What did you do rocket wise today?

Looking forward to 3Oaks MI - getting the magnum repaired and ready.


It’s not pretty but it’s a flier



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Put the last heavy primer coat on the Partizon.

Put some work in to the baby Higgs Farm.

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I got AltusMetrum's AltOS building on a new Debian box. It's time to make this TeleMini sing. *cracks knuckles*

Also, I designed & tested a few 3D printed things I might sell.

GrouchoDuke said:

I got AltusMetrum's AltOS building on a new Debian box. It's time to make this TeleMini sing. *cracks knuckles*

Also, I designed & tested a few 3D printed things I might sell.

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Quick, mod a TeleMini to pull case pressure data!

dhbarr said:

Quick, mod a TeleMini to pull case pressure data!

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Motor case? That sounds fun.

Launched two rockets at noon. Slight breeze but had successful launches.

More Drago work. I'm doing a build video on it and just setting up basic shots and mumbling my way through is making this build take three times as long as simply shutting up and building.

Flyfalcons said:

More Drago work. I'm doing a build video on it and just setting up basic shots and mumbling my way through is making this build take three times as long as simply shutting up and building.

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Back when I was doing the occasional kit review on Ezonemag (the predecessor site to RC Groups) I tried to do a build video or two. You're doing well if it's only making it take three times as long. I don't think I ever actually completed any kit reviews with a build video in it.....

Getting ready to seal and paint a bunch of LPR (and yes, I know one is missing a nose cone...

Chris


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I did surprisingly a lot for a work night.

1. I messed around with OpenRocket on cloning a Leviathan.

2. I started a new model. The Estes Monarch. I got it's fins sanded and the leading edge rounded, the motor mount is assembled and dry fitted, and the two pieces of airframe are coupled and glued. I'm still debating on paper vs. diluted CWF, but that's a question for tomorrow.

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Today I finally finished the internal fillets on my Madcow Momba. Tonight I will either work on external fillets or work on my Estes QCC Explorer.

rfairch said:

I did surprisingly a lot for a work night.

1. I messed around with OpenRocket on cloning a Leviathan.

2. I started a new model. The Estes Monarch. I got it's fins sanded and the leading edge rounded, the motor mount is assembled and dry fitted, and the two pieces of airframe are coupled and glued. I'm still debating on paper vs. diluted CWF, but that's a question for tomorrow.

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FWIW papering fins for me has become MUCH easier and quicker now that I stopped using my finger and instead starting using a broad short kids paintbrush to spread the wood glue:

UTC SEDS/Rocketmocs got new casings in for second TRA attempt. These knuckleheads swapped the sustainer and booster motor positions I asked for. I had to spec motors. They tried but they couldn't max alt. Then the motors had a dangerously low rail exit velocity on a multistage supersonic bird. Can't fault them too much they don't have LPR flight knowledge so it's been a long walk of holding their hands. They got stability down. Had to fill them on how gusts affect multistage comp launches. They came in 20 ft per second slower than our slowest launch last year. Prof was like Henk. We had numbers on tilts and velocities from previous launches to spoon feed real world outcomes. Gave a bunch of real world flight specs we had last year. Overstable for cp shift. But at rail exit it's always a sh*tstorm of compromise. Punt the rocket faster seems to work, as long as airframe and trackers take it. Prof wants me in grad school, I never thought of that. These guys are starting at sprint mode. They are getting electronics down slowly. They are starting build finally. And electronics seems a stretch of overwhelming to them.

If you want a trolling laugh mode, the engineering system reliability of any hobby multistage rocket in series with all components and flight events is less than 1% reliable by Math. We only had a 66% success rate last year on launches. Lol.

Putting the near-finishing touches on two new rocket designs. It's time to get going on them. Two months until launch!

snrkl said:

FWIW papering fins for me has become MUCH easier and quicker now that I stopped using my finger and instead starting using a broad short kids paintbrush to spread the wood glue:

View attachment 341717

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My last, and also first, attempt was done using a spray adhesive. I was fairly pleased with the results, although I haven't painted that rocket yet, so I won't really know until then. The downside was the overspray. Next time I'm going to cover my workspace a bit better first.

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Finished up the OR for my next attempt at L3. I really have no desire to try again with the V2. I'm just not into low and slow...no matter how complicated, just not my thing, and why fly something you don't want to. My next attempt (hopefully at Airfest this year) will be a conservatively built Falcon 3 flying on an AT M1315. A gentle Mach 2.3 cruise to 30k' (it won't go that high, I'm betting 26k')...what could go wrong. :dark:

I'm going to leave enough motor room to accept the largest CTI and Loki cases, so it can fly all out down the road. My planned flight is practically a leisurely Sunday drive for this kit.

I call it "Let's Try This Again"



Anybody have a 4-fin tower I can borrow at Airfest?

Spent half the day at a car dealership so couldn't run off to the garage to do the third fillet set on the Drago. I was, however, able to spend my kid-watching indoor time sanding CWF on the BT and fins of my cardboard 1.6" Tomach.

