What did you do rocket wise today?

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I had to reconfigure the trailer to fit all of our stuff for NXRS. The big box is for the Dragonfly (minus NC) and had to move forward a few inches for another box o' rockets.
 
That's awesome, Dan. Wish I could make NXRS this year.

Yesterday I nearly finished paint prep on my LOC park flyer Sandhawk. Hoping to start primer coats today.
 
Well, for good or ill, I just spent most of my rocketry budget for the year on mostly non-rocketry stuff. I save all year (sometimes two) so that I can afford a big trip to NARAM, Airfest, or some other big launch. But this year I'm heading for the National Boy Scout Jamboree. Two weeks without electricity and no way to run my CPAP. So, instead of buying rocket stuff, I just ordered a portable Lithium-Ion battery pack that I can run my CPAP off of as well as charge all my electronics, as well as a 60W foldable solar panel to charge it with. Worst part is, I'm still not done buying uniforms and other crap I'm going to need. The probability of me going to any launches is increasingly thin. The good news, I guess, is that with the solar panel and the battery in hand and field tested, they will be available for camping trips and rocket launches.
 
I've wanted an Estes PSII Prowler for a while but couldn't justify the cost of getting it with the full starter set included. Thanks to the Estes clearance bundle #7 though, I finally got one and today I assembled it. I like it!

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Placed an order to Apogee and ASP for pieces/parts for scratch-building. Received my order from Estes and found they screwed up slightly. I ordered another QCC Explorer, another Trajector, and my first Mammoth from their clearance page two weeks ago, but I received two Trajectors (now I have three!) instead of a Mammoth. I think can live with it though.

I also tossed and turned in bed last night thinking about some of the sport models I want to build, my ever growing build pile, and all the money I've been spending on more rockets/parts/pieces. I think I need help :sad:.
 
Started fillets on my Crayon. It was tough finding purple paint to match the tube as well as make the epoxy the exact purple; but they got close enough.
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Holey moley! Did you cant the fins?

Assuming you're referring to the Ventris: Nope!
The fins are aligned with angleuminum and a stiff cardboard fin guide, so no canting as far as I know.

May just be the paint playing tricks with your eyes......could it be you have a slight case of.....Vertigo?
 
I finished construction of my Madcow Mini Tomach, and sprayed the first coat of primer today. I also added two more rockets to my growing build pile:

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Those kits will join my existing PSII Nike in the near future, but first I need to start work on my L2 bird, a MAC 4" Arcas. I'll start a build thread soon!
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That one will be a little hard to work on, as my garage rocket workshop is being invaded by my other hobby: fish keeping!
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Made a few last minute changes to my Gizmo. Gathered other stuff together and started loading up my trailer and truck. Decided I'll probably leave my Little John home for this trip. It just isn't right to fly a semi scale model without painting it.
We're heading off tomorrow on a camping trip that will include Rock Lake in Southern Alberta. First stop is Osoyoos, BC. It's 28 degrees C right now at 21:00 hrs. (82.4 degrees F)
It sounds like it won't be screaming hot for the launch. That will be a change for me. I've boiled my brains there a couple of times.
I'm so keen on this launch. It's been a long time coming.
 
Today everything I did was rocket wise.

I finished packing for NXRS this morning. I then got in the car with my son, Clifford, age seven (he would be quick to point out that he will be eight next week) and drove four hours east.

When we arrived we flew the a Big Daddy on an F44 gifted to us by a friend. It was a beautiful flight landing just behind the end of the flight line.

The rest of the day was spent setting up camp, launching a scratch built spinning rocket, and gluing the grains for an L1520T reload.

We just missed the evening launch after dinner. Clifford was bummed, so we decided to cobble together a night launch rocket. I have several xenon strobe beacon lights that are conveniently nosecone shaped. A bit of duct tape was employed to attach it to the forward section of an old rocket.

Another friend gave me an H178(I think?) sparky load and a 38/360 case. (It was my lucky day - having an enthusiastic little boy helps) and up it went.

The recovery was not great. It was dropping under chute (apparently- it was coming down nice and slow) and then at maybe a thousand feet or a bit less it just dropped. The strobe survived and I recovered the forward section. The aft section is out there and I fairly confident I can find it in the morning, as it was a windless night and it has a bright pink chute.

