What did you do rocket wise today?

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For the first time in a little more than 2 years, I logged onto TRF. After our club lost its flying field, I sort of focused on work - I was the lead scientist for the SAGE III payload we sent to the International Space Station in early 2017. Now, as of January of this year, I'm retired and our club has a new seasonal field to fly out of. Slowly getting back into the groove. I'm sorry for those unanswered messages in my inbox that have been accumulating for the past 26 months.
 
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Made my Level One Flight in Alamogordo N.M. on 421-18. G force on a H128W -14 drilled to 8 second delay. Had a nice walk in the desert to recover it.[video=youtube;SPX7a2w1OVI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPX7a2w1OVI&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Mike
 
Made my Level One Flight in Alamogordo N.M. on 421-18. G force on a H128W -14 drilled to 8 second delay. Had a nice walk in the desert to recover it.[video=youtube;SPX7a2w1OVI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPX7a2w1OVI&feature=youtu.be[/video]

Mike

Nice flight, congrats on the cert! Did you have an altimeter onboard?
 
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Did some reading. Cleaned up the shop a little (I've been excluded from the shop for most of the week, while electricians and plumbers wandered around in my basement). Bought a Foxeer Legend 2. Ordered a 48 inch parachute.
 
Thanks. I elected to go simple the KISS method for certification. I actually was going to do the flight on a DX3 with a I motor but figured what the heck the G Force was a solid performer for me. Next flights altimeters and chute release. Glad to get that out of the way. Now the fun starts.

Mike

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Beveled the fins on my Falcon 3 kit. They come beveled (at an aggressive 6.5 degree angle, but the flat leading and trailing edge is about 2.5 mm wide, which is too much. I built a Jim Jarvis manual fin sanding jig (Page 12 here: https://www.raketenmodellbau.org/repository/archive/167792?view=true), and beveled the end of the fins to 13 degrees. I cleaned up the transitions with a light manual sanding, and knocked down the edges too as I cut myself on one.

I'm going to start a build thread (probably in a couple weeks), so I keep up with build documentation...pics to come there in.
 
This weekend the 300# Kevlar on my Go Devil 29 failed on an otherwise gorgeous F59W flight....so I took a sweet core sample of Jean Dry Lake. The avbay, which lived in the body tube, got squished to almost nothing. So, the Quark, Eggfinder Mini, magnetic switch & battery were all reduced to near dust. The rocket itself is still in perfect shape though.

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This weekend the 300# Kevlar on my Go Devil 29 failed on an otherwise gorgeous F59W flight....so I took a sweet core sample of Jean Dry Lake. The avbay, which lived in the body tube, got squished to almost nothing. So, the Quark, Eggfinder Mini, magnetic switch & battery were all reduced to near dust. The rocket itself is still in perfect shape though.

So what went wrong? My Go Devil 38 core-sampled 2 Saturday's ago, my SLCF's drogue charge never fired, but the main charge fired around 700' as expected. Main shredded, my NC broke free at the bulkhead, also split my 3D-printed sled for my Eggfinder/battery in the nose. Rest of the rocket remained intact and core-sampled ~2' into soft-ish dirt. Was able to pull the rocket and upper airframe out without any tools (thankfully, as any tools I had were almost a mile walk away over hilly/grassy terrain). Amazingly, all of the electronics survived, including the EF which tumbled free from the NC to the ground, was still transmitting or I'd have never found it, the SLCF/MagSwitch/battery in the avbay and an AltimeterThree clipped to the MD motor retention rod. Never found the NC itself, and the top of the upper airframe broke, either 'zippered' by the shock cord or on impact with the ground. So I'll be ordering a new NC today, already had an extra airframe piece for the GD38 since I was considering lengthening it when I first built it (think I'll keep the original length when I re-build, the main is a tight fit but it fits), but I epoxy the avbay coupler into the airframe to have a chute cannon, so I need a new coupler piece also.