Cl(VII) said:

Finished up the OR for my next attempt at L3. I really have no desire to try again with the V2. I'm just not into low and slow...no matter how complicated, just not my thing, and why fly something you don't want to. My next attempt (hopefully at Airfest this year) will be a conservatively built Falcon 3 flying on an AT M1315. A gentle Mach 2.3 cruise to 30k' (it won't go that high, I'm betting 26k')...what could go wrong. :dark:

I'm going to leave enough motor room to accept the largest CTI and Loki cases, so it can fly all out down the road. My planned flight is practically a leisurely Sunday drive for this kit.

I call it "Let's Try This Again"



Anybody have a 4-fin tower I can borrow at Airfest?

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Sounds like a a easy low and slow flight. Good luck!!! [emoji6]


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Cl(VII) said:

Finished up the OR for my next attempt at L3. I really have no desire to try again with the V2. I'm just not into low and slow...no matter how complicated, just not my thing, and why fly something you don't want to. My next attempt (hopefully at Airfest this year) will be a conservatively built Falcon 3 flying on an AT M1315. A gentle Mach 2.3 cruise to 30k' (it won't go that high, I'm betting 26k')...what could go wrong. :dark:

I'm going to leave enough motor room to accept the largest CTI and Loki cases, so it can fly all out down the road. My planned flight is practically a leisurely Sunday drive for this kit.

I call it "Let's Try This Again"



Anybody have a 4-fin tower I can borrow at Airfest?

Click to expand...

The V2 is a beauty Chris! But this will be an awesome flight, glad to hear your going for it again. Not sure if I’ll be there or not - your V2 attempt is what made me take a trip to AF - hope to again. a build thread?


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Started work on my Madcow Sea Wolf. Dry fitted the fins, cut off the bottom of the nosecone for the AVbay and sanded the glassine off the MMT.

Reacquainted myself with Rocksim after a 3 year hiatus.

More 38mm min-diameter design work: did some coding, designed some 3d-printed parts, ordered some carbon fiber, tweaked OR files, FinSim'd for flutter. 55 days until first flight.

Drilled some 5/16" static ports in the huge avbay for "Tweety Bird" today. Then updated my build thread:
https://www.rocketryforum.com/showthread.php?144668-Tweety-Bird&p=1775501#post1775501

Nick@JET said:

The V2 is a beauty Chris! But this will be an awesome flight, glad to hear your going for it again. Not sure if I’ll be there or not - your V2 attempt is what made me take a trip to AF - hope to again. a build thread?


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Maybe a build thread, but this one is about 1/10th the work of the V2. Pretty vanilla build planned. The V2 looked cool on the ground, and for about the first 4 seconds of flight, but the coning was terrible...that is still my belief of what led to the NC shearing free at apogee and dumping the main. Oh well, I can say it flew safely on an M, just no good for cert. It isn;t stopping me from flying an M again, just means a bit more paperwork than I would like.

That trip to Airfest is always worth it. I can't see missing a year, but my drive is only about 5-6 hours.

Worked on the Tri-Cities Rocketeers new LPR pads today and started build up of the fins for my T300 airframe (3" Estes size tube from BMS) Nike Smoke Sport Scale (I will do a build thread).


Unpainted pics from last weekend or so, then primed was from Thursday, and yellow color coat is todays work. The clamping knobs for the Spad Pad style adjusters (for those new to TRF the style of launch rod angle adjuster is credited to the late Bill Spadfora), should arrive tomorrow, which will make one of the two sets of 6 pads ready for next weekends launch, and the other 6 pads ready hopefully by May and definitely by June Swoosh.

Then Nike Smoke fins pre-skinned, then partial and full skins, all fins under weight (books) while TBII dries. Then its on to profiling tomorrow, once that is out of the way the build should go rather quickly and be ready to fly by May's launch.

rharshberger said:

Worked on the Tri-Cities Rocketeers new LPR pads today and started build up of the fins for my T300 airframe (3" Estes size tube from BMS) Nike Smoke Sport Scale (I will do a build thread).

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I was just looking at the BMS 3" school rocket. Does this match up exactly with 3" parts (e.g. Big Daddy, Leviathan, Scion)? I may kit bash it with some Leviathan and Big Daddy parts to make a MPR two-stager.

BDB said:

I was just looking at the BMS 3" school rocket. Does this match up exactly with 3" parts (e.g. Big Daddy, Leviathan, Scion)? I may kit bash it with some Leviathan and Big Daddy parts to make a MPR two-stager.

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It does indeed, the BMS nose cone is slightly longer than the BigDaddy/Leviathan/Scion nose cone, T300 is quickly becoming one of my favorite sizes due to the availability of 3" balsa blocks locally to turn nose cones from, and BMS offers several different 3" nose cones as well. For a visual comparison of the two nose cones I include the following picture, the nose cone on the left is the BMS/Mercury Engineering/and Apogee (iirc) nose cone and the BigDaddy/Scion/Leviathan NC is on the right. The BMS NC is pretty much an upscale of the PNC-80K, and the Big Daddy NC is like an upscale of the Estes PNC-60NA (think Estes #2056 Patriot Missle) I think.

By double tubing using couplers its possible to build a lightweight 3" Binder Thor ( a member of my local club flies a vintage 3" lightweight Thor), then the the motor mount can be upsized to 38mm and many more motor options are available.

Launched a few today at SARG, some great TARC flights as well. No rockets lost, I did expend a few more igniters than launches today. About 2.5x

Played the role of the NAR fellow with the clipboard (scoring TARC flights) for a BUNCH of flights for at least eight teams on Saturday.