this will help:





Thanks to all you guys who helped us so far. If anyone is in this area tomorrow, please keep an eye out!

MikePassaretti said:

Had a great time at RG yesterday and today, unfortunately we are not able to attend on Sunday. The first flight on Saturday was my buddy's LOC Doorknob aka "Overdose" on a CTI K820 BS. The rocket was last seen a hundred or so feet off the ground in the proximity of a tree line south-west of the pads. We searched all day, knocked on many doors, talked with many neighbors and were offered a lot of help and guidance from Tommy Higgs, Bob Utley and Rick Comshaw. Unfortunately, we still walked away empty handed. Bob is hopeful someone will come across, it. Maybe this will help:

Thanks to all you guys who helped us so far. If anyone is in this area tomorrow, please keep an eye out!

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Don't loose hope - you never know...
I lost a rocket at Red Glare one fall several years ago, went back the next weekend with my brother and we walked evey square foot of that place with walkie talkies for a full day. Scared up some deer, but came away empty handed.
The next launch someone brought it in. A little worse for wear but the GWiz still worked when I plugged in a new battery, still have it.

Do you all put contact numbers or a Tripoli number on these like the RC airplane guys do?

Mike:

Have hope! My Jart "the Shart" came back around 2 pm today, found by someone waay far away from where I thought it was...the tracker was destroyed, so no signal....hopefully you are equally as lucky!


PS Congrats to both of the L2's that I successfully did today! Hope to see you gals flying more big motors soon!

Thanks guys!

For now, we at least have some video to re-live the flight:

[video=youtube;-O5IEGPaR4A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-O5IEGPaR4A[/video]

Looking forward to pics and video from others at RG this weekend.

I flew my modified Gizmo XL called "SLUGGO" on saturday and got my L3. The weather was awsome and so was the flight. Perfectly straight with virtually no roll. It landed about 1000 feet from the pad. Here are the stats:

Motor: Cesaroni 75mm dia. M2250 C-Star
Altitude: 7767' from primary altimeter, 7802' from backup altimeter
Max Speed: Mach 0.9 (692 MPH)
Max Acceleration: 19.17 G's
Primary Altimeter: Perfectflite MiniAlt w/D
Backup altimeter: Raven II
GPS tracker: Garmin DC 40
Primary camera: Boostervision 720P HD bullet cam
Secondary camera (on nosecone) #16 720P HD Key cam

Onboard video from Camera # 1 is HERE

Much thanks to Howie Druckerman, Gary Tortora, Matt Roy, Tim Lehr, my L3CC Robert DeHate and my wife Barb for her encouragement and support (and the nice photos). Oh, and thanks again to the MDRA for another great launch.

Congratulations to all those cert flights! Well done, guys! Very sorry I had to miss this!


Later!

--Coop

Another great Red Glare in the bag! Personally, I didn't have much good luck this weekend. The altimeter in my Vindicator failed to deploy the main after a nice boost on a K1100T. It came down flat and popped two of the fins. It will fly again. My Minie Magg also had deployment issues, and came down under a fouled chute and landed on the hood of a truck (sorry Tom!). That flight also popped two fins, and this one will fly again as well.

On the other side of things, many of the SEVRA members achieved various certification levels. John Fancher certified L1 with his Madcow Black Brant on an H123W, Phil Ash got his L2 on a scratch built rocket on a J285CL, and Pat Harden got his L3 with his Dominator 4 on an M1830CS. Smiles and handshakes were the order for the weekend.

Thanks again to the amazing MDRA crew for putting on another great launch. See ya all in December!

Here's the link to my pictures from the weekend.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/78604807@N00/sets/72157632047131388/

DavieRockets: I'll email you those shots later today.

Ehhh don't worry about it Nick, she thought it was funny as hell when the Suburban took one to the hood last year, so she got it back, TWICE!!!! She will get over it.

Tom

cbrarick said:

Mike:

Have hope! My Jart "the Shart" came back around 2 pm today, found by someone waay far away from where I thought it was...the tracker was desTtroyed, so no signal....hopefully you are equally as lucky!


PS Congrats to both of the L2's that I successfully did today! Hope to see you gals flying more big motors soon!

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Yea, the first guy didn't want to touch the crap colored rocket, the guy that did didn't want to keep it!!!!!!

Rocketman248 said:

Thanks again to the amazing MDRA crew for putting on another great launch. See ya all in December!

