What did you do rocket wise today?

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Maybe not as long as you think?

For me the interval between black powder launches was something like 1990 or 1991 to 2016. And those launches in 1990 were in support of a lab I TAed in grad school, so a more meaningful measurement might be the interval between the Gyroc I built and lost in middle school and the Gyroc clone I launched last summer. The elapsed time between that cloned Gyroc launch and first mid power launch was about three months.

As for what I did rocket wise today, I cut some parts for my L1 certification rocket. painted some on two mid-power rockets kit-bashed from an Estes Mammoth (I cannot quite match the metallic orange of the Mammoth tube), and finished the design for a simple and sturdy "Plan B" rocket (laid it out and simulated it in Open Rocket, set up the CAD/CAM in Fusion 360) -- in case my intended L1 vehicle doesn't qualify.

View attachment 323843

The local club is very good, and I've got a young daughter who likes to build things even more than I do -- so it was pretty easy to slip back into the hobby.

Almost 5 years ago exactly I took my son to his first launch (and the first for me in 20+ years). My L3 project flies in September...you may be closer than you think!


That's awesome, y'all! I do hope to move into bigger, badder rockets fairly quickly. Get some experience building with the cheap, LPR's. I want to fly a mid-power before years end. Optimistically, I'd like to be going for my L1 cert by the end of next year. "The best laid plans..." and all that, but the bug has definitely bitten!
 
That's awesome, y'all! I do hope to move into bigger, badder rockets fairly quickly. Get some experience building with the cheap, LPR's. I want to fly a mid-power before years end. Optimistically, I'd like to be going for my L1 cert by the end of next year. "The best laid plans..." and all that, but the bug has definitely bitten!

The last two rockets I built were an A/B Monocopter and a 13mm cardstock saucer, so you don't have to let go of the little stuff too. Enjoy the ride.
 
I'm printing an egg cup for a payload bay. I think I'd like to run a two part payload recovery contest. One without a rocket and then one with.
 
Same thing happened to mine, still about 80ft up over a year later :-/
That beats the smoking hole I put mine in a couple months ago (along with my PML Quicksilver, AltimeterThree & a GPS tracker). My daughter was not happy about it...

IMG_9819-2.jpg IMG_9842.jpg
 
I finished off a spool of printer filament, and thought the hole in the middle looked about right...yep that is a 54mm spool rocket with no modification needed except a couple drill holes for a launch rod.

I'm thinking an I115-W or I117-FJ would work real well.

 
Last edited:
I finished off a spool of printer filament, and thought the hole in the middle looked about right...yep that is a 54mm spool rocket with no modification needed except a couple drill holes for a launch rod.

I'm thinking an I115-W or I117-FJ would work real well.
Very important: what brand and part number of filament? :-D
 
Take heart, I've done worse. At least you know where it is. Good luck on retrieval.



If you don't see the problem, take note of the red tether cord. Unfortunately the chute release opened right on time.

That has happened at our field as well; fortunately we have short grass and a few of us looking resulted in it being found relatively quickly.
 
That has happened at our field as well; fortunately we have short grass and a few of us looking resulted in it being found relatively quickly.

I'm sure that mine was ultimately found, but it probably confused the cow trying to eat it. My new one has an 18"x1" neon green streamer attached in case I do this again.

Funny part of it was my youngest son. This happened a week before Father's Day last year. I came back from recovering the rocket, and announced the lost chute release. Without missing a beat he leaned over to my wife and said, in that whisper voice that is somehow louder than normal talking that all little kids have, "Mom, I have an idea what we can get Dad for Father's Day."
 
Last edited:
The Wright Stuff Rocketeers went to the National Museum of the United States Air force on July 15th, 2017 for a big build and fly. Northrup Grumman gave the museum a grant and they bought 500 Astra 3 kits and 500 Estes B6-4 motors. Our club helped people build the 500 rockets and we probably launched about 300 of them (actual count is still being tabulated). Because the rockets were assembled inside a lot of people stayed in the museum instead of coming out to launch and then going back through security to get back in the museum. We started building at 10AM were asked to stop launching around 3PM.

In addition to the rockets, the Madras Maiden, a restored B-17 flew overhead numerous times as it was taking people for rides out of the Dayton, OH airport. And I mean it flew right over us; usually twice on each flight. Someone suggested that they might attack us. I replied that if it did, you could be assured that the bombs were clean as I had just cleaned them two days earlier (I really did and let me tell you they had probably never been cleaned before because they were filthy!).
 
Busy paperwork day:
  • got Burnsim demo running under Ubuntu
  • registered for all four days of Airfest
  • booked my hotel for Airfest
  • registered for High Frontier
  • bought a copy of Burnsim
 
On a happier note, today I finished the paint work on my new LOC Park Flyer Sandhawk. Really looking forward to pulling the tape and seeing how the finished product looks.
 
Still catching up on my very busy yesterday.

Attended my first BARC launch and had a wonderful day. Got 8 flights up. My flying fleet for the day:
attachment.php


Clockwise from top left:

1) Biohazard, maiden flight on C11-3 and subsequent flight on D12-5. Two successful recoveries, although the D12 drifted a loooooong way.
2) APRO Lander II, maiden flight on a D12-3. Broke a fin on the way down, so it was done for the day (has since been fixed)
3) Odd'l Cyclone, maiden flight on a 1/2A3-2T, subsequent flight on a A3-4T. Super fun flyer.
4) Diamond Cutter, one flight on a D12-5. This was its first real successful flight.
5) Estes Centuri (not flown)
6) Upscale Estes Quinstar, two flights on an F15-0.

Everything was returned in perfect condition except for the broken fin on the APRO. A good time was had by me.

ImageUploadedByRocketry Forum1500251123.473599.jpg
 
Back
Top