Neglected to take any pictures on the field, don't know what I was thinking. Also lost my fly-away rail guide once again, seems to have gone for a ride with the rocket, presumably why it arc'ed so much that made it land ~4000' away from the pad (I305FJ to ~6400').

Still have the unfired drogue charge to test, when I measured the MJG FireWire on the field it read 0Ω, my meter usually sees 1-1.5Ω for these, but both these charges read 0Ω so I thought maybe my meter's battery was getting weak and flew it anyway (on my work multimeter the first thing to go when the battery gets weak is accuracy on the resistance measurement). Bad idea. :p It still measures 0Ω, so it didn't blow open, need to see if the SLCF is not damaged now if it really was a shorted match. Should switch to a smaller battery and see if I can squeeze two altimeters (SLCF and a Quark, probably) into the bay for redundancy on future flights.
 
More sanding and priming of my Momba's airframe. Applied first coat of color to it's NC. Not as dark as I had hoped. Might need to try some translucent charcoal/dark grey if I can find a store that has any in stock.
 
This afternoon I sat down and built an old Estes Alpha ( no plastic fins ) and listened to some Motown Music along with
some of my childhood 1970s music :) AH the smell of Aero Gloss and Elmer's White Glue LOL

Bobby
 
Just finished trimming the paper down on the booster and sustainer fins for my sports scale Nike Apache...

Had a few paper corners that needed to be reglued.. once the wood glue dries, I’ll CA the edges then start thinking about gluing them all on.
 
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Been at work so no actual sandpaper and glue action, but I edited and posted another build video of my Drago, and have been emailing back and forth with Mark to finalize my Stickershock design for the Drago (decided to change what I was doing with the fins). Can't wait to get home and get back to work on that beast.
 
Anyone got a line on the font used for the Nike Apache booster? It’s a stencil font and I’ve looked at a whole bunch (literally hundreds) but can’t seem to find one that’s quite right.
 
Anyone got a line on the font used for the Nike Apache booster? It’s a stencil font and I’ve looked at a whole bunch (literally hundreds) but can’t seem to find one that’s quite right.
The United States or the military one that has the lot no., loaded date and op temp ranges. If its the military one I believe it to be Vintage Stencil US No.72 font ( not free), however Stencil A font is very close if not the same and its available for free. The military lettering I am referring to is the yellow lettering on the OD Green motor casing.
 
Finished paint on a kitbash with a 3D printed nosecone. I'm calling it +P :)31351460_10156389595748200_3586911069324443648_n.jpg
4" Fiberglass, 54mmT
 
Sanding sealer on fins of a big Bertha, star speeder, and Gooney Pegasus... trying some Brodak this time. So far, so good!
 
The United States or the military one that has the lot no., loaded date and op temp ranges. If its the military one I believe it to be Vintage Stencil US No.72 font ( not free), however Stencil A font is very close if not the same and its available for free. The military lettering I am referring to is the yellow lettering on the OD Green motor casing.

It is the one used for the big "UNITED STATES" that I am seeking.. I haven't seen any smaller writing pics in any of the quick searches I did when designing this one.. If someone has pics, I am certainly keen to add the little details..

This is the closest I have been able to find as yet: https://www.dafont.com/din-schablonierschr.font?text=UNITED+STATES&psize=l&back=theme

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The problem is that the line width is too heavy?
It is the one used for the big "UNITED STATES" that I am seeking.. I haven't seen any smaller writing pics in any of the quick searches I did when designing this one.. If someone has pics, I am certainly keen to add the little details..

This is the closest I have been able to find as yet: https://www.dafont.com/din-schablonierschr.font?text=UNITED+STATES&psize=l&back=theme

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If you have a drawing program (Illustrator, Inkscape, etc.) you can convert the font to a vector and transform it

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I downloaded the Schablonierschrift typeface. I expanded the type in Illustrator, stretched it a little horizontally, then I stroked resulting objects in white. Varying the weight of the stroke, you can change the effective weight of the typeface. It doesn't match the typeface on the decals HERE , but it wouldn't take that much more work to close up the gaps and get the rounds a little rounder.
 
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