What did you do rocket wise today?

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Launched rockets with my daughter at the RIMRA launch on Saturday. (That's not me in the second photo; it's a friend who dared her to a Momba drag race.)

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I then bought a trailer for the club's launch equipment. It needs a little work, but the price was right. As you can see in the pic, RIMRA clearly needs to buy more stuff.

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That trailer looks pretty good.
 
That trailer looks pretty good.
You can’t see the roof in the pics. It’s been repaired and it looks pretty ugly, but it rained buckets here today and everything inside is dry.
 
38 hours into a 3d print for my 38mm tower. Designed a 5 element tape measure/PVC Yagi for Altus Metrum tracking (72 F/B! (yeah, right)). More flutter calculations.

IMG_6654.jpg yagi pattern.jpg finsim results.png
 
You can’t see the roof in the pics. It’s been repaired and it looks pretty ugly, but it rained buckets here today and everything inside is dry.

That is all it needs to be. Anyone who complains about the look can fix it next time.
 
More structures calcs. More launch tower 3d printing. More perf calcs. More electronics research.
 
Logged in here to say hi.
I promise I'll get back to building and designing asap, but life is ridiculous.
 
Logged in here to say hi.
I promise I'll get back to building and designing asap, but life is ridiculous.

Good to see the illusive TR back. Hope you have your home repair issues worked out, and have that "Old Iron" machine shop in full swing.
 
Finished up the fin fillets on a 4" FG Nike Smoke Bash. Will add the rear motor mount ring tonight and then it's off to paint!
 
Just flew my first sugar motor in a rocket. Well, it was a rocket-of-sorts, a 38 mm stealth. Didn't take any pics or video, but it sure was a nice way to spend my lunch break.

I've been making "dry" sugar motors for several years now, and I teach middle schoolers how to do it (with lots of supervision) as a science outreach activity. I'm doing that again on Friday, but I wanted to have a demonstration of something a little bigger for them too.
 
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Got the paint done on the Mini Tomach. Black, flo Red, and flo Yellow with chrome Stickershock. The rocket's name will sound appropriate to Mad Max fans, given its eventual I-205 potential kamikaze flight. Shiny and Chrome!

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Got the paint done on the Mini Tomach. Black, flo Red, and flo Yellow with chrome Stickershock. The rocket's name will sound appropriate to Mad Max fans, given its eventual I-205 potential kamikaze flight.

Potential kamikaze? What gives you doubts about the airframe's chances?
 
I'm hoping you're just applying some self-deprecating humor lol, otherwise I can't in good conscious recommend you fly that motor you think will probably destroy it.

Cardboard can be tough if built properly.
 
I wouldn't be worried about one of Ryan's builds. I've seen them up close - they are very well done. I'm just trying to figure out where he's planning to fly it given that there is no I-205 around here....so it must be further south.

I finally got started on the replacement for my Super Big Bertha that I treed last December. Fins laminated, lower tube slotted, motor mount assembled and installed (save for the aft ring). It won't be ready for paint tomorrow but we have some good weather in store for early next week so I should be able to do it then.
 
Did a bit of work on the T300 Nike Smoke paint and welded up the final two bases for the clubs new LPR and MPR pads, cleaned and primed both pads with etching primer.

TCR LPR Pads 2018 13.jpgT300 Nike Smoke27.jpgT300 Nike Smoke32.jpg
 
Good to see the illusive TR back. Hope you have your home repair issues worked out, and have that "Old Iron" machine shop in full swing.

Thanks, and yes, I'm eventually going to be using these lathes and saws to make patterns for fiberglass and CF molds and the like.
I?'ve had to get other local folk interested in my building of a real shop, and I'm not a social butterfly, so relationships with skilled tradespeople have been developing, and I've been learning build construction tech so as to have a facility to work in other than my house. I'm confident that things will eventually lead to me being able to get back into rocketry, but man, these thing do take time, and then Winter goes on too long, and you just got to think about Rockets to give you inspiration.
When I return to building, it will be sweet because I have a 16X36 South Bend Engine Turning Metal Lathe, and that will do things at a level of precision which is more than fine for model rocketry, and will allow me to make specialized tooling and jigs for making other things that are uniform and perfect in nature.
Anyhow, miss you fine guys and gals, and can't wait to get back, but like The Terminator, I'LL BE BACK!
That SA-5 will be nothing to turn on the lathe. All of it, foam, and then lightly glassed and painted.
 