The failure was a knot in the 1/8" Kevlar that broke at a knot. The strange part was how it happened mid-descent.

Now I'm laying in the tent with a sleeping boy listening to campfire banter. Could be worse...
 
Made room on my desk this morning to start working on a few models. Never leave your cutting mat in a hot van for a week on top of other irregular items. 🙁
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Made room on my desk this morning to start working on a few models. Never leave your cutting mat in a hot van for a week on top of other irregular items. 🙁
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My lesson is: cut on the metric side, GLUE on the imperial side. (Reverse for northern hemisphere...)

I use paper (news/butcher/oven) but some thin CA dripped and soaked and now I have little hard CA spots that bruise balsa.
 
It's was my partner's and my 1st anniversary on Friday.

We launched a rocket with our top5 aspirations for the next year cut into confetti on top of the laundry.

Perfectly straight flight on a BigBetha to just a tad over 400ft on a C6-3 at a local field.

A new "Love and Rockets" tradition is launched...

Dreams scattered at 126m!

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My lesson is: cut on the metric side, GLUE on the imperial side. (Reverse for northern hemisphere...)

I use paper (news/butcher/oven) but some thin CA dripped and soaked and now I have little hard CA spots that bruise balsa.

I don't usually do any gluing on this particular cutting mat. Gluing is typically done in my hands over an unprotected desktop, or in the case of fins, the body tube is layed on the desktop and supported with various objects to keep it from rolling and the end where the fins are glued hangs over the edge of the desk.
 
I don't usually do any gluing on this particular cutting mat. Gluing is typically done in my hands over an unprotected desktop, or in the case of fins, the body tube is layed on the desktop and supported with various objects to keep it from rolling and the end where the fins are glued hangs over the edge of the desk.
This is why I don't unsubscribe from RedPlum and other junk mail. Free gluecatchers!
 
In reply to post #17118

That must have been great. Scouts?

It was the finale of a week-long rocketry camp through the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The instructors were really great. They taught the campers all kinds of physics that I wouldn't have expected to be accessible to elementary school kids.

And yeah, it was really fun watching all the rockets go up.
 
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Made room on my desk this morning to start working on a few models. Never leave your cutting mat in a hot van for a week on top of other irregular items. ��
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Mine was worse than that. When we had the apartment heat treated, they knocked mine off the top of the tool box and behind it all wadded up. They took it to 140F for 6 hours. I found it a couple weeks later after an extensive search. I used my Porter Cable heat gun on it. It's ruined. The heating process' hardened it, it no longer self heals. I have to replace it. But, I use when I use the X-Acto or Excel saws. I did an extensive search for price comparison. Tower Hobbies has the best deals when considering quality into the equation. The one that got ruined was a cheap 12x18 Fiskars from a big box store, so the loss wasn't that great.

Something my buddy told me after the fact, is to preheat your oven to the lowest temperature. Put it on a cookie sheet and put it in just long enough to lay flat. Might help you in this case. My heat gun can run upwards of 600F.
 
Mine was worse than that. When we had the apartment heat treated, they knocked mine off the top of the tool box and behind it all wadded up. They took it to 140F for 6 hours. I found it a couple weeks later after an extensive search. I used my Porter Cable heat gun on it. It's ruined. The heating process' hardened it, it no longer self heals. I have to replace it. But, I use when I use the X-Acto or Excel saws. I did an extensive search for price comparison. Tower Hobbies has the best deals when considering quality into the equation. The one that got ruined was a cheap 12x18 Fiskars from a big box store, so the loss wasn't that great.

Something my buddy told me after the fact, is to preheat your oven to the lowest temperature. Put it on a cookie sheet and put it in just long enough to lay flat. Might help you in this case. My heat gun can run upwards of 600F.

I've got it laying on the desktop with a stack of binders and other work related books on it and the sunshade open so the direct sunlight can hit it. It's somewhat flatter, but it may also need to be replaced. I've got a much larger and a few smaller Hobbico ones at home. This one was bought at the local HL where I work - no big loss.

I've got to ask... Why would someone "heat treat" their apartment/home? I've never heard of that.
 
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