Here's the link to my pictures from the weekend.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/78604807@N00/sets/72157632047131388/

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Great pictures, Nick!

Did Rob DeHate recover his 54mm on that K2045 VMax? That flame is insane!

Nick per usual awesome! pics, thanks much.

Rocketman248 said:

Here's the link to my pictures from the weekend.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/78604807@N00/sets/72157632047131388/

DavieRockets: I'll email you those shots later today.

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Thanks for documenting so many launches with your awesome photos Nick!

THier said:

Rick C and I put a couple of ounces pf BBs in our [Jarts] Friday night, some say it is not needed, Rick has flown his without, but I don't like marginally stable birds.

Tom

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I showed up Saturday morning, and Tim said, "Get your Jart ready for the drag race." I replied, "I don't have a Jart." "Whaddya mean you don't have a Jart?--you're a Wildman vendor!" "You only had one Jart to sell me at LDRS, and I sold it." So Tim hands me a kit and tells me I have an hour and a half to build it. I'm the kind of guy who takes 6 months to build a rocket, most of it thinking and planning. Long story short, I put it together in time for the drag race and trustingly shoved an H87 into it. Perfect flight, perfect recovery. So Rick C wants to go again on slow burn motors (H54 and G54). I must have been only very marginally stable, because the slow burn motor sent me into a corkscrew flight pattern. No damage though. So I'm gonna call it "Needs Nose Weight." Hey Rick, did you ever find yours?

PS: Saw from a later post that Rick found his Shart. O what a relief it is.

It was a good RG, though the wind on Sunday shut down the big projects. Except for Robert DeHate, I didn't see anyone preparing to brave some altitude. I know I chickened out.

Sprite had its first flight on a 7600 M3000, for L3 cert. Everything went fine. The flight was to roughly 8400ft. I intended to put it up afterwards on an EX 30%N 3000 in an 88mm case, to 12-13k and mach 1, but the breeze on Sunday convinced me not to send it up. Anyway Sprite will be getting a couple small changes based on the first flight. The nosecone chute isn't quite big enough for the weight of the nosecone. The nosecone dropped quite a bit faster than the rest of the rocket, once all the laundary was deployed. I'll up that from a 5' to a 6' which should about do it. The arrangement is three chutes, a small one for drogue (which itself could stand to be just a little draggier), and separate main and NC chutes from the same dbag. CO2 and tether deployment. I like the low mess from those! Cleanup is a breeze.

I didn't get the 75mm adaptor's base plate painted before the launch. The heat from the exhaust cooked off pretty nearly a full layer of the plywood.

The upper tube was too long and I knew that going into the launch. I'll be chopping up to a foot off it likely before the next launch. I do not like free space in a rocket. I like things filled so they cannot move around under shock, vibe, and g loads.

The onboard video worked perfectly, and showed only a slow roll under ascent.

I deployed main at 600ft, but at around 100ft/sec drogue descent rate, the intervening second and a half before the main was unfurled puts the opening low enough to make one start to go hmmm...

If anyone has pictures of the launch I'd appreciate seeing them! It was the 6" rocket with ruddy orangish lower section white upper with black switch band, and fins with aluminum leading edges. It was launched from the left away cell on Saturday afternoon.

In any event it was a good flight with a close easy recovery on a nice day with a great group of people! What more can one ask for?

I want to give special thanks to Alan Anderson (and his wife Chris) for putting up with my building the rocket in his basement, and Jerry O'Sullivan for his guidance and assistance, and use of his shop for some parts of the work. These guys are a great team.

I also want to give special thanks to Robert DeHate and his wife for saving my bacon. I've had a motor on hand for about a year for the cert flight, but I never prepped it. When I went to do so Friday morning, some of the reload was missing. Robert stayed a bit late Friday night so I could pick up a motor. I built it that evening, and flew it on Saturday for the cert. Thanks Robert!

The people at Fruity Chutes also deserve special thanks for getting me a new main chute in very short order. It ended up that the chutes I had on hand were either too big or too small for the main. I needed something in between and these guys came through. The 7' IRIS is a very nice chute by the way! It can carry a lot more weight than one would expect from its size.