Spent a few hours getting familiar with the "Open Rocket" program. I'm surprised at what a great program this is, being a free program.

Moon Shot.jpg
 
Thanks, and yes, I'm eventually going to be using these lathes and saws to make patterns for fiberglass and CF molds and the like.
I?'ve had to get other local folk interested in my building of a real shop, and I'm not a social butterfly, so relationships with skilled tradespeople have been developing, and I've been learning build construction tech so as to have a facility to work in other than my house. I'm confident that things will eventually lead to me being able to get back into rocketry, but man, these thing do take time, and then Winter goes on too long, and you just got to think about Rockets to give you inspiration.
When I return to building, it will be sweet because I have a 16X36 South Bend Engine Turning Metal Lathe, and that will do things at a level of precision which is more than fine for model rocketry, and will allow me to make specialized tooling and jigs for making other things that are uniform and perfect in nature.
Anyhow, miss you fine guys and gals, and can't wait to get back, but like The Terminator, I'LL BE BACK!
That SA-5 will be nothing to turn on the lathe. All of it, foam, and then lightly glassed and painted.

Can't keep a good man down. Looking forward to seeing your builds...winter can't go on more than 2-3 more months tops.

The lathe sounds awesome.
 
Got the US Rockets Supersonic painted. This could very well be a fire and forget rocket when I put the F44 in it, so minimum effort here. No primer, base coat, or wet sanding, just two good coats of leftover Duplicolor.

20180419_163022.jpg
 
Did a bunch of sanding on the last two wings of my IRIS-T to get them to lay flat on the body, and succeeded... mostly, then glued them on. Man, what a lot of work these things have been.
 
ordered some things.......

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Ordered the last bits for my next L3 attempt project.

On a related note, I had a really bizarre/annoying/confusing/upsetting experience with a vendor I hadn't dealt with before. I emailed about an item to see if it was actually in stock (as I have found it to be in short supply currently), and I got a reply of yes it was in stock. I went back to the same website I had been to 6 hours earlier to complete the order of the item I had placed in my cart that morning. The problem is, the price had gone up by $45 since that morning (previously set at same MSRP everyone sells it for). I am sure I am not mistaken about the change as the price was still showing from the morning in the cart, and only changed upon my clicking to go to checkout. I thought it was a weird error, so I checked the webstore, and sure enough the price had changed there as well. In the end it is their merchandise, and they set the price...I did however choose to buy from the other source of the item I had identified in the interim.

I'm not going to go into any more details as my experience may be unique, or there may be something I'm not seeing that would make this sudden -coincidental?- price change reasonable. I'm just venting a bit, and promising never to pull that kind of stuff.
 
Ordered the last bits for my next L3 attempt project.

On a related note, I had a really bizarre/annoying/confusing/upsetting experience with a vendor I hadn't dealt with before. I emailed about an item to see if it was actually in stock (as I have found it to be in short supply currently), and I got a reply of yes it was in stock. I went back to the same website I had been to 6 hours earlier to complete the order of the item I had placed in my cart that morning. The problem is, the price had gone up by $45 since that morning (previously set at same MSRP everyone sells it for). I am sure I am not mistaken about the change as the price was still showing from the morning in the cart, and only changed upon my clicking to go to checkout. I thought it was a weird error, so I checked the webstore, and sure enough the price had changed there as well. In the end it is their merchandise, and they set the price...I did however choose to buy from the other source of the item I had identified in the interim.

I'm not going to go into any more details as my experience may be unique, or there may be something I'm not seeing that would make this sudden -coincidental?- price change reasonable. I'm just venting a bit, and promising never to pull that kind of stuff.

Sorry you had that experience. I hope this sort of behavior is not a new trend.

About 2 am this morning I started working in my 3" BlackFly. The swarm grows larger...
 
Started getting actual paint on the Drago. It's going to be one solid color, but I have some vinyl from Stickershock that I feel is really going to make this thing pop when it all comes together. With any luck the Drago will be ready for the big FITS launch in late May.
 
Bought an Estes Conquest today. Now I just need a RMS 24-60 and a reload or two.
 
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