Gerald

Here ya go! I got a couple. The last one is especially cool, because it has Jerry's camera copter in the shot as well.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/78604807@N00/8197804353/in/set-72157632047131388

Rocketman248 said:

Here ya go! I got a couple. The last one is especially cool, because it has Jerry's camera copter in the shot as well.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/78604807@N00/8197804353/in/set-72157632047131388

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Wow! Looking through the photos, this one is my fav...



Nice pics!

blackbrandt said:

Wow! Looking through the photos, this one is my fav...
View attachment 104880


Nice pics!

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That's Fred Wallace's Formula 150 on a Cesaroni L1410 Skid. Unfortunately his drogue cord got caught on the Hubcap adapter and didn't allow apogee deployment. Came in ballistic until main deployment where it shredded his chute swivels. Rocket landed flat and popped out all of the fins, but no parts broke.

Gotta say Nick, I am partial to this one:



Motor's sticking out the back about 5", but it worked nonetheless.

I had some major fear about having to do RG this late in November and the weather. We really lucked out. It was cold and some wind was blowing at the surface, but the winds aloft on Fri. and Sat. were very friendly for the most part. I do believe that this RG was had the most CATOs, core-samples and car-bashes that I've ever seen at an RG. One came down 2 cars over from me and looked like it ejected on the hood. When that car moved later in the day I said to myself, "Well, whoever parks there will have a good spot... what are the odds of another rocket coming down exactly there?" Boy- was I wrong. It wasn't a half hour later and wham! Right there. The next day, it was two cars on the other side of me.

It was my first Red Glare and I had a great time. I flew my "I forgot the name of the rocket" rocket twice. I built the thing 5-6 years ago and can't remember what I called it back then, hence the new name. Saturday was an L730, airstarting an H120 and an H143 (should've been a G60 in there but the e-match was bad). Sunday was on 2x J580s, 2x I255s, 2x H120s. The igniter in the K815 that was to airstart got pulled/burned out, so that didn't go and the pair of G60's that was supposed to light on the K815 burnout didn't trigger (due to the way the ignition logic was setup). I guess I'll try again next Red Glare.

I put a bunch of videos on youtube. I was being dumb saturday and videoing in portrait, so sorry about that. They're also all a bit fuzzier than I'd expect. That's also likely from me being dumb and having the camera setup wrong or a dirty lens.

Saturday morning 3 stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ6GDdx57E4
Gary T: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=401-DNwy-ZY
Jerry O: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Moxt6q0wlo4
Tiny Mach Madness Entry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhxPLMGYR7w
Mine Saturday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2L4V-WnIug
Robert DeHate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPM0ILbo87Q
Mine Sunday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zy3uVmv2bhY
High Speed Pad Cam Sunday (washed out and a bit interesting. Combination of a damaged camera and likely incorrect settings): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTzbxoXihg8

Awesome Dan, nicely done!

patelldp said:

Gotta say Nick, I am partial to this one:

View attachment 104882

Motor's sticking out the back about 5", but it worked nonetheless.

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Just finished re-kitting / salvaging parts from 4 fallen rockets from this weekend.

Look Familiar (LOC Magnum) - CATO - Fins are all that is left below the ebay.
Orange and Black - Forward Closure failure - inside torched body tube removed - fin can still together and everything above ebay.
Red Yeller - (no apogee deploy - charge blew out hole in tube) - Fins and nosecone are all that is left. ebay needs checked.
Stuck together, broken apart (Wildman Vindicator) - (no apogee deploy - tube almost off but wedged itself). Glue joints / fillets broken on landing. Rekitted and needs built a third time.

Fun, but destructive weekend. Lots to do this winter.

Dan Patell's L3 flight on an M840W:


My Comp4 beater rocket on a 2550:


JerryO loading up the Iris:

Ryan showing off his huge biceps (Friday curlz for maximum pump):

The Iris sequence. Jerry's über-awesome hexacopter positioned for aerial video of the flight:

Liftoff. You can already see one catoed J595 in the plume:


Now we can tell we're really in trouble:


(a) I am amazed the interstage nubbins could put up with this kind of punishment! (b) Hexacopter again:

All recovering safely:

GaryT's Albatross sequence. Liftoff!


Problem...

Booster getting torched. Luckily, the long case protected the motor mount.

Dan Michael really gets into his photography job here:


Thanks to MDRA for a great launch -- Neil, Bob, Kathy, Troy, Mike, and crew. Plus, of course, Tommy Higgs and the Higgs family for continuing to allow us to use their fields. See you all in the spring!